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The Tech Building Blocks of City 2.0

Posted by Soulskill on from the more-realistic-than-flying-cars dept.

CWmike writes "Sci-Fi writers call it Utopia, the glorious City of the Future. But short of downtown atriums being guarded by invisible walls and flying cars, City 2.0 is not as far off as you may think, writes John Brandon. Ubiquitous wireless networks are already available in Baltimore and Minneapolis, Thomson Reuters has sustainable data centers that sell power back to the local utility, the smart energy grid is well on its way, and city-provided social networks are common. While the concept of City 2.0 is monumental, these key technology advancements are already helping pave the road to the next-generation city. The next steps toward the city of tomorrow are all about integrating these services cohesively, making them widely available across the entire metropolis and managing the services more efficiently. 'The reality is that the city of the future will likely have many aspects of a contained and managed ecosystem,' says analyst Rob Enderle."

9 of 70 comments (clear)

  1. The building blocks.... by Darkness404 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It seems like the more we talk about this utopian city, we get ever so close to the ideal dystopian city.

    --
    Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
    1. Re:The building blocks.... by demachina · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Unless its a city without traffic, pollution, gangs, poverty and the homeless its going to look pretty much the same to me. Getting rid of cars, trucks, and sirens would be the biggest step to a Utopian city I can think of assuming you replace it with effective transit, kinder gentler taxis, an effective logistics mechanism to replace trucks and effective emergency services without sirens.

      I recall reading recently there is a 2 mile square suburb in Germany which was designed to ban cars. They have communal garages on the edge for your cars. Rail service to commute to jobs in the city. Stores are designed to be walked to. Its bikes and pedestrians only in the interior. That is pretty close to Utopia for me.

      If people in businesses like IT, finance, etc and can telecommute effectively that would also be a huge step. Commuting alone make urban/suburban design an unavoidable living hell.

      Solving the homeless problem a lot harder. You can't just cage them, can't just ship them somewhere else, and you can't just wave a wand and solve the drug abuse, mental illness, criminal records, hatred for the man and hatred for 40 hour work weeks in factories and offices that made them the way they are.

      Here is an interesting article on CounterPunch with Alex Rivera, an indie sci fi film producer from Peru about his dystopian film, Sleep Dealer. It raises some interesting issues. One of the premises is based on a future sealing of the border to illegal immigrants who will instead continue to work in the U.S. through virtual links, like driving Taxi's, assembly line work in factories through robots, mowing lawns, etc. Its the ultimate continuation to outsourcing and globalization.

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      @de_machina
  2. Utopia by rhyder128k · · Score: 2, Insightful

    As an aside, More's novel describes a constructed society that had strived for perfection with absurd outcomes. Always makes me smile when people assume Utopia to mean an ideal society. Having said that, perhaps the hubris is typically apt. BTW, nearly 500 years old but still a highly recommended short read.

    --
    Michael Reed, freelance tech writer.
  3. Mandatory punishment by hwyhobo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Could we please have mandatory flogging for anyone who uses the term "2.0" with anything other than numbered software or documentation revisions? It has got to be more annoying by now than "paradigm".

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    End anonymous moderation and posting on /.
  4. My future city by Animats · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I want my city to have a Steel Pipe Snow Melting System. And underground freight tunnels. And a Continuous Transit System with Sub-Surface Moving Platforms. And rooftop heliports. And skyscraper restaurants.

  5. Oh jesus christ! by n3tcat · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Enough with the 2.0 bullshit! This isn't City 2.0! this is City 11,050,523.6.15 RC4.

    Unfortunately, this is exactly like when they used to call shit "So and So 2000" or "So and So Xtra". I guess the 2.0 will stop whenever they have a new futuristic-sounding moniker.

  6. What a lousy article... by sirwired · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Lets take it from the top:

    1) They quote Rob Enderele. A "I know something about everything" 'IT consultant'. Also known for rendering his expert opinion on topics such as "Open Source and the Fools Who Use It". Thought the SCO Group had an open and shut case.
    2) Okay, a few example projects for the SmartGrid stuff. However, modulating electric use during peak periods is several decades old.
    3) Blogs! Chat! Wikis! Buzzword-driven crap. We already have things like Newspapers! Telephones! Websites!... the "Web 2.0-ish" stuff is hardly a revolution.
    4) For a high-tech city, San Jose sure does have a primitive airport. You get to board a jetliner using a set of roller-stairs after passing through the '50s area terminal. I think a child with an Erector Set could have built their new Terminal faster.
    5) We quote a product manager at Intel for information on how great WiMax is. Gee, there's an impartial source. Too bad WiMax has yet to get significant traction in the market. Clearwire is badly struggling and isn't very good.
    6) After more worthless jabber from Enderele... A data center w/ backup batteries! A technological miracle! If needed, they can run the data center off the diesel generators! Morons... small diesel generators are so damn expensive to run, it would rarely, if ever, make sense to crank them except during a power outage.
    7) More quotes from another Buzzword Generator, the Yankee Group. How do I become an "IT Consultant" of this type?

    SirWired

  7. Cities need to be organic by Brandybuck · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Cities need to grow and evolve "organically". All of this new technology is wonderful and awesome, but if imposed from above by planners, will only result in distortions and unintended consequences. City planning beyond a local neighborhood level just doesn't work well. We don't like to admit it, because we've been taught since childhood that central planners are quasi-omniscient, but it's true. Cities are just too complex.

    That doesn't mean that cities don't get planned, they do. Cities are an emergent order. No one person (or committee) can possibly plan an efficient healthy city, but the voluntary interactions of a hundred thousand inhabitants can give rise to one. The information needed to run a city is extremely dispersed and constantly changing, so that it cannot be codified into a static plan. This is about Hayekian information coordination. It's something every city manager needs to understand. Only then will City 2.0 be open to us.

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    Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
  8. Re:Can't be Done With Proprietary Stuff by samurphy21 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You've totally painted over the computer industry's failure on that front

    TCP IP, UDP, PCI, ISA, USB, SATA, IDE, ASCII TXT.

    These are some pretty big non-failures of open standards that allow any implementation of various devices and data to interact and communicate successfully. While I have no doubt that there are examples of failures, as well, the fact that I can read what you write on my computer, made by a different manufacturer, to different specs, with different architecture from yours says that intercommunication of a heterogeneous nature is not a fart in the wind.