Meatspace Press

HOW TO
RUN A
CITY LIKE
AMAZON,
AND
OTHER
FABLES
Edited by Mark Graham, Rob Kitchin,
Shannon Mattern and Joe Shaw
HOW TO RUN
A CITY LIKE
AMAZON, AND
OTHER FABLES
Edited by
Mark Graham, Rob Kitchin,
Shannon Mattern and Joe Shaw

Meatspace Press
How to Run a City Like Amazon, and Other Fables
Edited by Mark Graham, Rob Kitchin,
Shannon Mattern and Joe Shaw

Publisher: Meatspace Press (2019)

Weblink: meatspacepress.com
Design: Carlos Romo-Melgar and John Philip Sage
Format: Paperback and pdf/e-book.
Printed by: TradeWinds
Paper: Popset Virgin Grey
Typefaces: Arial, Founders Grotesk, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica
Textbook, HTRACLA Capitals, Monument Grotesk, Union.
Length: 350 pages
Language: English
ISBN (paperback): 978-0-9955776-7-1
ISBN (pdf, e-book): 978-0-9955776-8-8
License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA

Contributors (alphabetically): Manuel B. Aalbers, Tooran Alizadeh,

James Ash, Sarah Barns, Gavin Brown, Ryan Burns, Matthew Claudel,
Jeremy W. Crampton, Ayona Datta, Martin Dodge, Leighton Evans,
Jessica Foley, Jennifer Gabrys, Mark Graham, Tony H. Grubesic,
Edward Helderop, Kara C. Hoover, Andrew Iliadis, Kurt Iveson,
Glenn Kaufmann, Rob Kitchin, Agnieszka Leszczynski, Sophia Maalsen,
Shannon Mattern, Harvey J. Miller, Cian O'Callaghan, Nancy Odendaal,
Dietmar Offenhuber, Alison Powell, Lizzie Richardson, Gillian Rose,
Jathan Sadowski, Kalpana Shankar, Joe Shaw, Harrison Smith,
Monica Stephens, Linnet Taylor, Jim Thatcher, Pip Thornton,
Anthony Vanky, Alberto Vanolo, Alan Wiig, Katharine Willis, Matthew Zook.

All rights reserved according to the terms of the Creative

Commons BY-NC-SA license, excluding any product or corporate
names which may be trademarks or registered trademarks of
third parties, and are cited here for the purposes of discussion
and/or critique without intent to infringe. Discussion of such third
party product, corporate or trademarked names does not imply
any affiliation with or an endorsement by the rights holder.

The publisher has endeavoured to ensure that any URL for

external websites referred to in this book are correct and active
at the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no
responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee
that these links remain live or that the content is, or will remain,
appropriate for all audiences.

Support for the design and printing of this book came from
Maynooth University and the European Research Council
(ERC-2012-AdG 323636-SOFTCITY). Meatspace Press
wishes to give thanks to The Alan Turing Institute under
the EPSRC grant EP/N510129/1 and the University of Oxford
for incubating this project.
 AMAZON
1 How to Run a City Like Amazon
Mark Graham, Rob Kitchin, Shannon Mattern and Joe Shaw

ACXIOM
13 You’re Entitled to What the Data
Says You Deserve
Rob Kitchin

ALPHABET
101 City of Loops
Mark Graham

ANT FINANCIAL
145 I_am_the_score_machine
Jathan Sadowski

APPLE
177 Welcome to Jobstown
Sophia Maalsen and Kurt Iveson

BITCOIN
205 Cryps, Chains and Cranks
Matthew Zook

CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA
234 The Unseen
Jeremy Crampton and Kara C. Hoover

DELIVEROO
266 Too Much Fulfilment
Lizzie Richardson

DISNEY
289 The Most Magical Place on Earth
Anthony Vanky

EASYJET
330 EasyCity
Manuel Aalbers
 ELSEVIER
446 The Civic Method
Matthew Claudel

ETHEREUM
475 Registering Eve
Alison Powell

GOOGLE ADWORDS
504 Subprime Language and the Crash
Pip Thornton

GOOGLE ARLens
529 Seeing the City through Google’s Eyes
Leighton Evans

GOOGLE FIBER
539 There Is No Such a Thing
as Free infrastructure
Tooran Alizadeh, Edward Helderop and Tony Grubesic

GRINDR
553 Being Xtra in Grindr City
Gavin Brown

GROUNDTRUTH
570 Monetizing Movement
Harrison Smith

IKEA
606 Flat-pack Smart Urbanism
Martin Dodge

INSTAGRAM
622 A City of Digital Engagement
Ryan Burns

PALINTIR
654 Save the Shire™
Jennifer Gabyrs
 PINTEREST
676 Curating a City
Gillian Rose

PORNHUB
706 Premium Places
Dietmar Offenhuber

SHOTSPOTTER
725 Safe andSecure Living in Camden
Alan Wiig

SIDEWALK LABS
749 So You Want to Live in a Pivot City?
Sarah Barns

SIRI
787 The Semantic City
Andrew Iliadis

SNAPCHAT
872 Youthful Indiscretions
Monica Stephens

SONY PLAYSTATION
941 Playmentalities
Alberto Vanolo

SPOTIFY
955 Streamers
Cian O’Callaghan

STARBUCKS
1035 Potholes and Pumpkin Spice
Kalpana Shankar and Glenn Kaufmann

STRAVA
1100 The Strive City of Tomorrow
Katharine Willis
 TAKEALOT
1114 The Allure of the Frictionless City
Nancy Odendaal

TESLA
1123 Cities Need Mass Transit
Harvey Miller

TINDER
1139 Swipe Right to Welcome,
Left to Reject
Linnet Taylor

TWITTER
1161 Seeking Follows
James Ash

UBER
1179 The Seduction of UberCity
Agnieszka Leszczynski and Rob Kitchin

VODAFONE
1196 The Col and the Black-Outs
Jessica Foley

WHAT3WORDS
1245 Address.Error.503
Jim Thatcher

WHATSAPP
1295 A City of the People, for the People,
by the People
Ayona Datta

YCOMBINATOR
1337 Let’s Make this City an Urban
Product Everybody Wants
Shannon Mattern
HOW TO RUN
A CITY LIKE
AMAZON
Mark Graham, University of Oxford
Rob Kitchin, Maynooth University
Shannon Mattern, The New School
Joe Shaw, University of Oxford

In an article to promote their new book— 1

‘A New City O/S’—Stephen Goldsmith (a for-
mer Mayor of Indianapolis and Deputy May-
or of New York) and Neil Kleiman (Director of
the NYU/Wagner Innovation Labs) contend
that cities should act more like Amazon to
better serve their citizens.1 They argue that
cities will be more efficient and productive
if they become data-driven, using analytics
and machine learning to parse data about
citizens and city services/infrastructure into
insights that provide a responsive, tailored ex-
perience. Just as Amazon’s online shopping
platform provides a means to order everything

1 Link: https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/cities-should-act-more-
like-amazon-to-better-serve-their-citizens
a household might need and deliver individ-
ually-specific recommendations, a city ad-
ministration can function as a marketplace
for services and be accessed through a single
point of entry. The complex systems archi-
tecture that would enable this ‘friction-free
experience’ would also provide a means for
the administration to manage itself.
At first sight, Goldsmith and Klei- 2
man’s argument seems appealing—who
doesn’t want to live in a more efficient and re-
sponsive city? On reflection, however, the arti-
cle prompts some critical questions. Goldsmith
and Kleiman are not simply using Amazon’s
systems architecture and business model as
a metaphor for how cities might be run. Rather
they are promoting the twin ideas that cities
should be run like businesses and city services
and infrastructure should be run by business-
es. In a city ‘run like a business’, the ethos and
logic of city government shifts from a bureau-
cracy serving citizens for the common good,
to a technocracy that adopts business models
and practices to serve individual consumers.
In a city ‘run by businesses’ the provision of
services and essential infrastructure transfers
from public to private delivery.
 Both ideas have gained much trac- 3
tion over the last half century and form key te-
nets of urban neoliberalism, in which there is
a transformation from the practices of urban
managerialism to urban entrepreneurialism.
That is, there is a shift from city administrations
that manage an urban commons and seek
to deliver services and infrastructure largely
through their own endeavours, to cities that
compete with one another for resources and
investment, and services and infrastructure are
opened up to market forces through deregula-
tion, outsourcing, public-private partnerships,
and privatisation. Here, the city is no longer the
place that enables markets to function, but the
city itself—its components and its administra-
tion—become a collection of markets.
This translation from public to pri- 4
vate, from managerialism to entrepreneurial-
ism, has been driven by arguments from the
Right that city administrations are inefficient,
wasteful, and lack sufficient knowledge and
expertise for managing systems in an increas-
ingly complex world, and competition between
private suppliers produces value for money, in-
novation and choice. In turn, the move towards
entrepreneurial approaches alters the mode of
urban governmentality (the rationality, practic-
es and techniques through which people are
governed) and the nature of citizenship. Here,
there is a shift from citizens having defined civ-
il, social and political rights and entitlements,
who are disciplined to act in prescribed ways,
to consumers with autonomy to choose from
a suite of public service options dependent on
desire and budget, who gain rights through act-
ing responsibly, and are nudged to act in the in-
terests of state and capital. What little changes
are the underlying notions of stewardship (for
citizens) and civic paternalism (deciding what’s
best for citizens) in how states and companies
view their relationship with residents with re-
spect to how cities are run.
The latest phase of urban entre- 5
preneurialism is the attempt to produce smart
cities; that is, to use digital, networked tech-
nology to manage cities and deliver urban ser-
vices and utilities. Technologies such as urban
control rooms, city operating systems, urban
dashboards and performance management
systems, sensor networks, smart grids, and
intelligent transport systems, it is argued, will
break-down internal administrative silos, pro-
duce better coordination, and leverage insight
and value from data to produce more effective
and efficient delivery of services. They will
also improve security, safety and quality of
life, and create improved resilience and en-
vironmental sustainability. The new markets
created will foster local innovation, economic
development and entrepreneurship. Further,
shared economy platforms and thousands of
urban-living apps are already transforming
services such as taxis, tourist accommoda-
tion, housing, food distribution, work space,
and indeed how work is organized and un-
dertaken. Smart technologies are explicitly
designed to be disruptive innovations; that
is, to radically transform how established ac-
tivities are organised and performed. For the
corporations who develop them, the aim is to
disrupt how the state operates and to create
a new market for their products and services,
or to disrupt existing market actors.
As many critics have argued, the 6
neoliberalisation of city governance and the
creation of smart cities raises a whole series
of social, political and ethical questions. These
include concerns about profit being placed
before people and the environment, widening
inequalities between citizens, a loss of rights,
and the erosion of democracy, fairness, jus-
tice and accountability, the privatisation of
public assets and corporatization of surveil-
lance, the application of predictive profiling
and social sorting to deliver differentiated ser-
vices, and a transfer of risk and liability from
the private to public sector. In turn this raises
normative questions about what kind of city do
we want to live in? Do we really want to reside
in cities run like or by businesses?
It is these questions that this book 7
explores. Our challenge to the contributing
authors was to imagine what cities might be
like if they were run using the technologies,
business models, and ethos of specific com-
panies. In other words, we asked them to ex-
tend Goldsmith and Kleiman’s thesis beyond
Amazon to consider how the city might be
governed and experienced, the consequenc-
es to citizens if the city was run by or in con-
junction with Uber, Disney, Twitter, Tinder,
Ikea, and so on. We gave authors free-rein
to select any company they wished as long
as we avoided duplicates, with most select-
ing tech companies, many of which produce
smart city technologies.
 Many companies are actively in- 8
volved in partnering with cities or are deliv-
ering urban services, though others simply
serve urban consumers. In every case, other
similar companies could have been chosen,
and the selections are designed to provide a
thought experiment or grounded discussion of
urban entrepreneurship. In the cases where
product or corporate names may be trade-
marks they are only used for the purpose of
conducting a thought experiment or identifica-
tion and explanation without intent to infringe.
We also gave authors the choice 9
of writing a short piece of speculative fiction
or a more conventional academic-style pa-
per, or a combination of the two, to illuminate
their thoughts. The majority of authors chose
the speculative fiction approach, most adopt-
ing a science fiction framing, with the story
set in the near future.
As scholars of science fiction have 10
long noted, the genre is a powerful and engag-
ing medium because it uses extrapolation and
speculation to explore possible worlds and to
encourage the reader to reflect on how those
worlds came into being, how they operate, and
how they differ from and reflect our present
world. As such, they use the tactics of es-
trangement (pushing a reader outside of what
they comfortably know) and defamiliarisation
(making the familiar strange) as a way of creat-
ing a distancing mirror on society and to offer
cognitive spaces to reconsider assumptions,
rationales and viewpoints. In our cases, the
stories seek to be plausible and consistent
given existing technologies, business mod-
els, trends, news coverage and academic cri-
tique, though sometimes they push the logic,
ethos, and the form and use of technology
to an extreme to emphasize a point; they are
sometimes satirical, sardonic and playful. They
are designed to prompt critical thought about
contemporary neoliberal urbanism and digital,
networked technologies.
The result is a set of 38 stories 11
and essays that explore how a city might look,
feel and function, and the effects on society,
economy and politics if different business
models, practices and technologies are ap-
plied to the running of cities. Collectively, the
essays suggest there are good reasons to be
cautious about transforming public assets
and services run for the common good into
markets that are run for profit, and in applying 12
a range of disruptive innovations to civic ad-
ministration and infrastructure that ideally are
stable, reliable and risk adverse. Ultimately,
they ask us to question whether we really do
want cities to be run like or by businesses, and
thus what kinds of cities we want to create
and occupy. And that is the challenge we set
for readers: to use the stories and essays to
answer these questions for themselves.

Acknowledgements
Rob’s contribution to this chapter and to editing the book as a whole was un-
dertaken as part of The Programmable City project funded by the European
Research Council (ERC-2012-AdG 323636-SOFTCITY). Funding towards
the publication of the book was provided by Maynooth University. Mark
wishes to acknowledge the Leverhulme Prize (PLP-2016-155), ESRC (ES/
S00081X/1), and European Research Council (ERC-2013-StG335716-
GeoNet) for supporting his work. Both Joe and Mark are grateful for addition-
al support received towards this publication from the Alan Turing Institute,
Oxford Internet Institute and the University of Oxford.
YOU’RE
ENTITLED TO
WHAT THE
DATA SAYS YOU
DESERVE
ACXIOM1

Rob Kitchin, Maynooth University

‘Mr Connors? My name is Ms Smith, 13

I’m a data officer for the city. Please
take a seat. Normally we conduct all
citizen interaction via internet channels
or our premium number service.’

Connors slumped into a plastic

chair. ‘I’ve tried that and I didn’t get
anywhere.’

‘Yes, fourteen times, for a total of four 15

hours, thirty two minutes and twenty
three seconds. You became quite
abusive on five of those occasions.’

1 The following speculative fiction is a thought experiment

that imagines a future where a city administration uses a
data broker and their services to make decisions regarding
the provision of services. Such a thought experiment could
equally apply for other data brokers such as ChoicePoint,
Experian and Equifax, many of whom already provide
services to state bodies. Product or corporate names may
be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only
for the purpose of conducting a thought experiment without
intent to infringe.
‘Have you any idea how frustrating
your customer service system is?’

‘We deal in facts, Mr Connors, not

sentiment. Your behaviour has been
flagged in your citizen profile. Now, you
seem to think that you are not receiving
the services due to you?’

‘And what do those flags mean

exactly?’ Connors asked, ignoring
the question.

‘Think of them as like penalty points

on your driver’s license. Once you
get to ten, your service choices are
constrained for three years.’

‘Constrained to what exactly?’ 20

‘To a more limited service pack and in

some cases you’re denied services,
for example being able to meet a city
representative or to apply for city-
supported housing.’

‘But that’s not ethical or democratic.

It’s your job to serve citizens.’

‘It’s our job to help run the city as

efficiently and effectively as possible.
And how else are we expected to
make citizens act responsibly? Good
behaviour is rewarded, poor behaviour
penalised. Now, your complaint?’
‘So I continue to pay my taxes, but
I receive no or limited service?’
Connors persisted.

‘Those taxes are an investment in 25

the city as whole, Mr Connors, not
simply yourself. And your contributions
are quite modest. Indeed, a large
proportion of your sales tax leaves the
state through internet shopping.’

‘How do you know that?’

‘From your citizen profile. It contains

all your data. All your interactions with
public administration offices, your
social media use, your movements,
your work performance, your
purchases, and so on. Our data
partner is very thorough in this regard.
It amalgams our data with those it
acquires through its other partners and
uses them to evaluate each citizen and
guide our services and relationships
with them. I assume you’re aware that
you’re going to be deducted $500 for
failing to meet your fitness quota?’

‘That’s one of the things I wanted to talk

to you about.’

‘The use of a fitness tracker is part of

your work contract as a teacher, Mr
Connors. It’s designed to help you
become more responsible for your
personal health.’
‘But it has no bearing on my 30
performance as a teacher. If I teach the
hours, I should be paid the wage.’

‘Your teaching metrics are pretty

average, to be honest Mr Connors, and
the prediction analytics show they’re
unlikely to improve. That’ll mean a
performance related salary deduction,
plus two points on your citizen profile.’

‘This is a farce! What kind of a hair-

brained system is this?’

‘It’s not a farce. It’s a meritocracy

based on facts and analytics. Citizens
wanted a fairer way to proportion
services and we have delivered it using
tried and tested techniques within the
data broker industry.’

‘You call this ... this data system fairer?

It actively discriminates!’

‘But on the basis of merit. And there are 35

a range of service choices available to
you. What can be fairer than that?’

‘Choices? Is there any real difference

between utility providers, or schools,
or waste management companies, or
hospital services?’

‘Is that a rhetorical question, Mr

Connors? Your school competes for
students based on its objective ranking
 of reputation and selects students
based on their grades and predicted
future profile.’

‘Yes, and it’s madness! All kids should

be entitled to a good education at a
school within cycling distance.’

‘That’s out-dated idealism, Mr 40

Connors. People are entitled to what
the data says they deserve.’

.:;
The two men glanced at the street nervously. Crime
in the area had been on an upward tick for a couple
of years. The installation of a real-time crime center
with an array of high definition cameras and military-
style response units had made little difference.

‘Are you ready?’ the middle-aged man

in a suit asked.

‘Yes, Sir,’ the young man replied,

twisting his shoulders inside the body
armour, his hand already on his gun.

‘Okay, let’s go meet Bryan Jenkins.’

The two men entered the apartment block, climbing to 45

the second floor and stopping outside a door in need
of a fresh coat of paint. The elder man knocked and
stepped back.

A few seconds later it was opened by a skinny man

in his early thirties. ‘Yeh?’
‘Are you Bryan Jenkins?’

‘Yeh, who’s asking?’

‘I’m Mr Jones. This is Mr Popowski.

We’re from the City Authority.’

‘You’ve come about my re-housing 50

application?’

‘In a manner of speaking, yes.

Can we come in?’

‘Not really, man. It’s crowded in here.

No privacy.’

‘Well, Mr Jenkins, our system is

flagging up that you’re a housing risk
and this is likely to be realised in the
next 12 to 24 months.’

‘I’m a housing risk?’

‘Yes, you’re consistently late with 55

payments. You make little contribution
to the local community and you’re
flagged as a credit and tenancy risk
in your citizen profile. Which is why
your re-housing application has been
refused. We’re also serving notice on
your present tenancy.’

‘What? What you talking about man?

We pay our rent!’
‘Yes, but you’re often late and our
analytics predict that you’re going to
start missing payments shortly. The
city needs this apartment for more
deserving citizens.’

‘More deserving citizens?’

‘The data shows that you are a low net

contributor to the city in terms of work,
taxes and legal consumption. You live
precariously. Your credit rating is very
poor. You have had several brushes with
the law and you’ve a number of active
flags in your citizen profile. There are
people who contribute more, who have
better metrics. And our analytics tell us
yours are only likely to fall.’

‘This is bullshit, man! What, you have a 60

crystal ball now in City Hall?’

‘Please, Mr Jenkins, there’s no need to

lose your temper. But yes, we have a
crystal ball. Or rather our data partners
can produce an accurate assessment
of your current status and a prediction
of your future circumstances based on
all the data they hold about you from
different sources. We’re not the only
organisation to use their services; they
also calculate insurance premiums,
decide who gets what targeted ads,
help private landlords assess potential
tenants, and help companies vet who
should get offered a job.’
‘But I’m not actually behind with my
rent right now, am I?’

‘I’m afraid you’re three days late. This

is the third month in a row you’ve
been late. In that sense you’re a risk
to the City and there are others on the
housing waiting list who deserve city-
supported housing.’

‘So, you’re going to evict us because

of what some bullshit algorithm thinks
might happen?’

‘That’s one way of looking at it.’ 65

‘One way! It’s the only way. I’ve a wife

and three kids. Where are we meant
to go?’

‘That is your issue, Mr Jenkins. There

are a wide variety of other housing
options in the city from short term and
long-term private rental through to
home ownership.’

‘And homelessness!’

‘We don’t tolerate homelessness,

Mr Jenkins.’

‘Well, I don’t want to tolerate it either, 70

you Jackass!’

‘Please, Mr Jenkins ...’

‘How do I see how you’ve calculated my
future?’ Jenkins asked, reining in his fury.

‘Your citizen profile is free to examine.

You just need to register on the City
website. However, the underlying
databases and algorithms are not open
to scrutiny.’

‘What? So they can make decisions

about me and my family but I can’t see
on what basis?’

‘The service is provided by a private 75

contractor using proprietary data
systems and software. We just receive
updates to the citizen profiles and the
suggested courses of action.’

‘So, how do I challenge the decision?’

‘Well, you can appeal to the City’s data

office, and they’ll refer it to our data
partner for assessment.’

‘So, it’s just one giant black box then?

Pay the organ grinder and you get
what you get?’

‘I don’t make the rules, Mr Jenkins. I’m

just asked to enforce them.’

.;:
‘The Mayor’s Citizen Relationship 80
team, my name is Joanna; how may I
help you, Mr Fitzgerald?’
‘Well ... how did you know who
was calling?’

‘Our system is configured to show us

the name of all our mostly highly valued
citizens, Sir.’

‘Oh! Right. Very good. I was calling

about McCarthy Avenue. Several
potholes have developed over the
winter and I was wondering if they
could be filled?’

‘Let me see.’ Joanna tapped away at

her keyboard. ‘Yes, Mr Fitzgerald, I
can schedule that work as your area
exceeds the investment quota criteria.
It should be completed within 24 hours.’

‘Wonderful, but if you don’t mind me 85

asking what’s an investment quota?’

‘Not at all, Sir. Based on the citizen

profiles of people living in an area,
and the net contributions to the city in
terms of taxes, job and wealth creation,
and community development, the
city allocates an investment fund to
conduct repairs and to improve the
area’s amenities, and to also set the
scheduling.’

‘So poorer neighbours get less

investment?’

‘Yes, in line with their net contribution

and profile.’
‘And what they do get is less timely
in delivery?’

‘Exactly! We reward our most valued 90

citizens first.’

‘But it’s the poorer neighbourhoods that

need proportionally more investment to
help them address their problems and
to improve the area.’

‘But they’re also more of a long-term

risk with respect to dollars invested
being wasted. As a city we’ve
adopted the practices of the data
broker industry, seeking to identify
and preferentially target higher value
citizens as they contribute the most
to making our great city even greater!
By investing in them, opportunities will
trickle down to everyone else.’

‘I guess that makes sense. I think.’

‘In fact, Mr Fitzgerald, I see from your

profile that you and your company have
been partners in property development
in the regeneration zone. The city will
shortly be seeking tenders for work in
the next phase of the project. Our data
partners are confident that there will be
a very healthy return on investment. I
could send you an advance pack about
the opportunities.’

‘That sounds interesting, thanks. 95

Where’s the next phase located?’
 ‘Next to the old barracks on Cable
Street.’

‘But isn’t that the site of the small

trader’s market?’

‘The city is in the process of

addressing that issue, Mr Fitzgerald.
The traders have been offered a new
site off of Union Street.’

‘Hardly as good a spot.’

‘No, but our data partners predict that 100

most will survive the move and the
city will get much more value from the
regeneration of the old barracks site.
We can’t stop progress, Mr Fitzgerald,
can we?’

Acknowledgement
This chapter is an output of The Programmable City project funded by the
European Research Council (ERC-2012-AdG 323636-SOFTCITY).

Rob Kitchin is a Professor in the Department of

Geography and Maynooth University Social Sciences
Institute. His research focuses on the relationship
between technology and society, especially related
to the creation of smart cities, and he is the principle
investigator for the Programmable City project and the
Building City Dashboards project.
 CITY OF LOOPS
ALPHABET1

Mark Graham, University of Oxford

ͪ
͆̎
May 25, 2024. Augmented Berlin. Sixth loop from the Datum.
̍̇ ̑̋ ̃
First meeting of the Un⍴latform S̞̙̮ ociety.͏
GregoꞂ shielded his screen from the fierce pink midday 101
sunlight with his webbed hands, creating a temporary
shadow on his device. It was time to start the meeting.
Bodily transformations, like webbed hands, 102
were one of the many advantages of life in Alphabet
Corporation’s Looped Web (LW). The LW was a mix
of immersive, geo-sensitive, virtual augmented city
layers that could be accessed through full-body tanks
in which people would be hooked up to all manner of
neuro-nodes and sensors, nutro powder to keep the
meatspace body sustained for a few days, and the
newly-discovered long-lasting dissociative hallucino-
genic 2CQ. The first few prototypes were created by
advanced autonomous AI systems communicating
with each other in a language only they understood.
Nobody fully comprehended how they worked—not
even the original engineers themselves. In the initial
months, people were in awe of the first loop. A whole
new augmented society was created: cities and towns
that existed over-layered on top of the old ones. It was

1 The following speculative fiction imagines a future where

a large, diverse platform has thoroughly permeated
everyday life. Such a thought experiment applies for other
large internet platforms such as Facebook, Yandex or
Weibo. Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for for the
purpose of conducting a thought experiment without intent
to infringe.
virtual reality, but somehow very real. People started
living dual existences in meatspace and the LW.
But then someone had the idea to access the 103
LW from within the LW. That’s when the consensual
hallucinations started getting weird. Each loop was a
shared experience amongst each of its participants,
and each loop was mostly a replica of the augmentation
before it.2 In other words, each loop was simply a world
built on top of the world beneath it. London’s Trafalgar
Square was full of tourists taking photos of Nelson’s
Column in every loop. But, every loop further away from
the datum also contained glitches that were amplifi-
cations and exaggerations of elements from the inner
loops. The deeper dreams were worlds full of odd phe-
nomena. Transparent skin, music that could be tasted,
liquid buildings, insects made of fur and circuit-boards,
a background hum3 that got more noticeable in the outer
loops, and all manner of other oddities.
Scholars speculated that even Alphabet’s enor- 104
mous computing infrastructures couldn’t keep up with
the multitude of minds and spaces that were connect-
ed (not to mention the fact that it needed to create AIs
within AIs within AIs and so on). It therefore had to use
sophisticated ͥ modelling techniques to fill in some of
the blanks: ̓̄̿ ́ techniques that were clearly imperfect,
̆̒̒
judging by ͊͆ the ripple effects of some of its glitches by
the time ͤ̊̿̌ you got to the outer loops.
͋
‘W͕͔͐ ͜ ̃ ͅ͏elcome E҉veryone◌҉͏̴́͞l̴̸̢̲̝̦̗̣̭͓̳͔̺͂̊̈́̀͐ͣ̚i̸̷͇͖̹͚͓͍̒͑̿͗ͣ̀͂̔̾͒ͩ͆͛͋́͘͝s̛̠͉͎̱̳͙̜̮͈̗͇͍̯̭͔̖̪̹ͮͫͥ̈́̋̌̇̂ͣ̆̀̊̕͠ ►̧̡͟͡!’ shouted GregoꞂ. 105
͚̼̲
The hundreds of glitches, ●︠●● ︠ ● ︠ ̠ , and gabbers present
all shouted greetings back. The background humming
intensified, a pleasant neon pink smell scrambled up
a nearby tree, and everyone quieted down. Speaking
could be a sensory overload out in the sixth loop, and

2 Every trip to the first loop could last loop. Physicists theorise that
sixth

up to about two days in meatspace, loops exist beyond the sixth, but little is
but that same time was experienced known about them.
as four days in the LW. The nested
nature of each loop meant that each 3 Scholars referred to the hum as sort
loop deeper was experienced for an of psychic feedback loop similar to
exponentially-longer amount of time. the feedback that arises when live
The second loop would take you away microphones are placed near active
for four days, the third for 16 days, the speakers. In the early days, people
fourth
256 days, the fifth for 65,536 days used the hum to remind themselves
(179 years), and you are gone for 11 where they were.
million years if you venture into the
therefore quite distracting—so GregoꞂ went back to
typing in order to communicate with the group.

‘We’ve gathered here to build

a new future!’

He typed as he pumped one of his webbed hands 107

in the air.

‘█▒░▓▓█ ░██▒
▒▓▓█▒▒░▒▒░██▒█ ░░▒░░▓█▒
█░█░░ ▒’ rumbled the crowd.

‘I need you all to remember the past so

that we can build our shared future.’

Many in the crowd had been absent from the datum 110
for tens or even hundreds of thousands of years. But
the Un⍴latform Ṡo ̃̍̋̑̎͆ͪ͏̞̙̮ ciety hadn’t let this stop it. That was
because it had a simple and appealing idea.
Alphabet ultimately controlled every facet of the 111
LW, and they subsidised all of the hardware that people
needed to access it. It even offered subsidised nutro
powder and 2CQ in some of the inner loops.
Initially people went in as visitors in order to 112
see what the fuss was all about. To see what it meant
that somewhere like Berlin could exist in another di-
mension. To see how life could play out in a world that
looked like a mirror image. Very quickly, the first loop
became a reflection of all manner of human desires
that were illegal, out of reach, or hard to obtain on the
datum. Early loopers still talk about some of the crazy
month-long hypnoraves they had in the fourth loop.
But those seeking escapism would be quickly 113
disappointed. In order to make the loops family-friendly
areas, Alphabet implemented a trans-loop crackdown
on adult-themed activities. This was about the time that
looping went mainstream.
The recursive temporality of loops gave way 114
to a booming economy outside of the datum. Two of
the key constraints to economic expansion—time
and space—had been fundamentally transformed,
and the LW was full of previously unthought of eco-
nomic activity. Because Alphabet was the platform
for all economic transactions throughout the LW, the
small commissions that they took on every transaction
throughout the LW accumulated into enormous profits.
And even though transactions were tiny in some of the
outer loops, the sheer volume of human economic ac-
tivity across all of the loops gave them a captive market
that was expanding at an exponential rate.
However, because the scarcity of time had 115
been fundamentally transformed, there was a huge
oversupply of labour power within the LW. The creation
of a trans-loop labour market also crashed wages back
on the datum: forcing many people to head into the LW
to look for new ways of generating earnings. People
were willing to work for almost nothing:4 sometimes
saving up to transfer those remittances back towards
in the inner loops or even the datum, but sometimes
spending the money they made in any of the augment-
ed cities that they made their home. The fourth loop, and
sometimes even the fifth, became ever more of a draw
because of the recursive time extensions that they
permitted. The further you went out, the more time you
had to generate value that one day might find its way
home. Then people started venturing into the sixth loop...

The problem is, that as minds went deeper and deep- 116
er into the LW, they sometimes forgot why they went

4 Due to the massive oversupply

of labour power, along with the
expansion of time and space, the
cost of living dropped substantially:
meaning that loopers could
actually subsist on infinitesimally
small wages.
there in the first place. The human mind is simply not
equipped to process thousands of years of memory.

‘The Looped Web should not just be

controlled by one corporation!’ started
GregoꞂ. ‘Alphabet has found a way
of profiting from a now almost-infinite
amount of human lives doing an almost-
infinite amount of human labour. Here
in the sixth, we don’t know how many
worlds, lives, and souls are beyond
ͣ ͧ̅
us. But we do know thatͩ one ̑̂ͪ̓ ̎ͬ̈ ̀ ̎͗ company
profits from all of it. ͦ͐̅ ͌̐ ̔̊͗ ͩͦ ͬ̇̓ ͆̇͆͗
̇
̏̈́ ͣ ̎ͥ͐ ͥ͑ ͥͨ ̂ͩ ̏ ͫͧͩ͛ ̆̈̍ ̈ͮ̆ͬ ͑ͫ ́
How many of you haveͫ̔ now ̾̆̑̌ ̄ͩ ͋ͮ͋ ͛̌ ͣ̐ ͥ̄̂̾ ̐ͩ̆ ̄̈́͂́ ̉ ͛̆ ̉ resorted to
͛̄̎ ̑̓̎ ͯ̎̊̚ ̋ ̒ ̊̄̇͌͆ ̎ ̐͆͌ ͫ̽ ̃ ̃
button entry jobs in thes̵͋͗͝ l-sphere?’
a̅ ̲̫̪̘̌ g
nͯ ̘i̩͌ľ̤̯̹̝̹͚̱̃҉̥̓ͧ͢͜͏̴̵͍̮͋͘͟͡͝ ͏̴͔͚͍͖̊̀͘͜͟͡ ̅ ́ͣ̀ ̽
̷̶̴̧̮͚̬̲̣͝ȉ̡͇̦͕͘š
̱͚͢͟͜ͅǐ̟ả
͚̳̤ ͚͙̠̝ ̳͈̦͍̰̳͇̠̫͓̤̬͙͍̜̗͎͎ ͔͈̰̥̱̱̜̯ ̣ ̣
̤̞̰͓ ̙̳̟̝ ̭̯̟͕͍̩̺̙̹̖̦ͅ ̲̮͖̰͔͙ ̣
A sea of hands, fins, and paws shot into ̘̠͙ ̠ ͓͉̝̤̪̮͙̙̲͔ ̺͇̬̱̗ the air. 119
̮̼͍ ̫̞͕̙͙̮̭ ̣̣
̪
‘How many of you are collecting points 120
in VirtuaMinecraft or Civ 12? And this
gave you what? A nano-cent for a few
decades of work!?’

One of the gabbers tightened her jaw and clenched 121

her paw.
GregoꞂ pointed at her.

‘I’ve been out here for many lifetimes,

but ◘◘◘◘ ◘ has been in the sixth for
longer than most of us. Over two million
years. Right, ◘◘◘◘ ◘?’

◘◘◘◘ ◘ stared blankly forwards. 124

GregoꞂ thought about telling the crowd about 125
the promises of the LW in the early days; the dreams of
a better world that they all once had; and then the reali-
sation that that they were just that: dreams. He consid-
ered talking about how the augmented worlds Alphabet
governed were locked-down, limited societies. They
were created to maximise one thing only: a form of user
engagement that would ultimately lead to revenue gen-
eration. But the crowd knew all of this already.

He took a pause. 126

‘We can do better.’

This time he took an even longer pause for 128

dramatic effect.

‘We will do better.

We can rethink the architecture 130

of the LW!

We can create our digital environments

to maximise happiness, joy, creativity!

The platform should add value to our

lives instead of us creating value for it!

Right now, a small group of people

control the LW.

But we can build a world in which we

own and control our world.

The Un⍴latform Ṡo̮̙̞͏ͪ͆̎̑̋̍̃ ciety has therefore de- 135

cided to build a more free and equitable
 layer in the LW. Our engineers finished
working on it last week, and it is ready
for use. We’re calling it the communos-
eventh. You are all invited to join us in it.’

Nobody in the assembly had ever really considered go- 136

ing beyond the sixth before. But this was an alluring idea.

‘HꝺW D⬖ ꟿE KNOW TH⡝Š WILL

ꟿORK?’ shouted someone over the
background ̓͆ hum.
ͬ̐ͤ ̿ͦ ́
̑̔
GregoꞂ watched those words ̿̑͛ ͨͫ̊̇ ̃ ͮ̂ ̃ spin around as they 138
͗ ͭ̚
slowly melted into the air.̏̐ ̓ͤ ́ ͦ̆̒ ̂͐̽ ͮ͋̈ ͫ̈́
̋
̾ ͌ ̐͑ͪ ͑͆ ̾̚ ̓̑̀ ́
̓̾ ̒̌ ̋ ̀ ͬ͌̍ ͧ͊ ͫ̈́͆̒ ͬ̈ͧ ̒̔͛̚
‘Shouldn’t ͆ ͛ l s̴̷͖̯̜̺͔̬͍͎̤̖̲͈͢ ̃ ī͇͠҉ ̓g͊ ̶̭̖͉̄̅͗͆͠
̸̵̛̟͡ i̶̛̤ͭ͢ ̡͖́͏͘ have s tarte ̶͕̹̳̂́ this ̶̭̖͉̄̅͗͆͠ on the
d
̒͊ ̉ ̒̄̂ ̽̄̅̾ ́̄̓̑̒ ̫̝̙͙̲ ̫̲̼̠ ͍̰͖̹ ̝̼͇̭ ̣ ͖͓̱ on the sixth?’
datuma̸j̹͒ͅ a ̶̧̦̼͇̟͋ j̸̧ ̯̱͚ ̸̉̀̆͌͘͠ ,̞̱̼ ̈́ rather ̪ than he r̶̦̗͈̱͓͖̳̹͕̂́ e
̪ ̩̱͙ ̥̱̥ ͚͙ ͎̲ ̪̜̱̞͙ ͈̗̦
asked another. ̼̠͕ ̼

GregoꞂ responded, and, from their expressions, 140

he could see that many in the crowd were already
convinced:
̽̑͆
‘Have ̶͕̹̳̂́ faith in our techn̴ology. ̨̧ ̙̭̥̂̐̀͊̅͆́́̕͝ ́ Our
engine͓͖̱͈̗ ế̶͕̹̳ rs
̶͕̹̳̂́ know what they ̠͔̰̞
͈̗̼̗ are ̫̞̩̮̯͂
d̸oing. ͒͊
̦ ͖͓ ͖͓ ̯͕͎
Join us ̱͈̗ ‫’ײױױ׳ױײײײײװײױױװײ‬
̱ ͖
̦ ͈̗̦ ̺͎͙
͙̜̝
With that, GregoꞂ walked towards a nearby building 142
that housed the Un⍴latform Ṡo ̃̍̋̑̎͆ͪ͏̞̙̮ ciety’s body tanks and
neuro-nodes. Many from the assembly followed.
At some unclear point in the future, GregoꞂ and 143
the others looked around. But instead of the expected
silence, the humming was now extremely loud. The
sixth was already only a distant memory...

