Stop Saying 'Smart Cities'

Digital stardust won’t magically make future cities more affordable or resilient.

By Bruce Sterling

Feb 12 2018
<https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/02/stupid-cities/553052/>

The term “smart city” is interesting yet not important, because nobody defines it. “Smart” is a snazzy political label used by a modern alliance of leftist urbanites and tech industrialists. To deem yourself “smart” is to make the NIMBYites and market-force people look stupid.

Smart-city devotees all over this world will agree that London is particularly smart. Why? London is a huge, ungainly beast whose cartwheeling urban life is in cranky, irrational disarray. London is a god-awful urban mess, but London does have some of the best international smart-city conferences.

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(Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))