An Operating System For Cities 216
CProgrammer98 writes "BBC News reports that cities may soon get their own operating system. From the article: 'The Urban OS works just like a PC operating system but keeps buildings, traffic and services running smoothly. The software takes in data from sensors dotted around the city to keep an eye on what is happening. In the event of a fire, the Urban OS might manage traffic lights so fire trucks can reach the blaze swiftly. The sensors monitor everything from large scale events such as traffic flows across the entire city down to more local phenomena such as temperature sensors inside individual rooms. The OS completely bypasses humans to manage communication between sensors and devices such as traffic lights, air conditioning or water pumps that influence the quality of city life."
Re:and it will never happen.... (Score:2, Funny)
My city has a great digital traffic infrastructure, but when it fails, it fails catastrophically. Drivers revert to "biggest car has the right of way" rules at intersections. Pedestrians are unable to cross streets. Seriously, if there ever is a SkyNet, it won't need to attack us. It just needs to stop functioning after a few years of flawless service. We'll take care of the rest ourselves.
But my point was, even when cities can get these things up and running, they seem to be unable to afford the redundancy needed to keep them working, allowing small failures to cascade out.
Re:Will it need a reboot like politicians? (Score:5, Funny)
"People are always attributing things to Mark Twain that I never actually said."
--Mark Twain
Cities of the future: (Score:4, Funny)
Cities Of the future:
iCity (the new big Apple) will charge double the taxes to residents, a very intuitive way of manoevering the city. No private enterprise will be allowed- the city must run everything.
Kindleville, will charge half the taxes, but not many public services.
Microsoftopolis will be a huge sprawling city- that once had a decent idea, that it stole from iCity. The city will try to do everything, and do badly at most things.
Googolia will be a tax free haven- but every thing you look do or say will be sent to marketers and the streets will one big billboard.
Then there is Linux Angeles, taxes will be low, the city will do more for you, if you know how to get around. The only problem is, every facet of your life will be overly complicated and you will be forced to worship a giant penguin.
Re:Single point of failure? (Score:4, Funny)
Main Street'); DROP TABLE parking_tickets;--