“The so-called Smart City is turning our future into the Technopolice: Under the guise of optimization and decision support, they transform the whole urban world into a vast surveillance project. First, a large-scale surveillance dedicated to real-time control of flows of people and goods, through centralized management implemented from a hyperconnected command center. Then, targeted surveillance of individuals and groups: as soon as « suspicious » behavior is detected, police apparatus can be unleashed to « neutralize the threat » and suppress the smallest « breach of the peace. » Or, conversely, reward citizens deemed virtuous by the State.
But we just have to look in the mirror of history or other parts of the world to understand where the Technopolice is leading us: It is bound to reinforce forms of discrimination and segregation, muzzle social movements, depoliticize public spaces, automate both the police and denials of justice, and further dehumanize social relations. All this and more at huge financial and ecological costs, since it will take taxpayers’ money, rare earths, plenty of electricity and many other resources to build and run these infrastructures.
Apart from a few seemingly consensual applications, the Smart City will be mainly used to reinforce the power of merchants of fear, and hide as long as possible the ineptude of their policies. Technocrats rely on the Plan and the Machine to regulate our cities and our lives. Instead of the polis understood as a democratic city, as a pluralistic space of wandering, of impromptu meetings and confrontation with otherness, they want to bleed the city dry. The Technopolice looks like a gigantic test tube where the most advanced forms of social control are being developped.”
https://technopolice.fr/actualites
