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afwriter
8/29/2016 3:57:37 PM
User Rank Platinum
Exciting, but
Overall I like the idea of smart cities and have never even thought of how it could help with things like waste management. However, I don't like the idea of cameras and sensors everywhere, it feels very 1984.
Ariella
8/29/2016 4:03:06 PM
User Rank Author
Re: Exciting, but
@afwriter I know what you mean about cameras everywhere. But even not quite smart cities use them in the name of security. There are a lot of them in NYC as Bloomberg was very involved in using technology, but that falls short of what one would find in London. See http://www.wired.co.uk/article/one-nation-under-cctv "The UK is one of the most surveilled nations in the world."
dcawrey
8/29/2016 4:21:35 PM
User Rank Platinum
Data
I truly believe data can make cities smarter. That being said, I do have to be concerned about some of the privacy issues that might exist with something like this. Sure, these things can help citizens. But if they are too intrusive, this is where I would become concerned.
JohnBarnes
8/30/2016 7:41:00 AM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Exciting, but
afwriter,
Mommy-the-City can't take care of you properly if she doesn't know everything about you. Now smile for the nice camera.
The science fiction writer David Brin, whose work I admire greatly, has argued that our whole idea of privacy is going to turn out to be a cultural abberation of just a dozen generations or so before we find our way back to the human norm of your whole tribe knowing everything about you. I often think he's probably right, but being in the dozenth of those generations, I still have a hard time feeling it's a good thing.
JohnBarnes
8/30/2016 7:51:29 AM
User Rank Platinum
Reasons why this is happening so early in Israel
There are four reasons I can think of why Israel is likely to be an early adopter of smart cities:
1. It's a small country physically. They don't have to solve how to make Chicago, Seattle, New Orleans, Miami, and Phoenix all smart in their widely varied environments and physical arrangements. What will work physically in one city will usually work in another.
2. It has a very large base of solar power, for historical reasons going back many decades; you don't want a smart city to go down because the central power plant gets into trouble, and that means a widely dispersed source of electricity. A desert country with immense solar power experience has just that.
3. They're facing a world that may boycott trade with them, which means almost any raw material may be interrupted or cut off altogether. Yet by definition, what you throw away is going to be made out of the raw materials you need. So waste management that eventually gets close to 100% recycling -- which means very high information waste recycling -- is nice for the rest of us but may be life and death for them.
4. Israeli cities are subject to sudden violent attack on all scales, from the lone bomber to an incoming missile barrage. Smart cities can do much better damage control and recovery. Most of the developed world doesn't have to think about that; Israeli architects and engineers do, and thus the perceived value of smartness is much higher.
Adi
8/30/2016 7:54:41 AM
User Rank Author
Re: Exciting, but
@Ariella - Interesting article, and yes, London especially is very heavily covered by CCTV. I have to say as a resident my preference for safety and also a somewhat old testament fondness for catching and punishing criminals seems to have outweighed my concerns about privacy, at least in this case.
Ariella
8/30/2016 9:21:36 AM
User Rank Author
Re: Exciting, but
<The science fiction writer David Brin, whose work I admire greatly, has argued that our whole idea of privacy is going to turn out to be a cultural abberation of just a dozen generations or so before we find our way back to the human norm of your whole tribe knowing everything about you. I often think he's probably right, but being in the dozenth of those generations, I still have a hard time feeling it's a good thing.>
@JohnBarnes That's an interesting perspective. Of course, in the past people in your neighborhood knew everything about you because that was the nature of small towns. People gained some anonymity in bigger cities. But Brin suggests that, they too, can return to the norm of no secrets.
But you're not the only one who wishes to resist. One of the big issues at the first Decentralized Web conference was privacy -- finding a way of returning the web to a state free of government suveillance and gatekeeper control. They believe the web should offer free access to all without recording their activities.
Ariella
8/30/2016 9:24:48 AM
User Rank Author
Re: Reasons why this is happening so early in Israel
@JohnBarnes I'd add a fifth reason: the culture of technological adoption there. Bezeq identifies it in the mayor of Modi'in, though you need general acceptance from the population at large, as well, to go forward with such a project.
Ariella
8/30/2016 9:26:30 AM
User Rank Author
Re: Exciting, but
@Adi You touch on the essence of the argument between the people who are for security measures and those who fear infringement on individual privacy. In the US, I think we still tilt a bit more to the latter, though that may well change over time.
clrmoney
8/30/2016 1:12:41 PM
User Rank Platinum
smart cities
Smart smart cities can make it very easy for people going in to future and almost everting is becoming virtual and digital.
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