EPISODE 003
Smart Cities Need Mindful and Therapeutic Solutions
Conceptually speaking, a city is made of dense agglomeration of energy and matter in the form of people and assets (Glaeser, 1998). However, from a technical point of view, a city is a complex adaptive system (CAS) in a dynamic state of flux. So, cities are more than just energetic metabolic realities; their evolution changes as the future changes. And that is why it is crucial to take a therapeutic approach to urban systems.
Complex systems are everywhere. The human body & the ecosystem are two of the most commonly known complex systems. Today many other systems, including socio-technical systems such as cities, are known to be complex systems. But, the current mental of smart systems does not consider complex thinking and its design implication for delivering truly smart cities. The Internet of things (IoT) is of the major enabling pillars of smart cities. By mimicking neurons in biological organisms, IoTs try to make cities smarter. IoT is one of the main technological revolutions transforming built infrastructures into more responsive and intelligent systems. But, what if expectations about these systems are not based on the reality of how biological organisms become intelligent for evolution?
“Urban Anatomy” by Alexander Hirka
The theory of complex adaptive systems is a subclass of complexity science that views the complex architecture of complex systems as an interaction of a set of subsystems that collectively give rise to the emergence of a whole. The mantra of complexity science is the following: “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”. Moreover, CAS theory incorporates the core concepts of nonlinear dynamics and chaos theory: “small changes can lead to big results”. Complex adaptive systems have two important properties, complexity and self-organisation. Firstly, they are complex, consisting of many interacting and adaptive parts. Secondly, they are self-organising, meaning they can change, adapt and act autonomously (i.e., or self-organise) in response to internal and external environmental changes (Holland, 1992).
The result of these self-organisation properties is called emergence. Emergence means the behaviour or the macro-scale pattern has emerged from the interaction of parts. However, it cannot be found in individual parts. The knowledge of emergence and self-organisation is critical as cities become increasingly technologically dependent. For example, integrating ICT platforms into the fabric of societies gives rise to the “internet of things” (IoT), whereby objects become capable of interacting with other city parts, communicating and sharing information and learning to adapt to different city situations according to the emerging needs.
With IoT, cities become, to some extent, live and partially able to exhibit what can be called “intelligent behaviour”. The IoT vision, nevertheless, is not sufficient when it comes to the complex soft and hard challenges of today’s urban systems. Fabrication of sensory infrastructure to urban structures is only a small aspect of the journey of cities becoming smarter. Unlike the dominant understanding of smart cities, making cities smarter does not begin with technology but with a paradigm shift. This paradigm change is nothing but thinking and designing with principles of system theory and people-centricity.
My analysis of the existing smart city definitions and practices worldwide demonstrates that the conceptualisation of cities is yet to become systemic, let alone tuned to adopting new technologies.
Building Blocks of Mindful Smart Cities
Mindful Smart Citizens
Mindful Smart Interfaces
Mindful Smart Living Spaces
Smart Cities as Complex Adaptive Autopoietic Networks
Cities, as mentioned earlier, are complex systems, which means they exhibit the principal behaviours and properties of complex systems. Designing technology for smart cities as’ systems’ and just an accumulation of objects and people means tailoring technology for the needs of citizens, seamless interaction of parts and generation of inclusive interfaces.
Moreover, the gradual integration of technology into the urban structure gives rise to the urban nervous system, which brings cities closer to biological organisms. One of the key features of biological systems is autopoiesis or self-evolving. The concept of Autopoiesis was developed by two Chilean biologists, Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela, to describe the underlying chemical mechanisms of cells. The mechanism of autopoiesis enables biological cells to maintain their boundary, continuously self-recreate, grow and expand their networks, adapt to change and increase their resilience.
Urban systems must also become autopoietic for two main reasons: the ever-growing rate of urbanisation and the ever-growing need for resilience against future shocks. See Urbanisation in Charts on our website. The former enables urban infrastructures to grow and expand, while the latter enables cities to thrive in the changing world. The underlying autopoietic mechanisms by which biological systems thrive result from years of evolutionary knowledge. In cities, however, autopoietic mechanisms can be recruited by applying the best of both soft and hard technologies. This is where the notion of “smart solutions” becomes relevant.
With much of the smart city paradigms being technocentric, our approach is to not only expand the definition envelope of “smartness” to include other forms of smartness, such as emotional intelligence but also build an innovative and therapeutic take to the practice of smart city-making.
Smart Cities Need Mindful Therapeutic Solutions
At Triple AI, we call ourselves urban therapists. By combining hard and soft technologies as two axes or DNA of smart cities, we steer smart cities towards mindful co-existence of people, places and technology. To do this, we utilise blockchain technology to deliver tailor-made therapeutic solutions for healing cities’ current dysfunctional structures while enabling them for a brand-new transformation towards adopting the next possible smart layer. This therapeutic process is highly interactive. We believe the next possible smart layer is often present within the system and only needs to be seen and ceased by citizens, developers and authorities. With a systemic mindset, all parties are called to participate in the civil act of smart city-making. This participation often leads to fruitful and accidental discoveries that encompass technological smartness and emotional, knowledge, cultural, spiritual and artistic smartness.
We at Triple AI are working on discovering the next adjacent possible (AP) level of smartness in the current smart cities narrative. The adjacent possible (AP) is developed by Stuart Kauffman and points out the processes through which evolutionary changes take place.
The AP enables organisms to gain an evolutionary advantage by utilising and discovering hidden potentials trapped in their environment. If used mindfully, data generated from sensors and ICT platforms can open cities to AP for the next smart levels of smartness. See, for example, the gØv movement in Taiwan.
The future of planet earth is urbanised (i.e.according to the UN reports, nearly 70% of the world population will live in cities by 2050); cities provide an enormous opportunity for humanity to work together towards shared goals and visions. Our therapeutic approach, state-of-the-art hard technological platform and systemic model of Mindful Smart Cities is a road map that takes cities and people on a step-by-step therapeutic and transformation journey with innovative, human-centric and playful use of modern and ancient technologies.
INSPIRING PEOPLE AND RESOURCES TO LEARN FROM
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Project DRAWDOWN
Project DRAWDOWN is one of the leading platforms for climate change solutions.
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