WORLD’S FIRST ‘SMART CITY’ TO BE COMPLETED BY 2015: ‘SONGDO’ THE ORWELLIAN CONTROL GRID

http://grantjkidney.com ^ | July 29, 2012 | Grant J. Kidney

[SteelToe]

Grant J. Kidney — The world’s first ‘smart city’ is being built in Asia- and it promises to serve as an experiment for the high-tech tyranny that is surely to come about as a response to the collapse of this present era of human industrial civilization.

Dubbed ‘Songdo’, the city will rest upon a wholly man made island in the Yellow sea and will incorporate just about every aspect of an Orwellian ‘super state’ imaginable.

Millions of wireless sensors and microchips will be embedded throughout the sprawling city-scape. ‘Smart appliances’ such as refrigerators that let you know when you’re running low on certain foods and bathroom mirrors that inform you of your physical health will be evident in every home.

[glorgau]

The inhabitants will be given names like “THX 1138”.

[Sacajaweau]

Bathrooms mirror that tell you about your health....

Does that mean it will post "You have hemmoroids"...or "you're a perfect a******.

[BenLurkin]

The world is doomed to “sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.”

[jeffc]

...such as refrigerators that let you know when you’re running low on certain foods.

Or report you to the authorities for "too much" beer or the wrong kind of meat (non-halal).

[Husker24]

Bloomberg would have an orgasm.

[mjp]

Grass roots, sustainability organizations such as the Zeitgeist Movement and the Venus Project propose similar designs for advanced city systems as a means to ‘update’ our current inefficient model of the urban environment.

Large complex systems designed from scratch never work like they were expected to. They always have parts that are not working correctly and so the system as a whole is always working in failure mode.It will produce unexpected outcomes which are unpredictable and will produce new problems in addition to the the original problems it is trying to solve. Once it is in operation negative feedback mechanisms will start to take effect and it will oppose it own operation. Or positive feedback will occur causing it to spin out of control causing harm.

[aviator]

I have a part time job in Songdo. More specifically, Koreans call it “New Songdo.” It is indeed manmade.....Lots of dirt trucked in to raise the land above sea level. Lots of new 45 floor apartments going up. New businesses starting up along with various ethnic restaurants. Very modern by Korean standards. A very clean subway system makes traveling easy. However, I sure haven’t seen any huge TV sets, sensors or fancy refrigerators yet. Nothing here holds a candle to a nice American shopping mall.

[Former Proud Canadian]

Well, if you have hemmoroids, you are an imperfect a**hole.

[Vince Ferrer]

There was a comic book series in the 1980s called Mister X. Mister X was an odd man for a comic book protagonist. He was an architect, who brilliantly designed a smart Utopian city where every feature of every building affected the psychology of the people living there. Every line and curve promoted peace, happiness, and cohesion. Unfortunately, he want insane from drug use, and was sent to an asylum. By the time he gets released, the city was built. But the design was changed subtly. The lines and forms do not promote happiness, it enhances insanity, despair, suicide, etc. The city has become a hell on earth of coupption, crime, and insanity. He lives in the city, trying to find the people who changed the design and confront them, and rescue the city.

So I guess now we are building it now.

[joelt]

City like this is to be built near Hobbs, New Mexico.

[arasina]

Fascinating tale!

[Secret Agent Man]

You can live there, you just are forbidden to touch anything.