On Being the Right Size (1928)

Somewhat related: Feynman’s classic lecture ”There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom”, given in 1959 (gosh, sixty years ago!)

http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/feynman.html

Sadly, at the time it didn’t get the attention it deserved.

> An angel whose muscles developed no more power weight for weight than those of an eagle or a pigeon would require a breast projecting for about four feet to house the muscles engaged in working its wings, while to economize in weight, its legs would have to be reduced to mere stilts.

Here's an idea for a surreal illustrated Bible.

This is a great essay. If the topic interests you, D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson's classic work On Growth And Form is also a worthwhile read: https://archive.org/details/ongrowthform00thom

Surface area to volume ratio. As something gets smaller, it has more surface relative to its volume.

It explains why shoestring fries are so tasty. More fried surface, less potato

The article's closing point about socialism is strange. It is likely conflating "socialism" with "command economy".

As we have learned in the past Century, democracy has trouble scaling to 300million people as well. The problem is the single leader for a large population. Confederated/Federalized systems may do better, and those can be "socialist".

Why Elephants Have Big Ears is a nice book that covers similar topics.