As the book’s introduction says, we have witnessed the tremendous changes that digital technology brought to society, but the transformation “is just getting started”- ubiquitous digital technology will continue to shape our world and our lifestyle. Urban life in the modern society is largely driven by technology, internet, and electronic infrastructures, and in fact, the convenience brought by the digital revolution are now being regarded as a major feature and advantage of urban life. The author traced the historical developments of the formation of smart city, which is very novel to read because our generation don’t have a complete understanding of this macroscopic evolution that brought about huge changes.
Clearly, digital technology accelerates the pace of life in the city and connects everything more closely. The Bryant Park mentioned by the author is a good example. “Disconnected, it was a place for office workers to relax. Connected, it had become a digital waiting room for the massive subway station beneath it.” With the coverage of Wi-Fi, it had a totally different role in the city’s transit system. However, the advancement of such technology also accelerates the inequality in modern society by widening the difference in life between urban and rural residents. When you are accustomed to enjoying the wireless network and electronic technology equipment that can be seen everywhere in the city, it would be difficult to accept the intermittent network in the countryside, let alone adapt to the life without convenient delivery services. This problem cannot be blamed on the defects of the infrastructure in rural areas-after all, from a realistic point of view, the ROI of investment on rural infrastructure construction is much lower.
Here comes to the close relationship between the digital technology with business and public affairs. The innovation and large-scale application of digital technology require a lot of capital, so commercial interests and competition play an important role in this process. In the case of Wi-Fi, many big wireless companies and start-ups wanted to “muscle in and turned public spaces into a commercial battleground”. (pp. 130) Additionally, it made the government to reinvent the infrastructure which could provide citizens with good service. After witnessing the rapid development of the Wi-Fi industry by major enterprises, the governments then begun to build related infrastructure to meet people’s demand. It also reminds me of a recent report about 6G, which showed the fact that China has launched the first 6G satellite in the world. ( Read more here) As we all know, 5G is still in its infancy and most mobile devices still use 4G for network. It seems difficult for people to imagine life with 6G technology. Maybe the network will become very fast at that time, bringing a seamless network connection experience. But obviously, this kind of technological innovation is not mainly driven by the actual needs of people in daily life – it bears more political meaning. To some extent, the research and development of digital technologies have become a battlefield for competitions between the world’s great powers.
The world’s first 6G satellite (Cr. Xinhua News Agency)
Leave a Reply