Oh, boy !!! Smart cities are on the rise:
Cities have a way to go before they can be considered geniuses. But they’re getting smart pretty fast.
In just the past few years, mayors and other officials in cities across the country have begun to draw on the reams of data at their disposal — about income, burglaries, traffic, fires, illnesses, parking citations and more — to tackle many of the problems of urban life. Whether it’s making it easier for residents to find parking places, or guiding health inspectors to high-risk restaurants or giving smoke alarms to the households that are most likely to suffer fatal fires, big-data technologies are beginning to transform the way cities work.
Cities have just scratched the surface in using data to improve operations, but big changes are already under way in leading smart cities, says Stephen Goldsmith, a professor of government and director of the Innovations in Government Program at the Harvard Kennedy School. “In terms of city governance, we are at one of the most consequential periods in the last century,” he says.
You can read the rest @
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-rise-of-the-smart-city-1492395120
As the machines which collect and manipulate this data get smarter, we and our kids are being dumbed down. Soon we will be dependent on the machines.
Is this a good thing? Yes, if you are interested in "governance". No, if you are interested in liberty and privacy.
Face it, we have been divided in two - "smart" cities and "dumb" countryside. Just look at how the city folk are relentlessly mocking the country folk who voted for Trump. Soon the "smart" city machines will help you vote for the "right" candidate. Hell, why don't we just turn over the issues of governance to them and stop holding these farcical elections altogether?
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