The future is smart cities?

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Brian G Turner

Brian G Turner

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I've been reading a lot about smart cities of the future, and I think it's a given that AI and cloud services will help power certain aspects of a city's infrastructure.

However, when I read an article like this, I just find it plain creepy: Video analytics paves way for smart cities
 
Eh its not all that great an article, reads a bit like a door salesman trying to get you into their newest purchasing pyramid scheme ;)

They casually mention about how the smart city will help the local shops survive against the internet by studying shopper spending patterns, but shops do this already. The sensors would just be adding more data to the data pool, but not actually providing any form of resolution (such as lowering business costs - if anything a sensor system, the software, the licence and the tech staff to collate and process data would put costs up). Meanwhile comments on how lines could be monitored and staff requested to move to new tills, well, they've got that system already in Alie stores. It didn't need computer, just a staff member working their till line pressing a button to open a new till and ping the automated announcer to inform staff and customers.



Honestly the issue isn't really data gathering from one source. Individual data gathering from one outlet isn't that invasive. What's more scary is the potential for data pooling from multiple connected and non-connected sources. Alongside that is a system of greater individual identification. Ergo being able to have the system recognise a specific customer (monitoring repeat business) and then being potentially able to collect not just each individual store data, but also the data from the highstreet; the traffic cameras; the parking meter; the mobile phone tracker. Ergo reaching a point where even if you don't carry a phone or any technology; you could, in theory, have your entire day and activities monitored, collated, analysed and processed. The potential to sell that data on an individual level and then for a company to purchase and make use en-mass would be amazingly tempting for all sorts of companies and government groups.

Indeed I can see a time where we will enter a period of insane potential monitoring. What's interesting is that the west seems to be pushing this in a more retail than government direction (at least overtly).
 
Overread said:
Indeed I can see a time where we will enter a period of insane potential monitoring. What's interesting is that the west seems to be pushing this in a more retail than government direction (at least overtly).
Click to expand...
And there are other places around the world that seem to have the reverse motivations but the same interests.
My trouble with AI is that they are as biased and flaw ridden as the people that wrote the original code.
There is no ethical code for the construction or use of AI technology.
 
Overread said:
They casually mention about how the smart city will help the local shops survive against the internet by studying shopper spending patterns, but shops do this already.
Click to expand...
Also, there is already no need to have an actual physical shop. You can walk down a VR arcade of shops and down VR aisles within shops, pick what you want, pay for it and then have it delivered. What you cannot do is touch and feel the product before buying, but I'm sure that could be solved. The only way High Streets can survive (and even if their rents, business rates and taxes were reduced) is to provide an experience that you cannot get at home i.e. entertainment - street performances, displays, live music, bouncy castles, fairground rides and food markets.

That "smart city" transport infrastructure is redundant if people stay at home and shop from home instead. Better for the environment to leave cars behind, but the problem with VR is that all the inactivity is unhealthy. No one is walking around the shops, or to the shops.

However, I think there is some hope in the explosion of new markets, People love shopping in markets. They love the atmosphere, the haggling over price, the "getting a bargain", the back and forth between customers and traders, unusual products that are not on the High Street or online. I'm not sure that the same experience could ever be reproduced by VR.
 
Okay, it's Christmas so I'll restrain my Orwellian rants from this thread (that I have kept out of the hard-line telephone thread), and after the holiday will make a crazy-person's thread on its own. That said, it stuns me how much people embrace intrusions into their lives for the sake of convenience, attention, or un-self-reliant safety. EVERYTHING is a double edged sword, and the side that benefits us, is the side that gets used least.

Be sure, most of this stuff is already here and already in use. It's now just a matter of making the public aware and getting them to embrace it.

K2
 
I have no worry about VR taking over everyday activities until they can get rid of the headset. Outside a few games, the odd fly-through and telepresence for business, I have yet to see anything done in VR that can't be done better by other means. Most of the work in VR seems to be about how to find a use for VR and how it differs from other methods. Maybe the technology will have its day but I think it a long way off for most people.
 
China is the big player here. They have a stated declaration (via "Xi Dada" aka Xi Jingping) of being the world's pre-eminent tech nation this century. What they're doing will change the world, yet the irony is it's all happening behind the Golden Wall. Some people thin there'll be two internets in a generation or so, our one and the one in China.
 
In free societies the success of cities is going to come down to where people work. A city could provide every convenience, but will empty out if there is no need to work there (Detroit).

But really, if the main concern is internet shopping, cities could just tax delivery services of retail goods.
 
Perhaps people believe their super hero beliefs make them immune to any fallout from the excessive monitoring of their personal lives by the business world. Presorted data which governments can access at any time. I could see people seeing Brave New World, 1984, This Perfect Day, as allegorical interpretations of something that happens far far away.
 
Cradle to grave comes to mind. Would it feature decentralized hospitals such that you can get all the different kinds of care you need in your room. Would workers who keep the place clean, etc., live in the same areas as the ultra wealthy or would there be designated areas. Would all groups truly mix. There has to be service tunnels, would there also be separate tunnels for separate groups. Or could the top level be totally off limits to anyone without a gold key.

Building it long along the ground, open sided on tp instead of tall, makes some problems like getting around, fires or massive water leaks much more practical to handle.

I wonder if the sanitation, fire, water and power, local environment departments would be decentralized or in one massive section, perhaps that stuff is located below ground level.

It looks like it is open to the air on top, I guess that would mean an extremely powerful air flow to keep it cool. The top has to close, there has to be times when weather disturbances, especially the bigger events now common today, could not be handled with the roof open.

In super enclosed area like that, people would have to stay in good health, perhaps receiving constant monitoring, in order to keep the incidence of infectious disease to an absolute minimum.

Is there any manufacturing work located in there or is someone else suppose to do that somewhere else. If everything is imported, the ports whatever they are, would be very busy places. Does stuff just drive in anywhere or would there be large receiving ports situated throughout the length of the building.

If they want to get this built tomorrow, I suspect the power needed to run that place would be nuclear. Nuclear supporters have been building support for nuclear as a green power source.

To have everything used inside the building easily recyclable, it would have to be specially packaged. Could that be done inside to raw materials taken in, or would that have to be done outside the building. No menial work inside or would there be a large group of support workers to make the place actually work. Robotic services might be envisioned but that won't be a viable option for a long time.

This could could take a long time to just create the foundation and basic support structure, something to keep people busy while other people try to figure out what to do next.
 
The rail line under the structure is the road. It's been shortened 19 miles, one third of the length, and 48 stops have been reduced to 9. Perhaps moving walkways or horizontal elevators are being added. Or a lot of the building is not open to the public which would use external transportation.

Some climate change projections are saying that living in that type of infrastructure will be the only way to live there, with all buildings air conditioned and connected to each other.
 
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And one day , these AI powered Smart Cities will smartly decide that they don't want any humans living in them :D
 
I wonder how Smart Cities will integrate with 15-minute cities, one of the other main ideas about future cities
www.theguardian.com

Why has the ‘15-minute city’ taken off in Paris but become a controversial idea in the UK?

Urbanist Carlos Moreno on how his concept is transforming French life and what is hindering change across the Channel
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

Plus, floating cities

Floating cities coming?

French Polynesia is exploring the possibility of small "floating cities" off its coast, as Global Warming threatens to inundate some of its islands: French Polynesia signs first 'floating city' deal - BBC News
www.sffchronicles.com www.sffchronicles.com

Cities have always changed, and they will continue to change.
 
With floating cities and increasing storm severity I'd be bothered about them being swamped or floating away. But I guess better than a lo-rise island that is already disappearing beneath the waves.
 
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