What is it?

It is the possibility of accessing an unimaginable amount of data and information about objects, systems, people, and the relationship of these elements among themselves. With this, we can transform everything we know into binary codes, allowing us to measure and turn the combination of these codes into patterns.

What can it do?

Measure and control almost everything that happens in cities, from infrastructure systems (such as transportation, water supply, sewage systems, communication) to strata of groups and people (geolocated socioeconomic profiles can evaluate the efficiency and need for health and education programs) and real-time monitoring of what occurs in cities (from failures and traffic accidents to security issues).

Why is it possible?

All of this already happens largely due to the development of increasingly smaller technologies, which blend into the environment in the form of sensors and microchips and can collect and analyze data, promote communication among themselves (Internet of Things), and even trigger a series of pre-programmed actions to react to certain events.

Dangers

Although they promise more urban efficiency, these mechanisms also represent a more watched and controlled society, with risks such as the deliberate manipulation of data and information, fraud, misinterpretations, use of data for obscure purposes, loss of privacy, and civil liberties.


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