Smart Cities — Too Clever by Half?
No one outside of Alphabet knows what to expect from the “smart” city it plans to build on Toronto’s eastern waterfront — only, if it prospers, that other places will follow. Bill Gates has bought land for development west of Phoenix. Ideas for smart cities include roads purpose-built for autonomous vehicles, the regulation of pedestrian flow through live data, the demotion of freight to underground tunnels, temperature-controlled pavements, reservable benches and self-sorting refuse chutes. It adds up to the data-powered purge of all stress and randomness from the urban space.
So far, the loudest complaint is libertarian. Smart cities require the forfeit of personal data and the proliferation of cameras to work their spell. What with my British complacency about such things, this bothers me less than the prospect of cities that do not look or feel like cities.
It is a quirk of the 21st century that, as the world urbanises, the industry of the day is, at best, ambivalent about cities. It seems to tolerate them insofar as they evoke campuses. Consider the spaciousness and clean lines of Silicon Valley’s built environment. Or the unguarded remarks of tech billionaires, which suggest a horror of crowds that goes straight through paranoia into outright misanthropy.
Their tastes are their own business, but if cities are to be shaped by them, the rest of us could end up living in sterilised banalities. Think of the original Epcot, which, before its life as a Floridian theme park, was Walt Disney’s blueprint for the city of the future: all radial layout and strict zoning.
Epcot would have dazzled for a bit, before stifling its inhabitants. Smart cities could do the same. Take as an example their most likely feature — roads for self-driving cars — which almost guarantees that the cities will be forced to conform to the strictest of grid systems. Long straight lines and right-angled turns minimise the mechanical feats to be performed by the incorporeal driver. Whatever the city gains in smartness, it loses in richness.
Tech’s influence on cities feels about right as it is. It has improved things, and not just at the margins: Uber’s ultimate feat could be the end of private car ownership among urbanites. It is the next stage, the total infusion of cities with reason and order, that promises trouble — or rather a tedious lack of it. To itemise what could be lost is to list the advantages of cities. Serendipitous encounters. The anonymity conferred by crowds. The creative properties of chaos. (We await the Ulysses or Mrs Dalloway of Palo Alto.) These are hard to create but all too easy to design out of existence by people whose idea of the good life is a frictionless passage from home to mode of transit to work pod to reserved street seating.
There is a problem here that will recur in other fields over time. Because of its inexhaustible capital and restless brainpower, the tech sector scours the world for problems to fix. In some areas, such as healthcare, it has transformative potential. In others, its logical purism will bump up against the irrationalities of human nature. Not everyone wants to live a clockwork life. If people prized order and comfort over all else, the city would not be the over-subscribed thing it is. The suburb would have extended its mid-20th century pomp into our age. The reason it did not is that we prize stimulation, too. There is no stimulation without an element of randomness. Won’t someone speak up for stupid cities?
Vocabulary
prospers – grows, succeeds, or does very well, “The small bakery prospers because everyone loves their fresh bread.”
purpose-built – made or designed for one specific use, “This pool is purpose-built for training Olympic swimmers.”
autonomous vehicles – cars, trucks, or buses that can drive themselves without a human driver, “Many tech companies are testing autonomous vehicles on city streets.”
freight – large amounts of goods carried by trains, trucks, ships, or airplanes, “The train was carrying heavy freight like coal and steel across the country.”
refuse chutes – long vertical tubes inside a building used for throwing away trash, “Instead of walking outside, she dropped her garbage bag down the refuse chutes.”
purge – the complete removal of things or people that are not wanted, “Spring cleaning is a great time for a purge of old clothes you do not wear anymore.”
randomness – a quality of happening by chance without any plan, pattern, or system, “The weather during spring has a lot of randomness, with sun one minute and rain the next.”
libertarian – relating to the political belief that people should have complete freedom with very little control from the government, “His libertarian views mean he dislikes laws that tell businesses what to do.”
forfeit – to give up or lose something as a penalty for a mistake or to get something else, “If you arrive late for the game, you will forfeit your chance to play.”
proliferation – a sudden and rapid increase in the number or amount of something, “The proliferation of smartphones means almost everyone has a camera in their pocket.”
complacency – a feeling of being too calm and satisfied with a situation, so you stop worrying about potential dangers, “We cannot let complacency stop us from checking the fire alarms every year.”
prospect – the possibility or chance that something will happen in the future, “The prospect of traveling to Italy next summer makes her very excited.”
quirk – a strange, unusual, or unique habit or feature, “One quirk of my old car is that the radio only works when the headlights are on.”
