For Pedestrians, Cities Have Become the Wilderness

Cesare Marchetti is an Italian physicist, an octogenarian who still lectures and researches from a post at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria. The original focus of his scholarship was energy – nuclear power in particular – but over the years his curiosity meandered. He started to look at humanity’s relationship with energy systems over time. He examined patterns of technological innovation, the way energy and food production systems interacted, millenium-long trends in transportation and banking and crime rates.

In 1994, in a paper that looks almost tangential on his CV, Marchetti uncovered one of those grand fundamental concepts that can turn an obscure scientist’s surname into a generic term.