Investigating The Concerns of a Smart City

For this blog post, I chose to look into the future prospects of a smart city and particularly focus on some of the negative aspects this future endeavor would create. It is easy to focus on the glitz and glam of a beautiful shining smart city able to instantly track criminals once they've committed a crime, optimize traffic patterns and adjust for accidents, monitor air quality and crime for a multitude of decision making benefits. However, it seems as though for every negative there is a positive, and most of these negatives require looking at how these advances affect the city on a social level. 

One of the main concerns with our growing dependence on technology is the eventuality that our society will become quite Orwellian in the sense that the residents will be constantly monitored and recorded and that our basic sense of privacy will be revoked. The article by the Atlantic touches on this concept and talks about the Gorgon Stare technology developed in 2009 by the US military. This is a piece of surveillance technology that hovers above the city for hours at a time and is able to track and monitor the city's activity. Talks have taken place to implement this technology domestically for local law enforcement to utilize making crime fighting that much more efficient. However, the social impacts of this technology introduce a major concern for privacy. How secure is the data that is collected? Does it only track activity on the streets or if your window is at just the right angle can your bedroom be caught on camera? How long is this footage stored for and what is done with it? Crime is a major concern indeed and while many efforts are put towards reducing crime with the use of technology, it can also harm the overall improvement of the community in question. 

The ABC News article looks at the negative impacts smart city monitoring technology has from a bias and prejudice perspective. Algorithms can track trends and use data stored in databases over years and years to predict where crime is going to be committed and increase police presence in these areas. However, and increase in police presence can have an adverse effect by increasing light crime in the area as retaliation. Not to mention that socially, this paints a negative picture of the community which furthers the already established bias and mitigates the chance for further improvement of the community. Similar to this, the air quality sensing meter discussed in the article would deem areas as unsafe for the construction of new green spaces, or schools, that would ultimately improve the community. And instead of improving the existing conditions, the area will only be condemned, not attracting any future business or revenue that again would ultimately improve the community. Looking at the data collected from a purely numbers perspective cuts out the human component that is essentially to improving the quality of life in the community which should ultimately be the goal. Not to mention that, as mentioned in the Medium article, and increase in stored data means an increase in space allocation for these data centers. 

Stephen Pettit Post
https://ae-410-510-ay19-20.blogspot.com/2020/01/b1-stephen-pettit-future-bim-3d.html
What I found most interesting in your post is the comment about using AR in the building industry. I worked a little bit with this at my part time job and I found it to be an incredibly interesting and helpful tool for a multitude of reasons. One of the uses was using AR the show clients the finished product in presentations in a way that they can actually move and interact with what they're purchasing which from a business perspective is highly beneficial. It can also be used for survey purposes speeding up the process overall.

Brian Mynaugh's Post
https://ae-410-510-ay19-20.blogspot.com/2020/01/blog-1-mynaugh.html
I loved the portion about smart homes. The idea of being able to easily integrate different systems in my home with my voice or a simple command is incredibly interesting to me. I've been obsessed with the idea since watching Disney's Smart House as a kid. Now to see us make steps towards making this though a reality is very cool.

Andrew Norris's Post
https://ae-410-510-ay19-20.blogspot.com/2020/01/b1-robotics-ai-3d-printing-future.html
I find your comment about how farmers are slower to the advancements in technology interesting. In my mind, farmers have been the group of people to most rapidly develop new technologies to make their processes easier. In comparison to industries with much more technology. They've been at the forefront of making processes like irrigating, bailing hay, and collecting milk/eggs more efficient. However I think the major difference is the difference in money in both industries. And I think that is what would hold farmers back from introducing things like robotics into their work. 

Bogle, Ariel. “Can We Trust Big Data to Build Our Giant Future Cities?” ABC News, 14 Mar. 2018, www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-15/big-data-algorithms-equality-future-cities/9544138.

Manaugh, Geoff. “The City That Remembers Everything.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 23 Feb. 2018, www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/02/james-joyce-as-police-operation/553817/.

Wiig, Alan. “The Urban, Infrastructural Geography Of 'The Cloud'.” Medium, Vantage, 4 Jan. 2016, medium.com/vantage/the-urban-infrastructural-geography-of-the-cloud-1b076cf9b06e.