Algorithmic Cities: A Dystopic or Utopic Future?

Abstract

Cities of today face a digital transformation process, leading to a new reality where urban space is taking advantage of information and communication technologies and data science to answer present and future challenges, namely to become more efficient in services and infrastructures management in order to deliver increased quality of life to the people who live, work or visit the city, and addressing at the same time the problems of climate change. This new reality is leveraged by big data produced by the cities Internet of everything (as interconnected systems, sensors and people), information management and data science capabilities, which allow us to measure and describe what happens, predict what can happen, and prescribe what could be the course of actions bringing policy making to a fact-based environment, which had never been possible before. In this work, we will address the opportunities and challenges of this paradigm shift that is leading to the city as a platform reality that supports what we can call the algorithmic city where it is up to us to decide if this will be a dystopic or utopic future for the citizen.