Control information and you control the populace. You don't need to use guns because the people don't know whats going on, you can prevent people from organizing, you can use misinformation and propaganda to control people. Control of information and control of speech is a massive amount of power. I'd rather google had access to a few nukes, honestly.
It's also possible to just use a dangerous and potentially tragic situation for PR, as a distraction from your business issues and increasing criticism for unhinged behaviour on twitter.
> “It’s not going to be a smart city of surveillance. It’s going to be a smart city of privacy, and that will be a first.”
I don't believe this. I think this person should be personally tossed in jail when they inevitably are revealed to be collecting far more than people wanted them to.
> What does a tech company know about running a real live city?
Nothing, but they won't let that stop them. They will pack it with enough sensors to go full on dystopian nightmare and provide as little actual human support as possible.
> intelligent “pay-as-you-throw” garbage chutes
jesus, they really will find a way to ruin everything.
> neighbors would crowdsource approvals for block-party permits, giving a thumbs-up or thumbs-down based on the noise the gathering was expected to produce
oh great, we can have those shitty neighborhood social networks cranked up to 10.
oh and just imagine the HOAs!
> few better places to have this conversation than Canada, a Western democracy that takes seriously debates over informational privacy and data ownership—and is known for managing to stay polite while discussing even hot-button civic issues.
hopefully people wake up and become very very impolite towards these goddamn data companies.
> Hitching up with tech companies that are flush with both cash and grand visions might be cities’ best chance to leap into the future, or at least to turbocharge their lagging districts
Yeah, we need to give more power to corporations. Not less. We need fucking Larry running every aspect of our lives.
> So far, the deal hasn’t exactly been a victory for transparency