Smart City of the Future
Carrying on from the previous post “Neolithic Privacy”
The industrial revolution began in 18th century Britain. It caused a massive change in society that quickly moved outside of the British isles. The revolution saw changes that touched across technology, society and the economy. If data is to be the food of the smart city, energy was the food of the post industrial revolution city. New energy sources created the mean to develop new technologies such as machines like the “Spinning Jenny” which revolutionized the textile industry. The industrial revolution was an outcome of the modern agricultural revolution, distinct from its predecessors, that I have already discussed. This industrial revolution, which began around 1750 in Britain, was based on technological advances and political changes. The outcome was increased food. Both revolutions are multi-faceted and complex, but they prompted societal changes, including increasing available money to buy manufactured goods, increased productivity, and ultimately a movement from rural to more urban living. Between 1750 and 1830 the population of Britain doubled and the population was redistributed into urban areas where people could work en masse in the factories, that in turn, produced even more technology and products.
We are seeing history repeat itself today in the guise of Industry 4.0 or the ‘fourth industrial revolution’. This revolution in industry and manufacturing, is part of the digital revolution that has touched much of our planet. The movement of new technologies that provide automation and robotics, for example, is a natural one that is being used to build a path towards innovation and optimization of productivity for all industry sectors. It is inevitable that we would turn to technology to push our industrial capabilities onwards and upwards. And, industry 4.0 is hanging onto the shirt tails of our connected world. A number of variables are creating the perfect storm for manufacturing and industry to morph into its next stage of development. The Internet of Things (IoT) mixed with improvements in efficiency and decreased costs of sensors, as well as robotics and AI, are creating a perfect storm of developments to create a new era in manufacturing. The Spinning Jenny gave us the first truly industrial world, which has spawned a great, great grandchild in the form of interconnected machines that talk to each other and use machine learning for automation. Alongside this, the collective psyche has viewed future living as a goal for society for decades. Hyperconnectivity, coupled with efficiency of processing, can make this ‘dream city of the future’, now a reality.
Next up the Anatomy of a Smart City