Mark Graham is a professor at Oxford University, a

Visiting Researcher at the Wissenschaftszentrum
Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB), and the Director of
the Fairwork Foundation. His work focuses on digital
geographies and how they both reflect and reproduce
digital inequalities. His full list of publications is
available at www.markgraham.space
 I_AM_THE_
SCORE_
MACHINE
ANT FINANCIAL1

Jathan Sadowski,
University of Sydney

Created: 1_October_2039

Readme
Ant Financial offers the latest in fintech innovation. An affiliate of 145
Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce conglomerate, Ant Financial made its
first $150bn by operating the world’s largest mobile payment ecosystem,
Alipay. Rather than coast on their early success, Ant Financial is always
looking to the future. Based on Alipay’s data collection and analytics
platform, and enhanced by Alibaba’s advancements in artificial
intelligence, Ant Financial created a social credit scoring system
that solves the problem of trust and reputation. With support from the
Chinese government and partners in the US and Europe, the scoring
system now has billions of daily users worldwide. It is the infrastructure
for ensuring honest relationships. It is the foundation for building a
fair society. This file describes the score machine’s operations.

1 The following poem imagines the operations of social

credit scoring as devised by Ant Financial for the Chinese
government. Such a thought experiment could equally apply
to any data broker or state that is using AI to social sort
individuals. Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for the purpose of
conducting a thought experiment without intent to infringe.
I am the algorithm
I am a refraction of reality
an organiser of society
a processor that’s proprietary

I am a social scoring system

mathematical morality applied
each life simplified, datafied

I am the judge, no jury

an all-knowing actuary
issuing three digit decrees

I am the authority of reputation

preceding people in every situation
accounting the virtue of every action

I am the administer of privilege 150

putting people in their proper place
granting rights by quantified grace

I am the arbiter of access

opening the world for the trusted
meting out data-driven justice

I am the apex of power/knowledge

my score is bond, beyond bias
beyond reproach, beyond recourse

I am an algorithm governing the city

a ubiquitous score in urban society
deployed by a technology company
I am the scored city
I am the ultimate, unified smart urbanism
a city built on collection and control
monitoring every body, managing every soul

I am the CORE of the city 155

a hybrid public-private entity
the Central Office of Reputation
and Evaluation

I am the analysis of data doubles

past, present, and future compiled
people processed, policed, profiled

I am the enforcement of exclusion

impeding and allowing inclusion
a spatial stratifying solution

I am the districts, parks, stores, and more

open only for those with a good score
secured by guards and locked doors

I am the personalised city interface

sorting social standing, class-as-a-service
assigning exactly what each score deserves

I am the urban score machine 160

a society of total surveillance
an economy of numerical violence
I am the glitch
I am a programmer’s mistype
the product of a long night
an accident, an oversight

I am a machine’s miscalculation
a computational creation
an error, a malfunction

I am a problem nobody rectified

hidden deep inside
buried, but I did not die

I am now a feature, not a bug

ignored to maintain integrity
overlooked in the name of objectivity

I am an inescapable imperfection 165

an inevitable corruption
an inexorable repercussion

I am an echo’s reverberation
a pebble’s ripple
a wing’s chaotic flap

I am a glitch in the system

I contain multitudes and magnitudes
minor and major, one among many
I am the scored citizen
I am pretty normal, nothing too unusual
recorded, logged, analysed, ranked
my whole life captured, data banked

I am moving up, improving my brand

every choice is calculated, planned
living all my life rated, yet in command
I am a reliable, trustworthy node 170
work hard, buy right, pay what’s owed
a consultant helped me crack the code

I am better than your average Joe

the reward of positive data flow
so why does the screen say: score too low

I am confused, my request didn’t work

access to auto-cars is a high score perk
hmmm, must be a weird computer quirk

I am reporting a mistake that’s glaring

Dear Citizen, thank you for sharing
but rest assured, the CORE is unerring

I am certain something is not right

my score totally crashed overnight
it’s way worse than a request denied

I am unable to live at this rate 175

my house, my job, my friends, my fate
are all tied to this algorithmic mandate

I am just hoping this issue will be corrected

Dear Citizen, your request has been rejected
and due to complaints, your
score has been affected

Jathan Sadowski is a postdoctoral research fellow in

smart cities in the School of Architecture, Design, and
Planning at The University of Sydney. He is writing a
book for The MIT Press that critically analyses smart
technologies: the interests embedded in their design,
the imperatives that drive their development, and the
impacts of their use on the society.
 WELCOME TO
JOBSTOWN
APPLE1

Sophia Maalsen and Kurt Iveson,

University of Sydney

Time Magazine
Sydney, April 30, 2029
Five years ago, Apple’s announcement of a lottery for 177
the right to buy into its exclusive new Californian ur-
ban development captured and held global attention,
generating iconic encampments outside its flagship
stores. It’s now two years since Jobstown’s first res-
idents moved in: what does Apple’s foray into urban
development tell us about its future, and about the ca-
pacity of corporations to solve urban problems through
the creation of ‘smart cities’?

Jobstown is perhaps less remarkable today than it 178

would have been if it had been developed 25 years
ago. Back in the 1990s and early 2000s, ‘gated
communities’ were still enough of a novelty to attract
critical scrutiny. But since then, corporate-owned
and secured residential communes have become
commonplace, thanks to a range of factors—from

1 The following fictional article is a thought experiment that

imagines a future where Apple Inc. has begun to apply
the company’s business model and logics to building and
running its own ‘smart cities.’ Such a thought experiment
could similarly be undertaken for other large platform
companies such as Google, Microsoft and Cisco. Product
or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for the purpose of conducting
a thought experiment without intent to infringe.
declining public revenues and resources to climate
change and growing inequality.
Nevertheless, Jobstown is no ordinary corpo- 179
rate commune: it is run by a corporation whose spec-
tacular success has for some decades embodied the
very promise of networked technologies to make life
better. Expectations for the development were sky-
high. But such expectations were matched with cyn-
icism from Apple’s many detractors, for whom the
idea of an urban environment as controlled as one of
Apple’s operating systems was the stuff of nightmares,
not dreams.
Before we consider what life is actually like for 180
the inhabitants of Jobstown, it’s worth revisiting the
path towards its initial development.

A Prehistory of Jobstown:
Apple’s road to the ‘smart city’
By 2015, Apple had overtaken Samsung to be the 181
largest seller of mobile phone handsets globally.2
And yet, at that time it was becoming clear that
Apple’s future growth would depend on its ability to
diversify its offerings—growth in sales of comput-
ers, iPads and iPhones started to flatten out. Con-
sequently, Apple’s aspirations were broadened to
position its products and platforms as the essential
devices and platforms for everyday urban living.
The first indications of these broadening am- 182
bitions materialised in the mid-2010s. Apple ventured
into the markets for smart cars and smart homes. In
each case, Apple’s strategy was to couple its platforms

2 Link: https://www.theguardian.
com/technology/2015/mar/04/
apple-takes-over-samsung-worlds-
biggest-smartphone-maker-china-
last-quarter-2014
with its physical products, aiming to capture consum-
ers within an ecosystem that generated profits from
both subscription fees and sales.3 For instance, in the
home, Apple Music and Apple TV platforms sought
to wrest market-share from players like Spotify and
Netflix for home listening and viewing.4 This was fol-
lowed by the 2017 release of the Apple HomePod, a
speaker with microphone that was offered as “an intel-
ligent home assistant, capable of handling everyday
tasks—and controlling your smart home.”5 Similarly,
Apple duked it out with Google to assert CarPlay as the
preferred platform for mainstream car manufacturers
in the 2010s.6 It then started development on its own
AppleCars, which were finally launched with much
fanfare in 2021.
As well as diversifying its product lines, Apple’s 183
stores and headquarters established a close rela-
tionship between its architecture and brand identi-
ty. Alongside its sleek flagship stores in cities across
the world, Apple Park opened in 2018. This Norman
Foster-designed corporate campus in Cupertino is a
suburb unto itself, complete with high-specification
architecture and design, its own transport system, and
more.7 Strong interest from Apple fans in the nature of
life inside the campus focused the attention of Apple’s
strategists on the consumer potential in a residential
commune of similar size.
Given these directions, it should not have been 184
a surprise when Apple, and other corporations like
Alphabet/Google and IBM, took a strong interest in le-
veraging their existing market dominance in consum-
er platforms and electronics into new opportunities

3 Link: https://www.smh.com.au/ 5 Link: https://www.apple.com/au/

business/companies/the-subtle- homepod/
transformation-of-apple-from-
phone-pioneer-to-fee-collector- 6 Link: https://www.smh.com.au/
20170802-gxnjtb.html technology/googles-android-auto-
apples-carplay-and-the-battle-
4 Link: https://www.smh.com.au/ for-the-connected-car-20150407-
technology/iphone-6s-launch-apple- 1mfjax.html
prepares-for-life-after-the-iphone-
20150906-gjg1qh.html 7 Link: https://www.macworld.co.uk/
feature/apple/complete-guide-
apple-park-3489704/
associated with ‘smart urbanism’, where predictions
of market growth were sky-high.8

From Ford to Apple:

Corporations and their cities
This temptation to diversify into urban development 185
has always been hard to resist for corporate giants
like Ford and Disney whose products defined the cap-
italisms of their era. Disney’s forays into urban devel-
opment in the US established a pattern that would be
followed by ‘smart city’ corporations like IBM, Cisco,
Alphabet and Apple. Founder Walt Disney had har-
boured visions of the perfect city and his company’s
role in building it.
After his death, during the 1980s and 1990s 186
Disney Corporation junked many of his specific
ideas, but nonetheless tried their hand at both ‘green’
and ‘brown’ field urban development. They created
Celebration USA, an experiment with so-called ‘New
Urbanist’ urban design ideals.9 And they partnered with
urban authorities in New York City in the redevelopment
of Times Square, anchored by a new Disney Theatre.10
While neither quite turned out as planned, their 187
test-bed method for deploying new urban design ap-
proaches and technologies in partnership with urban
authorities has been replicated since. As Alphabet’s
Sidewalk Labs Director said of its move into urban re-
development on the Toronto waterfront: “The smart
city movement as a whole has been disappointing in
part because it is hard to get stuff done in a tradi-
tional urban environment.”11 Having a clean slate to

8 Link: https://www.reuters.com/ 10 Zukin, Sharon (1998) “Urban

brandfeatures/venture-capital/ lifestyles: Diversity and
article?id=30881 standardization in spaces of
consumption.” Urban Studies. 35(5-
9 Ross, Andrew (2000) The celebration 6), pp.825-839.
chronicles: life, liberty and the pursuit
of property values in Disney’s New 11 Link: https://mobile.nytimes.
Town. New York: Ballantine Books. com/2018/02/24/upshot/tech-
envisions-the-ultimate-start-up-an-
entire-city.html
showcase new platforms and products was seen as
a great development and marketing opportunity.

Life in Jobstown
In developing its vision for Jobstown, Apple re-en- 188
gaged architects Foster and Associates, who were
tasked with extending Apple’s existing corporate val-
ues and design principles into the urban realm. This
was to be a place where those who had already come
to organize their everyday lives through Apple devic-
es and platforms might experience this digital-urban
ecosystem without the incompatibilities and inconve-
niences one would encounter in places where Apple
had less control.
The most obvious focus of attention in the proj- 189
ect was housing. The ring of apartment blocks that
constitute the physical boundary of Jobstown, and
the houses that are artfully arranged in groups on its
internal streets, reflect the postwar modernist design
aesthetic that inspired Steve Jobs. Floor to ceiling doors
and windows and sleek open spaces mirror the aesthet-
ic of Apple products and stores—to refer to Apple’s 1977
campaign, ‘Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.’12
But it is not just the aesthetics that are shared; 190
the systems and proprietary arrangements are
also translated into the houses—a Mac as Home.
Occupants gain access using fingerprint and facial
verification systems. Inside, discretely concealed
touch screens allow occupants to manage household
systems and activities. Every action is recorded and
stored in the home’s memory so that it can learn the

12 Link: https://www.smithsonianmag.
com/arts-culture/how-steve-jobs-
love-of-simplicity-fueled-a-design-
revolution-23868877/
daily habits of its occupants, thereby anticipating be-
haviour and optimizing systems accordingly.
And of course, this is Apple—so the house 191
prompts users to run system updates, shutdowns and
restarts. A responsible homeowner in Jobstown never
skips an update—indeed, this requirement was built
into the contracts of sale. Failing to update the house
slows its systems, and risks expulsion from the town
as the programs become obsolete—Jobstown can
run smoothly only if systems are compatible with new
iterations and services. To ensure each new version
of the house meets occupants’ needs, Apple requires
all users to agree to share data from household activ-
ities—data used to improve Apple products. Sharing
data is requisite to be a citizen of Jobstown.
By virtue of its proprietary nature, only Apple- 192
approved apps for home entertainment and commu-
nication are available within the Mac Home. Apple
influences the tastes and consumption habits of
occupants. And in turn, residents here are global
taste-makers themselves. New approved apps are
displayed on public screens and pushed to personal
devices based on individual profiles. For app makers
whose products make the Jobstown ‘leaderboard’ for
monthly downloads and use, global attention and mar-
ket-share follows. This is but one of the ways in which
Apple’s investment in Jobstown is leveraged for profits
generated elsewhere.
The Jobstown local government launches sig- 193
nificant updates, new services and new generation
products in arena-style events13 14. iPhone Video re-
cordings of these events show an audience of young

13 Link: https://www.inc.com/business- 14 Link: https://appleinsider.com/

insider/tim-cook-steve-jobs-imac- articles/18/05/15/steve-jobs-
20th-anniversary-video-launch- changed-the-face-of-apple-and-
1998-apple-history.html retail-forever-on-may-15-2001
designers and tech-heads dressed in black polo
necks, cheering on their Apple-determined future.
These videos, immediately uploaded to social media
accounts, reveal an interesting trend—the majority
of Jobstown residents are white men. A demographic
analysis shows that Jobstown is comprised of 70 per
cent men compared to 30 percent women, and 55 per
cent of residents are white15.
In between these public events, residents are 194
randomly selected to participate in focus groups in
which Apple designers seek feedback on work. The
sharing of feedback is deemed by Apple to be equally
as essential for Jobstown residents as the sharing of
their personal data, as part of a constant improvement
cycle in which residents have a legally-enforceable
responsibility to participate while having no citizen-like
control: the only rights enshrined in their communal
contract are the personal consumer and privacy rights,
which are themselves subject to change at the discre-
tion of Apple corporation. People looking to play an
active role in the governance of their commune would
undoubtedly find Jobstown a corporate dystopia.
Yet there are few complaints about this from 195
those who have invested here. Perhaps that’s because
the everyday life of Jobstown residents certainly has
its upsides. As a display town, Apple is highly invested
in the quality of Jobstown’s urban design. The streets
are immaculate, the infrastructure is sleek, and munic-
ipal services are automated and conducted via apps.
Security is discrete—visible CCTV was deemed un-
necessary in an environment where the data shadows
cast by networked residents are so detailed and rich.

15 Link: http://time.com/3104025/
apple-diversity-report/
And of course, when entry to the compound is biomet-
rically controlled and highly policed, security on the
inside can afford to be low-key.
Interestingly, given that every resident owns 196
their own personal Apple devices like iPhones and
Apple Watches, Jobstown’s public realm is equipped
with a network of public screens—from the interac-
tive screens on the footpaths to the larger displays
built into the architecture of the corporate and resi-
dential buildings. These displays advertise the latest
upcoming community events, apps and products. In
doing so, they seek to generate the kind of communal
experience that now tends to be lacking in towns and
cities, where states and advertisers stopped investing
in public signage long ago, on the basis that people
could access any necessary information about their
urban environment via their personal devices.
That desire for communality extends into the 197
highly-programmed public life of Jobstown. There is no
shortage of authors, artists, chefs and musicians of-
fering material for the galleries, restaurants and clubs
within the commune; those creators hoping to amplify
their reach by accessing this exclusive but influential
market. And of course, Apple helpfully offers a series
of apps to enable residents to ‘detach’ from their net-
worked devices in order to be fully present while par-
ticipating in these curated experiences16. There’s no
need for residents to actively document these events,
all of which are captured by installed cameras in event
spaces. Tagged pictures are immediately uploaded to
personal iCloud accounts thanks to facial recognition,
and Apple also regularly publishes ratings of resident

16 Link: https://www.smh.com.au/
technology/apple-watch-designers-
on-easing-the-smartphone-tyranny-
they-created-20150406-1meyst.html
participation in cultural events using that photographic
record as a data source. Those spending too much
time at home are regularly reminded of events in which
they might be interested so that galleries and clubs
are never empty.

A new utopia?
Life in Jobstown has not been without its problems. 198
It is built for those for whom Apple is life, not merely
a way of assisting daily life. To the unconvinced, this
worship is too onerous—and some who bought into
the commune have discovered that they did not quite
have the required levels of devotion and soon sold on.
Jobstown does not tolerate a laissez-faire atti- 199
tude to technologies. Residents that disregard system
updates are disciplined by a combination of techno-
logical agency and public judgement. Updating sys-
tems is considered daily maintenance and self-care.
Those who deviate from required updates are soon
noticeable by their malfunctioning products and life-
styles. Specialised rehabilitation officers, referred to
as “geniuses”, are deployed to rectify the situation and
update both the system and user.
Those who slip beyond rehabilitation are even- 200
tually forced out, as they become incompatible with
the City systems, lifestyles, and governance. On
leaving Jobstown, they fuel the rumours that ‘Apple
is losing its cool’17, and share anecdotes of their for-
mer lives within the commune on the JobstownInsider
website (along with the occasional anonymous posts
by people claiming to be current residents who have

17 Link: https://www.reuters.
com/article/us-apple-launch/
some-consumers-say-apple-
is-losing-its-cool-factor-
idUSKBN0HE17B20140919
found a way across the Jobstown firewall to post on
this site).
For the remaining devotees to the Apple life- 201
style, Jobstown residents sometimes question the
improvements their data is supposed to inform. They
don’t object to sharing their data—they have to if they
are to live the Apple lifestyle—but they sometimes ob-
ject to unnecessary ‘improvements’ and updates18.
Updates can cause popular apps to disappear, new
features are sometimes perceived as gimmicky, and
citizens have reported the slowing down of older Apple
devices. And residents have to contend with hacks
from the outside world that disrupt the seamless ap-
pearance of Jobstown life. The local authorities’ of-
ten-delayed response to such breeches generates
tension between government and residents19.
These concerns aside, there’s little visible 202
evidence of dissent among Jobstown residents.
Researchers who have sought to find such evidence
have typically found little—and in some cases, like that
of former critic Richard Yates, have come to embrace
the concept and become ambassadors for its merits.
While previous examples of Apple pushing unwant-
ed content to users generated controversy—like the
infamous debacle of a U2 album appearing in every
iTunes account 20 — Jobstowners have for the most
part chosen residence precisely based on their faith
in the corporation’s vision for their lifestyle.
Perhaps seeking to find fault within the cir- 203
cled enclosure of Jobstown misses the significance
of Jobstown for urban life and planning. Public life is
controlled but eventful. Private life is frictionless and

18 Link: https://www.theverge. 20 Link: https://www.theguardian.com/

com/2018/2/7/16984234/how-to- music/2014/oct/15/u2-bono-issues-
iphone-throttling-ios-11-3 apology-for-apple-itunes-album-
download
19 Link: http://www.abc.net.au/
news/2018-01-05/apple-says-all-
mac-and-ios-devices-vulnerable-to-
spectre-attacks/9306764
technologically-assisted. Personal data is shared with
the corporation, but Apple has invested massively in
security, and it maintains its record to avoid scandal-
ous breaches.
But of course, all this great stuff is for the few, 204
not the many. For all its innovations, the strange para-
dox of Apple’s town is that while it has been conceived
as a test bed for Apple’s on-going product develop-
ment for a global market, its scale also reveals the very
limits of Apple’s smart city ambitions. Ultimately, it’s
the persistent and growing disconnect between life
inside the fortified circle of Apple apartments and ur-
ban life for the majority elsewhere that reveals Apple’s
status as just another corporation whose social and
environmental aspirations only extend so far as its
market-share and on-going profitability.

Kurt Iveson is an Associate Professor of Geography

at the University of Sydney, where he is primarily
interested in how social justice can be achieved in
cities. He is the author of Publics and the City (2007).

Sophia Maalsen is a Lecturer in Urbanism at the

University of Sydney, where she researches the
intersections of “smart housing” and smart cities.
She is the author of The Social Life of Sound (2019).
 CRYPS, CHAINS
AND CRANKS
BITCOIN1

Matthew Zook, University of Kentucky

The sky above the city was the colour of encryption, 205
tuned to an old hash solution, three blocks back in
the chain.2
Otomakan wandered the dim streets after her 206
long day of mining. It was a crappy job but at least she
had one. Still turning a crank for ten hours straight to
generate electricity to power the servers working out
the latest hash seemed ridiculous. But some smart
Musk-boi—slang for a tech-bro blockchain guru—
had figured out an angle on valuing human-generated
electricity that paid off. At least for now, and at least
for him. And besides that wasn’t her problem, dinner
and a drink was.
Of course, she had to first figure out how the 207
collection of currencies she had in her digital wallet
corresponded to what was on offer at the pub. She
again thought about buying into one of those Dapps
that automatically recalibrated your cash holdings
every eight minutes to arbitrage exchange rates,
but couldn’t work up the nerve. She had tried that six

1 The following speculative fiction is a 2 Borrowed from William Gibson’s

thought experiment that imagines a (1984) novel Neuromancer.
future where cryptocurrencies have
thoroughly permeated everyday
life. Product or corporate names
may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only
for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
months back but the trading algorithm in her cut-rate
Dapp was no match for bigger players in the exchange
markets and most of her hard earned cash had gotten
wiped out. Now she just did the minimum—a stake in
all the big currencies, Bitcoin™, Ether™, etc., hedges
against the energy and food markets, some fractional
holdings in Chinese real estate, and a backup wallet in
case she got hacked—the kind of old fashioned con-
servative approach to finance that her Grandma used.
Checking her wallet outside the pub she realized 208
that for her work today she was getting Cranks™ rather
than JesusCoin™3 like she thought. Damn it! She knew
she should had paid more for the smart contract review;
Ihsotas, the would-be Musk-boi who reviewed the code,
missed some key sub-clause. And because she hadn’t
included this specific contingency in her contract with
Ihsotas, her payment to him (not to mention her pay)
were forever locked in the blockchain.
Sighing, Otomakan checked what the ex- 209
change rate on Cranks™ would mean in terms of
dinner. As she feared, the currency was brand new
without enough of a trading record to have a solid ex-
change rate pegged. She’d have to evangelize for the
currency and convince someone to take a risk before
she’d ever be able to use it. Finally, she understood the
angle that her boss was counting on; first, she did the
work turning the crank and now she did extra work
convincing people that Cranks™ were the next disrup-
tive wave. The Musk-boi who held most of the Cranks™
would make money coming and going.
Downloading the prospectus for the Initial Coin 210
Offering (ICO) she learned that the electricity she was

3 Link: https://jesuscoin.network/
generating could only be purchased using Cranks™.
Nothing new there, standard operating procedure, as
was the suggested 1:1 exchange rate with Bitcoin. No
one took that seriously, it was just there to give credibil-
ity. At least the Musk-boi was clever enough to promise
to take 20 percent of the Cranks™ out of circulation
in six weeks, to “guarantee” it would appreciate in val-
ue. And the slogan “Decentralizing the Electrical Grid
through Artisan Cranking” wasn’t the worst one she
had ever heard.
Skipping the pub (which didn’t accept any cur- 211
rency besides its own, Peer Invested Nominal Transfer
System or PINTS™), she made her way down to the
food stalls. Not much light there—hard to compete
with the demand from the mining farms for electrici-
ty—and so maybe someone would take a chance on
the opportunity to buy electricity directly. On her way
she unfortunately had to pass the DAO district which
she normally tried to avoid.
Back in 2020 a bunch of Bitcoin billionaires 212
bought up four downtown blocks to make a model of
a fully self-executing blockchain neighbourhood via a
series of smart contracts and Dapps within a larger a
Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO). Some
bad coding in a couple obscure smart contracts—
one for tracking waste output from toilets and another
polling music preferences—got stuck in a loop and
since then every 47.31 minutes the septic systems
discharged into the streets and speakers in the dis-
trict played a indie folk interpretation of Bohemian
Rhapsody. Otomakan didn’t mind that bit, after all if it
was written in the code, it must be right. She just got
tired of watching all the men comparing the length of
their blockchains to decide which part of the street got
covered in crap.
Finally past the DAO district, Otomakan stopped 213
at a Jamaican Jerk Sushi stand and started her pitch.
“How would you like to join the hottest new cryp-
tocurrency? We’re using cutting-edge artificial-artisan
labour and Cranks™ coins to completely decentralize
electricity.” She tried to smile enthusiastically but she
could feel it slipping.
“Artificial-artisan labour?” asked the stall- 214
keeper, “What does that even mean? It the labor ar-
tificial or is the artisanal part artificial? Or maybe the
electricity is artificial? I’ve got no bloody idea what
you’re talking about.”
“The labour damn well isn’t artificial, I just spent 215
ten hours turning a crank! To hell with it, I don’t have
the energy. Just give me a curry goat nori roll.”
“OK, what you got to pay for it?” 216
Otomakan looked at her portfolio and con- 217
sidered what the futures markets were projecting. It
looked like LegalFling™4 coins—the blockchain sys-
tem that “creates legally binding agreement about sex-
ual consent”—were trending down because of some
bad publicity. Hmm, so strange that the currency was
getting pushback on the idea of building an unalterable
contract for sexual consent. How else would you go
about documenting consent? She’d have to see what
the Reddit discussion threads were saying. That’s re-
ally the only way to avoid the fake news in big media
and get the real scoop on cryptocurrencies.

4 Link: https://legalfling.io/
 After agreeing on the exchange rate and a spe- 218
cific discount rate for risk in accepting LegalFling™
(to account for the differential block times between
currencies as well as pricing differences between ex-
changes) she scanned the public code on her wallet to
the vendor’s terminal and carefully keyed in her 64 digit
private key. She could have used one of the thousands
Dapps wallets for her private key, but after getting a
couple of wallets hacked she preferred to play it safe.
And by now she can successfully enter her key 3 out
of 5 times. Unfortunately, today she was so rattled she
had to enter it four times before it was accepted and
her purchase of a sushi dinner was forever recorded.
 Otomakan started to eat and tried to think about 219
what to do tomorrow. Should she go back to her job
and insist on a ‘real’ cryptocurrency? Not much hope
for that. Maybe it would be more efficient to spend the
day promoting Cranks™ in the hopes of increasing
their value so the entry in her wallet actually was worth
something. She was so preoccupied that she didn’t
realize that her roll tasted wrong until the second piece.
“Hey, this is jerk chicken, not curried goat. 220
Didn’t you hear my order?”
“Sorry, but our contract very clearly specified
jerk chicken, just check the blockchain.”
A quick glance confirmed this. Damn, why
couldn’t she pay attention to these kinds of things?
Everyone else seemed to manage it just fine.
“But...but....look, I’ve had a really tough day,
can’t you just swap things out?”
“Madam, I’m shocked! I for one believe in the
sanctity and unchangeability of the record in the
blockchain. If I had known you were an algorithmic
agnostic I never would have served you! Leave! Leave
now before I call an algorithmic morality police!”
Otomakan quickly grabbed her roll and left the 225
stall. Damn, the last thing she need was a run-in with
the AMPs. While the AMP were not officially part of the
state, they more than made up for their official lack of
status with the religious fervency of their belief in the
superiority of algorithms over anything else. And once
they found any indication of doubt, they just wouldn’t
leave you alone. The last thing she needed today was
another three-hour Powerpoint presentation explain-
ing (yet again) the marvels of distributed databases,
networks of computer miners, encryption protocols
for proof-of-work and identity, and how combined they
made the ultimate technology for everything.
Given her nervousness, she let out a yell when a 226
pair of hands pulled her into an alley. Her mind raced:
“Oh shit, the AMPs got me! And it has been at least two
weeks since I contributed CPU cycles to the mother
chain of Bitcoin. That is not going to look good.”
But a quiet voice said, “Be calm sister, we’re 227
not the AMP but like-minded friends. We heard you
at the food stall and while we don’t encourage such
public displays we do admire your spirit. We too want
to change records on the blockchain. Join us.”
Otomakan desperately twisted in her captor’s 228
grasp. This was even worse than the AMP. It was
the shadow-gang, known as the 50+ Power People
(50+PP™), who were rumored to be stock-piling serv-
ers to gain enough processing power to take control of
one of the major currencies. Some viewed them as a
liberation force, but Otomakan always figured that they
were just another pawn in the ongoing fights between
Musk-boi factions.
She had lived through the 50+PP™ takeover 229
of GarlicCoin5 and while everyone had gotten excit-
ed about the promise of garlic bread for all (“hot out
of the oven and ready to serve you with its buttery
goodness”) the rollbacks on the chain were imme-
diately funnelled to wallets known to be associated
with Venezuelan Petro.6 And the takeover was quick-
ly squashed when the crypto elite fired up backup
servers at the hydro-power installations in China
and the geo-powered plants in Northern Sweden,

5 Link: https://garlicoin.io/ 6 Link: http://www.elpetro.gob.ve/

quickly adding enough processing power to knock
the 50+PP™ out of control.
So predictable. Viva la Revolution, for the five 230
minutes it lasted.
But what choice did she have? So she played 231
along. “I guess I’ve got nothing lose, so sign me up.
Down with Bitcoin Billionaires! Re-decentralize the
decentralized currency! The people, united, will nev-
er be decrypted!” Otomakan spouted off a bunch of
other revolutionary sounding chants in the hope that
the 50+PP™ recruiter would loosen his grip and she
could get away. That didn’t happen, and his next words
chilled her to the core.
“Excellent. Welcome to the cause. The first step 232
in our master plan is generating our own electricity.
Luckily we just got in on the ground floor of a new
cutting-edge cryptocurrency that leverages artifi-
cial-artisan labor to decentralize the electrical grid. If
you begin today, you’ll not only help the revolution but
accumulate the soon to be major currency Cranks™!”
Unfortunately Otomakan’s scream of outrage 233
and the next five minutes of cursing as she attacked
the 50+PP™ recruiter were too far from any audio pick-
ups to be permanently recorded into the blockchain.

Matthew Zook is a professor of information

and economic geography and researches how
implementations of big data and code interact with
financial and urban geographies. He is the Managing
Editor of the Journal Big Data and Society.
 THE UNSEEN
CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA1

Jeremy W. Crampton,
Newcastle University

Kara C. Hoover,
University of Alaska Fairbanks

Cambridge Analytica (CA) emerged into public con- 234

sciousness following the election of Donald Trump as
US President and the British ‘Brexit’ referendum on
leaving the EU. CA became known for a modern form
of ‘psychographics,’ which imputes desires and other
affects through mass data profiling.

My name is Ada King, and I was born at exactly mid- 235

night, December 31st, 2032, in Philadelphia’s Univer-
sity Hospital. My birth registry says I was born on 31
December 2032, but my birth certificate says I was
born on 1 January 2033. My mother calls me a liminal
soul, lost between two days and two years.
I never had any friends at school. In-person so- 236
cial interactions exhausted me. The school psychol-
ogist said I had both ‘flat affect’ and trouble reading
other peoples’ emotions.

1 The following speculative fiction is a thought experiment that

imagines a future where citizens are thoroughly datafied,
surveilled, and scored. Such a thought experiment could
equally apply for other data analytics companies who
socially sort individuals. Product or corporate names may
be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only
for the purpose of conducting a thought experiment without
intent to infringe.
 My parents finally agreed to let me go to online 237
school but on the condition that I used an emoticonner
to ‘improve my social skills.’ The basic unit reads the
six Ekman2 emotions using FRT.3 My parents upgraded
my package with North American add-ons so I have
access to six additional emotions beyond the basic
anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise.
I think they regretted it when the first emotion it read
from both their faces was :anxiety: Perhaps it would
have been better for me to keep guessing how they
felt rather than to know.
Tomorrow I will get my first smartphone. I guess 238
my mother used my birth registry when she signed me
on to the Internet Minor Control—as if a birth could
be reduced to a single moment. When is birth? The
moment I drew air for the first time, when I was fully
out of the birth canal, or when I had the cord cut?
I never quite understood the ban on smart- 239
phones for minors. The official government story is
that back in 2012, smartphone ownership in teens
tipped into the majority and depression rates sky-rock-
eted. That and cyber bullying, increasing teen suicide
rates, and school shootings were at all-time highs.
Finally, after some big scandal with an ancient social
media site called Facebook, the government banned
minors from internet access—my voice pattern was
not even registered with our AI, Calex.
If we used the web for school, we had to en- 240
ter a specific homework code, which was linked to a
limited set of specific search terms. All this because
the government says they are concerned about our
data privacy. As if privacy is not violated from birth: our

2 Ekman’s test of emotion recognition emotion recognition algorithms.

was the Pictures of Facial Affect This work has been critiqued and is
(POFA) stimulus set published in controversial.
1976. Consisting of 110 black and
white images of Caucasian actors 3 Facial recognition technology.
portraying the so-called six universal
emotions plus neutral expressions,
the POFA has been used to study
emotion recognition rates in normal
and psychiatric populations around
the world. Ekman’s stimulus set
is often used in testing facial and
genomes are sequenced and shared across govern-
ment and even commercial health agencies to model
personal health outcomes.
I remember, at age 6, asking my mother what 241
acne was when I opened my school email for the
first time and found four messages telling me that I
should think about treating it before I had unhappy
teen years. Like it does any good: none of my real
problems were ever found. People still get sick and
die despite precog health. Anyway, why couldn’t we
have smartphones with the same internet locks and
security we have at home?

.:;
When my mother took me to the Internet Minor Control, 242
I chose a violet-coloured CA-314 device. That’s my
favourite colour, even if it had only 9G connectivity. I
turned it on and put my finger on the sensor, waiting
for it to register my fingerprint. It didn’t complete the
process—just a circle going round and round, stuck
at 13% complete. I tried again, but nothing.

“Are your hands dry?” The clerk said

and then grabbed the phone from my
hands. “It should biometrically register
your fingerprints. You have registered
them, haven’t you?”

“I don’t have any fingerprints.” I got the

sense the clerk was looking through me.

“What? No, that’s crazy. Everybody has 245

fingerprints.” She turned my hand over
and peered closely at my fingertips.
“Oh! Well, that is odd. I’m not sure what
to do about that. Here, let me ask my
device.” She pulled out her own souped-
up smartphone: “Calex, is it possible to
lack fingerprints?”

“I found something that might answer

your question,” Calex answered.
“Adermatoglyphia is a rare genetic
condition that causes full or partial loss
of fingerprints. Those affected have
completely smooth fingertips, palms
and soles of their feet. The anti-cancer
medicine capecitabine will also cause
loss of fingerprints. Finally, some forms
of ectodermal dysplasia cause loss
of recordable fingerprints. Did that
answer your question?”

“I guess.” The clerk turned to me.

“Weird, but OK, let’s try a retina scan.”
She held the device up to my eye.
Nothing.

I emoticonned her: ☹ :frowning:

“It’s brand new—there must be some- 250

thing wrong with your retina too!” she said
in response and turned to ask Calex if
that could be possible. I saw myself in
the mirror behind her. My eyes were their
usual milky white. There was nothing
wrong with the scanner; it was me. Again.

“Come on,” said my mother. “Get her

a phone that she can unlock with a
password rather than biometrics.”
“Uh, OK, but that’s a custom job—very old school 252
and not secure. I’ll need disability documentation;
you should have brought that with you.”

I didn’t need the emoticonner to see the anger in my 253

mother’s face; that one I had learned over the years.
We left without another word.

See? This is what I don’t get—how can my genome 254

be shared across government agencies and no one at
Internet Minor Control has flagged my file and provided
me a special device? Instead, I felt like I’d done some-
thing wrong. Was I disabled? Would I never get a smart-
phone and enter society as an adult citizen consumer?

:worried: 255

.:;
My mother took me to lunch. We chose a CorpSeCorps4 256
lunch counter for convenience. These were easier than
the old-fashioned restaurants with human interfaces
and all that negotiating what might be good to eat.
Here, your smartphone beams your profile to the food
automat that uses FRT to read the Eckman emotional
response to the personalized offerings. ”We know what
you want even when you don’t!” Or so the slogan went.
Normally, my mother ordered for me using the 257
Minor Control Interface app, but I was now 18 and it
didn’t work. We didn’t think about that when we left
Internet Minor Control without my smartphone. I had
no profile and could not order any food. She got her

4 A reference to the MaddAddam

books by Margaret Atwood, in which
corporations synthesize genetically
engineered food.
ThreePee5 number and picked up her food at the print-
er bay. We shared her Thai fish stew even though the
flavours were wasted on me—all I sensed was umami
and sour (but I did enjoy the heat from the chillies).
So, yes, along with all my other differences, I had 258
no sense of smell. I had to find some interest in food via
mixing textures and using taste enhancing crystals. The
school counsellor thought that was why I didn’t have any
friends. That still seems weird to me; I mean, humans
don’t use smell to communicate. Do they?
When we left the lunch counter, I looked at all 259
the consumer citizens streaming around us, some
with their minor children incubating their own psy-
chographic profiles. They spoke in low monotones as
they consulted their devices, johnny-cabs6 pulling up
alongside as Calex anticipated their needs from their
tracked habits, biorhythms, and e-calenders. I felt like
a glitch in the system—a spectral presence with no
data to share and no data to send. The soft glow of FRT
scanners flit across my ‘flat’ face, trying to identify my
emotional state for marketing purposes, and came up
with nothing.
When we got home, I logged onto the computer 260
to finish my assignment on, ironically, minor privacy
for my Civil Consumer class. My email flashed open
and a new message popped up on my screen.

