In the essay “The Sentient City and What It May Portend”, Nigel Thrift has conceded that “there is no reason to think that a growing urban sentience will necessarily deliver greater equality or comfort or freedom.” (p.15) In my concern, the sentient city is a very fascinating promise, but if we put this notion in a context of human cultivation, and consider more about the gain and loss of citizens instead of the exciting technology of ubiquitous computing simply, we may find some very pitfalls to prevent.
From the perspective of the quality of daily life, we can imagine a variety of future interactions that will be evaluated positive or negative. For instance, few of us may object to traffic light control systems that respond to the ebbs and flows of city traffic, but what if living in a “too smart city” that employs city furniture as enforcers? What if a bench will eject a sitter who sits too long? What if a sign will display the latest legal codes and warn passersby against transgression (and in fact it has been enforced in Beijing recently)? And what if a trashcan will throw back the wrong kind of trash so that everyone has to strictly follow the garbage sorting rules?
On the one hand, this omniscient and omnipotent urban system may aggravate our moronity in terms of everyday decisions and activities. With the help of complete automatic apparatus at every second, our intelligence and perception will be probably in degradation. On the other hand, “the Internet of everything” and the consciousness from every part of a city may create a new version of “Big Brother paranoia” dystopic vision in Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-four. Surveillance will not only be realized through the media in a traditional sense, but embedded in everywhere of our life. Both the erosion of digital intelligence and the intrusion of state power deserve caution in the future sentient city.
Anyway, between concept and execution, there is always a gap. Since we haven’t seen any formed sentient city model yet, everything is still in suspense. Only in practice can we see how a real sentient city could be, and how it will function, adapt, survive, and transform. What we should bear in mind is that it involves serious issues regarding technical ethics and spatial politics. Therefore, the design details matter a lot in showing who the sentient city really serves for.
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