ambivalent – having mixed or uncertain feelings about something, being unable to choose between two ideas, “He felt ambivalent about the new job because the pay was good but the hours were long.”
evoke – to bring a specific feeling, memory, or image into your mind, “The smell of pine trees always evoke happy memories of childhood camping trips.”
built environment – the human-made surroundings where people live and work, like buildings, roads, and parks, “The city planners want to add more trees to the built environment.”
paranoia – an extreme and unreasonable feeling that other people dislike you or want to harm you, “His paranoia made him think that his coworkers were always talking about him.”
misanthropy – a general dislike, distrust, or avoidance of other human beings, “Living alone deep in the forest suited his misanthropy perfectly.”
sterilised banalities – things that are perfectly clean and orderly but completely boring and lacking personality, “The new apartment buildings felt like sterilised banalities because they all looked exactly the same.”
blueprint – a detailed drawing or early plan showing how to build or do something, “The engineers looked at the blueprint before they started building the house.”
strict zoning – rigid legal rules that control how land can be used and what types of buildings can be built in specific areas, “Because of strict zoning, you cannot open a noisy factory next to these houses.”
stifling – preventing someone from breathing easily, moving freely, or expressing their ideas, “The heat in the small room was stifling, so we opened a window.”
conform to – to behave, look, or be exactly like a set of rules, standards, or expectations, “All students must conform to the school rules regarding uniforms.”
grid systems – networks of evenly spaced horizontal and vertical lines that cross each other, like square blocks on a street map, “Most modern cities use grid systems to make navigation simple.”
feats – impressive actions or achievements that require great strength, skill, or courage, “Flying across the ocean alone was one of her greatest feats.”
incorporeal – not having a physical body or form, like a ghost or a computer program, “A computer virus is an incorporeal threat that can still damage your laptop.”
at the margins – only in small, minor, or unimportant ways that do not change the main situation, “The company made updates to the app, but only at the margins.”
urbanites – people who live in a city or a town, “Many urbanites prefer riding the subway instead of driving a car.”
infusion – the act of adding a quality, idea, or substance to something to make it better, “The team needed an infusion of young players to help them win more games.”
tedious – boring, slow, and repetitive, making you feel tired or uninterested, “Sorting through thousands of old papers was a very tedious job.”
itemise – to list a group of things one by one in a clear way, “The receipt will itemise the price of every item you bought.”
serendipitous encounters – lucky or pleasant meetings that happen completely by accident, “Running into my old school friend at the airport was one of those serendipitous encounters.”
anonymity – the state of being unknown, unnoticed, or hidden by name in a large crowd, “He enjoyed the anonymity of the big city where nobody knew his face.”
conferred by – given to or granted to someone by a specific power, object, or situation, “The special privileges conferred by a gold membership include free airport lounge access.”
chaos – a state of total confusion, mess, and complete lack of order, “There was complete chaos in the kitchen when the puppy knocked over the flour.”
frictionless passage – a perfectly smooth movement or journey without any difficulties, delays, or problems, “The automatic passport gates allowed a frictionless passage through airport security.”
recur – to happen again or repeat multiple times, “If you do not rest, your back pain will recur.”
inexhaustible capital – an endless amount of money or wealth that never runs out, “The billionaire used his inexhaustible capital to buy sports teams and islands.”
restless brainpower – a highly active, creative intelligence that never stops thinking or working, “The tech company relies on the restless brainpower of its young engineers.”
scours – searches a place, book, or area completely and very thoroughly to find something, “The detective scours the crime scene looking for clues.”
transformative potential – a great ability to bring about a deep, positive, and complete change, “Solar energy has a transformative potential for clean electricity worldwide.”
purism – a strict and absolute insistence on following official rules or keeping things completely traditional, “Her musical purism means she only listens to classical songs played on original instruments.”
bump up against – to hit, meet, or clash with an unexpected obstacle or problem, “Our plans to build a pool will bump up against the local city rules.”
irrationalities – thoughts, behaviors, or actions that are not logical, sensible, or reasonable, “Fear of the dark is one of those human irrationalities that many adults still have.”
clockwork life – a lifestyle that is perfectly regular, predictable, and strictly planned out like a machine, “He lives a clockwork life, waking up and eating at the exact same minute every single day.”
over-subscribed – having a much higher demand or number of people wanting something than there is space or items available, “The photography class was completely over-subscribed, leaving fifty students on the waiting list.”
pomp – a period or display of great success, importance, or grand celebration, “The old king remembered the days when the empire was in its full pomp.”
stimulation – excitement or activity that makes your mind or body feel energetic, active, and interested, “Reading books provides great mental stimulation for young children.”