Are We Sleepwalking Into A Control Society?
Urban data is used to trace issues even before they occur. Sounds comforting? That’s unless authorities are going to intervene on our predicted behavior.
There’s a long history of data being generated from citizens to understand city life, formulate policies, solve urban problems, guide operational governance, model possible futures, and tackle a diverse set of other issues. Consequently, the way cities are understood and managed has been data-informed for centuries. More recently however, there’s a change in the way cities are governed. As urban data creates new forms of data-driven steering, it helps to produce what’s been called smart cities. This is accompanied however by a threatening opportunity. With the potential to model possible futures, authorities will be able to judge and act on predicted behavior as well.
“If you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself” — George Orwell
Urban data constitutes a broad class of information that’s generated continuously and exhaustively from people and places. Such data is produced by networked sensors, transponders, cameras and other software-enabled devices around the city, the smart phones and apps that people use and interactions across networked systems. It’s a diverse range of public and private…