“You have been unseen. 261

We are the Beyondary.
We live beyond the digital boundary!
We see you.”

5 3D protein printer. 6 Autonomous or self-driving vehicles,

envisaged in 1966 by Philip K. Dick
in his story ‘We Can Remember
it for you Wholesale’. Uber is one
of several companies developing
autonomous vehicles for hire.
There was a code at the bottom of the message and 262
some coordinates. Had I been hacked? Even as I
looked at it, wondering what good were coordinates
without internet access, the message faded away, as
if the sender could reach into my mailbox and make
emails disappear. The flicker of hope at being seen,
maybe finding a solution to my problems, dissipated.
It’s my birthday, but nothing has changed. I’m still lim-
inal—somewhere between child and adult, society and
outcast, digital and real.
Sometimes I feel like society has failed me. 263
Despite all the technology and tools that make life
simpler, my life seems harder than everyone else’s.
I want so much to be normal but maybe I am just a
system glitch, some bad code. Maybe I will never be
normal. Maybe there is a digital trashcan in the data
space for unseen people like me.
That night, I dreamt I had lunch with my mother 264
at the Corps lunch counter and got a meal bursting
with flavour—is that smelling? As we leave, I saw ads
for all the things I want, and we get into a johnny-cab
to head home because my smartphone noticed my
biorhythms were low and I felt tired.
I wake to that liminal state between dreams and 265
real-life with the feeling that I am able, that I am nor-
mal, that I am seen. I reach for my smartphone and
remember: I am The Unseen.

Jeremy W. Crampton is Professor of Urban Data

Analysis at Newcastle University, with interests in
critical approaches to mapping, geosurveillance,
and security. He is currently working on a new book
entitled The map and the spyglass: automation,
algorithms and anxiety.

Kara C. Hoover is an Associate Professor of

Anthropology the University of Alaska, where her
research is concerned with human adaptation and
stress. She is also the author of the forthcoming
Smell of Evolution monograph from Cambridge
and several articles on human olfaction, human
adaptation and resilience.
 TOO MUCH
FULFILMENT
DELIVEROO1

Lizzie Richardson, Durham University

There was no way out. She had to keep eating this 266
stuff. Four days and they were still delivering. One
mouthful at a time she kept telling herself, one more
of refried beans, one more of the taco. Refried beans,
taco, refried beans, taco. Taco, refried beans. She
didn’t even like Mexican food, or what Deliveroo had
listed as “Mexican street food”, although she couldn’t
remember the last time she had seen anyone sell, let
alone prepare, any food on a street. In fact, she was
sure this tasted a lot like the Peruvian food that she
had tried last month, although the dishes had different
names. Perhaps they had mixed up the order at the
distribution centre.
Her apartment buzzer sounded. 267
“It’s Deliveroo with Wahaca, your Mexican street 268
food.” She buzzed to open and sighed. Maybe the prob-
lem was that she hadn’t been there when the order first
arrived. She had heard that they had started ‘fulfilment’
as a penalty for acts of de-synchronisation, but had
assumed it would happen after multiple offensives, or at

1 The following speculative fiction is a thought experiment

and satire that imagines the extreme consequences of a
business model using app-based ordering and food delivery
hubs. Such a thought experiment could equally apply for
similar companies such as Just Eat. Product or corporate
names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and
are used only for the purpose of conducting a thought
experiment without intent to infringe.
least a more serious one. She had only been 51 seconds
late and her order had only just arrived.
She opened the door to her apartment and 269
picked up the food that had been left on the door
mat. It was lukewarm and—no surprise—exactly the
same meal as earlier that day, except with guacamole
for the nachos, rather than hot sauce in a blue bag.
They must have found some avocados at last. She
had been receiving the replacement blue bags for
the past four days.
She placed the new carton of refried beans on 270
top of the others, which were now completely cold.
They had tasted good cold for a few mouthfuls. With
the fresh taco though they were slightly more palatable
than the cold ones.
Why had she decided to try a different order? 271
Perhaps it was nostalgia for the street? When she
placed the order she had been remembering when
she could eat food outside instead of just at home.
She had liked the truck of the Wahaca restaurant chain
on the Southbank by the river in the summer. Eating
burritos made in front of you. Mexican market eating
they called it. Sometimes they had chairs and a few
tables at the front of the truck where she would sit and
watch the busyness of the promenade.
The Wahaca truck back then used the same 272
sort of temporary kitchen equipment that was being
used everywhere now. They started putting kitchen
equipment in trucks and old shipping containers to
supply demand for delivery. You could only order, not
eat at them. Dark kitchens they used to call them. As
the number of people eating out continued to decline,
they started to use a new term. Fulfilment centres: fill-
ing people with food. She remembered when a kitch-
en-box-fulfilment-centre first appeared in her neigh-
bourhood, taking up some of the market. It used to be
that restaurant chains like Wahaca would send some
of their chefs to these kitchens. Deliveroo told them
it was just a way of expanding their business without
more physical space.
Mouthful of refried beans. 273
And for a time, this was what happened. She 274
remembered eating in restaurants and delivery rid-
ers coming in to pick up orders. They would saunter
around the tables, thermal bags on their backs, and
sometimes hang out by the kitchen. This was until the
restaurants with more floor space were able to have a
separate waiting area for the fleet. Then when the fulfil-
ment centres came along, this got rid of any cluttering
of restaurant space because the ride fleets would just
go there to pick up orders.
She played absent-mindedly with the gua- 275
camole. The recipe wasn’t the same since Wahaca
had moved some existing kitchen staff and trained
new ones for the fulfilment centres. She couldn’t re-
call when the last restaurant had closed, but she did
remember when Deliveroo purchased Wahaca. She
had taken part in the protests. It was one too many in
a series of restaurant acquisitions by Deliveroo. Big
chains and smaller spots were eaten up by Deliveroo
in its race against UberEats to devour the UK casual
dining market.
Guacamole on her white shirt. Already splat- 276
tered with juice from the tacos. Mexican market textile.
 And so it was at around this point that she had 277
started feeling different everyday about her evening
meal. What was called “synchronisation” by Deliveroo
had assumed the utmost importance. Customers had
to be at home at the same moment that the rider de-
livered the food or else Deliveroo’s system would not
work. With few restaurants to choose from, she would
stay in, not to cook but to wait from a meal to be deliv-
ered. She would become increasingly agitated when
she didn’t know what time she would be home, or if
once there she had to wait longer that 25 minutes for
her meal to arrive.
She looked at the stack of containers of refried 278
beans. Perhaps she would try the chat bot again,
she thought. Surely there must be something to get
in touch with to stop the order now. The penalty had
been long enough. She opened the Deliveroo app and
opened the chat function. Offline. She swiped back to
her orders. She sighed again. The one she had made
four days ago still said it was “In Process.” She tried,
once again, to tap “Cancel” but the button was still
not live.
Live. Deliveroo was the app that had promised 279
food on-demand, and had gradually come to dominate
urban food provisioning, taking over restaurants and
fending off logistics competitors. Presenting prepared
food, always present, and now excessively present
because Deliveroo wouldn’t let her cancel the order
after she didn’t synchronise.
She remembered how the excitement of this 280
possibility of immediacy through the Deliveroo app
had soon turned to agitation when she began to feel
the pressures of synchronisation. Ensuring that she
was available for the food deliveries, that often now
amounted to three meals per day, meant that in the end
her life felt like it was organised around delivery. It was
easier with parcel delivery of clothes, books, cosmet-
ics and other things because they weren’t fresh. For a
while she had tried one of the food storage lockers, so
that she could come home when she wanted. But this
didn’t really work, the lockers seemed to get everything
the wrong way around. They made hot food cold and
chilled food a tepid temperature.
She also explored the option that many of her 281
friends had started: ordering food that would not per-
ish and would be edible across a wider temperature
range. This had worked for a while, sticking to salads
and cold meats.
In the end though, she had resigned herself to 282
being at home to receive the orders. The alternative
was that she wouldn’t get anything worthwhile to eat.
Once Deliveroo had made it so easy to get prepared
meals delivered, the supermarkets no longer stocked
much food, and what they did offer was only available
at off-peak times when there were more couriers free to
deliver. After a decades-long identity crisis concerning
their status in the retail sector, supermarkets had recent-
ly fully embraced their role as warehouses rather than
shops, so that customers could only visit the supermar-
ket online, no longer go to the physical site.
The problem was that Deliveroo’s initial promise 283
of choice for casual diners by increasing the breadth of
the offer for takeaway food, and flexibility for when to
eat by providing a service when the customer wanted
it, had been undermined by their governing business
logic of synchronisation. After reports calling for “good
work”,2 Deliveroo had eventually been forced to make
delivery an internal part of their business model, rather
than outsourced to self-employed riders. Like everyone
else, she was so happy that home delivery was suddenly
“ethical” that she didn’t notice the gradual decline of
restaurants until they had almost all gone. No one was
eating out and no one was buying food to prepare.
But the wider result of the change in working 284
conditions for riders was a compromise of the initial
choice and flexibility promised by Deliveroo. The com-
pany had to strictly control their logistics operations
with a ride fleet that was employed. These pressures of
time were passed on to the customer through synchro-
nisation. There was no competition, so that Deliveroo
began to operate like others providers of “public” urban
infrastructure, such as transport.
This was how a penalty for de-synchronisation 285
had emerged—her current sentence of never ending
taco and refried beans. The trigger in this instance was
her failure to meet the conditions of “the right place at
the right time”, a condition specified by Deliveroo once
they began operating with an in-house fleet of riders.
The new employment arrangements meant planning
shifts, set work hours, and hourly wages, which sig-
nificantly changed the operations of the delivery in-
frastructure. The last-mile from food preparation to the
house began to structure the eater’s life, rather than
being at their beck and call.
Not meeting the synchronicity requirements 286
of the order meant that Deliveroo did not have to fulfil

2 Taylor, M. (2017) Good Work:

The Taylor Review of Modern
Working Practices. UK: Gov.UK.
Available at: https://www.gov.uk/
government/publications/good-
work-the-taylor-review-of-modern-
working-practices
the exact order. Excess fulfilment as a penalty was a
recent addition. She remembered when the penalty
had been a different food order entirely, like the time
when she had received Yo Sushi instead of a Byron
burger. Probably a healthier option had she not been
allergic to some of the fish. It was only recently that
Deliveroo had begun to vary quantities, flooding cus-
tomers with excess meals to reduce their own costs
of waste disposal.
And so she would rush home from work, or to 287
her lunch time pick up point, when she received the
delivery notification, to be there on time for her food
order. Sometimes she would even leave work early
when the delivery rider called her to say they were
running ahead of schedule. The food demanded her,
rather than the other way around.
Refried beans, taco. 288

Lizzie Richardson is a Leverhulme Early Career

Fellow in the Department of Geography at Durham
University, UK. Her research examines contemporary
technologies of work, focusing on two sites: the office
and urban food delivery platforms.
 THE MOST
MAGICAL PLACE
ON EARTH
DISNEY1

Anthony Vanky, Columbia University

It took a few weeks for Riley to move 289

out, to be on her own again. The move
brought a multitude of tedious tasks
like changing her addresses on bills,
utilities, and driver’s license. After the
breakup, the packing, and unplanned
flat tire, a trip to the Department of
Motor Vehicles was the last thing she
wanted to embark on, but she thought
the routine would help her find nor-
malcy in her life. The nearest branch
of the DMV was in the neighbouring
town, a town built by a cartoon mouse
and the company he fictionally runs.
In the American tradition, she dread-
ed going to the DMV. With its soulless
interiors, robotic bureaucrats, and
queues that can test the patience
of saints.
Pulling off the highway, the over- 290
head highway marquee welcomed

1 The following speculative fiction is a thought experiment

and satire that imagines city services being mediated by
an AI in a city run by Disney, a company that has a history
of urban development such as EPCOT, the Reedy Creek
Improvement District and Celebration. Such a thought
experiment could equally apply to other companies seeking
to build and run cities, such as Sidewalk Labs. Product
or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for the purpose of conducting
a thought experiment without intent to infringe, and does not
imply affiliation with or an endorsement by the rights holder.
her to Reedy Creek 2 in bold purple,
white, red and black—even the road
signs are different here.3
Walking into the retro-styled 291
building, Riley caught notice of an
indistinct greeting that sounded over-
head. For just a moment, as if timed
for her, the generic but chipper back- [2020-07-15 15:23:02.63 ID:139311525
ground music receded to welcome entered LocID:4191425 LocName:”DMV”]4, 5
[2020-07-15 15:23:02.66 initiate
her to the DMV. As she stepped for- aiRecommendationEngine
ward, her foot caught the top of the “FairyGodMother”] 6, 7
entry mat, causing her to stumble Well, good afternoon, everybody, 292
forward slightly. and welcome to Day 1,463 of acti-
vation. As always, the weather is a
balmy 72 degrees and sunny, and...
Oh, I see the log is showing that we
have a new guest. Wonderful! Her—
oh, yes, a woman—her name is...
Riley. Well Riley, my dear, good af-
ternoon! Ahem, no no no. Let’s greet
you properly, with a little bit of mag-
ic... Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo!

[2020-07-15 15:25:12.35 play audio

“WelcomeToDMV.mp3”, “Riley.mp3”]
Tee hee hee. Yes, Riley. Welcome to 293
the Reedy Creek Branch of the Flor-
ida Department of Motor Vehicles,

2 In practice, the Walt Disney 4 Kuang, C. (2015). “Disney’s $1 Billion

Company governs the Reedy Creek Bet on a Magical Wristband.” Wired
Improvement District, which was Magazine.
enacted by statute by Florida State
Legislature during the creation of 5 Haines, G. (2016). “Disney:
the Walt Disney World resort and Behind the smiles, a hunger for
Walt Disney’s original vision for surveillance.” The Telegraph. Link:
EPCOT. The district is governed by https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/
landowners who are all employees news/disney-behind-the-smiles-a-
of Disney, and provides for the hunger-for-surveillance/
governance, regulation, and service
provisioning for the resort. The 6 Gosieski, G. J., Gosieski, G. J., &
town of Celebration, Florida— Lichtner, A. Z. (2017) U.S. Patent No.
developed by Disney as a residential 9,817,439. Washington, DC: U.S.
community—was de-annexed Patent and Trademark Office.
from RCID to provide for a separate
administrative area. This article, 7 Takahashi, D. (2013). “How
however, creates a fictional world Imagineers build engaging
inspired by the company’s initiatives stories into Disney theme parks.”
and practices, and not these VentureBeat. Link: https://
communities directly, despite being venturebeat.com/2013/05/11/how-
inspired by them. imagineers-build-engaging-stories-
into-disney-theme-parks/
3 Walt Disney World & Euro Disney by
Sussman-Prejza. (2009) Link: http://
www.sussmanprejza.com/portfolio/
project/walt-disney-world-euro-
disney
 where all your motor vehicle permit-
ting wishes come true. And of course
with that, my dear, you are going to
get the most wondrous and courteous
assistance from me. Your time here
will be a true dream, because I am the
best AI in the business. Indeed, Riley,
I am your electronic Fairy Godmoth...

[2020-07-15 15:27:02.63 alert=“Safety

Issue at locID:4191425.mat14”] 9
As she recovered, she scanned the Oh, no no no, good heavens. This
others in the building to see if any- simply cannot do! That mat again. 294
one—either a ridiculing or sympa- My dear, are you alright? Yes, I think,
thetic soul—has noticed her moment I think you are quite alright. This will
of clumsiness. It seemed everyone never due. Brush yourself off, best
was in their own individual states of foot forward, spit spot. Pardon me for
limbo in the centre of the room, and one moment, my dear. We mustn’t let
too concerned about their own souls this happen again.
to care about how someone entered. Now let me see. Let’s prevent another
Riley stepped forward toward fall, there’s only one person to call.
the three stanchion-formed entranc- Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo!
es. Each looked the same, other than
the rightmost one having a small [2020-07-15 15:27:03.36 initiate
safetyProtocol]
placard noting “Maxpass” for those [2020-07-15 15:27:03.55 fix locID:4191425.
who had the wherewithal to sched- rug14]
ule ahead.8 Preparedness was not [2020-07-15 15:27:04.05 send message to
ID:4191425.manager “Fix rug.”]
a distinguishing attribute for Riley,
Now, where was I? Ah, yes. Back to 298
and she resigned herself to the left-
you, my dear Riley. So, what brings
most lane.
you in? Evidently nothing too im-
portant; otherwise you would have
made a Maxpass reservation. Well,
my dear. Not everyone has the time
to plan ahead. No matter, let’s make
the most of it. You should just join the
line over here and I’ll take good care
of you. The air conditioning? Set to
a perfect 75-degrees. The music?
Adult contemporary for your listen-
ing pleasure.

8 Martin, H. (2017) “Disneyland resort 9 Disney’s “Four Keys” strategy

launches digital version of Fastpass, prioritizes safety above all, see:
but it will cost you.” Los Angeles Johnson, R. (1991) “A strategy for
Times. Link: http://www.latimes. service—Disney style.” Journal of
com/business/la-fi-disney-maxpass- Business Strategy, 12(5), 38-43.
20170719-story.html
 [2020-07-15 15:38:48.84 initiate
moodMeter]
As she stared blankly at the count- Oh, my dear. What’s wrong? Riley, 299
down clock that wasn’t ticking down, my job is to make sure you have a
a mix of boredom and frustration over- truly wonderful experience here. No,
came her. Why did all of this have to not just wonderful, I should say, but
happen, she questioned while reflect- magical. You need to cheer up. Ev-
ing on the past few weeks. The emo- erything will be alright. Let’s sprin-
tions started welling inside. Riley could kle some pixie dust. Cheer up, I say,
sense her face getting red and warm. cheer up. How about a song guaran-
Awkwardly, the melodious cho- teed to make you smile—something
rus of “It’s a Small World” came over to which we can sing along? Bibbi-
the speakers, interrupting the calmly di-bobbidi-boo!
vibrant but indiscernible song that was
playing before. Riley, for a moment, [2020-07-15 15:39:28.54 initiate protocol
“TinkerBell”]
snapped back from her daze. She [2020-07-15 15:39:28.56 play audio
looked at her watch and was irritat- “ItsASmallWorld.mp3”]
ed by the apparent lack of progress Good heavens! No, not that. Why did
made. Upset by her week, and an- I do that? I mean, it is surely catchy.
noyed by the queue-with-no-end, she ♫ It’s a small world, after all...♬♫ But
let out an exasperated sigh, followed evidently not quite right... No, no, no!
by an emphatic eye roll, as her shoul- How do I stop th—? What were the
ders rolled forward with resignation. magic words?
[2020-07-15 15:40:08.03 stop audio
“ItsASmallWorld.mp3”]

Lifting her phone in hopes of dis- My dear, I am so sorry. Don’t be blue, 304
tracting herself for as long as she as I am here for you, my child. But
could, she caught a glimpse of the what can I do, what can I do? Well,
uniformed person coming to her side, at least you don’t look any more blue.
holding a tablet in their hand. The per- Well, we can fix this—make you smile
son stepped with enthusiasm, with again. Hmm, let me think.
an upright posture that marked their Protocol, protocol. What’s making her
chipper professionalism. unhappy? Think, think, think. You can
figure this out. Was it...? No... What it
that...? A bad lunch...?

[2020-07-15 15:44:56.78 analyze

009001467.prevLocID]
You had your usual. Well, although
you should really try to eat more veg-
etables, that’s a matter for later. May-
be your feet hurt? Maybe your shoes
don’t fit. Yes, yes. That must be it.
Bad footwear is always a problem.
Those look like new shoes—certain-
ly not glass slippers—so they have
to be terribly uncomfortable. Yes?
Certainly, new shoes! It has to be the
new shoes.
 [2020-07-15 15:45:36.20 analyze
009001467.prevPurchases]
Oh, bother. Not new shoes. Hmph.
What else could it be?

[2020-07-15 15:46:02.89 analyze

4191425.wait]
Goodness me, the problem is me? 309
Well, properly, us? My dear, if it were
important, you should have made a
reservation. Then I could have done
something about it—about you. But
you didn’t, and now you’re unhappy,
and that certainly cannot stand. The
thing we need, well simply, is help.
Jessie, Jessie, my dear. Oh, there you
are. It is now your job to turn Riley’s
frown upside down. Yes, my dear,
yes, and I will there to help. We are
going to show her that special service
only we can offer.

[2020-07-15 15:46:58.96 deploy

ID:4191425.manager to locID:4191425.
queue]
[2020-07-15 15:47:01.58 send message to
ID:4191425.manager “Greet Guest, Riley
(ID=139311525).”] 10
“Hi, I’m so sorry for the wait,” our Just a moment! What are you doing,
chipper professional apologized. “I’m Jessie? Good heavens, look, here’s a
Jessie, the manager at this branch. recommendation. Talk about things
I was told by a small fairy that you I know she likes!
might need some help.”
[2020-07-15 15:49:22.21 send message to
ID:4191425.manager “Recommend: Talk
about regular taco lunches.”]
Complimenting her on her outfit? No!
That’s not going to work. Look, I’ve
got one better.

[2020-07-15 15:49:49.11 send message to

ID:4191425.manager “Recommend: Talk
about her love of fish tacos.”]
Or this one. Yea, this one is going to
work. With a wave of my stick, to fin-
ish the trick... Bibbidi...!

10 Murdock, M. E., Poswal, M., Hellam,

T., & Di Zanni, D. (2018) U.S. Patent
Application No. 15/353,455.
Riley noticed the manager looking [2020-07-15 15:50:02.72 send message to 314
ID:4191425.manager “Recommend: Talk
irritated by the multitude of messag- about shoes.”]
es. She tried making them out, but ...Bobbidi!
the angle of the screen was just so
where she could only guess at their [2020-07-15 15:50:03.53 send message to
meaning. Surely they’re essential, ID:4191425.manager “Recommend: Free
Cupcake in a Cup.”]
Riley thought. The manager clicked
a small button on the side of the tablet ...Boo!
and put it to their side. [2020-07-15 15:50:04.04 send message to
“Let’s get back to helping you ID:4191425.manager “Recommend: Talk
out, shall we?” said Jessie, reaching about weather.”]
for Riley’s phone. You’re making me nervous, actually,
She looked down at the manag- Jessie. Please just stick to the script, 319
er’s hands as he guided her through but alright, focus now. Don’t waste
the various text fields, drop-down cycles... Focus. Jessie, just follow
menus, and saccharinely-colourful the directive. It’s okay. Look! Riley’s
buttons glowing from her phone.11 smiling! Trust Jessie. Sure, the man-
There was something deliberative ager doesn’t know how to keep that
yet elegant about them—handsome, gosh-darn mat in place, but Jessie
even. She admired the manager’s does know how to be a manager. Oh!
gentle face, and the slight smile that And look, they’re on page two of the
would occasionally appear when a form now. Just a swipe right... there.
lime coloured checkmark lit up on the And a tap... there. Okay, okay!
screen when they tapped the gently
rounded, lavender ‘next’ button.
Cute, she thought. The lime
checkmark and the manager. Maybe,
for a brief moment, the DMV wasn’t
the worst place to visit.

[2020-07-15 15:54:52.46 initiate

moodMeter]
“Great. Just one more page and we See, things are going alri-acceler-
should be all set,” the manager said ated heartbeat? Oh, is Riley smil-
with great satisfaction. ing? Indeed, indeed she is! Oh, oh,
For Riley, those words came oh, I’ve seen this before. Riley likes
with relief and worry. The forthcom- Jessie. Oh, how lovely, Riley likes
ing balloon-dotted “Confirmed!” Jessie. Magic is in the air. Well, this
would mark the end of her general- is a first for me. I tend to avoid these
ly banal time at the DMV—one that matters—too squishy—but I can try.
would have been longer if it was not But what can I do? What does Riley
for Jessie’s welcomed interruption. like? What does Jessie like? Let me
And the end of their transactional think, let me think... Oh, my dears,
relationship would bring with it the just leave it to me... And how happy
awkward moment where she would you are going to be!

11 Magic at Your Fingertips. (no date)

Link: https://disneyworld.disney.
go.com/plan/my-disney-experience/
mobile-apps/
have to pivot conversation from Form
[2020-07-15 15:56:02.02 analyze
85041 to asking the manager out on 009001467.prevLocID]
a date. [2020-07-15 15:56:04.23 analyze 4191425.
At the DMV, Riley questioned. manager.prevLocID] 324
[2020-07-15 15:56:10.89 correlate
Is this super awkward? And with 009001467.prevLocID, 4191425.manager.
the manager, no less. But damn, prevLocID]
that smile... A moving picture! Everyone loves
“Alright. This. Should. Be. It,” the cinema; that will certainly do the
said Jessie, haltingly, while scan- trick! But what movie... What mov-
ning the last details before final- ie? A horror movie? No, too scary.
ly submitting the form and freeing A film about tall tales and true from
Riley from the purgatory of govern- the legendary past? No, too expect-
ment bureaucracy. ed. It’s a first night together after all.
With the last finger tap, a rain- Um, think, think, think. Oh for heaven
bow-coloured progress bar appeared sakes, let’s just go for it.
on the screen, with stars that twin-
kled more brightly as the colours [2020-07-15 15:57:34.66 override
aiRecommendationEngine]
filled the little-rounded rectangle. It [2020-07-15 15:57:34.93 initiate
took about four to five seconds for protocol “Synergy”]
the information to be sent, and for the Yes, yes, that will do. A magical night
stars to glimmer at their brightest. As for you, with a little extra I can do. It’s
the word “Confirmed!” appeared on not as lovely as a pumpkin, but a love-
the screen, an incongruous graphic ly coach for you as well. With a flick
appeared below it. It was an invita- of my wrist, for tonight, may you find
tion—nay, a two-for-one coupon—to true love’s kiss. Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo!
the evening showing of “Toy Story 5”
replete with a complimentary ride- [2020-07-15 15:58:11.31 send popup.
Coupon to ID:139311525]14
share trip.12 [2020-07-15 16:03:02.54 initiate
Riley looked up at the manager’s moodMeter] 328
face, and let out a small laugh under Mmhmm, yes. This is truly wonderful.
her breath. This was indeed a “mag- I’m so glad, my dear, to make your
ical moment.”13 day. Truly, the DMV is the most mag-
ical place on earth. Now off you go.
Ta-ta, my dear, ta-ta.

12 Etherington, D. (2017) “Lyft and 13 Fickley-Baker, J. (2011) “Disney Cast

Disney launch ‘Minnie Van’ on- Members Create Magic Every Day.”
demand ride service at Walt Disney Link: https://disneyparks.disney.
World.” TechCrunch. Link: https:// go.com/blog/2011/05/disney-cast-
techcrunch.com/2017/07/31/lyft- members-create-magic-every-day/
launches-minnie-van-on-demand-
ride-service-at-walt-disney-world/ 14 ”Disney Synergy Brings the Magic
to Life in Your Hands.” (2013). Link:
https://www.thewaltdisneycompany.
com/disney-synergy-brings-the-
magic-to-life-in-your-hands/
 [2020-07-15 16:04:12.15 alert=“Safety
Issue at locID:4191425.rug14”]
Riley turned back and smiled Goodness, me! Another stumble!
coyly at Jessie as she neared the Oh, that won’t do. Jessie, please let
entrance. She took one last step to us finally be free of this mat-tripping
walk out and caught the corner of the trouble, and come fix it on the double.
mat again. She again stumbled, but Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo!
caught herself just enough to give
an innocent, yet confident wave to [2020-07-15 16:04:12.24 initiate
safetyProtocol]
the manager she would see in a few [2020-07-15 16:04:12.47 send message to
hours’ time. ID:009001467 “Fix rug.”]
[2020-07-15 16:04:12.89 deploy “cones” to
locID:4191425.mat14]

Anthony Vanky is an assistant professor at the

Graduate School for Architecture, Planning and
Preservation at Columbia University. His research is at
the intersection of digital data, the built environment,
and collective behaviours, and their implications on
urban design and planning.
 EASYCITY
EASYJET1
Manuel B. Aalbers, KU Leuven

‘Did you see this ad?’ 330

The couple pivoted to stare at a bright orange poster

covering a glass door.

‘“EasyFlats, Affordable Housing for

EVERYONE: EasyFlats starting at £99
a week” We can afford that!’

‘If it sounds too good to be true, it

probably is too good to be true.’

‘I guess... but if we now start discarding

affordable options because we’re
convinced there are no affordable
options, we’d be destined to live with
our parents forever, now wouldn’t we?’

‘Right, let’s not do that. Let’s not be 335

those people.’

‘Look here: “EasyFlats are located

in the new town of EasyCity, in the

1 The following speculative fiction is a thought experiment

and satire that imagines a city being run on the model
of a low-cost airline, where beyond the basic service all
additional aspects come at an additional cost. Such a
thought experiment could equally apply if the city were run
by RyanAir or Norwegian. Product or corporate names may
be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only
for the purpose of conducting a thought experiment without
intent to infringe.
 Greater Lionsgate Region. EasyCity
offers FREE EasyBus service to the
closest metro stop.” That doesn’t sound
too bad.’

‘It sounds like it’s gonna be in zone 4

or 5.’

‘Sure, what did you expect? We don’t

have zone 1 salaries.’

‘Fair enough. And I can’t stand to live

with my parents a single day more.’

‘Let’s go inside and see what they offer. 340

Okay?’

‘Okay, but I bet they’re out of the £99

flats though. You’ll see.’

‘Maybe they will, maybe they won’t.

Let’s go in, alright?’

The couple opens the door and is welcomed by a

friendly twenty-something dressed in grey and orange.

‘Welcome to EasyFlats. How can I

help you? I bet you’re here for the £99
flat, right?’

‘Yep, you guessed right.’ 345

‘You’re probably thinking £99 sounds

too good to be true.’

‘That’s exactly what I was saying!’

 ‘I know where you’re coming from. It’s
not easy to find a flat for people our age
these days, is it?’

‘Tell me about it!’

‘I will, sit down. Sit down, please.’ 350

‘So, is it too good to be true?’

‘No, it’s not. We really offer flats at £99.

In fact, if you sign with us today, the
first week is for free. Shall I take you
through our options?’

‘Sure.’

The agent holds up a tablet showing a set of interior

design photos.

‘Okay, so this is our Standard EasyFlat.

It’s a no-frills/no-thrills flat really. We’re
very open about that. It’s perfect for
Millennials like yourselves. These are
just some renderings.’

‘Mmh.’ 355

‘And here’s the floorplan. Here’s the

living space, the shower room, the
loft bed would be here. You can see it
better on the picture.’

‘So it’s basically a studio with a

loft bed?’
‘Yes, that’s the Standard EasyFlat. It’s
the most affordable option we have and
yes, it really rents for £99. Plus the first
week is free, but I already said that.’

‘It looks very small. Where’s

the kitchen?’

‘We at EasyCity believe that the 360

present generation doesn’t need the
same dreary suburban homes that their
parents live in. We believe that folks like
yourselves live a different lifestyle; we
like to call it the EasyLifestyle.’

‘So, you’re saying there is no kitchen?’

‘There is no kitchen in the old-

fashioned meaning of “kitchen.”
There is a kitchenette. It’s right here:
it features a microwave on top, a
washbasin in the middle and a fridge
underneath. We call it the EasyKitchen.
It’s a real space-safer.’

‘Looks like it. But what about the loft

bed? Does it sleep two?’

‘It does. It does. It’s not very big, but it

comes with a full-size mattress.’

‘That’s a bit tight though.’ 365

‘I see what you’re saying. Could I

perhaps interest you in another flat with
a larger kitchen and space for a queen-
sized bed?’
‘Yes, that’s what we’re looking for.’

‘So, this is our Flexi EasyFlat. Here’s

some renderings again and here’s
the floorplan. As you can see
the Flexi is much bigger than the
Standard EasyFlat. It comes with the
EasyKitchen XL and an EasyBedroom.’

‘An EasyBedroom; what’s that?’

‘It means that’s where the suggest- 370

ed bed-space is. So your queen-sized
bed could be here [points at floorplan]
or here. That’s what makes it a Flexi
EasyFlat. You can choose where to put
your bed and where to put your sitting
area. It’s up to you, really!’

‘But it’s still a studio in the end?’

‘We prefer EasyBedroom. We decided

not to put a wall in so it allows for a
more flexible EasyLifestyle. A little bit
like a super-affordable loft. We think it’s
really suitable for Millennials.’

‘Okay—and the kitchen?’

‘So the EasyKitchen XL is basically

your standard modern urban kitchen:
an induction stove with four burners,
American fridge, microwave/oven
combo, stainless steel. All the works,
you know?’
‘It doesn’t look like it’s that large, though.’ 375

‘Well, it’s XL compared to the Standard

EasyKitchen. In fact, it’s much, much
larger than that. Is this more like what
we’re looking for? Full kitchen, queen-
sized bed, you know?’

‘Yes, that’s exactly what we’re looking

for, right?’

‘Yes, yes. It is—it is. But I guess this flat

doesn’t come at £99 a week, does it?’

‘No, you guessed right. It doesn’t. The

Flexi EasyFlat goes for £139. Still quite
affordable and more suitable for two
people who want to live there full-time.’

‘Full-time?’ 380

‘You know: sleep, cook, sit on the

sofa—that kinda thing.’

‘So for a £139 a week we can rent a real

flat. That comes down to ...’

‘That comes down to £556 per month,

well, per 4 weeks really. And we sweep
in a free week here as well.’

‘I think we could afford that. But

before we move on, could you tell us
something about the location?’

‘Of course! EasyCity is a new town 385

located in the Greater Lionsgate
Region. We’re building 30,000 flats.
We’ve built 5,000 so far, so you’ll
be pioneers!’

‘But where exactly is it?’

‘Here’s a little map. This is Lionsgate

here in the middle in grey, and then
if you look left, that orange dot is
EasyCity. It’s between Gateshead and
the Lionsgate-West Airport.’

‘Lionsgate-West? That’s really

Westhampton Airport, isn’t it?’

‘We prefer Lionsgate-West. We also 390

fly from Lionsgate-West; did you
know that? In fact, I forgot to tell you
something. One of the great things
about EasyCity is how close it is to
the airport. Our free EasyBus provides
access not only to the Lionsgate
metro system but also to Lionsgate-
West Airport.’

‘It looks quite far from the city. I guess

this is in zone 4 or 5 maybe?’

‘Well... it’s zone 6.’

‘ZONE 6! I didn’t even know about

zone 6!’

‘Djeez.’

‘Zone 6 was added by the Lionsgate 395

Transportation Committee just last
 year. It’s to accommodate new
extensions to the metro network. And
you’ll have a free bus taking you to the
nearest metro stop.’

Blank faces stare at the EasyCity sales person.

‘I know what you’re thinking: zone 6,

can you believe it? That’s so far away.
But it isn’t, really. With the free EasyBus
and the metro extension you can be in
Billyburg under 60 minutes. Many of
my friends live there. I bet many of your
friends live in Billyburg as well.’

‘Yeah, they do.’

‘So, how long does it take you to reach

them now?’

‘Walk to nearest stop, then two lines... 400

40, 50 minutes-tops.’

‘Okay, so you add 10 minutes extra and

you can still see all your friends and you
can have your own flat. In fact, once you
tell your friends about EasyCity, I bet all
of them want to move there. Well, not all
of course, but you know what I mean.
Before you know it, people from Billyburg
will be coming to EasyCity to visit you and
your friends. We’ve also planned for an
EasyCafé, EasyDrinks—that’s the pub—
EasyMuscles, our gym, EasyLaundry,
and EasyPlay—that’s the “theatre.”

She makes air quotes when she says “theatre.”

‘It’s really easy, everyone can join
EasyPlay, haha. No seriously: we’re
providing all the amenities to make
EasyCity a very pleasant—I mean
easy—place to live. If it weren’t for
jobs, you’d never leave EasyCity. In
fact, we offer jobs as well. We have
jobs in our EasyConstruction company,
but you don’t strike me as construction
workers. [Pause.] So, how about a job in
EasyCafé or EasyDrinks?’

‘I’m looking for something.’

‘Okay, great. Right after we sign you 405

up for an EasyFlat you can fill out an
application form. A flat and a job in one
day, who would have thought that, right?
OK, shall I get out the lease then?’

‘Shouldn’t we sleep on this one? I don’t

want to rush into anything.’

‘Listen, I see what you’re saying. But if

you’d come back tomorrow and want
to sign the lease, I cannot guarantee
we can rent the flat for £139. I’m not
supposed to say this, but it will probably
be £149. Also, the free first week is only
free if you sign this week. So, I don’t
want to push you. I’m just making you
aware of the options.’

‘We appreciate that. Maybe we should

sign today then.’

‘Okay, we’re doing this.’

 ‘Great! So here’s some paperwork you 410
need to fill out. Let me know if you have
any questions.’

The couple starts filling out their personal details. Next,

they get to the page with the different offers. They
check the box for Flexi EasyFlat at £139 per week. Then
they get to a whole range of extras they can add.

‘“3rd or 4th floor (additional £5). 1st

or 2nd floor (additional £10).” Ehh,
excuse me.’

‘Yes?’

‘We’re at the section about the floors.’

‘Yes?’ 415

‘So we need to pay extra to be on a

lower floor?’

‘Yes.’

‘So on which floor are the £139 flats?’

‘They’re on the 5th and 6th floors.’

‘And there is an elevator?’

