Place: 4274 Chamberlin (refreshments will be served)
Speaker: Tim Allen, UW Department of Botany
Abstract: Systems are predictable on two criteria: the thermodynamics of process; rate-independent constraints. The economics of this distinction is high gain, straight consumption of quality fuel, versus low gain where low quality material is processed to make quality fuel. A quality resource might sit on a hot spot. Evansville, WI, is a low gain system that depended on rail road (which is planned). Janesville and Madison are high gain depending or roads and fossil fuel. Roads are not planned, they simply straighten and widen in response to the flux of traffic. Railroads and roads end up with roughly the same fractal dimension, but railroads branch out from the main line, while roads emerge up scale from small roads to turnpikes. Evansville depends on a diffuse low quality landscape, while amassing capital by concentration. Janesville and Madison depend on high quality, locally focused resources. The argument turns on my satellite repairman based in Evansville, servicing a diffuse landscape with information and constraint structure.