I’m an Engineer, and I’m Not Buying Into ‘Smart’ Cities
17th July 2019
Smart cities make two fundamental promises: lots of data, and automated decision making based on that data. The ultimate smart city will require a raft of existing and to-be-invented technologies, from sensors to robots to artificial intelligence. For many this promises a more efficient, equitable city; for others, it raises questions about privacy and algorithmic bias.
But there is a more basic concern when it comes to smart cities: They will be exceedingly complex to manage, with all sorts of unpredictable vulnerabilities. There will always be a place for new technology in our urban infrastructure, but we may find that often, “dumb” cities will do better than smart ones.
Cities are only as smart as the Democrats who run them (think about it), and that’s not very.
July 17th, 2019 at 11:32
I am a builder of the glass high rise all over the planet and 95% of the time I despise what I build. Giant boxes of glass and steel and I loathe yet it is what I know how to do. My dream is the deep forest, mountains and rivers and building a log home that will stand for many hundreds or over a thousand years… the high rise of glass are built for quick sale, do-not-care quality and only to be torn down and demolished in just a few decades. Utter junk. For someone to tell me “o you must move to a high tec city” I would laugh in their face and tell them the opposite is what I really want. But then most all folks have no idea what useless temporary garbage we men of high rise are really building. Temporary crap to salve the masses and bankers and developers and that’s it.
July 17th, 2019 at 11:56
Concur.