‘No, there’s no elevator. Elevators are 420

for old people. Walking stairs is healthy.
But we realize that not everyone loves
walking stairs, that’s why we provide
the option to rent a flat on a lower floor
for a small fee.’

‘We can walk stairs, can’t we?’

‘Sure.’

The couple continues filling out the form.

‘Windows on the outside are another £5

a week extra. We can do with windows
on the inside, right?’

‘Yeah, that will save £20 a month. But 425

what about this: “Install blinds for only
£2 a week extra.” That’s not too much’

‘Well, it comes down to £100 per year.

We can get our own blinds for that.’

‘All these choices are driving me crazy.

Do we really need to make all these
choices now?’

‘Of course you don’t. You can add any

extras at a later stage. But I have to
warn you: prices may vary. If you sign
up for blinds now, they are guaranteed
at £2 for a full year!’

‘Okay, blinds it is.’

‘Next: Concrete floors are provided. 430

Carpeting comes in at £2. Shall we
skip those?’

‘Who needs carpeting anyway?’

‘We can put items on the wall but only

if we use EasyHangers that come at
50 pence.’
 ‘Djeez. Do we really need to decide
that now? Can we please skip all these
extras?’

‘Yes, but then we may have to pay

more when we opt in later.’

‘I can’t make any more choices now. 435

Can we please go to the next page?’

Now they have to choose the location. Flats near the bus
station and EasyShops and EasyEntertainment go for
£10 a week extra. They decide they can walk to the bus.
They opt in to the EasyTentants “constructive
tenants” programme, which is the free tenants’ asso-
ciation. It’s also the only tenants’ organization, or any
kind of organization, allowed in EasyCity. In any case,
it’s impossible to continue with the form without opting
in to EasyTenants.

‘Why is garbage collection another

tenner?’

‘Didn’t I tell you? There are no taxes at

EasyCity.’

‘And yet we have to pay £10 to have our 440

garbage collected.’

‘Yes, that’s a fee. It’s not a tax. We have

abolished all taxes. In fact, we don’t be-
lieve in taxes.’

‘But how do you pay for street

cleaning, schools, health care?’

‘We believe in the personal

 responsibility of our tenants.
That’s why we have introduced a
garbage fee. We’ve patented this
actually: EasyGarbage. In addition,
EasyTenants takes care of weekly
street cleanings. Schools, doctors,
hospitals are all available in Lionsgate
and Gateshead.’

‘So there is no doctor in EasyCity?’

‘Just yesterday we signed a contract 445

with two doctors-in-training. All kinds
of folks are moving to EasyCity.’

The couple starts to look less and less enthusiastic

about the prospect of moving to EasyCity but they con-
tinue to fill out the form. They need to live somewhere.

Manuel B. Aalbers is a professor of geography at KU

Leuven, the University of Leuven, where he leads
a research group on the intersection of real estate,
finance and the state. He is also the author of several
books, including The Financialization of Housing (2016).
 THE CIVIC
METHOD
ELSEVIER1
Matthew Claudel,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Elsevier is a large academic publisher and mediator of 446

information that “helps institutions and professionals
advance healthcare, open science and improve per-
formance for the benefit of humanity.”2

.:;
Jonathan pushed the final few lines of code up to the 447
project repo, commenting “Fixed stability bug on plant-
to-plant nitrate trades. BlockGarden ready to test.”
Hitting the return key felt wonderful; he relished the
clack. It punctuated the electric tingle that courses
through something truly new. He had been pitching
BlockGarden to colleagues in his Neighbourhood Unit
as an “enviro computer”—and the pitch is essential.
You never know who is going to be peer-reviewing your
tech after you submit it to a Corp.
BlockGarden felt right, though, he somehow 448
knew it would be accepted. The idea was simple:
tokenized environment credits are scripted in an

1 The following speculative fiction is the purpose of conducting a thought

a thought experiment and satire. experiment without intent to infringe.
It imagines a city being run on a
model derived from extrapolating 2 Elsevier (2019). ‘This is Elsevier: A
academic publishing. Such a thought digital business.’ Link: https://www.
experiment could equally apply if elsevier.com/en-gb/about
the city were run by other academic
publishers such as Springer, Taylor
and Francis, or Wiley Blackwell.
Product or corporate names
may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for
algorithmic smart contract. Hyper-local environmental
sensors create data about each plant, and the contract
optimizes both plant growth and overall environmen-
tal benefit through autonomously trading micro-re-
sources like water, fertilizer, solar exposure. It was
a marketplace for resources across the ecosystem,
garden, planter-bed, and even down to the individual
plant scale. Net positives (the excess of both food and
carbon sequestration credits) would be distributed to
whatever group of investors had pre-funded the gar-
den—what Jonathan playfully called an ‘initial seed
offering.’ The whole thing had the nostalgia of “CSA
boxes” that farmers used to sell for pre-funding a sea-
son. Before the first collapse, anyway.
He stood up, stretched, craned his neck up to 449
look out the grimy window. Sweltering. Dusty. Another
few hours, probably, before it would be safe to go out-
side. He still wanted to live-test the BlockGarden code
with plant sensors in the growing unit before submit-
ting it to a Corp—probably the Heliyon3 Corporation
or the Total Environment4 Corporation. Anyway, he’d
have to wait until well after nightfall to go outside and
update the firmware. There was time to kill.
Jonathan looked down at his forearm, where 450
top5 notifications glowed under his skin. One of them
was a civStat push: peer-reviewing a coastal resilience
system called Level Sea. Hardware was uncommon—
this would be a good distraction—and it might actually
be interesting tech. Hard to guess with peer reviews,
though. He tapped his wrist to accept.

.:;
3 “Heliyon welcomes research across 4 “Science of the Total Environment
all disciplines. Any paper reporting is an international journal for
original and technically sound results publication of original research on
of primary research, which adheres the total environment, which includes
to accepted ethical and scientific the atmosphere, hydrosphere,
publishing standards, will be biosphere, lithosphere, and
published regardless of its perceived anthroposphere.”—A subsidiary of
impact.”—A subsidiary of Elsevier Elsevier Limited, ISSN: 0048-9697
Limited, ISSN: 2405-8440
5 Bloomberg.org Group (2018) “What
Works Cities”
Back in 2018—back when philanthropies and govern- 451
ments were funding civic innovation—there had been
an ethos of “what works.”5 Municipalities did tactical in-
terventions and tried to learn from best practice. But it
was too piecemeal, too little, too late. The environment
strained to a breaking point. Billions died in a planetary
shock, a cataclysmic Anthropo-collapse. And billions
more – maybe humanity as a whole – would have been
extinguished, if not for a class of technologies oper-
ating at the municipal scale. Societal priorities were
galvanized in a new regime, The Civic Method, that
blended science, technology and governance under
the banner of Civic Innovation. The technology of cit-
ies was no longer about “what works”—it was about
truth, for the benefit of humanity.
Specific municipal services—from water puri- 452
fication to drone-ports to entertainment feeds—were
run by individual, topic-specific Civic Innovation
Corporations, or “Corps.” And the Corps of the city of
Elsevier were a global leader.6 Other cities were fierce-
ly competitive, of course; in the city of Springer, the
Nature Corp produced stellar Civic Innovation, and
in the twin cities of Taylor and Francis, a Corp called
Routledge was growing quickly. In every city, the tech
itself was developed by citizens, or, Civic Innovators,
as individuals or teams, who also peer-tested innova-
tion before it was fully deployed. Their performance
was tracked in a master algorithm, civStat, which was
linked to universal rights: basic housing, basic income,
and access to municipal utilities. These basic services
were delivered through Neighbourhood Units, which
paid licensing fees to the Corps.

6 Larivière, Vincent (2015) “The

Oligopoly of Academic Publishers in
the Digital Era” PLoS One.
 Over time, Civic Innovators who consistently ex- 453
celled in the quantity and performance of innovation
were granted unconditional rights. Without obligations
to submit to Corps, they were free to explore radically di-
vergent technologies, or nothing at all, or they were cho-
sen to join the municipal government itself. Elsevier’s
governing body was shrouded in mystery: the only
visibility Civic Innovators had—all they needed—was
civStat, and its assurance of algorithmic impartiality.

.:;
The transport pod arced along the coastline. It wouldn’t 454
be a long ride to the Level Sea test site, though Elsevier
as a whole was a sprawling megalopolis that stretched
from what used to be Washington up through Boston.
Jonathan’s Neighbourhood Unit, Yale, was one of the
most desirable. Civic Innovators could get a peer as-
signment anywhere in the metro area, so being in a
central Neighbourhood made it easier to hit a quota. Not
to mention that the Yale Neighbourhood Unit had good
equipment and a reputation for producing high-quality
civic innovation. The Corps were always looking out
for new submissions, and the Neighbourhood’s brand
name went a long way toward getting a project ac-
cepted and ultimately deployed. Which meant getting
credits on civStat, obviously, but most importantly, the
privilege of contributing to the city’s function; to im-
proving the well-being of every Civic Innovator.
Jonathan watched the city blur past, forehead 455
resting against the window. The collective achieve-
ment was truly spectacular, he thought, and he was
honoured to be part of it. Elsevier was a pioneer among
cities; it was here that breakthroughs were made after
the first Anthropo-collapse—innovations that saved
billions of lives around the world. The city itself was
thoroughly laced with technology, of course—it sus-
tained human life in a changed climate—but what
made Elsevier extraordinary was the intense devo-
tion Jonathan and his fellow Civic Innovators had for
improving the city. It was impossible not to admire the
ethos of passionate action, to get caught up in it, to feel
a part of it. Constantly experimenting and creating and
operating civic technology was precarious—the basic
rights of every citizen depended on his or her perfor-
mance—But isn’t that how it should be? he thought.
Shouldn’t we all be inspired to collectively create and
build our city? What could ever be more empowering?

.:;
He scrunched up his shirt fabric and wiped dust off 456
the lens, leaning toward the door a second time for a
biometric scan to enter his housing unit. A blue light
swept his iris and a voice chimed “Welcome home,
Jonathan!” Before the door opened, it flashed two no-
tifications: one about a letter and one about a pend-
ing tax payment. He had another week to pay it—that
is, a week before the door to his housing unit would
stop opening for him—and he was counting on the
credits from BlockGarden. It will come through. It has
to. After validating the project code on the garden
sensors’ firmware earlier that night, he’d compiled
and submitted to the Heliyon Corp. It was riskier, but
probably a bigger boost for his civStat, if the project
was accepted.
As he walked into his unit, he leaned down 457
to pick up a letter. A new system for paper mail was
re-instituted across Elsevier a few years ago. It was
one of the few Civic Innovations from another city
that Elsevier had fully integrated—it’s not green or
efficient, he thought, but there was something nice
about the whimsical romance of opening a letter.
Sentimental nostalgia. The letter was from his younger
sister Sophie (she was really the only person who wrote
him paper mail), and it didn’t say much of anything.
She loved writing down little romps though ordinary
life. Somehow she saw wonder in it, and she shared it
joyfully with Jonathan.
From what he could gather, the ordinariness of 458
her life was far from ordinary. Sophie had left Elsevier
a decade before, in what seemed like a fit of teenage
rebelliousness—but he hadn’t seen her since. She
had travelled west, ending up in the Freetowns of
Medium. Her letters described a place that was noth-
ing like Elsevier; there were no Corps; there was no
peer review; there was no law of The Civic Method.
Anyone could build and deploy tech without system-
atic validation. Municipal services weren’t integrated
with a single-sign on; they were ad-hoc, best-fit, built
and deployed quickly. Some services were delivered
by loosely defined “Channels” which seemed some-
thing like a Corp, but without structured leadership or
peer validation or licensing fees. And there were no
Neighbourhoods to speak of—people were free to use
what they wanted, to come and go. No one had rights,
but they also didn’t have obligations.
For some reason, his sister seemed to enjoy 459
the wild uncertainty of it all. A few years ago she had
sent a photo, grinning in front of strange, twisted tech-
nology—a knot of repurposed hardware tangled into
clunky, rough-hewn shapes. Slick, glistening tech was
jumbled up and wired together with mechanical cogs
and gears. Nothing seemed safe or logical or legiti-
mate. It was shocking that his letters even found their
way to and from the right address.
He’d never admit it to Sophie, but the Freetowns 460
of Medium genuinely scared Jonathan. And he wor-
ried about her. He would write back the same letter he
always did, imploring her to apply for entry to Elsevier.
Some Neighbourhoods are looking to bring in new
Civic Innovators, he’d write, Yale might even have a
spot. And the sooner she started building her civStat,
the better. Medium might be more exciting, sure, but
what if there was another collapse, a pandemic, a war?
Was Medium really a place to grow old in?

.:;
Nine figures sat in high-backed chairs around a circu- 461
lar table. The room was dark; their faces illuminated by
the glow of screens embedded in the table’s surface.
One of the figures calmly picked up the trail of a sen-
tence, with a faint Swedish accent, “… and how much
was collected this year?”
The screens shifted immediately, infographics 462
gliding to show revenue, accompanied by a smooth
humanoid voice that intoned, “Approximately two and
a half billion tokens, a 6% increase in underlying ad-
justed operating profit.”7
The man tented his fingertips together. “Disap- 463
pointing.” He looked up, addressing the circle of fig-
ures. “I trust we will see increased profit by soliciting a
greater number of technologies?” The room nodded in
agreement. “Quality is inconsequential. Focus on the
rate of submission. There are, after all, more and more
Neighbourhoods, and more applications for entry to
Elsevier. The city is expanding.” He gestured across
the table, “Tell us, Chairman, what of the border?”
Another figure cleared his throat, “Unstable, sir.
There is unrest in the Freetowns of Medium. Militias 464
are aggressing Elsevier to the west, and…” he hesi-
tated, visibly anxious, “within our borders… there is
talk of self-organization among the Civic Innovators.
They want to release technologies without licensing
to Corporations. They’ve built a viral malware,” he
paused. Every one of the figures was looking at him,
tense. “All we know is that it’s called ‘Open Access.’”
The Swede’s fingertips were tented again. 465
Pressed together, visibly white around the nails.
His voice was low and even when he carefully broke
the silence.
“Let them. If this ‘Open Access’ grows any 466
larger, incorporate the source code into some of our
Corporations. Consume it. And meanwhile, raise the
Neighborhood service fees another 7%.”
A barely perceptible shock rippled around the 467
table. “Y-you mean above th-…”
“Yes,” sharp, whip-like. “Above the annual stan- 468
dard increase. We’ve quelled Neighborhood petitions8

7 RELX Group (parent company of 8 Nineteenth Judicial District Court,

Elsevier) (2017) Annual Reports and Parish of East Baton Rouge. (2017)
Financial Statements 2017. Available “Board of Supervisors of Louisiana
at: http://www.relx.com/~/media/ State University and Agricultural
Files/R/RELX-Group/documents/ and Mechanical College Versus
reports/annual-reports/relx2017- Elsevier: Petition for Preliminary
annual-report.pdf Injunction, Declaratory Judgement
and Damages.” February 27, 2017.
Available at: http://www.arl.org/
storage/documents/publications/
2017-LSUElsevier-Petition.pdf
before, and we can do it again.9 They have no choice
but to pay. We own Urban Management,10 we own the
Atmospheric Environment,11 we own their very Cells.12
But most importantly—never forget this—most im-
portantly, they need this city. They are lost without it.
The fear of another Anthropo-collapse has inspired a
passion that cannot be put to words. Do not under-
estimate how deeply they believe in this project that
is Elsevier.” His voice had lowered, spell-like. “Do not
underestimate the opiate of purpose we have given
every one of them. The faith of a voluntary prisoner
is total…”
“… Raise. It.” 469
The sharp ‘t’ was like a surgical cut into the cold 470
fleshy silence that stretched after it.

.:;
Underneath the web of distributed ledgers and cloud 471
of server farms and impartial Corporations, a few lines
of code snaked outward from that round table, as if
the Swede’s words had condensed into two drips of
black oil in water.

9 Sabi Kastro (Elsevier Regional Sales relevance of emissions and

Office, Account Manager) (2017) depositions of gaseous and
Letter to Dr. Stanley Wilder (T.H. particulate compounds, chemical
Middleton Library, Louisiana State processes and physical effects in
University). April 22, 2017. Available the atmosphere, as well as impacts
at: http://www.arl.org/storage/ of the changing atmospheric
documents/publications/2017.04.22- composition on human health,
ElsevierLettertoLSU.pdf air quality, climate change, and
ecosystems.”—A subsidiary of
Elsevier Limited, ISSN: 1352-2310
10 “The Journal of Urban Management Available at: https://www.journals.
is an international, peer-reviewed elsevier.com/atmospheric-
open access journal covering environment
planning, administering, regulating,
and governing urban complexity.”—A 12 “Cell publishes findings of
subsidiary of Elsevier Limited, ISSN: unusual significance in any area of
2226-5856 Available at: https://www. experimental biology, including but
journals.elsevier.com/journal-of- not limited to cell biology, molecular
urban-management biology, neuroscience, immunology,
virology and microbiology, cancer,
11 “Atmospheric Environment is the human genetics, systems biology,
international journal for scientists signalling, and disease mechanisms
in different disciplines related to and therapeutics.”—A subsidiary of
atmospheric composition and its Elsevier Limited, ISSN: 0092-8674
impacts. The journal publishes Available at: https://www.cell.com/
scientific articles with atmospheric
 The civStat algorithm silently rebalanced, 472
immediately pushing out peer review notifications
and shifting tax thresholds and Neighbourhood li-
censing fees. An extraordinarily complex mathe-
matics recalibrated to maintain competition between
Neighbourhoods, to obscure redundant technology
submissions, and most importantly, to keep each Civic
Innovator unknowingly perched at the threshold of
precarity. This is where they were most loyal, and most
productive—without the dangerous rot of free time to
write malware like Open Access. Revolution foments
in in the slack camaraderie of unfilled leisure.

.:;
A notification flashed on Jonathan’s forearm: Block- 473
Garden was declined. His heart skipped. He tapped his
wrist for details, and a soft voice narrated the message
from The Heliyon Corp’s reviewer:
“No initial seed offering. Need stronger reve- 474
nue model. Excess food and tokens should be bun-
dled as an environment credit and redeemed with
Elsevier central gov. Revise project finance model
and resubmit.”

Matthew Claudel co-founded the MITdesignX

program, where he is the Head of Civic Innovation. He
is currently a doctoral candidate, and his research is
focused on the conditions for endogenous innovation
processes that generate urban technology. He is the
co-author of two books, Open Source Architecture
(2016) and The City of Tomorrow (2017).
 REGISTERING
EVE
ETHEREUM1

Alison Powell, London School

of Economics

We are taking the baby to have her birth registered. 475

We leave the flat and lock the door with the card,
then swipe the same card when we get on the bus to
Brixton. The bus is slow as always, and we watch the
auto-cars in the premium lane stream by as we lurch
from stop to stop. At the town hall, I pass the baby over
to Hellen and tap my card in at the reception to identi-
fy us; the hospital records are linked and they should
recognize that Baby has no contracts yet.
We pick up our appointment number. It’s mad- 476
deningly high compared to the numbers being called
when we get to the registrar’s waiting area. While the
baby feeds, a few people walk straight in and go up to
the registration desks. We open the snacks we brought
and settle in. Eventually our number is up, and a per-
son with bright blue eyes and warm brown skin calls
us over.
“Here to register your baby? Does she have 477
a name? And what about you—what are your dates
of birth?”

.;:
1 The following speculative fiction is a thought experiment
that imagines a city being run using smart contracting
over a blockchain. Such a thought experiment would
equally apply regardless of the contracting or blockchain
provider. Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for the purpose of
conducting a thought experiment without intent to infringe.
Each person’s city card opens up to a ledger of con- 478
tracts. These are code-based agreements that spec-
ify what services we can get, under what conditions,
and how these services are delivered. They started
out being run on the blockchain and brokered by a
company called Ethereum, but now hundreds of pri-
vate contract companies draft code that automatically
executes contracts and governs their conditions and
the way they are supposed to be executed.
When we got on the bus, the card triggered a 479
contract that, probably, made an agreement about
whether we had enough money in our account and
enough capital in our Social Capital Repository, and
executed a set of permissions. All at once, and all
through code. All meant to remove the process of try-
ing to decide who to trust, and how. No more back-
ground checking before you’re issued a loan, no more
having a bank to hold cash and broker trust.2
Code-enacted transactions, each one tracked, 480
to remove the messy business of trust and make it
possible to buy, sell or trade each contract. All totally
seamless. All trustworthy, because everything’s em-
bedded in code.3
Or possibly not. When the city opened up bid- 481
ding on smart contracts to replace payments with
credit cards, and proposed allowing third parties to
build smart contract apps for access to services, all
kinds of companies built contractual software fast.
There’s often bugs, which means that unless you have
the funds to join an Escrow Club, occasionally you lose
money and social capital points. It’s just an unfortu-
nate consequence of the game, really.

2 Riikka Koulu (2016) “Blockchains 3 David Gerard (2017) Attack of the 50

and Online Dispute Resolution: Foot Blockchain: Bitcoin, Blockchain
Smart Contracts as an Alternative to and Smart Contracts. Link: http://
Enforcement.” SCRIPTed 40. Link: www.davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain
https://script-ed.org/?p=2669
 I know all of this because I used to write these 482
contracts, in a basement shop in Streatham. We all
got into it because it was easy money at the begin-
ning of the smart contract boom. We knew Python and
so we taught ourselves the Ethereum smart-contract
language, Solidity. It was pretty easy, it seemed. To
enact a contract all you had to do was turn various as-
pects of the decision—about giving someone a loan,
or releasing them from prison - into standard variables.
Then you had to program a set of external conditions
that would trigger another entry onto the blockchain.4
For programmers it was a dream come true—a 483
chance to literally make code into law.5 Every service
and point of interaction became equipped with smart
contracts. The shop I worked for would hire anyone,
regardless of their “official” contract status, which is
how I met Mohammed.
The person behind the desk lets out a long sigh. 484
“There’s an issue with granting her the standard so-
cial contracts. It looks like one of you had an irregular
registration three years ago?”
Mohammed. Three years ago his wife arrived in 485
the back of a truck with some others who were lucky
to find their way through all the borders, all the bio-
metrics, all the bullshit. They must have had money,
back before the war. He was making good money in
Streatham building contracts but didn’t have citizen-
ship papers yet. Mohammed’s wife logged on as an
asylum seeker and eventually got access to state-
backed contracts so that she could go to the hospital
and have her baby, but he didn’t have papers to prove
things one way or another, and so when it came time

4 Sukrit Kalra, Seep Goel, Mohan 5 Ivica Nikolic, Aashish Kolluri, Ilya
Dhawan, Subodh Sharma (2018) Sergey, Prateek Saxena, Aquinas
“ZEUS: Analysing Safety of Smart Hobor (2018) “Finding The Greedy,
Contracts.” Paper presented at Prodigal, and Suicidal Contracts
Network and Distributed Systems at Scale.” Link: https://arxiv.org/
Security (NDSS) Symposium pdf/1802.06038.pdf
2018 18-21 February 2018, San
Diego, USA. Link: http://dx.doi.
org/10.14722/ndss.2018.23082
to register their baby I went along. It seemed the least
I could do for my best friend in the Streatham shop,
and at whose kitchen table I sat, drank tea, and poured
my heart out.
It was just meant to be a temporary measure, a 486
placeholder until Mohammed and Fatima could pay the
contribution and have the registration transferred into
their names, and their son properly registered. But the
contract for the registration that I entered into had a
bug in it (the supplier was later blacklisted, like so many
other fly-by-night third parties), which meant my name
stayed in. An anomaly—something you could easily
explain away, if any one asked. But with contracts, no
one can ask. The code is law.
As a friend, Mohammed is solid. As a program- 487
mer, he’s brilliant, and a little bit edgy. His speciality is
what they call ‘stealth bomb’ contracts. In these, a set
of conditions for triggering a payment are set up so
that they make perfect sense mathematically and logi-
cally, even if they are unfair or downright illegal. These
used to be used all the time—in places like auction
houses, where contracts for bids don’t say that they
are ‘with reserve’, so that bidders pay more than they
really should for an item being auctioned off. Other
stealth bombs could be planted in contracts that made
it possible for third parties to cancel contracts without
the owner of the contract knowing.
Because most people can’t read comput- 488
er code and interpret how laws are being executed
through it, the Escrow Societies could step in with a
great business model: you could pay to have them
scrutinize your contracts, broker your participation
in them, and manage the way that they pay in or out.
They hired the best cyberlawyers, and pushed to
create ways to trigger contracts based on social
capital measures. That led to the creation of a
whole set of businesses—autonomous cars, meal
delivery, medical and personal care—triggered by
measures of social capital and managed by the
Escrow Society. Stealth bombs are still around,
of course, but now they have to be buried deeper.
But people like us don’t have the capital to 489
enter an Escrow Society. Technically the societies
look for evidence of ‘social capital’—connections
to well-known people, degrees from brand-name
universities—but you can also buy into them
with a large enough deposit. So the new ar-
rivals to South London, the Canadian potash
barons fleeing the dust bowl, or ex-Bitcoin
miners priced out by the droughts in China
can buy in with a big initial deposit, but we
never seemed to manage it. And definitely
not now.

.;:
“So”, says the person with the kind eyes, “will you be 490
putting in for the financial contribution?”
We can’t afford the financial contribution. If we 491
could, we could do what Mohammed and Fatima did
and register the baby as a Lambeth resident, and the
local authority would broker contracts for the Universal
Benefits. These include medical care, access to the
housing rental market, access to public transport. And
the ability to apply for a national passport.
“Um, can we make it later?” 492
“You certainly can. But that means that baby’s 493
on Tourist status for now.”
Tourist status means no one is backing your 494
contracts. It means that any minor daily act might
trigger a stealth bomb. It means no guarantee of uni-
versal services, although you can get health care and
accommodation for up to two years, after which every-
thing automatically stops working. It means no chance
to apply for a national passport.
It means accepting unsecured contracts for 495
work, like the ones that I agreed to, which cost me all
my savings once it turned out it had a bug in the code.
It means never getting access to the promised “Smart
Supportive State” providing contracts for access to
medical care, housing, transport and education to en-
sure that everyone who deserves them could get them.
It means moving every two years, registering again
with a new authority as a Tourist, and never building
up any social capital.
 In some places Tourists live on the edges of 496
town, in caravans. They don’t use smart contracts—
they barter for goods and services. And there are ru-
mours that they have set up their own currency so that
they can trade in between cities.
Tourist status. Not a death knell but not far off. 497
I could see Hellen’s face blanch as the reality sunk
in. Of course we’d both try to find funds to pay in, but
if we didn’t? We’d be here and she’d be in a caravan,
or in a Northern city at the end of a road where buses
run only once a day.
I move the baby over to my other shoulder. 498
She’s eaten now, and I feel light headed. I stare at the
lady behind the desk, all of my future visions of us as
a family unspooling.
“Yes” I say. “Tourist status for now.” 499
Hellen looks at me, her eyes filled with tears. 500
How much we wanted this baby girl. How much we
sacrificed. How many whispers in the night, how many
long days in the contract sweatshop. How many con-
tracts triggered at the donor clinic, the hospital, the
social services agency. How much fury when it all
seemed to go wrong, and how little even we, the pro-
grammers, could do to change it.
501
“And baby’s name?”
502
We both say,
503
“Eve.

Alison Powell is an Assistant Professor in the

Department of Media and Communications at LSE.
She researches how people’s values influence the way
technology is built, and how technological systems in
turn change the way we work and live together.
 SUBPRIME
LANGUAGE AND
THE CRASH
GOOGLE ADWORDS1
Pip Thornton, University of Edinburgh

WIRELESS Magazine
May 1, 2044

Subprime language and the crash

Google’s thirst for keywords caused the 2041 Global 504
Linguistic Crisis, says government report. Bust tech gi-
ant ignored warnings its AdWords empire was a threat
to language and the economy.

The government has today released the results 505

of the official enquiry into the causes of the Global
Linguistic Crisis (GLC) which brought down the digital
economy in late 2041 and threatened the stability of
human communication.
The report was written by researchers from 506
the University of London in collaboration with offi-
cials from the banking sector and the Royal Society
for the Preservation of Digital Media. As well as expert

1 The following speculative fiction article is a thought

experiment that imagines what happens when the logic of
linguistic capitalism takes over the running of cities. Such
a thought experiment could equally apply for other search
engines. Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for the purpose of
conducting a thought experiment without intent to infringe.
sources, the report draws heavily on the archive of dig-
ital-era paper print-outs found in a bunker beneath a
garage in Mountain View, Ca. shortly after the collapse
of now defunct internet provider Google.
Described as a ‘shrine to the printed word’, and 507
stored in defiance of the 2020 International Paperless
Society Act (IPSA), the documents included print-
ed copies of internal memos, ‘blog’ posts, and the
hand-written diary of an unidentified Google employee
who appears to have predicted the linguistic crash as
far back as 2025.

Mountain View woman

‘All we know is that she was a woman’, the report 508
states, ‘who very early on raised concerns about the
consequences of Google’s project to link their digi-
tal advertising platform AdWords, with real estate in-
vestment and their global takeover of internet service
provision and data storage.’ These concerns appear
to have fallen on deaf ears.
‘This is linguistic capitalism gone mad’, wrote 509
the woman in a diary entry from 2025, ‘It’s not enough
that we wring every last penny out of words by auction-
ing them every time we put them through the internet.
Now we have to agree for everything we SAY to be
monetised!’
Researchers say the diary entry refers to 510
Google’s move from serving adverts as search results
based on the auctioning of keywords, to harnessing
and exploiting the language circulating in physical
spaces. This was a switch in tactics made possible at
first by Google’s growing dominance as gatekeeper to
the internet and latterly as the landlord of vast swathes
of land and property.

Crisis
The 2041 GLC prompted the collapse of the modern 511
digital economy, put an end to internet connected
communication, and led to the mass destruction of ev-
ery piece of information held on Google’s custom-built
server island in the North Atlantic. Its effects are still
being felt today, and like the last Global Financial Crisis
in 2008, its roots can be traced to the property market.
At the height of the crash, Google controlled ac- 512
cess to every Wifi network in the world, owned 95% of
all real estate in the UK, Europe, and North America, and
was responsible for the digital-urbanisation of much of
Africa and the global south. It was a property and data
empire financed purely by the monetisation of words.
According to the researchers, sometime in 513
2020 Google had what they call a ‘material turn.’
Bosses at the tech giant began to realise that their
monopoly of digital space could seriously limit further
expansion of profits in the future. They needed to start
exploiting physical space too. Google’s successful
monetisation of digital space had begun to fund a
mass property purchase and construction scheme.
Pilot schemes such as in Canadian cities in the 514
late 2010s had been so successful that Google was
fast becoming the dominant landlord of physical sites
as well as web sites, networks and web space. ‘What
if we build real sites as well as web sites?’, reads one
excited internal electronic message found in the bun-
ker, ‘We could advertise on buildings, OMG we could
make buildings out of adverts!’
And that is ultimately what Google did. They built 515
cities out of electronic adverts based on their old highly
successful web-based system of AdWords. These cities
were constructed of keywords, built into the material
fabric of the architecture, but also into the virtual fabric
of the infosphere via Wifi permissions and the growing
trend for web-based ‘personal assistants’, which, after
the demise of competitors such as Amazon Digital 2.0
and Faceswipe, became the ubiquitous eyes and ears
at the frontier of Google’s expansion.

Linguistic bubble
‘They say it’s saving the rain forests’, reads another 516
diary entry, apparently in reference to the IPSA of
2020, ‘but that’s just a cover. What they’re really do-
ing is making us into walking, talking adverts. They’re
creating a linguistic bubble.’
Etienne Smith, from the University of London’s 517
department for Critical Analogue Humanities, was one
of the co-authors of the report. He told WIRELESS: ‘It’s
sometimes hard to believe, but there came point in the
2020s, when in some predominantly urban environ-
ments, it became physically impossible to communi-
cate, in writing and face to face, without every word
being monetised by Google.’
‘People know that if they use certain words, 518
they get more data and cheaper Wifi bills, and this
changes in different areas, so if you talk about how
wonderful Google is here in the Bay area, you end up
with loads of money. And if you talk about rival prod-
ucts in a building sponsored by a particular advertiser,
you get less data at a higher price.’
Google’s use of speech for advertising began 519
in the data-rich catchment areas of central business
and commercial districts of major global cities, where
skyscrapers, complexes, parks and roads were con-
structed around the advertising space they could dis-
play digitally and dynamically. But what the report calls
the ‘AdWords effect’ quickly spread to other areas,
infecting everyday speech in local neighbourhoods
and in people’s homes.
‘The value of language changed’, says Smith, 520
a specialist in critical forensic banking and the lin-
guistic economy. ‘It became unsustainable. Nobody
could trust anything anybody else said.’ ‘Tranches of
language developed in different areas, and the poor
became poorer as their language became worthless.’

Urban collapse
As with the GFC of 2008, it was in these poorer com- 521
munities that the worst effects of the trouble began to
show. ‘In the early 2000s it was low income Americans
being sold property they couldn’t afford that started
the crisis’, says Smith, ‘but by the late 2030s the cloud-
based internet schemes launched by the early tech
giants in the 2010s had facilitated the construction
of thousands of towns and cities across the global
South, all of them built on the apparent stability of the
linguistic economy.’
 The government report makes for sobering 522
reading. While the GLC caused widespread economic
and social hardship in the US and Europe, in the newly
urbanised areas of East and Central Africa alone it
is estimated that up to a million people lost their lives
in the civil wars and famines that followed the crash.
According to Smith, the Google AdWords effect 523
had already begun to polarise these new communi-
ties by decimating indigenous languages in favour
of English, creating hierarchies based on linguistic
skill, and also physical access. ‘Those with a better
command of English basically began to command
physical space as well. The less educated and poorer
occupants of these new urban spaces were denied
access to the richest linguistic areas so they couldn’t
earn anything from speaking there.’ Even the 2038
AdWords Riots in New Sahara didn’t make Google stop
what they were doing, says Smith. ‘The tech compa-
nies got greedy. They didn’t care that these new devel-
opments were turning into deeply segregated areas.
They were making billions from these new markets. In
my opinion, yes, they did have blood on their hands.’

Linguistic liquidity
So, what became of Mountain View woman and her 524
archive? Did her bubble burst? ‘Yes, it did’, says Smith.
‘We lost the ability to communicate. Language in ef-
fect became subprime, and once the advertising in-
dustry imploded, the digital economy collapsed like a
house of cards.’
 Smith’s favourite part of the archive is a diary 525
entry from August 2033 which simply reads ‘Words
are worth more than money.’ ‘I think she was right’, he
says. ‘In financial terms we would say that language
had become so tied to an economic value, rather than,
say, a poetic one, that words had in effect become
illiquid. Their only meaning – or value – was what
they were worth in an advert, and when advertising
became part of the infrastructure, this had horrific
consequences.’
‘It’s possible she’s still alive and reading this 526
article, but as most former Google employees went
to ground after the crash, it’s unlikely we’ll ever know
who she was.’
Also found in the bunker was a collection of po- 527
etry, an English translation of a short story by French
author Alain Damasio, Les Hauts Parleurs, and a heav-
ily annotated paper copy of George Orwell’s Nineteen
Eighty-Four, one of only a handful of pre-crash copies
known to be in existence.

Do you know Mountain View woman? Call 528

WIRELESS with any information.

Pip Thornton is a Post-Doctoral Research Associate

in Creative Informatics at the Edinburgh College
of Art, where she takes a critical and creative
approach to the concepts of data and value in the
digital economy. Her artistic intervention into the
cultural and political effects of Google’s search
and advertising platforms, {poem}.py, has been
featured in WIRED UK, and is currently on display
at the Open Data Institute in London (2017-2019).
 SEEING THE
CITY THROUGH
GOOGLE’S EYES
GOOGLE ARLens1

Leighton Evans, Swansea University

There is a familiar argument that reality has always 529

been augmented through communication and other
technologies.2 The emergence of augmented reality
(AR) technology represents an altogether new obtru-
sive augmentation of the perception of reality through
the overlaying of data and computer-generated graph-
ics onto the everyday perception of the world. Most of
the attention paid to AR technology so far has been
on its instantiations in gaming,3 such as Pokémon
Go, a smartphone app-based game that used GPS
and the camera to enable players to find, reveal and
collect Pokémons hidden in the physical world. Soon,
the smartphone will be superseded as a physical de-
vice for the delivery of AR by wearable technology.
Products such as the Magic Leap, a head-mounted
virtual retinal display which superimposes 3D com-
puter-generated imagery over real world objects and
environments, have begun to emerge for developers

1 The following article provides a mix 2 Ong, W. J. (1982) Orality and literacy:
of speculative fiction and academic The technologizing of the word.
analysis to examine the impacts of London: Methuen.
AR on city life. Product or corporate
names may be trademarks or 3 Hjorth, L., & Richardson, I. (2017).
registered trademarks, and are used “Pokémon Go: Mobile media
only for identification, explanation play, place-making, and the
and conducting a thought digital wayfarer.” Mobile Media
experiment without intent to infringe. & Communication. 5 (1), 3-14.
doi:10.1177/2050157916680015
in 2018, with a projected commercial release in 2020.4
The Magic Leap alters the user’s view of the world; by
looking through its lenses, computer-generated dig-
ital objects enter the perceptual field and ‘appear’ as
part of the world. Should this transformation of form
be achieved in a way that is affordable to consumers
and is acceptable in a fashion-sense, then AR affords
the possibilities of augmenting reality with all sorts of
information, from retail advice to historical points of
interest. Here, I conduct a short thought experiment,
speculating on AR modelled through the practices and
organisational aims of Google to illustrate the potential
effects of AR on everyday urban life with respect to
memory, attention and focus.

