On the scaling of functional spaces, from smart cities to cloud computing

TL;DR

This paper explores the scaling laws of functional spaces in cities and technological systems using promise theory, providing insights into their universal behaviors and implications for future technological advancements.

Contribution

It extends city scaling laws to technological systems through promise theory, explaining anomalous exponents and predicting changes with technological progress.

Findings

Scaling laws can be applied to technological infrastructures.

Promise theory explains anomalous exponents in city scaling.

Technological advancements may alter scaling behaviors.

Abstract

The study of spacetime, and its role in understanding functional systems has received little attention in information science. Recent work, on the origin of universal scaling in cities and biological systems, provides an intriguing insight into the functional use of space, and its measurable effects. Cities are large information systems, with many similarities to other technological infrastructures, so the results shed new light indirectly on the scaling the expected behaviour of smart pervasive infrastructures and the communities that make use of them. Using promise theory, I derive and extend the scaling laws for cities to expose what may be extrapolated to technological systems. From the promise model, I propose an explanation for some anomalous exponents in the original work, and discuss what changes may be expected due to technological advancement.