Smart Cities of the Future

Have you ever thought about how Smart Cities will change over time?

A smart city, also known as an eco-city or sustainable city, uses a network of sensors and computer programs to monitor environmental conditions and make decisions about infrastructure upgrades. As you move around a city, tools like traffic cameras, license plate readers, facial recognition software, and more collect information about you. Smart traffic lights and control sensors help keep an eye on traffic patterns, make sure traffic flows as smoothly as possible, and ease congestion during rush hours. Smart city technologies also help reduce traffic jams, make vehicles drive themselves, and make routes more efficient. You can hear the city's voices all around you. It tells waste management when a trash can needs to be emptied or commuters when there's an open parking spot nearby. 

Although smart city initiatives have a lot of great benefits, there are also a lot of things we need to be careful about. Massive amounts of data generated and their possible influence on citizens' privacy are major topics of concern. It has been reported that authorities in future smart cities will be able to track food purchases and food consumption. These findings have not been verified, but they are worth considering. The consequences for our societies could be catastrophic if we rush into implementing smart city plans. Our lives could easily become an Orwellian nightmare like Xinjiang, where people live in a culture of fear.