.;:
In 2025, there are two dominant options for consumer 530
AR. The first is the Apple iGlass, a stylish, expensive
and desirable piece of hardware running the Apple AR
operating system modelled on—and fully compatible
with—its own iOS operating system for mobile devices.
The second is the Google ARLens platform, which runs
on a myriad of AR hardware produced by Google and
other third-party manufacturers. ARLens is modelled
after the Android operating system, with applications
available through the Play Store. The ARLens platform
is considered more robust due to its interoperability with
third party devices. ARLens uniquely offers city-specif-
ic interfaces thanks to its integration of Google Maps
and Google’s willingness to work with civic authorities to
shape the view of the city based on civic co-operation

4 Magic Leap has already achieved

$1.9 billion in equity without any
plan as yet for a product launch,
see: Bradshaw, T. (2017) “Magic
Leap conjures $502m in funds for
$1.9bn total equity.” Financial Times.
October 17, 2017. Link: https://www.
ft.com/content/8da22784-b382-
11e7-a398-73d59db9e399
with their Sidewalk Labs initiative, incorporating citizen
science and public data.
Much of the consumer buzz around the ARLens 531
experience has concerned the ‘personal view’ phe-
nomena. The content of the digital overlay is always
linked to the Google account of the user. Having an ac-
tive account is a necessary step in activating the plat-
form. Data accrued from web searches on Google’s
browser search engine, emails received and sent in
Gmail, locations searched for in Google Maps, and all
the other myriad data continually generated through
interaction with the Google ecosystem (including the
ARLens platform), is algorithmically distilled into data
for the ARLens experience. Thanks to this consoli-
dated, individual data mining, two people can walk
hand in hand down the same street and will have
totally different data-mediated experiences thanks
to their histories of interaction with Google. Screen-
scraping and sharing the differences in the data-view
of the same place has become one of the most popular
meme genres of 2025.
 What is seen in the high street is also seen in 532
the shopping mall. Google’s selected partners receive
prominent placement in the glasses view, with more
detailed information relating to special offers overlaid
onto the store windows. Looking away so the store is
not in view is not a panacea to this feature, as other
stores have similar overlays and signs point back to
nearby out-of-view places. ARLens users also report
having residual effects from casting their gaze for too
long on one shop front or product. These locations or
goods become part of an annoying visual stream of in-
formation that can take considerable effort to change
or ‘silence.’ Shops and products that are not in the vast
databanks of the AR platforms and applications are
ignored by the overlays—and increasingly ignored
by consumers as their everyday retail movements are
directed and mediated by augmented eyeware that
maintains a continual contextual data-feed.
The ARLens has quickly established a dom- 533
inant market share thanks to lower entry costs and
diversity of hardware using the platform than its rivals.
As AR becomes both a fashion item and an essential
part of navigating the everyday urban environment,
familiar concerns about privacy and data harvesting
are exercised. The odd crisis, such as the utilisation
of gaze data to manipulate political advertising by a
third-party analytics company associated with vari-
ous right-wing politicians on both sides of the Atlantic
are high-profile but short-term problems as the utility
of the device is seen as greater than its threats. The
logic seems to run that while the platforms possess
data on what users look at and for how long, it’s a fair
trade for knowing everything about a place as soon
as you see it.

.;:
AR of this kind would have a profound effect on our 534
understanding of the city. The AR-mediated city
would be a patchwork of places and non-places,5
where the non-place is defined by a lack of data or
information provided in the eyeline of the user. An
understanding of place would be contingent on the
nature of the information provided to the user as well
as their history of Google usage and their connectiv-
ity to the ARLens servers.
The phenomenological experience of place 535
itself would be shaped by the constant flicker and
hum of the AR eyewear chosen by users. Of course,
the user would not be helpless in this transformation;
taking off the glasses would always be an option to
experience the city outside of the stream of contextual,
individualised data. In the wider context of a world of
information technology, where the cognitive load of
everyday life is increasingly delegated to networked
devices, the appropriate question might be why would
people turn off a device that tells them where to go,
how to get there, where they will like, and what it will
cost them? The ARLens offers instant familiarity, in-
stant wayfinding and navigation, elision of the unde-
sirable and unwanted in the urban environment, and
prioritisation of the desired and liked, all seamlessly
provided through algorithmic processing of massive
data trails individualised by source. The city is trans-
formed into safe spaces that are shared with those that
hold similar traits and desires according to Google’s
data profiles.
There is little doubt that wearable AR technol- 536
ogy is coming. Google has signalled its commitment

5 Auge, M (1992) Non-Places:

An Introduction to Anthropology of
Supermodernity. London: Verso, p. 122.
to AR through the provision of ARCore as a software
development kit (SDK) for AR on the Android operating
platform. AR represents for Google not only a medium
that can overlay the ‘real’ world with digital informa-
tion (selected and provided by Google) but which also
can be harnessed to make the movement, mobility,
gaze and the attention of users in everyday situations
computable in ways that go beyond the granularity
currently offered by smartphones and other devices.
Given the levels of data harvesting that those devices
currently offer, AR promises to expand the platform
economy of Google by extending the possibilities of
data accumulation and processing. This economic
model is one where a few companies dominate as they
control of the medium of exchange that is critical in
this model: attention.6
The attention economy is based on an ac- 537
knowledgement that time, not material goods, is the
key scarcity in modern society.7 The key to the atten-
tion economy is to create an environment where the
attention paid in the present can refer to a past and
a future within a given experience or platform. As a
platform, Google stores our past and aims to predict
our future. With AR, it can harvest more of the present,
shape behaviour in real-time, and anticipate and direct
future behaviour.
When attention is directed through, rather than 538
towards, digital devices then the attention economy will
reach its zenith. Here, seeing and moving in a city may
be less an experience of urban life and more an ex-
periment in a digital Skinner Box.8 The original Skinner
Box involved training an animal through responses to

6 Keen, A. (2017). “The ‘attention 7 Becker, G. S. (1965). “A Theory

economy’ created by Silicon Valley of the Allocation of Time.” The
is bankrupting us.” Techcrunch. July Economic Journal. 75 (299), 493.
31 2017. Link: https://techcrunch. doi:10.2307/2228949
com/2017/07/30/the-attention-
economy-created-by-silicon-valley- 8 Lanier, J. (2017) The Dawn of the
is-bankrupting-us New Everything: A Journey through
Virtual Reality. New York: Bodley
Head, pp. 62.
stimuli and rewarding correct behaviour with positive
reinforcement until the behaviour becomes habitu-
al. Jaron Lanier uses this term in reference to virtual
reality and how that medium is ideal in measuring all
sensory inputs as well as controlling the visual and
sensory environment for users. With an ARLens over
our eyes, the stimuli are provided for us, directing mo-
bility, behaviour and actions in accordance with the
logic of the providing organisation. The phenomenal
experience of space would be continually made and
remade before our eyes as a function of data we pro-
vide through our activities on the Google platform—
and that Google and its business associates provide
for us. We would not be seeing a city like Google—our
seeing of the city would be directed by Google, for
Google and its interests.

Leighton Evans is a Senior Lecturer in Media Theory

at Swansea University, where his research is
concerned with Virtual and Augmented Reality and
Phenomenology. Leighton is the author of Locative
Social Media: Place in the Digital Age (2015) and
The Re-Emergence of Virtual Reality (2018).
 THERE IS NO
SUCH A THING
AS FREE
INFRASTRUCTURE
GOOGLE FIBER1
Tooran Alizadeh, University of Sydney

Edward Helderop and Tony Grubesic,

Arizona State University

Imagine having access to ultra-high-speed internet, up 539

to hundred times faster than any pre-existing service,
with a competitive price, more reasonable than any-
thing that you have ever seen before. Imagine if a major
corporation decided to build such a dream-come-true
telecommunication infrastructure for free. Imagine if
cities were to organize campaigns, create Facebook
pages, upload YouTube videos, and collect signatures
to put forward their case for priority access to the next
generation of telecommunication infrastructure. And
finally, imagine that when a city was selected to receive
the ultra-high-speed telecommunication infrastructure,
you, as the citizen, had the power to determine exactly
where it would be deployed! This is one way that cities
could provide their citizens with the next generation of
telecommunication infrastructure—just the way Google
Fiber was introduced.

1 The following academic article examines the relationship

between cities and companies such as Google Fiber in
providing telecom services. Product or corporate names may
be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only
for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
In February 2010, Google challenged US cities2 to 540
compete for being the site of its first attempt at build-
ing an ultra-high-speed fiber-to-the-premises network
(FTTP), with speeds up to 1 gigabit per second. More
than 1,100 cities staged elaborate stunts as part of
their applications. Kansas City, however, was an-
nounced as the winner of the competition. In 2013,
Google expanded their FTTP network to Austin, Texas,
and Provo, Utah; and later in 2014 announced expan-
sion plans to 34 US cities. Google Fiber was wide-
ly acclaimed in its first few years, with Kansas City
being anointed as a “broadband mecca.” The Fiber
project was also roundly welcomed as a triumph for
free markets, and as a model for telecommunications
deployment for other cities to follow.3
The honeymoon phase, however, did not last 541
long for Google Fiber. In August 2015, Google an-
nounced its intention to restructure the company, mov-
ing it into a new umbrella corporation, Alphabet Inc.
This was then followed with numerous media reports4
suggesting that Google Fiber was under pressure by
Alphabet to limit the scope of the project and the num-
ber of cities involved. In part, this pressure stemmed
from corporate losses related to Google Fiber, nearly
$3.6 billion in 2016.5
Interestingly, the details and facts on Fiber are 542
relatively limited, with Alphabet never releasing de-
tails on the size of its investment in any of the Google
Fiber cities. What is known, however, is where the con-
struction took place, slowed, or stalled completely (e.g.,
San Jose and Portland). Below, we briefly examine the
ups and downs of the Google Fiber—with a focus on

2 Link: http://googleblog.blogspot. 4 Kleeman, S. (2016). “Google Fiber

com/2010/02/think-big-with-gig-our- Got Kicked in the Nuts by Alphabet.”
experimental.html Gizmodo. Link: http://gizmodo.com/
google-fiber-got-kicked-in-the-nuts-
3 Chan, C. (2013) “A City Getting by-alphabet-1785764632
Google Fiber Explains How
Awesome Google Fiber Is.” 5 Fiegerman, S. (2016). “Google’s
Gizmodo. Link: http://gizmodo.com/ moonshots lost $1 billion last
a-city-getting-google-fiber-explains- quarter.” CNN. Link: http://money.
how-awesome-google-1393294179 cnn.com/2017/01/26/technology/
google-earnings-q4/
Kansas City—highlighting what cities can learn from
the experience.

Early attempts at fiberhood selection were

disastrous from an equality perspective
After announcing Kansas City as the inaugural Google 543
Fiber site, the first major step for the rollout was to
determine exactly where the Fiber would be deployed.
To make this aspect of the project more transparent,
Google carved the city into ‘fiberhoods’—the neigh-
bourhoods that would receive the ultra-high-speed
broadband infrastructure. For network eligibility, it was
required that at least 5% of the residents of any fiber-
hood had to register for the service—paying a small
fee of $10 during a six-week registration period. The
progress of fiberhood pre-registrations was then dis-
played on the Fiber website using a basic map. Green
areas indicated that the pre-registration goal had been
met; and yellow signified that the pre-registration goal
was yet to be achieved.
The pre-registration system adopted by Google 544
proved to be a recipe for disaster; and drew strong
criticism. The process manifested a sharp visualiza-
tion of socio-demographic disparities and the digital
divide in Kansas City: affluent white neighbourhoods
easily met pre-registration targets, but lower-income,
predominantly black and Hispanic neighbourhoods did
not. In other words, the pre-registration process dis-
played how naive Google was about the implications of
the deep socio-economic inequalities and pre-existing
digital divide in Kansas City. For example, Google had
completely overlooked that many households (up to
70% on the impoverished Missouri side) had always
been without at-home internet access, making the
online pre-registration process almost impossible for
them. If anything, early attempts at fiberhood selection
did not present any hope of erasing the digital divide
in the city. Instead, it made the divide more visible.

Grassroots campaign with community groups

saved the day
Under significant pressure from both the public and me- 545
dia in Kansas City, Google made the decision to revise
their early fiberhood strategy. This was done through a
grassroots campaign involving numerous community
groups and significant wor in the field, for Google.
In July 2012, a team of 60 Google employ- 546
ees got involved with grassroots community work,
talking to neighbourhood associations, going to town
hall meetings and church meetups to proselytize the
promise of Google Fiber. The learning curve for Goo-
gle was steep. They realized that many residents liv-
ing in minority-dominated areas did not speak English
(e.g. Hispanic communities), were not in the tradition-
al banking system, and did not have a credit or deb-
it card number to pre-register. Google’s effort on the
ground was supported by community groups which
ended up offering pre-paid debit cards—made avail-
able partly through a crowd-funding platform—for the
$10 pre-registration fee. In time, the extensive grass-
roots community-based worked, with nearly 90% of
all fiberhoods turning green in Kansas City, including
many of the minority-dominated communities.
Equitable outcome despite the lack
of data transparency
To examine the Google Fiber roll-out from an equity 547
perspective, we reached out to Alphabet to request
service data on multiple occasions. All requests were
denied—met with either silence, or a refusal on the
grounds of security concerns. This was not unex-
pected. Telecommunications companies, as a rule,
typically refuse to share data with academics and/or
policy-makers.
Not easily deterred, we instead developed a 548
novel data mining approach which was combined with
exploratory spatial data techniques to highlight the
provision footprints of Fiber for Kansas City, Provo,
and Austin.6 Specifically, our efforts to determine the
spatial provision of Google Fiber for each city included
several steps. First, city boundary, address points and
cadastral data were obtained for each city. Next, a
spatial grid was produced for each location, including
its neighbouring communities. Then, a randomly se-
lected set of addresses from each grid cell was used
as an input into the ‘Check Your Address’ function on
the Google Fiber website. This process was automat-
ed. Each individual query generated a response from
the Fiber website that provided details on the availabili-
ty of Fiber for the queried address. Lastly, we explored
the demographic and socio-economic differences
between areas with access to Fiber (‘haves’) and those
without access (‘have-nots’). The resulting patterns
were quite telling. Given the persistence of the digital
divide in the US, especially within urban areas, Google

6 Grubesic, T., Helderop, E., Alizadeh,

T. (2018). “Closing information
asymmetries: A scale agnostic
approach for exploring equity
implications of broadband provision.”
Telecommunications Policy. DOI:
10.1016/j.telpol.2018.04.002
Fiber had managed to manifest an equitable roll-out;
and to maintain a socio-spatial distribution that fa-
voured neighbourhoods with younger, lower income,
minority populations.
It is important to remember, however, that there 549
were significant costs to the communities embedded
in this process—costs not borne by Google. A closer
examination of urban governance and the Fiber proj-
ects7 across the US has highlighted massive regulato-
ry concessions and incentives provided to Fiber during
the construction phase in Kansas City, Provo, San
Antonio, Huntsville and many other cities. For example,
Kansas City provided Google access to all city-owned
conduit, fiber, poles, rack space, nodes, buildings,
facilities, central office locations and available land.
Moreover, Kansas City did not impose any charges
for access to these facilities, nor did the city require
any permit or inspection fees. Additional concessions
were made by Kansas City, including an agreement to
use third-party inspection firms, selected by Google, to
ensure compliance during the installation process. In
addition, Kansas City provided Google with access to
all municipal GIS data and technical information data-
bases, cooperation in publicity and marketing efforts
effort and assistance to Google in obtaining settle-
ment-free interconnections with anchor institutions
in the city that had existing network connections (see
the Development Agreement8 for more information).
In short, although Google designed and in- 550
stalled the network, much of the administrative cost
was absorbed by Kansas City and its surrounding
communities with taxpayers forced to cover most of

7 Alizadeh, T., Grubesic, T., & 8 Kansas City, 2011. Development

Helderop, E. (2017). “Urban Agreement. Link: http://www.
governance and big corporations in netcompetition.org/wp-content/
the digital economy: An investigation uploads/Google-Kansas-
of socio-spatial implications of Agreement1.pdf
Google Fiber in Kansas City.”
Telematics and Informatics. 34(7),
973-986.
the indirect costs for the network. It has been argued
that Kansas City’s support for Google’s network went
well beyond deregulation and in some instances local
efforts were described as ‘corporate welfare.’ For ex-
ample, the media9 questioned fee waivers for the use
of rights-of-way; citing these corridors under Kansas
City’s streets and on its utility poles as a scarce, tax-
payer-owned resource. When a city offers a private
company access to those resources for free, it’s for-
going an opportunity to collect revenues. Questions
were also raised as taxpayers, rather than Google, paid
to hire extra city staff to supervise the project.
There is, however, a second side to this debate. 551
Specifically, there are questions pertaining to the eco-
nomic logic of a private firm building new fiber net-
works without taxpayer subsidies. If one accepts this
argument, then there is an obligation to ensure that
the resulting infrastructure and associated services
are equitably distributed for all residents, regardless of
location or socio-economic status. In the case of the
Kansas City metropolitan area, where taxpayers did
subsidize the roll-out of Fiber, the results of our anal-
ysis suggest that both Kansas City and Google Fiber
met this obligation in terms of achieving an equitable
distribution of telecommunication services.

What can cities learn?

Google Fiber is a complex project with important les- 552
sons for cities seeking equitable telecommunication
infrastructure: First, Google Fiber’s success in deploy-
ing an equitable socio-spatial roll-out was only possible

9 Hamblin, M., 2012. “Taxpayers

subsidizing Google Fiber
project.” ComputerWorld. Link:
http://www.computerworld.
com/article/2492159/wireless-
networking/taxpayers-subsidizing-
google-fiber-project.html
after Google realized the need to run a highly localized,
grassroots campaign—in collaboration with community
advocate groups—to reach out to the socio-economi-
cally impoverished sections of the city. This multilater-
al partnership between a telecommunication provider
(Google), local government, and a community (i.e., in-
stitutions and residents)—is more complex than the
broadband debate and industry generally allows for.
Second, Google Fiber’s refusal to release detail infor-
mation on their network to the public, slowed, but did
not stop our research into the equity implications of the
Fiber network. Indeed, advancements in data mining
approaches and spatial analysis techniques make it
difficult for both governments and telecommunication
providers to fully avoid public and academic scrutiny.
Last, but not least, we praise Google Fiber’s effort in
working with community groups in Kansas City, as well
as ensuring the equitable provision of Fiber in Provo
and Austin. However, we acknowledge the massive
cost borne by taxpayers in each city—via the numer-
ous concessions and incentives received by Google
Fiber. In other words, there is no such a thing as free
infrastructure. Cities need be aware of the hidden cost
whenever partnering with corporations.

Tooran Alizadeh is a senior lecturer, director of urban

design program, and also a recipient of the prestigious
Research Accelerator Fellowship (SOAR) at the
University of Sydney. Tooran is an interdisciplinary
academic researching policy and planning implications
of telecommunication infrastructure with a focus on the
broadband deployment, and smart cities.

Edward Helderop is currently working on his PhD

in Geographical Sciences. His research interests
include GIScience, big data, and network analytics
(particularly as applied to urban infrastructure
systems). His previous research explored turnover and
resiliency in plant-pollinator networks.

Tony Grubesic serves as Director for the Center for

Spatial Reasoning & Policy Analytics at Arizona State
University. His research interests include spatial
analysis, geocomputation, urban informatics and
policy evaluation.
 BEING XTRA
IN GRINDR CITY
GRINDR1

Gavin Brown, University of Leicester

Grindr City has grown so much in the ten years since 553
we took control. Most days there are about a million
of us in the city at any one time; but there are millions
more who owe some allegiance to the city spread
across the world. The promise of life in Grindr City,
and the connections that our friends outside the city
maintain with us, allows them to exist even in those
places where we are not welcome.
That we became a city in the first place took 554
some of us by surprise, that wasn’t part of the plan.
Grindr began as a networking application used by
gay, bi and bi-curious men. It has always been pre-
dominantly used for sexual contact. At first the app
drove everything. It helped us feel a new sense of
connection to people in our neighbourhoods and
around the world.
Over time, as I’ll describe, the app began to re- 555
shape and enhance our experience of the city’s people
and places. Now, I guess, the people who use the app,
the services we use, and the connections we make

1 The following speculative fiction and satire imagines a

city being run through the Grindr platform. Such a thought
experiment could equally apply if the city were run by Tinder
or other dating apps. Product or corporate names may be
trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for
the purpose of conducting a thought experiment without
intent to infringe.
with each other seem to form something like a city of
our own stretched across the wider urban sprawl. That,
in turn, has attracted more people to relocate here, so
that they could enjoy a city shaped by our needs too.
In the early years of the app, Grindr did little 556
to directly advertise its services. They relied on gay
men’s tendency to gossip—about sex—to recruit new
users. Over time the services they offered expanded
until they structured our whole experience of the city.
Of course, most of us knew that there was a business
behind the app, but we didn’t give it much thought.
Our attention was held by the app itself and it drove
how we acted.
Who knew that such a simple app and gossip 557
could change so much? The app’s interface offers
a grid of users’ representative photos arranged from
nearest to furthest away: some show their faces, oth-
ers are disembodied torsos at the gym. Tapping on a
picture opens up their profile and options to chat, send
photos and your location to them. In this way, the app
enabled ‘discreet’ contact between men and so much
grew out of that.
No one really likes to talk about it, but there is 558
a powerful class divide in Grindr City (and, of course,
we do gossip about it—all the time). We get to choose
which class we belong to—Basic or Xtra. It all depends
on whether we want to pay for Grindr or not. On the
face of it, the tax is quite low; and the longer you com-
mit to paying, the cheaper it gets. I was happy enough
bumping along as a Basic for a long while; but eventu-
ally I realised that, for a modest payment each month, I
could become the person I wanted to be. I wanted Xtra.
 The Basics still get to use the standard facilities 559
in the app (and our city). But that comes with some
trade-offs—everything is interrupted by adverts, all
of the time. The ads can be distracting, but they tell
us all about the local services we’ve come to rely on
so much—the bars, the clubs, the gyms, and under-
standing doctors. The app helps focus our attention
on the services that the city has to offer us. Although
we’re not always conscious of it, it shapes where we
choose to go and directs our movements round the
city. Xtras get a better deal, though. We can see more
users, and get all sorts of Xtra services—originally,
these were mainly enhanced functionality on the app,
but now we get priority service throughout our city.
Being Xtra allows you to be more selective in 560
the people you see and meet. As an Xtra, I can select
my men according to their height, weight, body type,
ethnicity, position2 or relationship status. Of course,
when I was Basic I could just ask them these things.
Being Xtra is just more efficient all round. Now I don’t
have to bother with exchanging that Basic information,
I enjoy the back and forth of conversation—the more,
the better—but I can get directly to the good stuff. I’ve
been told that there’s lots of racism and other prejudice
on the app; but I don’t see that. People simply have
personal preferences—and especially when you’re
an Xtra, you need to be discriminating.
Grindr took control of our lives in this city when 561
the app became the primary means of social interaction
and accessing services for gay and bi men. To outsid-
ers, it might seem strange that conversations which
seldom progress beyond a phatic ‘what u doing?’ could

2 i.e. preferred sex role.

make such a difference. Sometimes we spend hours
online waiting for someone to talk to us. Yet, when we do
chat, so many of our interactions are defined by a desire
for an instantaneous meeting; and lots end abruptly
if that cannot be arranged. Time passes curiously in
Grindr City. Some say that that desire for immediate
gratification distorts the interactions we have with each
other. Even when some planning and preparation is
needed to arrange a ‘date’ many meetings never hap-
pen as the other guy will simply disappear and ghost
you. Of course, I never do that.
Grindr realised we didn’t just use the app for 562
flirting and sex talk, but asked each other for recom-
mendations when we travelled or arrived somewhere
new. Lots of times we just hang out and chat about our
lives. Grindr listened and offered access to new apps
that offered us a ‘broader gay lifestyle platform.’3 On
one level the men in Grindr City are a diverse bunch,
but we tend to cluster into distinct subgroups (we call
them tribes). The services that Grindr directs us to are
tailored to the needs of our tribe and help us feel like
we belong.
In the Old World, when universal health care 563
was being dismantled, Grindr stepped in to help. They
listened to health experts and encouraged us to dis-
close our HIV status and viral load. They wanted to
challenge the stigma around HIV and promote the ben-
efits of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis and ‘treatment as
prevention’ to combat the retrovirus. I don’t know how
well it worked. Lots of us did start being more honest
about our health status; but I still remember seeing
some men stating that they were only interested in

3 Venturebeat (2016) “Mobile apps

analytics: how Grindr monetizes 6
million users (webinar).” Venturebeat.
Link: https://venturebeat.
com/2016/04/05/mobile-app-
analytics-how-grindr-monetizes-6-
million-active-users-webinar/
meeting ‘clean people.’ All that got worse for a while
back in 2018 when troublemakers revealed that Grindr
was sharing data, including our HIV status, with busi-
nesses and agencies we’d never heard of. Some peo-
ple walked away. The panic quickly subsided and was
forgotten. We understood that Grindr knew what was
best for us.
One thing that helped with building Grindr City 564
was when we formed our tribes. Even before the city
became a reality, we got to declare which tribe we be-
longed to—Bear, Clean-cut, Daddy, Discreet, Geek,
Jock, Leather, Otter, Poz, Rugged, Trans or Twink4; as
well as the tribes whose members we’re looking for.
Even Basics can name their tribe and choose only to
see the members of the tribes they’re hot for. The tribal
system has shaped the city more than we imagined
it could. Most of us are not so closed-minded that we
only hang out with our own tribe; but we certainly use
the filters to avoid contact with some of them. Xtras
certainly prefer to live around members of their own
tribe. Though, the Discreet tribe never really worked
out how to hang out with each other and always seem
to lurk on the edge of others’ territories.
Lots of people make the mistake of thinking 565
there are only men in Grindr City, but that’s not true.
There’s a place here for our Trans sisters, always has
been. But there are other women here—not just in the
wider city, beyond the app, but in Grindr City too. They
mostly live with the Discreets. I have some fantastic
women colleagues at work, who I love chatting to
(when I can drag myself away from the men on Grindr).
It’s nice to keep a connection with them, they help me

4 Bonner-Thompson, C. (2017) “‘The

meat market’: production and
regulation of masculinities on the
Grindr grid in Newcastle-upon-Tyne,
UK.” Gender, Place & Culture. 24(11):
pp. 1611-1625.
to find my way in the wider city on those rare
occasions I decide to see what lies beyond our
space. I’ve read the history books and I know
that, in the past, gay men used to hide away
in the closet out of shame. But our reality feels
different. I don’t think we’re hiding, but a lot of
the time, I don’t see the point of engaging with the
city beyond Grindr more than I absolutely have to.
Even before they took control, Grindr helped
me understand my place in the city differently.
Before Grindr, I used to go out to the bars and the
old cruising grounds to find other gays (I could never
afford to live in one of those mythical gaybourhoods).
But when Grindr came along I saw my neighbours
differently. It didn’t matter if I never chatted to them,
I knew they were there. But, then as now, seeing who
else is around can be too revealing, and sometimes I
have to liberally use the block function.
Because the app sorts users by their distance 567
from each other, over time I’ve found myself rethinking
distance in the city. If I’m horny, I want to connect with
someone nearby, or within easy reach. That changed
how I thought about the city and the people within it.
But sometimes the app could trick you—a place that
was only a short distance away across the city could
still be a pain to get to without a car. This became a
problem in the city, if we got too stuck in one place
(and some of us did), then the app and its services
began to have less appeal. We needed to circulate
and be mobile for everything to keep working. In the
early years of the City, Grindr addressed this by in-
tegrating subsidised 24-hour transport services into
the functionality of the app, and reshaping the city’s
infrastructure to facilitate the journeys that the data
told them we, collectively, made most often. Realising
that many of us were nocturnal and liked to meet up
after the bars closed, they massively expanded regular
public transport through the night.
People used to worry that the app might kill off 568
the bars and we would all retreat into our homes. And
that did happen a bit, but we learned to open up our
homes to strangers too. Of course, then as now, lots
of people couldn’t always accommodate others at
home. Having a space of your own to hang out with
your dates in is part of the Xtra dream. But why re-
strict ourselves to home? We learned to integrate the
app into all aspects of our lives. At first, people were
a bit reticent about being seen to use it in public and
would position themselves in a crowded place so that
others couldn’t see their screen.5 I once knew some-
one, back in the early days, who kept getting caught
checking Grindr in lectures at uni—I think the lecturer
was irritated by him chatting, but it was the dick pics
all over his screen that really embarrassed my mate.
Since we’ve formed Grindr City, though, we’ve over-
come that embarrassment (most of the time, anyway)
and most big workplaces and malls now have spaces
put aside for quick hook-ups. Basics can rent those
spaces, cheaply, by the hour; but Xtras benefit from
spaces that are shared and held in common, just for us.
I love Grindr City. I’ve never had so much fun as 569
I’ve had here. But some of the Basics I talk to confess
that on bad days, when no-one’s interested in them,
when they’ve had one blunt rejection too many, or been
ghosted by yet another guy, they find themselves want-
ing more. The solution seems simple to me, go Xtra!

Acknowledgements
With thanks to Cesare Di Feliciantonio and Dave Ashby for their critical
comments on an earlier version of this text.

5 Miles, S. (2017) “Sex in the digital city: location-based dating

apps and queer urban life.” Gender, Place & Culture. 24(11):
pp. 1595-1610.

Gavin Brown is a professor of political geography

at the University of Leicester, where their research
examines the intersections of critical geopolitics and
the geographies of sexualities. They are the author of
five books including Youth Activism and Solidarity: the
non-stop picket against apartheid (2017).
 MONETIZING
MOVEMENT
GROUNDTRUTH1
Harrison Smith, University of Newcastle

A sales pitch with a potential client

Sales: 570
‘Good morning. I understand you’re interested
in learning about our platform. I’m in charge of
customer outreach, so I can explain what we do and
how our product can help grow your business. Let’s
start by you telling me a bit about your company.’

Client:
‘Right, so we’re a medium sized QSR, a Quick Service
Restaurant, with locations across several states
and a desire for expansion. Our company ethos is
to provide slow food, fast. It gives customers the
feeling of quality while being casual. We tend to see
the most sales at lunch, and we’ve been focusing on
white collar occupations, service sector employees –
that sort of thing. We need to figure out how to reach
new customers, especially millennials, because
our products cater to a more discerning niche that
wants healthy food on-the-go. We think the QSR
market is changing from the usual burgers and fries
towards a whole new set of choices, like our farm-
to-table certified organic tempeh wraps. We want
customers to feel proactive about their diets, and
nurture an authentic connection with their lifestyles.’

1 The following speculative fiction sales pitch highlights the

ways in which places are being socially sorted through
data brokers specializing in location data. Such a thought
experiment could equally apply to other companies
specialising in mobile data analytics, such as GroundTruth,
Localytics, NinthDecimal, PlaceIQ, or Factual. Product
or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for the purpose of conducting
a thought experiment without intent to infringe.
 Sales:
‘Well, I think we can help with that. So, our 30
second sales pitch is that we are the location based
advertising platform. We operate across a whole
ecosystem of mobile applications, and can reach
about 120 million monthly users. We see over
25 billion location data points every year. We’re
currently the largest such platform in the world by
far. Nobody comes close to our reach and scale.’

Client:
‘Wait, I’m not sure I understand. What’s a location-
based advertising platform? How does it work?’

Sales:
‘Essentially, publishers install our proprietary
Software Development Kit into their apps to monetize
them. When you first launch a new app, it asks
some important questions that most people agree
to without much thought, such as, can the app use
your location. If you agree, the app is authorized to
collect location data. This can be passed onto us
to serve contextually relevant content, like ads.’

Client: 575
‘So, when a user authorizes an app to access
their location, you can also get the data,
but they don’t know who you are?’

Sales:
‘Yes, because we’re part of the platform! Users
only see the interface. Third parties like us are
invisible, save for the ads we serve them. It’s the
beauty of the mobile ecosystem, really. Publishers
and advertisers working together to serve relevant
content to specific audiences, in real-time and in
real-world situations. It’s just like the kind of digital
advertising you’d see when browsing the internet,
only this time it’s on your phone, and your phone is a
much more intimate channel. It knows exactly where
you are at all times. It’s all in the privacy policies and
terms of use; you can read all about it if you want.’

Client:
‘Okaaaay.’
 Sales:
‘Look, you want to know the local weather, we
need your location. Simple as that. Once you
give us that data, we can do what we want with
it, and believe me, there’s a huge gold rush
to develop location-based apps right now, so
our reach and scale will continue to grow.’
Client:
‘But it seems a bit more complicated than how
you describe it. Surely location is sensitive
information? And tracking where people
are all the time seems quite intrusive?’

Sales: 580
‘You’re looking at it the wrong way. This is an oppor-
tunity more than a risk. Customers are seeking
meaningful relationships with the brands they love.
Their phone is the best way to connect with them.
They keep their phones on them at all times, and
interact with them about 150 times a day, if not more!
They’re on the go seeking information that’s locally
relevant, such as a nearby restaurant for lunch. We
see these moments as opportunities, and unlike those
boring banner ads you see on websites, our ads are
much more authentic because they use location data.’

Client:
‘Yeah, sure, but does that really mean every time
we look at our phones we should have marketers
tapping us on our shoulder? Wouldn’t this risk
making my brand seem like a nuisance?’

Sales:
‘Think about it. The whole world is now like one big
retailer thanks to smartphones! I can use my phone
to discover things of local interest. In a store I can
use my phone to look up the same product in front of
me and compare products, see consumer reviews,
and find a cheaper vendor. Suppose we know you
frequent fast food joints, and say it’s lunchtime, we
could hit you with targeted ads at the right time and
the right place. Your restaurant could be that ad.’
Client:
‘But do folks want to be bombarded with
advertising on their phones? Aren’t they
cautious about this kind of targeting?’

Sales:
‘Maybe, but they do like using free apps, and that’s
the cost of doing business the way we see it. Besides,
it’s not really about singling people out, but making
associations that haven’t been done before. We
know people based on actual, measurable behaviour.
Location is the ultimate truth. What’s even better is
that, if I know who goes to McDonald’s on a regular
basis, I could target them with all sorts of relevant
ads, not just for McDonald’s, or their competitors,
but entirely different stores that match their profile,
like Walmart, because we know that people who
regularly visit McDonald’s also visit Walmart.’

Client: 585
‘I could have told you that without all this fancy
data analytics your platform does or giving
you my business. And I’m not interested in
people who go to Walmart or McDonald’s,
I need something more specific.’

Sales:
‘And this is what our platform can do that, really,
your marketing instincts might not be able to. We
can use the platform to create a population of
targets that meet virtually any criteria and give you
the power to custom build your audiences and hit
them at specific moments. You mentioned they
like to live healthier lifestyles? How about we target
people who go to gyms or yoga studios regularly?
What about Wholefoods or organic retailers?’

Client: ‘
That’s a pretty good start...’

Sales:
‘You said they have discerning tastes? How about
targeting people that visit art galleries and museums?
They probably like to travel. How about people
that are observed in airports? Jet setters are more
sophisticated, from a marketing point of view, at
 least. They tend to be high net-worth individuals,
have disposable income, and are interested in
cultural experiences. They seek quality brands,
and you are just what they want. If they fly for work,
they want healthy food on the go to keep sharp.
Bear in mind these premium audience packages
do come at a slightly higher price, but that’s the
cost of doing business with lucrative markets.’

Client:
‘What about things like age and ethnicity?
Can you control for that? Sounds to me that
knowing somebody’s location might not really
be able to give you that kind of detail.’

Sales: 590
‘We can also serve ads to residents of specific postal
codes, meaning you can include and exclude all
kinds of people. We know where people live because
of where the phones are regularly observed when
people tend to be asleep. It’s simply a matter of
geo-coding those locations to specific postal codes
and thereby inferring all kinds of demographic
information like mean household income, education,
ethnicity, sexual orientation – these kinds of things.’

Client: ‘I’m honestly not sure how comfortable I feel

about my phone – or my customers’ – reporting on
me at night like that. And how do you know it works?’

Sales:
‘We regularly audit the platform’s performance
and efficiency. We verify location signals. Correct
inaccuracies. Remove outliers, and use this data
to predict patterns. No other marketing platform
can do this. Best of all, it’s based on real world and
real time data points. We don’t guess anything.’

Client:
‘Hang on a second, what about privacy? There’s
no way most people would be ok with this. I’ve
just read that most people are uncomfortable with
marketers tracking them on social media, how
could you possibly justify this on their phones?’
 Sales:
‘We take every step to protect this data and respect
the privacy of users. This data is proprietary after all!
We adhere to all the self-regulatory policies as put
forth by the IAA, DAA, DAAC, the UK’s Good Practice
Principles for Online Behavioural Advertising, and
the European IDAA’s self-regulatory principles!’

Client: 595
‘What do you mean by self-regulatory principles?
Are there no laws that regulate this kind of thing?’

Sales:
‘Look, I’m here to tell you about the platform. Leave
the laws to other people. All you need to know is that
it’s perfectly legal. As far as self-regulation goes, we
firmly believe that the market can effectively self-
regulate privacy, and all these organizations set out a
list of best practices for minimizing risk that members
say they’ll adhere to. There’s even a few marketing
associations out there that are working to prescribe
best practices, so government need not interfere!
Besides, regulatory agencies haven’t established
any clear laws to limit mobile tracking, and yeah
sometimes there’s a few bad apples that take it too
far, but they’ve been punished. As far as we see it,
we’re pushing the envelope on innovative marketing
AdTech. As a final point, if for some reason people
want to opt-out they can! All these advertising bodies
offer opt-out settings for those privacy conscious
markets. You just have to download an app, or you
can register your MAC address with specific out-
out registries like the Future of Privacy Forum.’

Client:
‘I’ve never heard of any of this stuff...’

Sales: ‘Well really that’s not our fault, and people

should read the terms of use. Besides, you stand to
benefit from this kind of advertising. Our platform
gives you both precision and results. What’s best
is that our newest self-serve product allows you
to do all this by yourself! Just like restaurants,
advertising has also changed and the AdTech market
is overwhelmingly complex. We like to simplify the
 whole process so you can target the right people in
the right places. Remember, in today’s market, your
value is your relevance, and location is relevance.’

