Most of What We Need For Smart Cities Already Exists

An anonymous reader writes "Looking to a day when modern infrastructure is network addressable, Glen Martin considers that, lacking only requisite content and relatively simple augmentation, most of what we need for smart cities already exists: 'Using smart phones, pedestrians could "wake up" the objects by accessing codes generally used by the city to identify street items that required repair. Each bit of infrastructure would make some kind of declamatory statement — sometimes gracious and welcoming, sometimes didactic, sometimes peevish. The "interlocutor" would then respond, and a brief exchange would ensue. The object would then invite the passerby to return for more conversation.'"

Camazotz!

[rogoshen1]

For some reason the summary reminds me of Camazotz from "a wrinkle in time" -- mainly how out of place someone without a lojack/smart phone would feel walking around .. noticing people talking to fucking streetlamps like a PCP addled loony.

Real question is.. why? what purpose does this serve? Oh right tracking+advertising -- the holy grail of modern civilization.

really?

[epyT-R]

It seems like all this 'smartness' is just being used to make things as annoying and publicly pressured, tracked, and monitored as possible. This would just further encourage me to NOT carry any cellnet devices. I'll pass, especially if the taxpayer has to fund it.

Also, because the leaderships in our supposedly 'free' nations have repeatedly proven themselves too immature to handle that kind of power, I don't want them given any more metrics than they already have. Networks like this can always be used to surveil the nodes connected to them.

True and Hackable

[retroworks]

I've seen presentations by serious believers, who were mounting a smartphone-dialed-infrastructure-repair campaign in Providence RI. The people were genuine, and the blighted repairs were real. But it seems that plumbers and pothole-fixers and infrastructure repairers could hack the system and get work where and when they wanted it, and the mob history of public works in the Northeast isn't fiction. Just as the wikipedia articles of interest to big interest groups eventually get written "correctly", and just as the longshoreman's union is not to be crossed, this too will be infiltrated like bad code - unless like a good software writer they go into it saying it's difficult, not easy.

Moronic idea.

[Harlequin80]

Instead of this pointless and down right weird crap how about you think about something useful? Maybe integrated traffic signal networks that can detect buildups via peoples cell phones and then adjust traffic light timings to break it up. Or use the fine grained data that you would have for assessing the effectiveness of public transport systems.