S07E04 of Connection Problem: A City That Might Endure Into The 22nd Century?
Charles Lemaire - Descriptive Iconogryphy of Cactus (1841)
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Hi there,
I hope this finds you well, wherever you are.
Since the more personal / less work-related part of my blog over at thewavingcat.com has been sitting pretty idle for a while, I’m trying to revive the more personal bit of blogging again, mostly for personal enjoyment. (Personal not as in super-personal, but as in this might have absolutely nothing to do with anything remotely work-y.) So far the overlap with my Twitter account is significant but it’s bound to diverge, in format as well as content, at some point. So if that’s your jam, head on over to peterbihr.com/blog.
Enjoy!
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If you'd like to work with me or bounce ideas, let's have a chat.
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Project updates
All the things I mentioned the last few weeks are ongoing, with no major milestones to share at this point. Just productively, quietly humming along.
The one to first see the light of day, I imagine, will be the video interview series in collaboration Körber Foundation, in which we talk to city officials about their cities’ coronavirus responses, digital tools, and civil society engagement: What’s effective, what leads to resilience, what’s new or surprising? The first conversation is recorded, the next scheduled for next week. I’ll be able to share more soon.
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Future Cities of Years Past
Speaking of cities, resilience, and surprises: Through a somewhat random rabbit hole, the New York Times led me to this “virtual tour” (read: architectural promo video) of Masdar City, one of the proto smart city projects. How that project turned out has surprised exactly no one, but it’s still interesting.
The video is from 2008. It hasn’t aged well. For one, the rendered inhabitants look stocky and low-res. But also, it touts information points in the city that help with navigation — after all, in 2008 smart phones weren’t ubiquitous just yet but still just on the bring of mainstream use.
This sustainable city of the (then) future — the terms carbon neutral or carbon negative were still lightyears away at that point — would prioritize convenience and personal transportation pods, a car free environment, scientific research both based in the city and operating with the city as its test bed.
And this city would bring “all the benefits of 21st century living” while being free of “the stresses of living in outdated 20th century cities”. It would “endure long into the 22nd century.”
It is this last phrase that really caught my attention. If the makers of that video considered it a bold claim to say this city would last well over a hundred years, where does that put all those “outdated 20th century cities” that have been around for five, ten, twenty times as long?
Of course we know today how this story ended. Originally planned for 50.000 inhabitants, in 2018 there were about 1.800, mostly students. This CityLab profile based on a more recent visit is worth skimming, and speaks of 1.300 residents, and of essentially a ghost town prototype lab the size of a Manhattan block that’s completely disconnected from everything else:
“For a Masdar City tourist, an Uber ride in an air-conditioned white Lexus it was. Visiting is like having a kale salad for lunch but reverting to a Big Mac and fries for dinner.”
To be honest, I was surprised to hear the project wasn’t entirely shut down, but the idea that it’s still being touted as a sustainability project is pretty funny.
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Facebook being Facebook
There’s so much to say about what’s going on in the US and with Trump, with the role of the military (for both better & worse?), the way the Republican Party stands by and enables Trump’s divisive politics and tramples human rights, and on and on. But it feels, to be honest, exhausting and overwhelming. More importantly, there are enough and much more qualified voices out there. (You could do worse than start with Baratunde Thurston’s Youtube channel, to name just one — he’s been on a roll with his Live in Lockdown series.)
That said, there’s one aspect that’s right in my wheelhouse here, and it’s Facebook & Zuckerberg doing what they do best: Be spineless in order not to hurt their business; never take a stand except maybe for radical free speech (the kind of “free” speech that silences those who are more vulnerable or simply don’t have the energy for the constant yelling).
As Zuck defends (Forbes) Facebook’s course of no interventions, he confirms what Ian Bogost and Alexis C. Madrigal had long stipulated: That for all intents and purposes, Facebook works for Trump (The Atlantic).
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Miscellanea
- Gov.uk’s Data Ethics Framework
- R.I.P. Civil — Lessons from a failed startup (Poynter): “Civil, the high-profile, blockchain-backed attempt to nurture nascent digital news sites, is shutting down.”
- Black Lives Matter protesters aren’t being tracked with Covid-19 surveillance tech. Not yet (Zara Rahman for The Correspondent)
- Related: The EFF’s guide to Surveillance Self-Defense
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Currently reading: Ametora, W. David Marx
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If you’d like to work with me or have a chat to explore collaborations, let’s chat!
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Who writes here? Peter Bihr explores how emerging technologies can have a positive social impact. At the core of his work is the mission to align emerging technologies and citizen empowerment. To do this, he works at the intersection of technology, governance, policy and social impact — with foundations, public and private sector. He is the founder of The Waving Cat, a boutique research and strategic advisory firm. He co-founded ThingsCon, a non-profit that explores fair, responsible, and human-centric technologies for IoT and beyond. Peter was a Mozilla Fellow (2018-19) and an Edgeryders Fellow (2019). He tweets at @peterbihr and blogs at thewavingcat.com. Interested in working together? Let’s have a chat.
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