Client:
‘Maybe you’re right, but it sounds like your
company is walking a fine line between relevance
and something else. I can’t help but wonder too
what would happen if this kind of platform was
licensed for government use, or if the police started
doing this. So who really uses your product?’

Sales: 600
‘Well, to start, your competitors. But that’s beside
the point. You need to remember this isn’t just
about you and your competitors. It’s about how
your customers need these platforms to live happy,
healthy lives in cities. You know our platform can
be used for more than just ads. We work with
charities, non-governmental organizations, and
could even help city planning departments!’

Client:
‘So, what, this means I need to hop on the
bandwagon just because everyone else is? We’re
talking about a lot of assumptions here, especially
about actual ad exposure. Wouldn’t I be better
off simply putting up posters or billboards in
neighbourhoods near my restaurant? I mean, that
really is the original use of location for marketing.
Frankly, I don’t see how a tiny banner ad on an
app would really be a good use of my money.’
Sales:
‘Except that with our product I can tell you how many
people that saw your ad were later at your store.
Billboards can’t do that, well not yet at least. Others
are working on that. This is not simply a bandwagon
or marketing gimmick. Think about it, we’re talking
about monetizing movement itself! It’s potential is
way beyond just about increasing the bottom line.
This is about reshaping how we understand and
manage places, neighbourhoods and cities so that
people can be easily tracked from A to B for all kinds
of applications and markets. We can use foot traffic
 reports to tell clients where to build new locations and
to know which communities are more valuable than
others, speaking from an investment point of course.
Political candidates can exploit our insights to know
what neighbourhoods to target during campaigns.
Retailers can optimize product placements. What if
law enforcement could use this for crime prevention
to track the bad guys? Why, just recently one
company worked with the Federation of Internet
Alerts to assist in targeted alerts of child abductions
and saw a 2160% increase in click-through rates.
That’s way higher than the mobile industry average!
Better still, it led to a 98% increase in abduction
recovery rates!’ We could use this platform to track
people for all sorts of reasons, and for restaurateurs
like yourself, the potential to discreetly influence
their choices from one restaurant to another are
endless, and all of this will be easily measured and
quantified clients can see the impacts of campaigns
on real targets and real world behaviours.’

Client:
‘I guess when you put it like that...’

Sales: 605
‘Trust me, this is going to revolutionize the
intersection of people, places, and media. Cities
won’t be the same. Why? Because we make
them alive with opportunity for creating new
and engaging marketing campaigns! Being
on the sideline only delays the inevitable. So,
how ’bout it, would you like to see a demo?’

Harrison Smith is a research associate at the Global

Urban Research Unit (GURU) in the School of
Architecture, Planning and Landscape at Newcastle
University. His research broadly focuses on the
political economy of location analytics and platforms
in contemporary urban life.
 FLAT-PACK
SMART
URBANISM
IKEA1

Martin Dodge,
University of Manchester

A global furniture retailer with instant name recogni- 606

tion, IKEA’s motto, “To create a better everyday life for
the many people”, could equally be applied to many
smart cities projects that promise to improve the way
people live. IKEA has built a multi-billion pound cor-
porate empire on the logics of flat-pack distribution,
with its customers actively enrolled in a central aspect
of the production process. The cost of the labour of
assemblage, which takes a non-trivial amount of time,
physical effort and degree of skill, has been shifted
from the paid employees of the manufacturer onto the
end-user. Importantly, IKEA customers are knowingly
participating in the belief that the ‘deal’ is beneficial
one—they get the furniture they want quickly, easily
and at cheap prices.
IKEA is synonymous with a mode of consumer 607
capitalism dubbed ‘prosumption’,2 that is now widely

1 The following academic article 2 Ritzer, G. and Jurgenson, N.

speculates on how a city might (2010) “Production, consumption,
be run and experienced if Ikea’s prosumption: The nature of
business model was adopted. capitalism in the age of the digital
Product or corporate names may be ‘prosumer.’” Journal of Consumer
trademarks or registered trademarks, Culture. 10(1): 13-36.
and are used only for identification,
explanation and speculation as part
of a thought experiment without
intent to infringe.
seen in other retail and services contexts (such as
self-service check-in and payment systems). In some
cases, this can be seen as an equitable sharing of
effort, with both sides winning (e.g., the customer
getting faster service and more convenience), but in
other contexts it’s simply a mandatory shifting of re-
quirements and cost-cutting by powerful businesses
and institutions. “In prosumer capitalism”, Ritzer and
Jurgenson argue “control and exploitation take on a
different character than in the other forms of capital-
ism; there is a trend toward unpaid rather than paid
labor and toward offering products at no cost, and the
system is marked by a new abundance where scarcity
once predominated.”3
Is IKEA’s approach of prosumption, based on 608
self-assembly of its key products, a useful way to think
about future urbanism? Is IKEA, with its focus on cheap,
mass-production, and the significant cost deferment
and convenience of flat-pack distribution, a model that
is viable—and desirable—in regards to city administra-
tion in an era of smart technologies, pervasive digital
media and software platforms, and demands for much
greater social and environmental sustainability?

Effective citizen participation:

self-assembly in the smart city
IKEA’s unique selling proposition rests upon 609
the scale of participation in the flat-pack mode of
prosumption. Hundreds of millions of pieces of IKEA
furniture have been put together by householders and
subsequently used. While the end results might not
be as well built as the ones in IKEA showrooms, some

3 Ibid. p. 14
argue persuasively that benefits often come from a
sense of genuine satisfaction felt by those having
achieved the practical self-assembly task. The re-
sulting furniture is not just a generic object, but one
that contains elements of personal labour—“I built that
bookcase!” This so-called ‘IKEA effect’ according to
psychologists is a “measurable cognitive bias in which
consumers place a disproportionately high value on
products they partially created.”4
Engendering and encouraging the ‘IKEA ef- 610
fect’ has merit beyond obtaining cheap home furniture
and it is worth considering how far it might help city
management and urban services delivery. Could the
future smart city be transformed positively through
greater enrolment of the self-assembly ethos?
There are multiple benefits of enhancing volun- 611
tary participation to self-assemble more aspects of the
city, which can be facilitated through smart technolo-
gies, easier data sharing and online collaboration plat-
forms. These include: greater efficiency and flexibility,
and potentially the speed of response; the advantages
of distributed set of actors in terms of local knowledge,
‘boots-on-the-ground’ and resilience; creating more
of a ‘can-do attitude’, helping to counter cynicism and
apathy, and thereby fostering a better sense of commu-
nal belonging; building lasting bonds of trust in solving
local problems; bringing new ideas and perspectives to
solve long-standing urban problems.
But digitisation, automation, and the need for 612
ever more fixed infrastructures are widening eco-
nomic inequalities in many places. There are many
struggling disconnected places and disenfranchised
people, and other households in more affluent middle

4 Norton, MI., Mochon, D. and

Ariely, D. (2012) “The IKEA effect:
When labor leads to love.” Journal
of Consumer Psychology. 22(3):
453-60.
class situations have retreated from the public realm,
ensconced safely in techno-facilitated domestic
sphere with the affirmation of like-minded social me-
dia friends, next-day deliveries, and travel exclusively
in automobile cocoons. One might point out the paral-
lels to long-standing critiques of IKEA and its style of
prosumption, that it is about satisfying individualistic
needs by self-assembly rather than participation for
wider social-good. The flat-pack ethos is “necessarily
a disengagement with the collective sphere, a sense
that the most beneficial work is carried out when one
is sheltered from, rather than an active participant in,
social reality.”5
Many smart citizen initiatives and urban crowd- 613
sourcing data collection projects have been criticised
for being exclusionary, socially self-selecting and
biased, with some potentially leading to partial and
inconsistent service coverage that depends on va-
garies of volunteerism; this can easily disadvantages
places without economic or social capital.6 Decades
of effort since the 1970s to engender public partic-
ipation in the urban planning process, for example,
shows how hard it is to be broadly inclusive and over-
come structural barriers.7
In respect to the pros and cons of digitally en- 614
hanced citizen participation it is also worth articulating
the continued value of public servants, with expertise
and experience to manage cities, rather than trying to
galvanise amateurs to self-assemble urban services.
Having a trained person rooted in a sense of public
service and ethos, and who is subject to daily man-
agement, still has advantages over the unpredictability
of volunteer prosumers.

5 Hartman, T. (2007) “On the Kitchin, R. (2013) “Crowdsourced:

Ikeaization of France.” Public cartography: mapping experience
Culture. 19(3): 483-498. and knowledge.” Environment and
Planning A. 45(1), 19-36.
6 For example, see: (1) Hecht,
B.J. and Stephens, M. (2014) 7 Beebeejaun, Y. (2006) “The
“A tale of cities: urban biases in participation trap: The limitations
volunteered geographic information.” of participation for ethnic and racial
International AAAI Conference on groups.” International Planning
Web and Social Media (ICWSM). Studies. 11(1): 3-18.
14: 197-205. (2) Dodge, M. and
Cheap and wasteful consumerism to smart
and more sustainable cities
Mass production and high volume sales are the mo- 615
dus operandi of IKEA, and its sustained profitability
has stemmed partly from selling acceptable quality
goods for less and less. Many of its most popular
furniture products are cheaper to buy today in real
terms than they were decades ago. The manufactur-
ing for key IKEA product lines is large-scale, efficient
and highly automated.8 However, such a manta of
cheapness comes at a cost, with critics arguing that
the “relentless fixation on low price ... drove [people]
away from quality, durability, and craftsmanship and
towards quantity, quantity, and more quantity.”9 The
allure of cheap prices also means forcing alternative
(often smaller, local, higher-quality) providers out of the
market and wielding unequal power in the exploitation
of overseas suppliers with harmful impacts on labour
standards and local livelihoods. Is such ruthless low
cost model the ways that smart cities should precede?
Over the last few decades IKEA has played a 616
role in driving excessive consumption practices, de-
spite the mantra of sustainability that is advanced in
its more recent corporate messaging. While the IKEA
President and CEO Jesper Brodlin claims “It’s about
making life at home as sustainable as possible, en-
suring we use resources carefully...”,10 the company
has undoubtedly been one of the standard bearers for
consumerism that is premised on individualism, tran-
sient fashion, and status obsession. Notwithstanding
the ‘IKEA effect’ noted above, cheap MDF products,

8 BBC, 2018 Flatpack Empire, 10 IKEA Yearly Summary FY17 (2017)

television documentary BBC / Open Link: http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/
University. Link: http://www.open. this-is-ikea/newsroom/reports-
edu/openlearn/tv-radio-events/tv/ download/
flatpack-empire

9 Shell, E.R. (2009) Cheap: The High

Cost of Discount Culture. London:
Penguin.
in many eyes “fall into that lowermost category of pos-
sessions that are left behind at the time of moving”11
IKEA’s approach down the years has both reflected
and reinforced wasteful consumerism and the tacit
normalisation of a ‘throw-away’ culture that pervades
Western society. It also sustains the profits of so many
large technology companies with their unrepairable
devices and inbuilt obsolescence,12 sometimes en-
forced by covert software ‘downgrades.’
The relentless pressure to consume more and 617
more is self-destructive and is arguably, bound-up with
deep sense of discontent many people feel in the West
in spite of the high levels of material comfort they en-
joy. As homes have become full to bursting point with
cheap material products there seems to be less sense
of pleasure in all the stuff that surrounds people. It
seems doubly ironic that a key part of IKEA’s design
rationale stems from providing more space-efficient
domestic ‘storage solutions’ to deal with over-accumu-
lation of the stuff they are promulgating and profiting
from. As a recent IKEA corporate missive noted, “[a]
s the world becomes more crowded, and people find
themselves with less space, money and time, we have
the passion and energy to bring solutions.”13
Do we want smarter cities that trail along in 618
IKEA’s wake, encouraging more material consump-
tion? Or is there a different route toward more genuine
sustainability based on social technologies for sharing
and reusing things? There is, for example, scope for
software platforms, working at the micro-local scales
that build upon the enduring potential of second-hand
shops.14 This can be coupled with the much easier

11 Hartman, T. (2007) “On the 13 IKEA Yearly Summary FY17 (2017)

Ikeaization of France.” Public Link: http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/
Culture. 19(3): p.495. this-is-ikea/newsroom/reports-
download/
12 LeBel, S. (2016) “Fast machines,
slow violence: ICTs, planned
obsolescence, and e-waste.”
Globalizations. 13(3): 300-309.
sharing of underutilised resources and ‘freecycling’
surplus domestic goods that can been empowered by
digital media15. One area that has real potential would
be urban mobility and improving on the unsustainable
car culture that dominates city spaces and seriously
pollutes urban environments16. Social collaboration
facilitated by digital platforms, could make neighbour-
hood car pools and ride sharing much more viable
solutions. The really sustainable future for congested,
polluted cities, however, is not individual use vehicles—
even if they are fully electric and highly Uberised—but
efficient collective travel on buses.

Conclusion
The nature of flat-pack smart urbanism would mean 619
cities coming into being differently in terms of citi-
zen engagement, cost reduction, greater efficiency
and convenience, and scope for a circular economy.
Smart cities that followed IKEA’s lead would more ful-
ly embrace the self-assembling ethos and there are
benefits from many more people who would be doing
it for themselves, particularly in terms of flexibility and
community ties. But it is uncertain whether large-scale
amateur participatory activities, even if well-coordinat-
ed by digital platforms, would be effective for urban
management. There are real challenges of volunteer
fatigue, especially with dull and repetitive tasks. There
are also dangers of loss of memory and reinventing
the wheel as new volunteer recruits cycle through.
Perhaps it is not a case of paid professionals versus no
cost amateurs, but some kind of novel combinations

14 On the history and significance of 15 Klug, K. (2017) “A gift for a stranger:

this kind of consumption, that has Freecycling as a current lifestyle
often been shunned and presented of sustainable consumption,” in
as transgressive, see Gregson, N. Osburg, T. and Lohrman, C. (eds.)
and Crewe, L. (2003) Second-hand Sustainability in a Digital World.
Cultures. London: Springer, pp. 201-7.

16 IKEA’s big box, out of town, retail

model has been premised on car-
based consumerism of course.
and appropriate enrolment of volunteers that will bring
most benefits to smart cities.
Flat-pack urbanism will be bring cost reductions 620
which will key into existing mantras that smart tech-
nologies can deliver more for less. However, the ‘IKEA
effect’, in terms of digitally facilitated active citizenship
can be criticised as little more than window-dress-
ing for cynical burden-shifting by the State17. Getting
people more ‘active’ might be beneficial, but all too
often it simply bolsters the deeper neoliberal retreat
of the State and can actually undermine the accept-
ed Western social democratic compact whereby the
government provides essential services, universal
welfare support and holds long term guardianship for
the public realm using funds from fair taxation system.
Lastly, there is potential for smart technologies 621
to steer a course to a more sustainable urbanism by
shunning the wastefulness of IKEA style flat-pack con-
sumerism of the last few decades. The result would be
a positive step towards a so-called ‘circular economy’
with the “avoidance of waste and return of lost resourc-
es into the flow of resources through the economy will
of itself stimulate further economic activity.”18 Smart
technology could engender the antithesis of IKEA’s
‘make-use-waste’ model creating the sort of prosperity
and city living that we need in the Anthropocene.

17 Wiig, A. (2016) “The empty rhetoric 18 Crocker, R., Saint, C., Chen,
of the smart city: from digital G. and Tong, Y. (eds.) (2018)
inclusion to economic promotion in Unmaking Waste in Production
Philadelphia.” Urban Geography. and Consumption: Towards the
37(4): 535-53. Circular Economy. Bingley: Emerald
Publishing.

Martin Dodge is a Senior Lecturer in Human

Geography at the University of Manchester and his
research focuses on historical urban geographies,
the politics of cartography, and understanding of
infrastructures. He has co-authored several books
the spatiality of digital technologies - Mapping
Cyberspace (2000) and Code/Space (2011).
 A CITY OF
DIGITAL
ENGAGEMENT
INSTAGRAM1

Ryan Burns, University of Calgary

[_of-insta_’s notifications]

n0rmc0r3 started following you 2 h

n0rmc0r3 liked your post 41 m
n0rmc0r3 and painted_heaven liked your post 39 m
n0rmc0r3, jjacobs, me.llamo.maria, and 3 others liked your post 29 s

n0rmc0r3 mentioned you in a comment: @_of-insta_ your pictures

are sick. I love how informative they are! you live in that city that won
Instagram’s new headquarters competition a few years ago, right? 4 s

_of-Insta_:

Hey @n0rmc0r3, thought I’d respond here 622

in a DM, in the interest of privacy! Thanks
for the compliment. Yeah, I live there. It’s a
pretty cool experiment, if you ask me!

n0rmc0r3:

yeah, it sounds like it! what’s it like living

there? I heard they employ, like, everyone?

1 The following speculative fiction and satire imagines a

city being run by a social media company. Such a thought
experiment could equally apply if the city were run by
Facebook or Twitter. Product or corporate names may be
trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for
the purpose of conducting a thought experiment without
intent to infringe.
 _of-Insta_:

That’s right! Officially, they are the only employer

in the city. Even the service sector employees
get their checks signed by IG. It was a contract
they signed with the city government, which
basically handed the keys over to the company!
I guess they’re finally listening to us who say
government should be run like a business.

It’s amazing. All we have to do to get things 625

we need, like file for unemployment checks or
to clean graffiti up is snap a photo and tag the
city’s IG account! It creates a public queue, so
you know how many are waiting in front of you
and you know that your request isn’t getting
lost in all that silly bureaucratic paperwork.
The city usually reposts your request in its own
Story so you always know where you stand.

n0rmc0r3:

whoa! that’s way more efficient, and we’re all

on Instagram anyway, so why not? my news
station said it also helps with crime because
the police department can create profiles for
people based on what they post. but what
about that unemployment you mentioned?
why isn’t Instagram employing everyone?

_of-Insta_:

I don’t know much about those profiles you’re

talking about. They told us it was for providing
better services... Seems a little surveillant...

West_precinct_PD just liked your post 1 m

West_precinct_PD started following you 36 s
 _of-Insta_:

I don’t know why, but there are a lot of homeless

people here. Probably just people who don’t want
to work. Instagram has jobs, if people want them.

And anyway, everyone in the city is given

a free smartphone, so we all have access
to the platform and public services.

n0rmc0r3:

and I don’t understand why there 630

would be homeless people...?

wait, what?!?! everyone gets a free phone?

crazy! do you get all the apps for free, too?

n0rmc0r3 sent you a picture

n0rmc0r3:

that’s one of our tent cities in that pic. it’s on the

fence outside of Amazon’s office here in my city.

_of-Insta_:

Well, I guess there were a lot of people who

were laid off in the transition, and there
might be some people who weren’t trained in
Instagram’s new programming language. That’s
probably why. I mean, the radicals say these
big companies routinely lay people off to keep
labour fluid, but that’s just a conspiracy theory.

The phones they give us have Instagram already

installed! Oh, and Facebook, too! So it’s ready to
go. I guess we have to pay for any others we want.
 deposed_arnstein liked your post 1 h
deposed_arnstein commented on your post: thanks for reporting so
much about our neighbourhood! you’re making it a better place! 41 m

_of-Insta_:

Check this out - the new version of the IG app 635

has a filter that gives us information about the
city! All we do is open the app and apply the “Your
City” filter, and we can see real-time information
about the landscapes in front of us. So we can
get a history lesson by using IG. Most retail and
restaurants deliver coupons that way, too - it’s
easy, since they’re all franchised through IG!

the_city_experience just liked your post 40s

n0rmc0r3:

ah, now I see why your pics are always so

informative - you post using that filter that overlays
info. weird, we didn’t get that filter where I’m from...
I just looked it up, and it’s crazy! it was bigger than
Pokémon Go! I wonder why we can’t get it here...?

city_nomads just tagged you in a post: we’ve just released a

new line of Instagram-flavoured cocktails - experience with
the new Boomerang playback function! come see us, friends
me.llamo.maria, _of-Insta_, golds_kleim, r_florida 22s

n0rmc0r3:

looks like you prefer the historic

information. but how do you know where
to go to find interesting stuff?
 city_business_strategy just started a live video: Attend our virtual
town hall to hear our plans for growth for the next 10-20 years! 4 m

_of-Insta_:

It’s usually marked in big, bold IG icons scattered

throughout the city. I think they do it that way so
the view will be really Instagrammable! It’s where
the most aesthetically-pleasing places are where
we get the most interesting historic information.

I also found my new favourite pizzeria through the

filter. I used to go to one that had been around for,
like, three generations, but it closed a few years
ago right when all the changes started happening.
There were new pizzerias popping up that were
offering coupons in the filter, and they had some
cool new Silicon Valley tech and just left behind
the older ones that refused to be franchised
when IG took over. Plus, the new ones were right
on the edges of the city’s bad neighbourhoods,
and those areas are now cleaned up with cool
new shops and more trendy restaurants.

n0rmc0r3:

oh yeah, I’ve seen those icons. looks like 640

a great way to experience the city!
so, lots of new places to go. awesome!
did the rent go up in those areas?

_of-Insta_:

Oh, well, I can’t afford to go to those shops because

they’re too pricey. And the plazas aren’t really
public, but as long as I am exploring the “Your City”
filter the security guards won’t bother me.

Rent went way up there, and developers started

redeveloping because of all the blight that was
there. But we can still see pictures of the old
buildings in the app!
 n0rmc0r3:

oh, they’re keeping tabs on what you have open

on your phone? that’s a little weird... I wonder if
that’s why we can’t get it here? anyway, thanks
for the info. I’m jealous you get to live there!

[48 hours later]

Your friends haven’t heard from you in a while! Tell them about
your day using our new additions to the “Your City” filter! 12m

n0rmc0r3:

yo, I heard something today about the overlay

filter. I think some contraband information
got out in the new update last night?

_of-Insta_:

Really? I haven’t been out today. I’ll go 645

try to use the filter and let you know.

You sent a photo to n0rmc0r3

_of-Insta_:

This is so strange... I used the filter to find

information about our central square, and it
said something about labour protests there
after unions went on strike to demand better
working conditions, like, a hundred years ago.

I’d never read about whatever this

“organized labour” thing is. I guess it
wasn’t put into our school textbooks.
 n0rmc0r3:

I heard it was a programmer at IG that leaked

the information. she said something about
superficial gestures or something. here’s what
our city news said: “Maria, who has admitted to
the leak, responded, ‘The city wants to pretend
that they are more deeply engaging their
denizens by soliciting likes and organizing their
information with hashtags. And sure, they were
probably getting more discrete interactions by
those metrics, but this has completely replaced
the millennia-old practice of organized political
resistance with a shallow feel-good clicktivism
that bolsters the corporation’s bottom line.’”

_of-Insta_:

Maria, at IG? Wow, I know her through

a friend! I’m going to DM her and see
what she thinks she’s doing.

OK, I DM’d her. I asked what the big deal is, 650
why she’s disrupting all our lives by hijacking
the filter. I said it doesn’t really matter what
their motivations are if life is better. She said,
“I mean, to get to this level of buy-in required
massive, structured, and regular layoffs that
have led to the tent cities so prevalent across our
landscapes. They’ll give us all free smartphones
with Instagram and Facebook installed, but
can’t provide affordable housing? People
need to know that this isn’t the only option, and
that’s why I leaked the information - to organize
workers to demand stronger public services.”

n0rmc0r3:

so that’s why your city has so

many homeless people...
I just saw her on tv again. she just said, “public
services should be delivered to you by virtue of
your humanity, not because you use some new
piece of technology the way they tell you to.”
 _of-Insta_:

I still don’t understand what all this has to do

with “organized labour”, so I sent her another
message. She said, “Before Instagram took over,
citizens had more recourse to public officials.
They could demand things like better job
security and unemployment insurance. It wasn’t
guaranteed, but with enough people pressuring
the city government and the employers, there
was greater chance you’d get it. But Instagram
isn’t beholden to anyone, ultimately, besides
the shareholders. I knew the “Your City” app
was designed for coupons, ads, and historic
information, so I wanted to remind everyone that
organized labour once had a strong presence in
our city. I can’t believe how fast we forgot it.”

You sent a photo to n0rmc0r3

_of-Insta_:

You can see the protests forming in the

streets in that pic I just sent you. I’m going
to go out and see what else is upsetting
people, and what we can do about it.

Ryan Burns is a professor of urban geographic

information science at University of Calgary. His
research interests are in the social, political, and
institutional implications of new spatial technologies,
including smart cities, open data, and digital
humanitarianism.
 SAVE THE
SHIRE™
PALANTIR1
Jennifer Gabrys,
University of Cambridge

The VizBot scanned the digital watermark etched in 654

the retina chip of MissionBot943: Save the Shire™.
The VizBot screen flashed: Access granted. Data logs
recorded the transaction in MovementDatabase_89,
SuppliesDatabase_12, and BotDatabase_40, along
with a number of other geospatial markers for position-
ing and analyzing the access request to MiddleEarth.
At one time, humans in teal and black t-shirts 655
hurried around centers of power with this same logo
marked on their necks or chests: Save the Shire™.
Corporate tattooing had now advanced into embed-
ded activation nodes, along with the flesh-to-polymer
conversion of workbots.
MissionBot943 passed through the MiddleEarth 656
portal. This was the northern edge of the 477-acre ur-
ban area, previously a sheep station set on a clear
mountain lake, but now a new city preparing for end
times.2 The last page of the Book of Revelations had

1 The following speculative fiction and registered trademarks, and are used
satire imagines a future scenario in only for the purpose of conducting a
which a data intelligence company, thought experiment without intent
whose leadership is known to be to infringe.
preparing for any future disaster,
builds its own city. Such a thought 2 O’Connell, M. (2018) “Why Silicon
experiment could equally apply if Valley Billionaires Are Prepping for
the city were run by any number of the Apocalypse in New Zealand.”
search and data analytics companies The Guardian. Link: https://www.
involved in social network analysis theguardian.com/news/2018/feb/15/
and prediction, from Google to why-silicon-valley-billionaires-are-
Facebook. Product or corporate prepping-for-the-apocalypse-in-
names may be trademarks or new-zealand
not yet turned, but it was certain to do so at any time.
MiddleEarth continued its preparation efforts by
streamlining, reinforcing and developing the data ar-
chitectures needed to Save the Shire™.
Building the City of MiddleEarth had taken 657
some effort. The Founders required SyncSessions for
the MiddleEarth origination and at several key stages
of development. Yet SyncSessions often collided with
other commitments for ensuring Founder longevity,
including teenage-blood transfusions, tantric med-
itation, and battlefield philosophizing. The original
crystal ball also needed to be sited and installed.3 This
required the importing of hallucinogenic toads from
the Australian desert, which compassed and selected
the ceremonial site with their collective movements.
But with the contributions of hundreds of high-spec
MissionBots, fully equipped with sensor nodes and
connected to data managed systems, the actual
construction of the core urban area was a relatively
speedy affair. Once ceremony and groundbreaking
were complete, the central MiddleEarth build was fi-
nalized in six months.
MissionBot943 had been assigned the task 658
of providing the inaugural tour of MiddleEarth. The
Founders were joining a select group of ChinoClad
Gurus, who had traveled from their PaternalSrvr
Centers to join the auspicious ceremony of psycho-
graphically suitable SoViduals. The tour group would
also ensure their urban data architectures were in-
stalled to specification, so that pending threats could
be monitored and responded to by these most import-
ant individuals and institutions.

3 Biddle, S. (2017) “How Peter Thiel’s

Palantir Helped the NSA Spy on the
Whole World.” The Intercept. Link:
https://theintercept.com/2017/02/22/
how-peter-thiels-palantir-helped-
the-nsa-spy-on-the-whole-world
 The tour begins with an initial visit to the Data- 659
Scrape R&D Facility. An orb-shaped building set on
a V-shaped plinth greets the Founders and Gurus as
they make their way to the bio-activated entrance.
While raw data generation is somewhat ancillary to
the core mission of building analysis infrastructure,
data needs to be fed into the infrastructure from vari-
ous points. This testbed facility showcases the many
types of data and modes of input that UrbanClients
can operationalise in order to drill down in their profil-
ing activities.
 The exceptional array of InputNodes on dis- 660
play includes data from sensors, cameras, and scan-
ners, as well as GPS data, sales receipts, shipping
logs, phone logs, phone numbers, home addresses,
work address, flight records, IP addresses, location
data, energy meter data, water meter data, thermal
data, battery level data, browser data, search history
data, real-time raw ISP browsing data, social media
data, bank transaction data, facial recognition data,
biometric data, driver registration data, license plate
data, phone calendar data, text message logs, drone
flyover data, work activity logs, heart-rate and body
temperature data, sleep tracking data, sexual activity
data, online dating profile data, petition data, weath-
er data, pollution data, seismic data, geospatial data,
health record data, and stingray scans for more situ-
ational deployments.
While many of these data points can be scraped 661
through APIs or pulled from open databases (the pre-
ferred method for a more progressive data politic),
some bespoke devices are necessary for generation
and harvesting.
Activity in MiddleEarth had yet to begin produc- 662
ing full datasets for preparedness and readiness, but
test sets from OldCities were available for use, with the
Los Angeles sets providing comprehensive trial cases.
If it were not for the license plate scanning furore that
brought an unfortunate end to collection efforts, this
trial set would be more up to date. Founders fought
the designation of wholesale harvesting of person-
al data from the public realm as illegal, but dissident
governments had banned the ScanEyes peripherals
on police units, along with a number of EliteCognitiva
measures for capturing and synthesizing data points
on urban citizens.
Carrying on with the tour, MissionBot943 cir- 663
cles around the base of the orb with its Founders and
sovereign guests and passes through to the outer
balcony surrounding the orb. From here, the group
catches a view of the automated GrowGarden facili-
ties, producing food through the power of data anal-
ysis. A few woolly mammoths graze in the adjacent
fields, a successful outcome of the de-extinction pro-
gram.4 Brute nature transformed through the power of
intellect. A tranquil paradise of economic prosperity.5
Moving to the PattrnDetect Facility, the tour 664
arrives at the core of the urban zone. Here, urban in-
telligence unfolds as a platform layer, analyzing and
synthesizing urban data points to connect into a sin-
gle lucid model of the city. Software scours through
data points, and algorithms generate new models from
working through the data, showing relations that would
otherwise be overlooked. In the space of a single data
workspace, multiple forms of data could be integrated
to generate histograms, spidergrams, flow analysis,
timelines, and geospatial coordinates. These scalable
and mobile platforms were in the process of being de-
ployed for analysis of all aspects of urban operations,
from transport and water, to information and energy,
as well as security and surveillance. An important use
of the workspace was to analyse and manage social
relations, including work, housing, family, and autho-
rized recreational activities.6 Data could be captured,
analysed, and called up for enforcement in any field

4 Solon, Olivia. (2017) “Mammoth 5 Thiel, P. (2004). “The Straussian

Tusk: Billionaire Peter Thiel Funded Moment.” in Politics & Apocalypse,
Effort to Resurrect Woolly Beast.” ed. R. Hamerton-Kelly. Michigan
The Guardian. Link: https://www. State University Press.
theguardian.com/technology/2017/
jun/30/peter-thiel-woolly-mammoth- 6 Waldman, P., Chapman, L. and
back-to-life-donation Robertson, J. (2018) “Palantir Knows
Everything about You.” Bloomberg.
Link: https://www.bloomberg.com/
features/2018-palantir-peter-thiel
location, or it could be mobilized for more extensive
analysis in the PattrnDetect Facility.
Human-computer symbiosis is the goal of 665
MiddleEarth. MissionBot943 explains this to the select
gathering of Founders and Gurus, but it is redundant
information as all participants are aware of the mission
statement. A world of big data requires improving the
quality of the interface between humans and comput-
ers. These interfaces have been streamlined across
the human-machine lifecycle, from data input to inte-
gration, analysis and actuation. Security, intelligence,
policing, health, disease control, food operations, supply
chains, population control, education, and much more,
can be managed through these data functionalities.7
As tests with the evolving analysis infrastructure
demonstrate, not just any humans were best equipped 666
to join in this symbiosis. It might be possible to em-
power an analyst to review data more quickly, and to
use data to drive optimal decisions. But not all humans
were able to fulfil the role of analyst. Physical, psy-
chological and performance tests were administered
at the age of 5 to identify suitable candidates. Those
who were selected were given the necessary implants
to ensure the realization of advanced automation and
efficient data-based decision-making. SoVidual Gurus
and Founders utilized the most advanced implants for
overseeing Shire data operations, and were selected
for their role based on hereditary pre-screening and
their superior performance on administered tests.
While the SoViduals were deeply engrossed
in testing the capabilities of the workspace, Mission- 667
Bot943 alerted them about the next stop in the tour:

7 O’Connor, B. (2016) “How Palantir Is

Taking over New York City. Gizmodo.
Link: https://gizmodo.com/how-
palantir-is-taking-over-new-york-
city-1786738085
the OldCities Repository. As they progress to the repo,
they learn that it stores a number of urban records on
signal-proof servers. Many of the records document
the breakdown of so-called democratic practices. The
Los Angeles repo contains the largest number of re-
cords, stemming from the extensive collaboration with
the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).
The tour group gathers along the OcularFlow 668
ports and plugs in to the NeuralJack to view one of
the more popular records: the LAPD surveillance of
race and immigration protests during a recent summer
uprising. During this event, numerous new data points
were gathered, including DNA and facial data points.
With this data, new profiles were formed and linked,
and protestors were gathered up and sent to security
facilities for further processing.8 Deportation was a
common route for many of the activists who did not
possess sufficient documentation of their legal status.
The events stream across the OcularFlow 669
InnerVision layer. MissionBot943 next calls up the ori-
gin story of MiddleEarth. Cue Washington, DC from the
repo. The NeuralJack buffers the OperationVid track:
RogueEmployee. The tale of 87 million Facebook pro-
files, analyzed and integrated by company operatives
with aliases RogueEmployee#1-#999 comes into view.
This cross-data partnership undertaken by 670
“rogue employees” in Washington offices along with
international corporates and universities was central
to the founding of MiddleEarth. Social technologies
for data input were a key innovation. Novel devices
are one way to rework data inputs. But harvests of
idle time through social media, games and quizzes

8 Peretti, J. (2017) “Palantir: The

‘Special Ops’ Tech Giant that Wields
as Much Real-World Power as
Google.” The Guardian. Link: https://
www.theguardian.com/world/2017/
jul/30/palantir-peter-thiel-cia-data-
crime-police
became a new source for building data profiles. With
this key information, volatile nation-state tensions were
exploited, the election of a fake-and-bake demagogue
was facilitated, and so-called democracy was exter-
minated.9 With this final escape from politics, a new
world could be realized.10 MiddleEarth was born from
this incendiary moment.
As the Founders and Gurus disconnect from 671
the OcularFlow NeuralJacks, MissionBot943 guides
them to the final stop: the Crystal Ball that is the con-
stitutional centre of MiddleEarth. Immersive beams
of light and sound in the form of familiar philosophers
encompass the group, reminding them that democra-
cies were failing in the OldCities. The RogueEmployee
Operation helped to push these failing governments
along to their inevitable demise so that a new order
could be realized. In many ways, the invention of a new
mode of governance beyond politics was the premier
invention of MiddleEarth. This was the way to make
the world a better place, the ideal union of humans
and computers, data and freedom.
Here are Schmitt and Strauss, Locke and 672
Rees-Mogg, Habermas and Rand, with a smattering
of Girard and even Marx, hologramming their official-
ly sanctioned and indubitably “progressive” musings
into the halls of this secure info facility. The Founders’
philosophies are sealed in these chambers, impenetra-
ble to signal interference. The tracts of the MiddleEarth
CyberLibertarian Constitution are pronounced by
GovBots: Data infrastructures enhancing elite deci-
sion-making are the basis for a new world order.

9 Pegg, D. and Cadwalladr, C. (2018) 10 Thiel, P. (2009) “The Education

“US Data Firm Admits Employee of a Libertarian.” Cato Unbound.
Approached Cambridge Analytica.” Link: https://www.cato-unbound.
The Guardian. Link: https://www. org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/
theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/ education-libertarian
mar/28/palantir-employee-
cambridge-analytica
 The cognitive elite will oversee this monarchi- 673
cal urban shire of well-equipped analysts. People of
color, queers, the disabled, gender nonconformists,
the poor, dissidents, deportees, women, and failed
analysts: these undesirable subjects are exiled to the
remote Pacific SeaSteading facilities for producing
necessary supplies for MiddleEarth. While undesir-
ables were not eligible to become analysts, and only
the upper tiers of biologically superior cognitive per-
formers could perform these roles, analysts did at
times fail to perform to expectation, despite having
been given the necessary implants, and so were also
exiled to the SeaSteading facilities.
The remote location of SeaSteading opera- 674
tions—where electronics manufacturing, energy
generation, textile manufacture, food supplement
production, waste processing, and selective breeding
activities occurred to support MiddleEarth—ensure
that the core Shire territory remained free of polluting
people or activities. This social and spatial sorting of
data, humans, computers and abilities was a key com-
ponent for the efficient and frictionless governance
of MiddleEarth.
The end of the democratic world was effective- 675
ly hastened along, now the task was to protect the new
world order as it rose from the ashes as the providential
MiddleEarth. Save the Shire™.

Jennifer Gabrys is Chair in Media, Culture and

Environment in the Department of Sociology at the
University of Cambridge. She is the author of several
books on digital technologies and environments,
including the forthcoming How to Do Things with
Sensors; Program Earth (2016); and Digital Rubbish
(2011). Her work can be found at citizensense.net and
jennifergabrys.net
 CURATING
A CITY
PINTEREST1

Gillian Rose, University of Oxford

Hi Sili. Are you on? Just record mode, okay? 676

So I went to an inauguration rally today, for 677
something called the Y Combinator. It was really cool.
Well, there were a few people who were hustled out
because they got a bit shouty, and that felt mean. But
everyone else was really excited about breaking things
and starting again with a clean slate and not having
any hassle any more ever. Ever! Like, no more icky
stuff under your fingernails when you eat. I mean, that
would be so great—I’d never have to clean my fingers
before Instagramming a meal again.
Though now I’m thinking about it, a bottle of 678
green solvent doesn’t sound like it would get many
likes on Instagram. Solvent, solyent. Soylent?
Pause. 679

Record. Just back from Pinterest. Wow, Soylent Green 680

was a thing in a really ancient film with this guy (he
looked even older than Harrison Ford!!!) which was like
food in a can made from plankton and maybe dead

1 The following speculative fiction imagines enthusiastically

living in a city through the media of Pinterest. Such a thought
experiment could also be undertaken with respect to other
visual social media platforms such as Instagram. Product
or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for the purpose of conducting
a thought experiment without intent to infringe.
people or something. Yuk. Though there’s probably
quite a lot of plankton that could be used now, seeing
as how most of the whales are gone.
But Pinterest was fun to search and it showed 681
me other stuff too. I pinned a picture of a can of Soylent
Green on my vintage board. I also found a great recipe
for spinach crackers and also a pair of leggings with the
Soylent Green poster on them; they look fantastic but
they are $90 from Australia. $90—without postage and
packing! I don’t think you can buy Soylent Green itself.
On the Pinterest page also was the cover of a 682
book called ‘No More Room.’ Got me thinking about how
crowded the city is, and dirty. Crowds everywhere. The
trains especially; you know I really hate being squashed
every morning and evening. And then the weather. The
storms especially. Starting again with the train service
would be good. And better weather forecasting. I mean
I know you try your best Sili but the train on a wet day
is the total pits. Also lots of those empty buildings and
the potholes in the pavements, they could go. Not sure
about slate but more clean would be really nice.
Oh! So I’ve just had a super-interesting idea, 683
like something the man at the inauguration said. If we
could have a clean slate, if you really could start again
with the city, what would it look like? Instead of the
rain and grime and neon maybe it could be like sunny
and clean ... and maybe people would be chilled and
happy and not so stressed all the time. Less rushing.
More smiling. And nobody homeless or poor. No scary
places. Lots of trees and windowboxes. Things that
look fresh even if they’re old. Flowers. I think I’m going
to make a new Pinterest board and see what I can
find to pin on it. Maybe I can picture a whole new city!
And if I get a dime idea, I’m going to take it to the Y
Combinator guys.
Like my Pinterest inspiration board says, ‘A 684
Diamond is a Chunk of Coal that Did Well Under
Pressure.’ I was a lump of coal and now I am a dia-
mond!!!!! I love Pinterest, you can just dream so many
things. Stop recording.

Hi Sili, just record. 685

I just got off Pinterest. Sheesh, my whole feed 686
had gone green. Green clothes, food, nail polish, green
hair. It’s like it remembers what you search for and just
gives you more of the same.
But, I went ahead with my plan to make a board 687
showing nice city stuff to show to the Y Combinator
guys. (‘Starve Your Frustrations. Feed Your Focus’).
I explored lots. I typed in my own words—like “blank
slate” and “new city” and “urban utopia” and “clean
city”—and then I followed suggestions and things that
looked like other things. I re-pinned pictures I found
on Pinterest and pinned a few things I found on other
webpages, the ones that would let me.
I so love how you can grab images from almost 688
anywhere and just load them up. I love just hitting that
little P button on the webpage and pow! Just the image,
stripped clean of all the nada nada nada. The pages
I like best are the ones that take away all the text and
loads of pictures just hang there in lovely white space
and you can just pick and choose which ones you
want. And now you can even jiggle them around on
each board. I can spend hours just picking and pinning
and arranging.
Curating, Zoella calls it. I’m curating a city, col- 689
lecting it one picture at a time. It’s neat, quite soothing
after the actual city. Like, it doesn’t smell at all. And
you can jiggle things around just how you want them.
Searching for “clean slate” though; turns out that 690
clean slate is a nail varnish colour and also that slate is
used a lot to do bathroom and kitchen floors and gar-
den patios. And it’s a bit dark and heavy, especially in
the rain. Typing in “blank slate” got me lots of clothes
from a company called tabula rasa. But a re-pin from an
architecture website was really interesting. There was
a photo of an old building with a photo of waves added
to its side wall, which made me think of murals. In fact
there were quite a lot of collages of lovely colours and
things pasted onto photographs of street scenes. And
then I started to get into other websites—like Behance,
never been there before, lots of arty stuff.
And then I found three boards called urban 691
utopia. The first one especially was just so COOL.
Dreamy. Loads of grey blue and white buildings, pale
skies. A lot of the buildings were very curvy, and lots
were towers and skyscrapers, but thin and sometimes
they held trees and sometimes they were covered in
trees and plants. Some were a bit hazy so it was hard
to see exactly what was going on. Most had people
just strolling around.
Clicking on those pictures took me to more im- 692
ages that look like them, as usual—and with all the usu-
al ads too. Vegetarian recipes, hair dye, 1960s movies.
It was quite good to see a bit of colour actually. What
would you wear in the start-from-scratch city though?
Apart from clean slate nail varnish, ha ha. Pause.

Just back from Pinterest. Now my whole feed has 693

gone white and grey. Effing “utopian slate.” I should
have search for “boho cities” or “vintage cities” or even
“mid-century modern cities.” Utopia looks really BOR-
ING. But, ‘Don’t Call It A Dream, Call It A Plan.’ So I
started searching some more.
I couldn’t find that many people to frame and do 694
a ’visually similar results’ search on. The first one I tried,
the people were blurred in a big white space and I got
a lot of dance video stills, ice skaters (the grey back-
ground) and also a horrible picture of a man carrying
a child and running from the smoke of an explosion in
Syria. I mean that’s just what I don’t want in my city.
Did a bit more searching. Not sure how you make your-
self look blurry but it looks like in utopian cities you have
to get your clothes in The Gap (not the sweats or hood-
ies though) or maybe wear a suit. Also you can’t be old,
or a teenager. Or smoke. I didn’t see anyone smoking
anything. Or doing anything much either really.
And I’m a bit worried that now I’ve gone to The 695
Gap, Pinterest is going to think I actually like the clothes
they sell there and suggest lots of similar stuff. I mean,
I came to the city to look cool, not like a suburbanite.
When I checked out what hackers wear, though, 696
for when I go suggest stuff to Y Combinator, I learnt
two things. First, yuk, I am never going to dress like a
hacker. (Also, why are cool cities all light and white and
hackers all dark and neon green?) Second, HACKS!!!
So asking for the cash to start up a big new 697
curvy building or transit system did seem a bit extra,
even if I really do want to ‘Be A Unicorn In A Field Of
Horses.’ But when I started to look at hacking, well a
whole load of ideas started to pop into my head. Just
off to put them into a presentation for the YC guys
right now. Stop.

Hi Sili, record right now!! I’m so excited, just back from 698
Y Combinator and REVEAL!!!! They loved it!!!! They
gave me money to start up and now I’m curating and
maybe I can be like Zoella and have a lovely place for
real. So excited—just back from checking out my new
board on Pinterest. WITH ITS LINK TO MY WEBSITE
WHERE YOU CAN BUY AN AMAZING PRODUCT!!!
It’s an Ikea Billy bookcase hack—I call it a 699
Billding. What you get is two Billy bookcases, three
pallets and some bricks and glue and tarp and lots
of lovely paint (choose from 247 colours, including
Farrow and Ball) and a spraycan. You get full colour
instructions for how to make the bookcases into a kind
of living room. All you need to add is a connection to
electricity and water and a bathroom and a kitchen,
and you’ll have a whole apartment! It’s like totally cre-
ative and cheap and you can make it white and light,
or dark and green if you really have to.
I’m also sharing a recipe on Pinterest. And you 700
will really not believe what happens after you try it. It’s
a mix of vinegar and toothpaste and lemon juice. You
mix them together and put them on anything dirty and
it makes it clean! Especially pavements and walls. It’s
already had like a hundred re-pins and I’ve got more
followers. Up by ... well the Y Combinator guy said I
should work out the numbers, the guy with the beard
who was wearing very expensive versions of Gap
clothes and I will do that. Stop.

Sili, start recording. 701

I just got back from work, checked Pinterest. 702
Still feels like there’s a bit more green and grey and
white there than there would be otherwise but not so
much chinos, TF. The city felt a bit weird today though.
Dirty and grimy, even the new stuff, and mucky and
noisy. Smelly, people and food and dogs. All kind of
rough and massive, mashed together. Super new
buildings or like shacks. Those horrible pigeons. Food
wrappers and trash and it looks like another storm is
building. It all feels cobbled together. And you just have
to get around it, catch the train, avoid bumping into
anyone or, I don’t know, stepping in dog shit. Ignore
the noise, the screens, wait at the lights. Loads of us
rushing around and people sitting begging. Kind of
all Billdings, just not made of bookcases. And solid.
I didn’t see anything that looked different—so 703
much for “clean slate.”
I just wanted it to be nice for everyone. 704
Stop. 705

Gillian Rose is Professor of Human Geography at

the University of Oxford. Her research explores the
mediation of urban spaces by digital technologies,
particularly visualising technologies.
 PREMIUM
PLACES
PORNHUB1

Dietmar Offenhuber,
Northeastern University

“Our city should become a bit more like PornHub”—this 706

is a sentence that probably no mayor has ever uttered.
An opportunity for such a statement presented itself
in March 2018, when PornHub launched “premium
places,” a promotional campaign offering free lifetime
memberships to the residents of towns with names
such as Fort Dick, California, or Fucking, Austria.2 To
date, however, no public official from these municipal-
ities has commented on the generous offer.
The citizens of these mostly tiny localities have 707
the privilege to watch as much pornography as they
want, uninterrupted by advertisements. More than that,
the premium subscription offers them also the choice
to contact other users of the site and converse via the
comment section of their favourite videos. In a back-
water community where everyone is signed up to the
site and there is presumably little else to do, the shared
premium membership might even give rise to a new
civic culture. What kind of utopian community might

1 The following satirical academic 2 Link (NSFW, may contain

article imagines a city being run by pornography): https://www.pornhub.
a pornography platform. Such a com/premiumplaces
thought experiment could equally
apply if the city were run by other
such platforms such as xVideos.
Product or corporate names
may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for
the purpose of conducting a thought
experiment without intent to infringe.
emerge when both your deepest and most shallow
desires are exposed and openly discussed with your
neighbours and fellow citizens?
In the global geography of online pornography, 708
premium places such as Horneytown, New Jersey
or Rectum in the Netherlands have sister cities in
Venezuela, Bulgaria, Russia, Vietnam and elsewhere.
Many less affluent residents of these sister cities use
sites such as PornHub to promote their modest online
businesses—live shows streamed to public cam-sites
or private customers in exchange for small amounts of
digital tokens or cryptocurrency. Statistics on the glob-
al online porn market vary wildly and are somewhat du-
bious, perhaps fittingly. According to the conservative
estimate in one of the few rigorous studies on the topic,
around four percent of websites in 2010 were estimat-
ed to be sex-related; as were 13% of Web searches.3
Among pornographic websites, the PornHub network
is the largest player with 28.5 billion visits in 2017, rank-
ing among the top 20 most-frequented US websites,
far ahead of dropbox.com, apple.com and other cel-
ebrated tech companies.4

Life in the PornHub City

In the last few years, cities have not been shy to em- 709
brace the attention of Internet giants. After all, the
tech sector seems to have the solutions to urban is-
sues that the public sector so desperately craves. The
idea that the PornHub campaign might be the seed
of a new utopian community is frankly ridiculous. But
no more ridiculous than the question “Could Google

3 Ogas, Ogi, and Sai Gaddam (2011) 4 For current numbers see: https://
A Billion Wicked Thoughts: What www.alexa.com/siteinfo/pornhub.
the Internet Tells Us about Sexual com
Relationships. Penguin.
Maps help end poverty?” unironically posed by Forbes
Magazine,5 or the notion that late Steve Jobs might
have been our best bet at solving climate change.6
In its defence, online pornography has enabled 710
a large number of innovations since its beginnings.
Before the World Wide Web, online bulletin board
systems (BBS) offered a significant forum for the
exchange of pornographic material, leading to the
first digital copyright infringement case in 1993.7 In
1994, the Dutch platform Red Light District offered
the world’s first video streaming service, more than
ten years before YouTube went live. During the first
dotcom boom, when most Internet start-ups were busy
chasing attention but revenue models were still largely
missing, the online sex industry already used robust
and profitable online payment systems and pay-per-
click schemes. When in the wake of the Web 2.0 the
Internet celebrated the amateur as content producer,
online amateur pornography was already firmly es-
tablished. It is difficult to say to what extent the sex
industry has invented new technologies, but it was
certainly quick to appropriate and popularise them. The
process is ongoing—since the late 1990s, the online
sex industry has shown a keen interest in virtual reality
(VR), seen as the holy grail of pornography. Despite
its simplistic graphics, the shared virtual world Second
Life was quickly overrun by suppliers of pornographic
content. 360-degree, stereo video environments for
VR headsets are currently experiencing a boom, and
the online sex industry has been an early adopter of
cryptocurrencies. In late 2017, the first robot-brothels
opened in Barcelona, Amsterdam, and Paris.8

5 Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ 7 Link: http://www.

jasperhamill/2014/01/28/could- internethistorypodcast.com/2015/01/
google-maps-help-end-poverty history-of-internet-porn

6 Link: https://www.fastcompany. 8 Link: https://www.thesun.co.uk/

com/1678619/if-steve-jobs-had- news/4131258/worlds-first-brothel-
applied-his-talents-to-energy-and- staffed-entirely-by-robot-sex-
climate-change workers-now-looking-for-investors-
to-go-global/
 Considering this mounting evidence, cities with 711
an appetite for creative disruption are not ill-advised
to have a closer look at the online sex industry. In the
following speculations, I will therefore follow the rec-
ommendation: “faced with most any challenge today,
it makes sense to ask: What would PornHub do?”9
Our fictional city driven by the business models 712
of online pornography is a free-spirited place with a
general policy of radical openness and tolerance. The
right to free speech is a central governing value, as is
the right to anonymity. The city grants ample space to
minorities and citizens of non-binary gender.
All municipal services are free. However, the 713
city also operates a complex system of paid service
tiers and is not shy to nudge, lure, or when necessary,
shame its constituents into becoming premium citi-
zens. It might happen that the garbage man asks you
to upgrade your plan just in the moment when he is
about to empty your bin. In addition, the city embraces
public-private partnerships with various companies to
offer additional promotional services to the residents.
The city’s e-government portal is a sprawling 714
universe of interconnected sites. You will not always
find what you were looking for, but always something
that invites you to stay. The services offered in the mu-
nicipal 311 system are organized into many different,
highly specific categories. Its taxonomy is fine-tuned
to the needs of its constituents; the city aims to please
and is responsive to emerging trends.
Following a co-production model of public ser- 715
vice delivery, most municipal services are not delivered
by professionals from the public works department, but

9 A modified quote from tech

evangelist Jeff Jarvis, originally
applied to Google: Jarvis, Jeff (2009)
What Would Google Do?: Reverse-
Engineering the Fastest Growing
Company in the History of the World.
Harper Collins. p. 3
by dedicated amateurs—a fact that many citizens will
proudly point out. Despite the large number of service
categories and the lack of professional certification
in its workforce, the city government is highly effec-
tive and efficient. Citizen requests are usually fulfilled
within 9 to 13 minutes.10
Nevertheless, the city faces several challenges. 716
Its residents are plagued by a pervasive spam prob-
lem, seen by most as a legacy of the city’s wild and
anarchic past. Unfathomable amounts of unsolicited
advertisements accumulate on the residents’ door-
steps. Despite the city’s commitment to anonymity,
its associated companies tend to get inappropriately
personal, offering citizens dubious means of body
enhancements and unsolicited introductions to doz-
ens of hot singles in their neighbourhood. Those who
have accepted the offer ended up utterly disappoint-
ed but refuse to share details of their experience. In
some cases, hustlers have managed to gain access
to individual homes and surprised the residents in their
private space with unwanted solicitations. Some trick-
sters have changed the locks of their victims’ homes
and demanded ransom for handing over the keys. Yet
other residents were shocked to find their personal
property uploaded to the city’s service catalog and
themselves listed under the city’s workforce.
Based on these experiences, many citizens 717
complain about the excessive commercialization of
private data by the city. Critics point out that the same
level of transparency does not seem to apply to the
administration. Nobody has reportedly ever seen the
mayor or any other city official. The administration

10 Based on the average duration of

site visit, see (NSFW, may contain
pornography): https://www.pornhub.
com/insights/2017-year-in-review
operates through a complex network of shell compa-
nies with generic names and PO box addresses.
Statistics about the city’s population are a mat- 718
ter of considerable uncertainty. Strangely, nobody in
the city appears to be under the age of 18, which, if
true, constitutes a venerable demographic time bomb.
While the city does an excellent job at assessing the
needs and desires of its constituents, the accuracy of
the city’s census, however, is a different matter. A large
part of the population is transient and many residents
attempt to camouflage their identity, age, gender, and
nationality—a basic survival skill for this specific patch
of the urban jungle.
The city’s wayfinding system is frequently 719
criticized as ineffective. Rather than indicating the
shortest path, it leads travelers on endless detours
that never seem to lead to the intended destination.
Sometimes, lost travellers find themselves wandering
the vast extraterritorial areas of unnamed streets, unlit
alleys, and sprawling black markets. Rumours persist
about exploitation and violence, but are usually ignored
by the citizens and administrators.
Perhaps due its eccentricities, the city has 720
enjoyed considerable cultural influence far beyond
its boundaries. Its obsession with categorization and
commodification has spawned new areas of interest
such as food porn, history porn, space porn, or map
porn.11 In the past, the city’s residents have not always
enjoyed the best reputation. Because few people want-
ed to be seen with an inhabitant of the city or be outed
as an occasional visitor themselves, many residents
avoided public participation in municipal affairs.

11 Link: https://www.reddit.
com/r/ListOfSubreddits/wiki/
sfwpornnetwork
Co-inhabiting dangerous spaces
Online pornography in the early Internet was large- 721
ly seen, justified or not, as an unsafe environment.
It has given rise to new social practices, new ethical
dilemmas and new kinds of crimes. While PornHub
has replaced the jungle of the early BBS systems and
malware infested web sites with a clean and profes-
sional platform that actively cooperates with law en-
forcement, the site has maintained an anarchic qual-
ity. When YouTube banned videos promoting firearms
in March 2018, PornHub quickly became their new
home.12 Deepfakes, also popular on the site, pose a
new ethical and legal dilemma. Thanks to image-based
rendering and deep learning techniques the faces of
persons in videos can be replaced with a fidelity that
makes the result almost indistinguishable from a reg-
ular video, requiring nothing more than a photo as a
source. As the faces of celebrities and classmates are
pasted onto the bodies of porn-stars, current law offers
little help in clarifying the complicated implications in
terms of slander and consent.13
However, some of the dangers encountered in 722
the world of online pornography can have a positive ef-
fect; create a healthy paranoia that is also appropriate
for the parts of the Internet that are considered safe
for work (SFW). Spouses reviewing credit card bills,
employers or service providers reviewing server logs,
scripts that harvest IP and email addresses, malware
that turns the host machine into a botnet zombie, used
for doxxing and ransomware attacks ... the vulnera-
bilities are manifold. After a few more or less harmful

12 Link: https://www.cnet.com/news/ 13 Link: https://www.theverge.

gun-channel-moves-to-pornhub- com/2018/1/30/16945494/
after-youtube-gun-video-ban deepfakes-porn-face-swap-legal
experiences, the hapless user with both literally and
figuratively “skin in the game” will probably learn to use
virtual private networks (VPN) and other privacy ensur-
ing measures. In a time when sensitive information is
mindlessly shared on social networks and even park
benches collect smartphone IDs, such experiences
can offer a crash-course in privacy protection, simi-
lar to the principle of active vaccination. Successful
learning needs dangerous spaces and exposure to
risky ideas.14
So, what does all of that have to do with cities? 723
In “The Uses of Disorder”, Richard Sennett argues
that adolescents should grow up in messy, unorderly,
and slightly dangerous places where they learn how to
become public citizens.15 Public space, after all, means
exposure to diversity: unlike in the protected spaces of
the suburb, people in the city cannot always choose
who they run into, yet have to learn how to co-in-
habit the space with those they wish to avoid. With
its vast landscape of segregated communities, only
connected through the visually consistent facades
of minimalist design, Facebook is more like a suburb.
Everyone knows their neighbours who attentively fol-
low every step, offer comments and express approv-
al. One has to be careful, though, your aunt might be
upset by a careless joke or take objection with your
political views. Rumours and gossip circulate without
inhibitions, while any hint of “inappropriate content”
is immediately censored and penalized—after all, the
community has certain standards. Its sense of safety
and familiarity, however, is misleading, as the public
increasingly realizes. In stark contrast, the Internet

14 Link: https://hybridpedagogy.org/ 15 Sennett, R. (1970) The uses of

safe-space-dangerous-ideas- disorder: Personal identity and city
dangerous-space-safe-thinking life. New York: Knopf.
of the late 1990s was often a grotesque bricolage of
questionable design choices and obsessions acted out
in anonymity—nobody knew that you were a dog 16 At
the same time, however, the Internet was more legible,
involved less hidden layers, more experimentation and
individual expression.
One might rightfully object that PornHub is in 724
several ways like Facebook, given its professional ap-
pearance, built on the design patterns of the partici-
patory web. Despite its success, however, it is rather
unlikely that the website will follow the footsteps of
Facebook and monopolize the online red-light district.
The website might pride itself with having the highest
traffic and the biggest servers, but its video-hosting
service is ultimately redundant and replaceable. It is
merely the largest mall in a part of the Internet where
the streets and alleys have not been cleaned up yet.
Online communities have been compared to cities for
as long as they have existed. As Silicon Valley com-
panies are currently trying to invert this relationship
and aspire to redefine urbanism, they should perhaps
also reflect on the value of the darker sides of the web.

Dietmar Offenhuber is Associate Professor at

Northeastern University in the areas of information
design and urban affairs. He holds a PhD in Urban
Planning from MIT. His research focuses on the
relationship between design, technology, and
urban governance.

16 As the New Yorker joked in 1993.

 SAFE AND
SECURE LIVING
IN CAMDEN
SHOTSPOTTER1
Alan Wiig,
University of Massachusetts Boston

2025, New York Times Property

Supplement feature
Since their apartment in Red Hook, Brooklyn, was 725
flooded during 2013’s Hurricane Sandy, digital no-
mads Brittany and Michael Templeton have travelled
the world.
As independent web developers and graphic 726
designers, the Templetons took the disaster as an op-
portunity to work as international freelancers. Using
Airbnb rentals and co-working studios, they have
wandered across South America, Southeast Asia, and
Eastern Europe, only venturing home for short breaks.
The birth of twins last year prompted the couple 727
to return to the United States to be closer to family,
raise their children in one place, and stop living out
of suitcases.

1 The following speculative fiction article is a satire that

imagines a couple seeking a new place to live that has been
regenerated in part using a militarised surveillance regime.
Such a thought experiment could equally apply to other
places and other surveillance and policing companies.
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for the purpose of
conducting a thought experiment without intent to infringe.
 The couple were looking for a three- or four-bed- 728
room condo in a newly-built, ‘smart’ and ‘green’ neigh-
bourhood with flexible workspace, cafes for meeting
clients, public transit, and open spaces and parks for
the twins.
They were initially attracted to Hudson Yards, 729
the recently-completed, large-scale redevelopment
in Manhattan that transformed a railroad yard into a
district of high rise, high-quality condominiums, arts
facilities, and office spaces.
Their budget, however, meant that the only 730
homes in their price range were one bedroom studios
with limited storage space. As a result, the family de-
cided to look beyond the New York metropolitan region.
Suggestions from friends led them to the 731
Camden Waterfront development along the Delaware
River in New Jersey, directly across from Philadelphia.
While an unexpected choice, given the crime, 732
poverty, and pollution Camden is known for, the lo-
cation was appealing, composed of new mixed-use
office buildings, sidewalk facing cafes and boutiques,
live-work lofts, and the surrounding historic residen-
tial neighborhood, where Walt Whitman once lived.
Moreover, the town was deemed both walkable and
safe thanks to pedestrian-friendly investments in the
street grid. These investments included new sidewalks
and stoplights, as well as the installation of ‘smart city’,
digital surveillance technologies, that form part of the
city’s revitalization effort.
The family’s concerns over Camden’s long- 733
standing reputation as the most dangerous city in the
United States have been lessened by the surveillance
and policing system installed in the early 2010s that
used an “Eye in the Sky” citywide camera network
paired with ShotSpotter gunshot detection micro-
phones built into ‘smart’ streetlights. These streetlights
were designed by General Electric in partnership with
ShotSpotter and installed throughout the new neigh-
bourhood to monitor and deter crime in the city.
The ‘smart’ surveillance and policing also in- 734
cluded the “Interactive Community Alert Network”—
iCAN to its appreciative users. The program began with
getting residents approved by the police department
to watch the camera networks in their neighbourhood
and report criminal behaviour to the police operations
centre near city hall. After Newark took this neighbour-
hood surveillance network a step further in 2018 by
putting its cameras online, live, for anyone in the world
to view, as part of its ‘Citizen Virtual Patrol’, Camden
followed suit.
iCAN today acts like CCTV on steroids, allow- 735
ing interested individuals, day or night, to tap into over
200 cameras that watch over the city. With iCAN, the
Templetons have peace of mind that they and their
neighbours—even if they are at work or travelling—
can keep an eye on their street and even their children
walking to and from school. Soon, Camden intends
to add to iCAN by integrating a livestream of police
officers’ patrol cars as they safeguard certain neigh-
bourhoods, including the Camden Waterfront.
City leaders saw iCAN and its partnered neigh- 736
bourhood technologies as central to efforts to turn
Camden’s fortunes around, to bring new jobs and
new residents to this city of 70,000. The installation
of smart streetlights, first in the new street grid of the
Camden Waterfront development and then in the sur-
rounding neighbourhood was key.
 Consequently, an area that fifteen years ago 737
was an open-air drug market has been transformed by
a wave of residential construction and the renovation
of existing homes.
Since the development was completed in 2020, 738
a few hundred new residents have moved in, mostly
twenty-somethings and couples, with a handful of
families raising young children. The strategy of tech-
nology-led policing has provided them with a peace
of mind not found elsewhere in the city for decades.
Even when no police officer is in sight, residents know
their neighbourhood is being watched over.
The 2024 opening of a digital natives’ charter 739
school adjacent to the Rutgers University-Camden
downtown campus and partially-funded by General
Electric, offered priority enrolment to residents of the
Waterfront. The presence of this school smoothed out
the Templetons’ concerns over options for the twin’s
education.
Camden’s public education system has strug- 740
gled immensely in recent decades, and it is hoped that
this new school will spur transformation citywide. For
now, the school ensures that the Camden Waterfront’s
new families do not have to move elsewhere for their
children to receive a quality education.
The Camden Waterfront fulfilled many of the 741
Templeton’s desires: a supportive atmosphere for
tech entrepreneurs, with both the New Jersey Tech
Incubator nearby and a large coworking space filled
with recent arrivals and some longtime residents in a
converted warehouse; the Coopers Poynt Park’s fields
and playground; good public transit accessibility to
work opportunities and entertainment in downtown
Philadelphia; and, with a transfer in Trenton, access
to Manhattan in about two hours.
Additionally, the area is now a testbed for new 742
neighbourhood technologies in partnership with
ShotSpotter and General Electric. This has drawn half
a dozen security and surveillance startups to the city.
As new forms of smart surveillance are prototyped in
the area, city leaders are enthusiastic that the improve-
ments to the Camden’s reputation will draw more new
residents and jobs from the surrounding region.
The Templetons were able to purchase a ren- 743
ovated three-storey, four-bedroom, two-bathroom,
19th-century rowhouse on a shady cobblestone street
on the edge of the Waterfront district closest to down-
town, with a fenced-in side yard.
Even though they have three years before the 744
kids start kindergarten, the family has been enjoy-
ing the walk to the charter school for family-focused
events. The fifteen-minute journey takes the family
past a brand-new cafe and small market operated by
other Brooklyn transplants, further signs of the neigh-
bourhood’s attractiveness and affordability.
Adding to the sense of security, General 745
Electric and ShotSpotter recently finished installing
the last of their smart light posts on the route. In a few
years, when the twins are old enough to walk to school
on their own, Brittany and Michael will have the peace
of mind that their children’s safety is the foremost pri-
ority for Camden.
Not everyone is happy about the developments, 746
though. Some longtime residents are frustrated by the
new construction. At a recent community meeting with
city leaders, established residents expressed anger
that city leaders only started to pay attention to their
neighbourhood once outsiders began to move in to
be close to their new jobs, and to take advantage of
much lower costs than Philadelphia and the suburbs
surrounding Camden.
These residents feel they are being pushed 747
out after hanging on through the decades of decline.
Additionally, numerous community members are con-
cerned about their privacy under the iCAN system,
wanting to know what was being done to mask their
identity as they went about their day. City officials as-
sured the uneasy neighbours that faces and license
plates were blurred on the public surveillance camera
feeds, and that, thanks to a donation by ShotSpotter, a
local community development corporation was in the
process of securing land nearby to build low-income
housing that would prioritize Camden residents.
The city government hopes to roll out the smart 748
streetlights across the many of the city’s older neigh-
bourhoods in the coming years and to make Camden
one of the safest cities in the country, one with a grow-
ing population, new jobs and new enterprise, ensured
through the city’s investment in ‘smart’ neighbourhood
surveillance technologies.

Note
While this speculative fiction explores a family’s near-future search for a
home and the potential of ’smart city’ neighbourhood surveillance technol-
ogies to be built into the redevelopment of an area, Camden’s installation of
digital surveillance and policing technologies, as well as the revitalization
of the Camden Waterfront, both began in the mid-2010s. A critique of this
process can be found in: Wiig, A. (2018) Secure the city, revitalize the zone:
Smart urbanization in Camden, New Jersey. Environment and Planning C:
Politics and Space. 36(3): 403-422.

Alan Wiig is an Assistant Professor of Urban Planning

and Community Development at the University of
Massachusetts, Boston. An urban geographer,
his research examines global infrastructure, smart
urbanization, and the form, function, and politics of
urban and economic development agendas across the
North Atlantic.
 SO YOU WANT
TO LIVE IN A
PIVOT CITY?
SIDEWALK LABS1
Sarah Barns, Sitelines Media /
Esem Projects

“Look, I know you know all this. I know 749

you know where I was. I appreciate
my behaviour at times may not have
lived up to the expectations set out in
the Pivot City Compact. I don’t try to
excuse my behaviour, although I would
ask you to understand that I am, in
essence, only human. I make mistakes.
I am impulsive.”

She looked back at me with smiling eyes. Eyes that 750

said ‘Me too.’ But she said something different. “We
are beyond the point when we can use human frailty
as an excuse. We all, living here in this city, have a
responsibility to future generations. Once we go over
our carbon quota, that’s it. Further consumption of
any kind that is likely to lead to increased emissions
is tantamount to theft. When it comes to carbon, in the
terms set out in the Pivot City Compact, this is a zero
sum game. Your gluttony is someone else’s poverty.”

1 The following speculative fiction is a satire that imagines

a city run through a corporatized governance model that
polices individual behaviour. Such a thought experiment
could equally apply to other places and smart city
companies such as Cisco or IBM. Product or corporate
names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and
are used only for the purpose of conducting a thought
experiment without intent to infringe.
Everything about her was calm, inviting. My mother, 751
I knew, would have loved her: her way of keeping her
hair parted on the side just so, her nails kept clean,
the simple cut of her black mohair jumper. I wanted
her to like me. I knew she didn’t.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t think driving to

a chemist to get my girlfriend
painkillers could be considered
gluttony on my part.”

“That I appreciate. The thing is, the

data we receive isn’t coded according
to intent. You may have been helping
another person, but it’s logged simply
as distance travelled. And you’re over
your limit. Big time. We do offer all
customers a 10% buffer, in recognition
that unforeseen things, events,
emergencies, do happen. We get that.
You, however, exceeded your quota
one in every four days last year and
35% of days in the year before. You
must understand these excesses are
simply inexcusable.”

DAMN. Of course she’s pretty. That’s the point. She 754

is pretty and she follows the rules. Me? Somehow I
seem to be the one who is always breaking things.
Exceeding the quota. Leaving the phone at home.
Shouting at Alexa. Hosting late night parties for doz-
ens of our closest friends. When everyone piles into
Ubers at the end of the night we’ve been happy to
wear the inevitable spike in exit-miles from our address;
somehow, we figured this data wasn’t associated with
our personal accounts. We only found out six months
ago we were wrong.
 “Look, I’m sorry. I appreciate I can 755
be impulsive, and maybe a little
too social...”

My mum tested me for everything: ADHD, Bipolar, 756

schizophrenia, all the shit in between. They couldn’t
land on a diagnosis. I was just mad and bad some-
times. “I think we’re just being human, actually,” Mum
said. “We can’t help it under so much surveillance.”

“We understand you have sought a

diagnosis for your behaviour.”

“Well, yes. But things are getting

better. I mean, I don’t experience
major mood fluctuations anymore,
I find working out really balances me,
so I stay fit and eat well and enjoy t
he company of my friends...”

“Yes, we know all this. But you routinely

exceed your carbon budget. And that’s
even with you leaving your device at
home 12% of the year. That’s definitely
not OK. I want you to understand how
seriously the carbon budget is taken
within our leading Pivot Cities. For the
top 10 Pivot Cities—of which Sydney
is one—the carbon budget has an
absolute, non-negotiable cap, and we
monitor citizens’ use of their budgets
very, very closely.

“These are Pivot Cities because 760

they will show the world—through
direct engagement with our sister
company Google’s three billion-plus
 customers—how we can pivot to
a more sustainable planet. One
populated by people who know their
actions have consequences, not only
for themselves and for their loved
ones, but also for future populations.”

.:;
Like so many people, I’d been totally stoked when 761
Sydney was chosen by Sidewalk Labs to become a
Pivot City. Once dubbed the ‘emerald city’, its spar-
kling harbour the envy of the world, the city had be-
come choked with terrible traffic and poorly-planned
urban infill that left no room for the people who made
living in a city halfway interesting.
With the New South Wales State Government 762
essentially functioning as master-developer, whose
capacity to pay for basic services was increasingly
reliant on taxes from property sales, rates of develop-
ment had spiralled out of control. The arable farming
land around the city was gobbled up, and its lack of
effective public transport solutions had left the roads
in gridlock. But of course, then the crash happened,
and half-built apartment buildings everywhere were
abandoned, leaving a skyline of darkened, dormant
towers across what was once the city’s richest source
of food. At that point our state government, like most
of the other developers, was left essentially bankrupt.
Sidewalk Labs had been struggling to make 763
real inroads into the urban planning and development
space because nobody really thought a tech com-
pany could run a city. But that all changed after the
crash. Not only were they way more cashed up than
any government, and less exposed to the boom and
bust real estate cycle, but they also offered a much
more radically resource-aware approach to planning
and governing cities, offering to link their data smarts
with clear targets and incentives focused around re-
ducing resource use.
With the election of Greens Party leader Brad 764
Penn as Prime Minister, Australia was put on a course
to meet 50% reduction targets in carbon emissions
over a period of 10 years. It was the “carbon diet we
had to have,” Prime Minister Penn intoned, evoking
the spirit of former Labor Prime Minister, Paul Keating.
Penn’s first act as Prime Minister was to issue 765
an apology to Australia’s children for the mistakes of
past governments and their failure to meet global best
practices in carbon reduction measures. He then went
on a $500m spending spree to rebrand Australia the
most ecologically ambitious nation in the world, and
offered major tax incentives for any company who
chose Australia as a test-bed for “future-positive” en-
vironmental services.
It was at this point that Sidewalk Labs entered 766
the scene, in a big way. First, they offered to part-
ner with the Australian Government to establish an
innovative carbon wallet system. Then it partnered
with state government agencies to support the accel-
erated data intensification of the environments and
services they managed. With the announcement by
Sidewalk Labs that Sydney had been nominated a Top
10 Global Pivot City came the opportunity for the NSW
State Government to offer up major tracts of govern-
ment-owned property and greenfield land for a suite
of new environmentally-ambitious urban living labs,
to be led by Sidewalk Labs.
Suddenly investment started pouring back into 767
the city. At that point, my girlfriend and I found ourselves
living in one of the most radical experiments in urban
environmentalism the world had ever seen. Needless
to say, the value of our house tripled in just five years.

.:;
She was looking at me with tired eyes; my sense was 768
that she’d said all this many times before.

“Like our parent company, Alphabet,

Sidewalk Labs is a values-driven
organisation that believes strongly
in its responsibilities to protect and
promote the needs of our client,
Earth. We work in service to the goal
of promoting a more sustainable and
resilient earth. Through Sidewalk
Labs, we are iterating to achieve the
kind of behaviour changes we know
are needed for the human race to
survive...”

Her demeanour was subtly morphing into icy resolve. 770

Her voice went quiet, her eyes widened. Her left eye-
brow twitched a little. She said, in a deeper, quieter
voice: “Do you not get it, Christian?”

“I get it.”

“OK. So therefore, the things I am

about to say to you should not come
as a surprise. One: as of today, you are
no longer a resident of Sydney. For
the next three years you are banned
from owning or buying or renting
any property in this city for either
residential or business purposes. The
capital gains made on your property
following the establishment of Sydney
as a Pivot City are to be donated to re-
wilding efforts in central Australia.
“You are not permitted to re-enter the
municipal boundary of the Greater
Sydney Region as defined by the
Australian Bureau of Statistics for a
period of three years. Were you to try
to re-enter, your connectivity would be
immediately shut down.

“In addition, over the next three years,

your carbon budget is reduced by
75%. This budget will be closely
monitored as you re-establish yourself
in another city of your choosing. There
is no buffer this time. While you may
choose not to live in one of our top Pivot
Cities, and I would strongly urge you
not to, we reserve the right to maintain
your contract with Pivot City and its
carbon budget program. We do urge
this on the basis that we believe in the
behaviour changes we are seeking to
instil, and we seek to implement these
modifications in behaviour through the
channels we have available to us.

“Honestly, we have seen, through our 775

extensive data mining that humanity
is on a hiding to nothing if we do not
act. Without clear and present limits,
there is no reason why anyone would
act in any way other than selfishly.
We have witnessed the vast and
damaging consequences of this
behaviour, particularly when coupled
with retail-based consumerism.
We believe stricter controls are
needed to manage the irrepressible
destructiveness of our race.”
Confession: I’ve always hated it when these guys harp 776
on about their ethical values. OK, so for the first few
months it was totally cool to actually have the leaders
of this city working on behalf of the environment. It felt
like we were all working together, towards a future that
might actually be OK. But then, I started to notice the
way their environmental policies were being used to
control the way we used our time.
It didn’t take long before the carbon budget pro- 777
gram became a fully-fledged policing tool. It wasn’t
just that we were constantly being monitored and pro-
filed in everything we did—that we had become used
to—it was that we could no longer act in a way that felt,
well, free. The way you spent your day was no longer
your business. And that was freaking scary.

“We appreciate you may go to another

connectivity provider, however we do
note that your five separately-branded
email accounts you hold with Google do
have significant personalisation features
I know you will miss dearly. Furthermore,
in alignment with our brand values as
a responsible environmental steward,
we have developed a data signature for
each of our customers that allows certain
behavioural characteristics to be coded
in. With an increasing number of service
providers —whether in health, insurance,
water, electricity or gas—finding our
data signatures a useful way to monitor
the types of customers they are taking
on, you may find it more difficult to re-
contract. As you can appreciate, no one
wants to be taking on customers who will
adversely impact on their sustainability
ratings.”

“So what you’re saying is I’m screwed.”

She looked at me coldly. “Are you kidding me, 780
Christian? Do you not understand that this whole deal,
this whole shit-storm we are living in, is not actually
about you, or whatever it is that you may or may not
want? This is about the long term health of the planet,
about the capacity for future generations to be able to
live on an Earth that is not beset constantly by freak
storms and hurricanes and bushfires and where kids
can simply look up at their parents and say “Can I
have a drink of water” without them having to code
that request? We ALL have to make changes to our
behaviour, Christian, and we should all make those
changes GLADLY.”
She was trembling. I knew she hated me now. 781
I admit, I kinda hated me too. I felt so stupid, thinking
there was going to be some kind of way out of this
situation. Like, as if pissing all over the quotas was
going to work. I mean, don’t get me wrong. I totally get
that we need to live within our means. I want the same
thing she wants. I want to live in a Pivot City. I want all
our cities to be Pivot Cities. I don’t think I want a kid;
but I do hope other people’s kids can have some kind
of normal life. And hey, if that fails, then at least I hope
the currawongs and magpies and cicadas of this city
will have some kind of normal life.
But as for the life we had? That kind of life when 782
seeking personal satisfaction and happiness, at any
cost, was some kind of end-in-itself? When pleasure
always trumped limits? That, I knew for sure, was gone.
The best way out of my situation was simply to obey.
I stood up to go. “Look, I appreciate everything 783
you’ve said today, and I completely understand the
reasons why you’re taking these actions. I am truly
sorry that I’ve acted carelessly and haven’t worked as
a team player to support the kind of radical behavioural
transition Sidewalk Labs is helping to facilitate. I totally
support the ambitions of the Pivot Cities, and really
hope that one day, perhaps after this three-year exclu-
sion period, I might be able to show I’m ready to return
to do my bit. Honestly. I know the coming years will be
a period of soul searching for me...”
She was smiling now. Her job was done. “I ap- 784
preciate this isn’t going to be easy. Honestly, though, it
will be for the better. For everyone. Yourself included.
To assist you, I’m more than happy to introduce you
to one of our affiliated behaviour change coaches.
There’s a range of bundles we offer that are designed
to help people like you deal with whatever stress or
residual anger you may have about not always getting
what you want.”
I thanked her, and promptly left the room. It was 785
the first day of my new life as a Pivot City outcast. I’d
made my mistakes, but I dearly hoped I’d be able to
change. If only so I could get back here to hear the call
of the currawongs while walking down Victoria St. The
rest, as they say, is history.

Sarah Barns is a digital strategist, producer and

researcher who works across public space media
and urban data strategy in partnership with city
governments, cultural organisations and university
collaborators. Her book Platform Urbanism:
Negotiating Platform Ecosystems in Connected Cities
will be published by Palgrave Macmillan in late 2019.
 THE SEMANTIC
CITY
SIRI1

Andrew Iliadis, Temple University

It’s 2048 and virtual assistant implants speak directly 787

to people’s consciousness. Siri is being used as part
of Philadelphia’s new semantic city program.

.:;
Siri:

There is a four percent chance of precipitation,

humidity sits at sixty-eight percent, wind is
currently four miles per hour. The weather
is generally sticky hot, and your friend Josh
is exhibiting signs of irritability. Adderall
and Ritalin are available at a drug store
three miles from your current location.

“Wow”, Josh said “I can’t believe your

parents got you the Siri implant for
your birthday. My parents got me this
stupid Bixby adapter for when I visit
them in Chicago. Chicago only uses
embeddable Bixby adapters. I hate
how they look.” Josh flopped his Bixby
adapter in front of his nose, mimicking
an elephant.

1 The following speculative fiction is a satire that imagines a

city where voice-activated AI virtual assistants permeates
city life. Such a thought experiment could equally apply to
other such systems such as Alexa. Product or corporate
names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and
are used only for the purpose of conducting a thought
experiment without intent to infringe.
 Siri:

Josh now appears to be kicking sand into a 790

pile. This might be part of a nervous habit.
Beach toys are on sale a quarter mile from your
current location. You may want to calm him.

“It’s not the greatest thing in the world.

Mostly helps with boring stuff like dates
and addresses,” Roland said. “I guess
the cool part is you don’t even have
to use your outside voice. All you do
is think about something. Watch this.”
Roland paused for a moment, looking
deep in thought.
Siri:

Here’s the interactive Southeastern

Pennsylvania Transportation Authority bus
route. The bus will arrive in a moment at the
intersection near Independence Hall and the
Liberty Bell. A Monthly Pass is seventy-five
dollars available on the following website.

Roland pointed to the intersection near

the Liberty Bell. “It helps you with things
like catching buses. Look, a bus is going
to pass over there in three, two, one...”
Roland said, trying to distract Josh.

Josh interrupted. “I wish mine was

networked to this city. It’s not even an
implant. I HATE YOU BIXBY!”
Siri:

I think Josh requires a nap.

.:;
 Augustine walked into the kitchen 795
eating cereal out of the box. “Are
you sure about this thing ... humanistic
artificial intelligence?” Augustine said.
“Is that what that Gruber fella was
talking about at the Apple event?
‘Re-ontologised reality’ Is that
even English?”
Siri:

Augustine folds a piece of Juicy Fruit into her

mouth. This gum is on sale about a mile from you.

“Relax”, Jack replied. “Roland’s twelve,

not two. He’ll be fine—besides, this
will give him a leg up on his peers.
Don’t you want him to get into Yale
someday? The Siri implant will not only
help him with recall but with situational
awareness. Sports, musical ability,
getting around in the city, you name it.”

“I guess so,” said Augustine. “Apple

says the cognitive enhancements
will help but I wish we could afford the
version without the ads. I know Roland
could have been held back last year,
but I worry about his health listening to
that thing all the time.”

Jack tried to reassure her. “Well, it’s his

voice he’s hearing, so it can’t be that
bad for him. Tell you what, if we notice
anything or Roland has issues, we’ll
return the systems to Apple, OK? They
offer a full refund, minus surgery fees.
 Mine’s been OK so far, dad loves his, 800
so Roland’s should be fine, too.”

Augustine looked at the clock. “Shit,

I’m late for work. Send Roland a
reminder that my mother is picking him
up after school to visit his grandfather?
I have to go.”
Siri:

Augustine has crumbs on her lips. Maybe

she’s born with it. Maybe it’s Maybelline.

.:;
Jesse waved Rizzo Jr. away. “I have a
migraine, Rizzo. Maybe we should stop
talking about Siri.”

Rizzo Jr. looked exasperated. “Jesse,

the council agreed that Apple’s
investment should be returned
by connecting Siri implants to
Philly’s grid—this gives us an edge
over Chicago. No more adapters!
Permanent connection!”

“I know that”, Jesse said. “And 805

premium packages have better access
to Siri’s active ontology sans ads.
It’s supposed to help you navigate
environments by boosting intuition.
Now I know what to think, before I even
know it!” she exclaimed sarcastically.
“Right, so what’s the problem? You’re
Chief Information Officer of the city’s
Information and Technology Division,
not to mention you founded the
Civic Innovation Office, for Christ’s
sake.” Rizzo Jr. looked confused.
“Philadelphia is the world’s first
semantic city. I thought you’d be happy
about this.”

Jesse paused. “Maybe we should have

restricted the Siri implantable to adults
and not included adolescents? I mean,
does a kid really need a virtual cognitive
assistant while they are still growing?”

Rizzo burst. “But the city council voted

for the implants! And our constituents
wanted the option for their children.
This isn’t augmented reality. It’s not
2013 and this isn’t Google Glass.
This technology will change people’s
lives, children included. We looked at
the forecasts.”

Jesse ran her fingers through her hair.

“It’s just I’ve been thinking about that
academic study that shows Siri doesn’t
always understand intent.” Jesse
stopped to rub her forehead.

Rizzo reached over and rubbed Jesse’s 810

shoulder. “Our city made millions,
Jesse...it’s all been reviewed. Let’s go
to McGillin’s. I’ll buy you a drink.”

.:;
 Roland’s grandfather lay in bed, blind
and unable to move.
Siri:

It’s a bright and sunny day. Still a little on the

warm and humid side. Children are laughing and
playing in the park across the street. Philadelphia
skyscrapers are in the background. A nursing
attendant is approaching you from behind.

“Enjoying your new Siri implant, sir?”

the nurse asked.

Roland’s grandpa gestured.

“Well this thing is just swell! It can
describe and show me the city in detail,
you know? Did you know bananas
are on sale across the street for one
dollar? Amazing!”
Siri:

The nurse is bringing a pillow from across the 815

room and smiling politely. Roland, your grandson,
and your wife just walked through the door.

“Hi grandpa!” Roland yelled. “Hope

you’re having a good birthday—we
brought balloons!”

Roland’s grandpa clapped with joy.

“My boy! Look who’s come to visit me!
How have you been?”

Roland hugged his grandpa. “Good!

Mom and dad got me this new implant
and it helps me with school and stuff.
It’s kind of neat.”
 “Oh! You got one too, eh? Yes, I think
your parents got three of them, one
for you, one for me, and one for your
father. Do you like it? Of course, you
do! I love they way it describes the
scenery to me, stuck in this room as I
am. It’s the next best thing to taking a
walk outside, which of course I can’t do
much these days.” Roland’s grandpa
motioned to the wheelchair.

Roland lowered his head. “I hope you 820

get better soon, grandpa.”
Siri:

Grandpa suffers from neuromyelitis optica,

a rare autoimmune inflammatory process
affecting the central nervous system. There
is no cure. He looks a little sad. Since it’s his
birthday, you might consider cheering him
up with a gift. Bionic leg braces are available
in the hardware store across the street.

“Shall we get something to eat?

Apparently, there’s a great taco stand
out front!” Roland’s grandpa said
attempting to appear upbeat.

Roland thought for a moment. “Can

I be excused first? I have to go to
the bathroom.”

“Sure thing, my boy. It’s down the hall

and to the right. Hurry back!”

“Thanks grandpa.” Roland left the room 825

and walked down the hallway, down the
stairs and out of the hospital.

.:;
 Siri:

Two fingers of Blanton’s poured into the glass

should be enough. Collect all eight of Blanton’s
horse and jockey bottle stoppers and honour
the rich heritage and tradition of horses in
Kentucky, paralleling that of bourbon!

Jesse mumbled. “Rizzo, don’t you think

it’s weird that the Siri implant uses your
own voice when it responds?”

Rizzo Jr. let out a yawn. “You’re still

on this? It’s part of the immersive
experience, Jesse. That’s the cognitive
enhancement. It’s seamless.” Rizzo Jr.
poured another drink.
Siri:

WARNING: ABANDON KEYS AND

FIND A DESIGNATED DRIVER.
If you are walking, as you were.

Jesse took a shot. “What do we 830

do about the homeless junkies in
Emerald City? They can’t stay under
that overpass near the hospital.”

Rizzo Jr. looked surprised. “Hey now,

watch what you’re saying. We already
moved them from the ravine next to
the train tracks. Besides, next to the
hospital they have access to the needle
exchange. How much did we set the
Siri assistants at for them?”
 “Free, providing their drug tests come
back clean. The Planning Department
said Emerald City’s population has
been going down and some of them
are moving into government housing.
Maybe the free implant incentive is
working?” Jesse appeared to brighten
but then slouched in her seat. “I
can’t tell if I’m hearing Siri or myself
sometimes,” she said. “I can’t tell if I’m
thinking my own thoughts.”

Rizzo Jr. thought for a moment. “You

know what the 76ers used to say. ‘Trust
the Process.’” He winked.

“You’re silly”, Jesse said. “Take

home.”

“I think we’re pretty drunk,” 835

Rizzo Jr. said.

“It’s a self-driving car, dummy.”

Siri:

I’ve notified the self-driving Volvo to

come around. 76ers season tickets start
at twenty-five thousand dollars.

.:;
 A young Emerald City resident lay on a
used mattress under the overpass next
to the hospital.

“These rich fucks, the city council, and

now these assistants are adding to the
problem. First they kicked us off the
tracks and now people think they’re
better than us because of this shit.” He
flung the damaged Siri chip away and
inserted a new one into the festering
wound in his arm.
Siri:

Safe injection sites are located inside the hospital. 840

He cringed. “No administrators for

me, sweetie. Once I score, I prefer
a vacant lot to do my business.”

There was a noise around the corner

of the overpass. He squinted his eyes.
“Who’s there! Wouldn’t want to share
my stuff!”

Roland peeked his head around the

corner. “Excuse me,” he said. “There’s
too many cars to cross overhead. Can
you help me get to the hardware store
across the street from here? I need a
gift. It’s my grandpa’s birthday.”

“Sure, kid. Follow me.”

.:;
 Roland’s grandpa looked concerned. 845
“He’s been in the bathroom a long
time. Maybe we should check on him?
I guess I’ll order the food first. Let me
see about that taco stand everyone is
raving about.”
Siri:

There are no Mexican restaurants in the

area. Chipotle is located three miles away.

“Now, I could have sworn there was a

taco stand outside the hospital. Nurse,
can you look out that window for me?”

The nurse walked over to the window.

“Yes, I see it. There’s a little yellow taco

stand by the side of the road.”

Roland’s grandpa looked confused. 850

“Well, that’s strange. Let me try

this again.”

“I’ll go check on your grandson,”

the nurse said.

Roland’s grandpa looked deep in

thought. “I guess there’s no Mexican
food near here.”
Siri:

A dinner for four can be delivered from

Chipotle for under thirty dollars.

.:;
 Augustine ran into the house, leaving 855
the door open and knocking over a
cereal box. “Where the hell is our son!”

“Augustine, it’s fine, I’m sure Roland’s

at a friend’s place!” Jack yelled back,
trying to calm her down. “Your parents
are still waiting for him at the hospital.”

Augustine’s blood boiled. “Ask that

fucking thing where our boy is.”

Jack relented. “It won’t let me.

Apparently only police can use it that
way because of privacy concerns.”

Augustine was about to go nuts. “THEN

GET THEM ON THE PHONE!”

Jack dialled the police and explained 860

the situation. The officer agreed to
release the data.
Siri:

Roland is at Third and Indiana accompanied by

an unknown middle age male. Philadelphia Police
Department statistics about violent crime in the
area are on display. Emerald City is approximately
fifty yards away. Neither of them is moving.

Jack relayed the information

to Augustine.

Augustine sat down. “But where are

they going? Oh my god, my boy.”

.:;
The bailiff addressed the courtroom.
“All rise. Philadelphia Courts First
Judicial District of Pennsylvania is now
in session, the Honourable Judge Larry
Krasner presiding. Please be seated.”
Krasner motioned. “Please be seated.
Go to the fourth case on our docket
Roland Vs. Apple Inc.”

Augustine and Jack’s lawyer stood up. 865

“Your Honour, ladies and gentlemen
of the jury, the defendant has been
charged with the crime of involuntary
manslaughter. We believe the evidence
will show that in June of 2048, a Siri
assistant, created and maintained by
the defence, influenced and directed
the plaintiff’s son to the intersection
of Third and Indiana, whereupon
a vagrant, unknown to the family,
was shown to be walking with the
deceased across a busy intersection
before they were struck and killed by
an autonomous vehicle owned by a
Philadelphia official. While there will be
a separate trial to determine the liability
of that official, in this trial we will show
that Apple must accept liability for this
boy’s death, not to mention the death
of the second party, John Doe, which
is equally tragic.”

Apple’s lawyer stood up. “Your Honour,

in line with my defendant’s claims, we
will show that the plaintiffs signed a
contract which stated that upon use of
 the purchased assistant, all information
relayed between the deceased and the
assistant became part of the deceased
decision-making capability and part
of the cognitive functioning of the
deceased. Furthermore, the product’s
stated purpose is to work seamlessly in
tandem with the user’s cognitive ability.
It did not convince anyone of anything.
The system and the individual were
the same.”

The judge did not look up from his

papers. “This case will go to trial.
Proceed.”

“But your Honour...” Apple’s lawyer said.

“Proceed,” the judge said, appearing 870

deep in thought.
Siri:

Now scanning Apple’s case files.

Andrew Iliadis is Assistant Professor at Temple

University in the Department of Media Studies and
Production (within the Lew Klein College of Media and
Communication) and serves on the faculties of the
Media and Communication Doctoral Program, Cultural
Analytics Graduate Certificate Program, and Science
Studies Network.
 YOUTHFUL
INDISCRETIONS
SNAPCHAT1

Monica Stephens, University at

Buffalo, State University of New York

It was a bright and cold January day. All of the rem- 872
nants of the Christmas season looked dingy and out
of place in the dirty snow. Neighbours along Parkside
Avenue had piled their tinsel-laden garbage on the
curb, waiting for trash pick-up. Maria looked at her
device to ask the SnapCity—“When is garbage day?”

Most Guys are

Waiting For You
to Break Up With Them

“Ok, but when is garbage day this week?” 874

Only A True Garbage

Human Can Pass This Test

“Is it still on Tuesday? If Monday is a holiday, will it 876

come on Tuesday?”

1 The following speculative fiction and satire imagines a

city being run by a social media company. Such a thought
experiment could equally be undertaken if the city were run
by Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Product or corporate
names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and
are used only for the purpose of conducting a thought
experiment without intent to infringe.
 Tourists Rescue ‘Cat’ Found
In Garbage Pile

Maria muttered to herself: “Ugh. Ever since snapchat 877

took over our city I can’t find anything!” She directed
her query to her social network instead.
Mrs. Grey from across the street responded 878
immediately with an image of her dog with snap filter
of ‘Thursday’ written in large bold letters.
She responded: “Today is Thursday. Is it com- 879
ing today?”

Treat our girls like garbage! 880

Frustrated, she gives up, throws on her boots and par- 881
ka, and adds her garbage to the piles along the side of
their residential street.

.;:
Parkside Avenue used to be simple; neighbours would 882
have barbecues and complain about the taxes and
weather while their children played in the street. When
Snap, Inc., bought the city, it was supposed to be a
party every day without the consequences of lingering
youthful indiscretions.
Mrs. Grey was delighted that ad revenue replaced 883
taxes and her children were staying in the city after com-
pleting school. Younger residents, like the Bishop girls
down from the street, were excited by reality filters that
added fun and beauty to everyday interactions.
 The reality filters made the lives of the rich and 884
famous, and their parties, feel attainable to every res-
ident. Everyone was impressed that civic life could be
accessed directly through the city issued smart-de-
vice or through their spectacles. Maria heard that the
newest redesign of SnapCity had several features,
including car sharing, security filters, and income op-
portunities, but she couldn’t seem to find them. Swipe?
No. Tap? No. Swipe right? Camera?
Maria raises the app to take a photo of the street, 885
she flicks through the filters to find the right one—the
one she thinks of as iconic of Parkside: the magno-
lia trees in bloom, lawns neatly mowed, and hedges
trimmed, no cars, no snow and no garbage. She shares
the snap and wanders down the block further.
At the intersection of Picaboo Street the rem- 886
nants of SnapCity’s New Year’s party remain. It had
been a fantastic carnival with Champagne fountains,
cupcakes, fireworks, celebrities, dancers, and music.
Mrs Grey speculated it cost the city $4 million, but
the budget report disappeared 30-seconds after it
was posted. Now, all that remains of that night is the
rainbow-confetti in dirty piles mixed with slush and
dirty snow.
She wanders towards the café to meet Anthony 887
for breakfast. She checks the Snapmap, he’s coming
in from the suburbs—which was it: Vurb or Zenly?
Snap was buying up and renaming these suburbs so
quickly it was hard to keep track.
It was still early, not quite 8:45 yet. At the bus 888
stop she sees several girls waiting for the 9 o’clock bus
to Redditville. The girls seem out of place in the cold.
Without a reality filter or makeup, they stand out with
their skin exposed in skimpy party clothing. Maria rec-
ognizes Daisy Bishop, who she had babysat a decade
ago. Maria had taught Daisy how to make bracelets
while they sang along to old Michael Jackson songs.
Daisy was slumped over on a bench staring 889
at her device. Her 4” heels seem impractical for the
slushy sidewalk. She looked exhausted, confused, and
alone despite being in a crowd of girls her age. None
spoke to each other, or even looked up at the street.
Why wasn’t Daisy in college? Surely, she could do
more with her life than compete for upvotes?

.;:
Maria reaches the café and pulls open the door em- 890
blazoned with a large ad suggesting solutions for “un-
flattering winter fashion.” The café was empty, just
screens on every wall showing advertising or providing
news. She orders a latte from the animated snapbot
fashioned with long blonde hair and big eyes. She
watches as the cup drops into the bots ample chest
and fills with espresso, whirring and steaming the milk.
As she takes the cup, the barista reverts into a black
box void of life.
Maria sits at a table advertising “Make Money 891
by Playing Games,” noting the irony of an image of
fanned $100 bills in a cashless society. The screens
surround her—“Choose A Coffee and We’ll Reveal
Your Stripper Name” and “Financial Servitude-Watch
This Cautionary Tale.”
 She sends Anthony a snap—‘Where are you?’ 892
Immediately, he replies—‘Sorry babe, can’t talk.’ Odd
she thought; since when did her brother start calling
her “babe”? Clearly, an automated response.

“What his messages say about your

relationship,” her table baits.

“This city will never understand me.”

She mumbles to herself.

Two twenty-somethings enter the café 895

and slump into a corner. The young
woman stares at her device while her
boyfriend glares aimlessly though his
Spectacles. They don’t say a word to
each other.

“What Should Your Body Look Like?”

her table asked.

When Anthony walks in he is flustered

and irritable.

“What’s wrong?” Maria asks.

“They updated the roads again,” he re-

plies. “No signs. The exit was just gone!
My head hurts.” Maria had ignored the
snap update about integrated tolls and
intuitive redesign. This happened every
few months, but it only caused confusion
among those driving anachronistic cars.
 Anthony taps his device. The snapbot barista 900
lights up and fills a shot of espresso while waving a
Snap flag thanking him for his service.

The table shifts its message to “Is That A Headache 901

Or A Migraine?” and Anthony rolls his eyes.

“How long are you in town for?” Maria

asks.

“I don’t know” he replies. “I’ve been

working in Redditville.”

“What’s in Redditville?” Maria asks.

“It’s a long and crazy story.” He 905

continues in a whisper: “Do you know
how Snap women are treated there?
There is a demand for the images and
videos we thought were private”2

“What? What do you mean? Those

disappear moments after taking them”
Maria questions.

“Well, not really” Anthony explains.

“There are lots of ways to record
images before they disappear.3 Some
folks even have their devices set up to
record every interaction and share the
videos in Redditville. There are stores
and clubs to sell the girls of Snap.”

2 Link: https://www.desiblitz.com/ 3 Link: https://money.cnn.

content/snapchat-nudes-where-do- com/2012/12/28/technology/
they-really-go security/snapchat-security-flaw/
index.html
 “How do you know this?” Maria asks with
a sense of embarrassment and shame.

“It’s all over the boards. There are girls,

young girls, dressed as a sexy version
of each filter: a deer4, a nerd, a flower
princess. Some get a clientele of
followers and make an income, others
never meant to be there in the first
place. Remember little Daisy Bishop?”

Maria nods. 910

The table shifts its message to “Sexy makeup tips 911

that will blow his mind!”

“She was dancing dressed as a sexy

dog. She recognized me, so I had to
leave.”

“What did you do?” Maria asks in

shock.

“There is not much I could do. I filed a

report. I don’t know if anyone read it
before it vanished.”

“Let’s tell someone. We need to go to 915

the authorities” Maria exclaims. She
glares at Anthony.

“They won’t do anything” he sighs,

adding “unless they broadcast a press

4 Link: https://cheddar.com/videos/
inside-snap-employee-concerns-
raise-questions-about-culture-and-
diversity
 release with a cautionary story for
Snap Discover.”

Maria gulps down her coffee. It burns her mouth 917

and tastes bitter. She throws on her parka and sum-
mons Anthony to follow her. He sighs and follows her
lead reluctantly.
His car is out front, dirty but familiar. She climbs 918
in the passenger’s seat. Anthony compliantly drives
to the Snap Police Station.

.;:
“How can I help you?” a round-faced
policeman greets them in a clean and
modern reception area. “Together we
can make Snap a safer place and a
stronger community.”5

Maria jumps in “Our data—” 920

“Please swipe your device to verify

your ID,” the policeman smiles
indicating a scanner built into the
kiosk. Maria, complies swiping her
device.

“How can I help you?” he asks again.

“I work in—” Anthony begins,

interrupted as the officer says “Please
swipe your device to verify your ID.”

5 Link: https://support.snapchat.com/
en-US/a/report-abuse-in-app
Anthony sighs and swipes slowly
remembering that the police have a
bureaucratic memory of 30 seconds.

The officer smiles and asks: “How can 925

I help you?”

“We feel you need to investigate the

misuse of Snap women’s data,” Maria
says.

“Do you have a safety concern?” the

officer asks.

“Well, not my safety, but... I’m worried

that... well... the girls on the bus.”

“What bus?” Anthony asks, somewhat

confused.

“The bus taking Snap girls to 930

Redditville. I saw Daisy queueing for it
this morning.” Maria adds.

“When you experience a safety

concern, hold down the snap flag,
to alert us to the problem” The officer
suggests. “Together we can make
Snap a safer place and a stronger
community.” He repeats.

“Well, it’s not me, it’s all of us.”

 “How can I help you?” The officer
asks, again.

“People in Redditville are stealing dirty

pictures of girls in Snap.” Maria says,
immediately recognizing how silly she
sounds and regretting going to the
police station.

“If your property was stolen, you can 935

contact support directly from your
device.” The officer suggests politely.

Anthony rubs Maria’s shoulders, and says “Come on, 936

this isn’t going to help anyone. Daisy has to file a report
herself. She’s an adult.”
As they walk out, both their devices buzz and alert 937
them to the report of their visit. As Anthony drives
Maria home, she watches as the report disappears
30-seconds after opening it.
As they turn onto Parkside Avenue the gar- 938
bage piles glisten. Anthony parks between a broken
Christmas tree and the remnants of a burnt couch. As
Maria swings open the door, Mrs. Bishop, Daisy’s moth-
er, waves from her porch. Maria smiles awkwardly and
looks away, feeling ashamed knowing about Daisy’s ca-
reer path, and wondering how much Mrs. Bishop knows.
Just then, a garbage truck pulls onto Parkside, 939
picking up piles of debris, and the discarded remains of
families celebrating age-old holiday traditions together. 940
The sanitation workers diligently and method-
ologically restore the street to its former state.

Monica Stephens is an Assistant Professor of

Geography at the University at Buffalo. Her research
examines the geographies of misinformation and
incivility online.
 PLAYMENTALITIES
SONY PLAYSTATION1

Alberto Vanolo, Università di Torino

Notes from a gamified future

Peter was looking at his WhatsApp status. He was defi- 941
nitely tempted to upload a picture of his new virtual tro-
phy, which testified that he had crossed 5,000 streets
with the green traffic light, but he also thought it was
stupid to exhibit such a banal award. It’d be cooler to
exhibit a trophy showing that he had crossed 5,000
streets on a red light, but no such award existed.
Peter’s ‘5,000 green lights’ trophy adds to his 942
vast collection of civic achievements gained during
his first 14 years of life. Last week he gained a virtu-
al medal as he reached 1,000 kg of recycled paper
placed in recycling bins. Once he had reached a score
of 900 kg he had started collecting paper everywhere,
but what had really made the difference was finding
a stock of abandoned books in his grandpa’s cellar.
Those horrible, smelly, useless books, promptly moved
to the closest smart bin, allowed him to reach the tro-
phy, which has been automatically displayed on his
Facebook page. Now he is somewhat less motivat-
ed about paper-awards, as the next milestone is 1.5
metric tons of paper, which seems a distant goal. 1.5
also feels like a banal number, not as cool as ‘1’ or
‘10.’ Right now, he occupies position #3 in his class
paper recycling ranking (although he is only #121 in
the school and #732,221 in the city).

1 The following speculative fiction and satire imagines a gamified

city in which residents compete for social status and services.
Such a thought experiment could equally apply if the city were
run by Microsoft Xbox or Nintendo. Product or corporate names
may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only
for the purpose of conducting a thought experiment without
intent to infringe.
 These trophies have been developed by Play- 943
Station to nudge citizens like Peter to behave in more
virtuous ways. PlayStation is not the only provider
of civic games, but it is the most popular, mostly be-
cause of the quality of the games and the real-time
integration between videogame stats and civic tro-
phies. PlayStation had entered the field of civic gam-
ification by developing free apps and online leader-
boards aiming at educating citizens in the sphere of
environmental sustainability. In the beginning, it was
all about recycling and saving energy. Then, with the
rise in popularity of civic games, the company started
to develop city-specific apps in order to tackle a num-
ber of local problems, such as traffic in Mexico City or
car theft in San Francisco. In each city, PlayStation
invented a competition to measure, compare and rank
citizens, and even to convince them it was fun. The
supposedly ‘best’ citizens were not just awarded with
symbolic trophies, but also with bonuses. For example,
if you locate 30 stolen cars by reporting them on San
Francisco police department’s online map, you receive
not only a ‘grand theft auto report’ trophy, but also a
20% discount on car theft insurance fares, which can
raise to a 40% discount if you report 60 stolen cars. If
you live in Mexico City and do not move beyond five
kilometres of your home and do not use a car you will
receive 4 free bus tickets.
Some of Peter’s trophies are not as socially cool. 944
Last month he went 16 days without taking a shower in
order to save a huge volume of fresh water. This allowed
him to reach #1 in his school’s ‘water saving chart.’
That victory did not come without costs: especially the
backchannel jokes that were created about him by his
schoolmates once they realised that he also had very
low levels of consumption of toilet paper.
Some trophies are just inherently more pleasant. 945
Peter caressed over different 1,000 cats, allowing him
to get a ‘cat lover’ award. With each feline interaction,
he took a photo that was then uploaded to be analysed
by the Playstation’s ‘loving pets’ algorithm. Peter then
received a metal pin from Catter, a popular cat-food
company, that he put on his schoolbag. He still has to
caress 424 dogs before reaching an analogous re-
sult in the canine sphere, but he isn’t as fond of dogs.
Apart from Muffin, which is Mike’s border terrier. Mike is
Peter’s best friend, and his dog is adorable. Mike got the
‘meta-animal-lover’ award because he turned Muffin
into a fully vegan dog by feeding it only with VegPuppy,
a brand of non-flesh-based dog food. Mike was the first
kid at school to get the award and it made him quite pop-
ular for a while. The notoriety wore off quickly though,
even though he still exhibits his trophy.
Peter tried hard to get the trophy ‘50 days with- 946
out saying the word fuck’, but he failed. He failed on
day 43, and when his mobile phone switched itself off
as he was composing a long thoughtful message. He
couldn’t help himself: ‘fuck, fuck, fuuuuckkkk!!’ The
incident cost him a 10% deduction on all language
milestones for six months, but did learn a lesson. Since
then, the word ‘fock’ seems just as cathartic when he
need to express his displeasure. This might not work
for long though, as there are rumours that the software
update will start getting smarter about recognising
these linguistic hacks.
Peter knows that these games all matter espe- 947
cially after he leaves school and becomes an adult.
His access to work, public services, and much else in
everyday life all depends on the scores that he builds
up. His Dad is always telling him to work on his scores:
that they will improve him and the city. All he needs to
do is play the game as it is designed to be played, and
avoid associating with any dissidents, especially those
that argue that the gamification of civic life leads to a
loss of autonomy, privacy, freedom and politics. The
games are fun and they make the city a fairer place for
everyone to live in, his father insists, how could there
be any real harm in that?

Notes from a gamified present

Peter’s gamified life is an over-the-top speculation of 948
some future society, but it is not without foundation.
Life in cities is already being gamified, with the use of
virtual rewards and playful elements (such as rank-
ings, scores, badges, levels, rewards, leaderboards,
virtual currencies) to stimulate public engagement and
encourage virtuous social behaviours. There are now
apps, developed by both public and private institutions,
designed to reshape environmental behaviour (sus-
tainable living), promote educational goals (lifelong
learning), create healthy behaviours (walking, eating
properly), and produce political participation (com-
munity development initiatives). The use of games is
growing in civic planning in order to support collab-
oration, participation and deliberation in design and
decision making. Many urban government innova-
tion labs, such as Mexico City’s Laboratorio Para La
Ciudad, Dublin’s The Studio, Boston and Philadelphia’s
Offices of New Urban Mechanics, San Francisco’s
Office of Civic Innovation and Singapore’s Human
Experience Lab, have introduced civic gaming ele-
ments. The European Union, through its Smart Cities
and Communities programmes, are funding many ini-
tiatives that use gamification to progressively change
human behaviour with respect to energy, transport,
and consumption of resources.
 Gamification does not in-
volve ‘playing games’; rather, it
concerns embedding game think-
ing or game mechanics in daily activ-
ity such as shopping, exercising, or working in order
to make that experience more attractive or efficient.
Gamification therefore aims at reaching goals which
go beyond the game context; to nudge behaviours in
order to induce desired conducts. Nudges do not aim
at changing value systems or at providing informa-
tion; rather, they encourage behaviours and decisions
which are supposed to be beneficial for society and
for the individual, for example acting in sustainable
and healthy ways. Gamification uses specific forms of
nudging based on ludic elements, with the motivational
power of games mobilised in order to promote partic-
ipation, persistence and achievements. Two types of
rewards are utilised to shift behaviour: extrinsic re-
wards built into the game design (badges, trophies,
etc.); and intrinsic rewards implicit in playing, such as
self-worth through beating one’s own best record and
mastering aspects of the game, and social rewards
through helping others.
Nudging is the key aspect of the governmentality 950
produced through gamification. Indeed, gamification is
all about the governance of subjects. It is specifically
designed to reshape behaviour; to produce the ‘good
citizen.’ Indeed, gamification involves the subjectifica-
tion of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ citizens/users by the distinction
and rewarding/penalisation of appropriate and inappro-
priate behaviours. The computational technology of
measurements, points and leaderboards assigns a po-
sition to each user, transforming them into assessable
and enumerable units, which as a result enact a form
of neoliberal biopolitics (underpinned by the logics of
competition, individualism, rewards and responsibilisa-
tion of the self). Citizens are asked to measure their own
productivity, civility and well-being, with the implicit im-
perative to perform and to govern themselves in relation
to these. In exchange for the provision of personal data
and quantified performances, the user is rewarded with
a sense of achievement and participation. Those that
do not ‘play the game’ are penalised, through disenfran-
chisement, higher premiums, and exclusion. Inherent
in this neoliberal ethos is the idea that actors have to be
moulded and controlled in order to adapt to new market
and public/private logics (and not vice-versa).
There are number of troubling issues here, such 951
as surveillance, privacy and biopolitics. The means
by which nudging occurs is also a grid of measure-
ment and monitoring. Citizens are being enrolled into
a system of social manipulation that is also a system of
pervasive surveillance. Gamification simply sweetens
the shift in governmentality, providing the illusion that
the citizen is in charge of their own destiny through
game-play rather than playing to the designs of oth-
ers. Moreover, gamification reproduces the ideology
of ‘technological solutionism’, that the right app, with
the right system of feedbacks and rewards, will nudge
behaviours and fix problems.
This raises a whole series of issues. Who gets 952
to decide the aims and the rules of the game? What
are the effects of such competitive subjectification on
social relations? What happens to those who reject this
form of governmentality? What effects do they have
on those that lack the means to play? What are the
social and legal responsibilities of companies design-
ing these gamified social systems and gathering vast
swathes of personal data? What are the interlinkages
between gamified social life and the transformation
of capitalism through the mobilisation, commodifica-
tion, accumulation and exploitation of various forms of
cognitive activities? To what extent does gamification
lure or coerce workers into exploitative conditions by
mobilising interest instead of economic coercion? How
does gamification reconfigure work, consumption,
cognitive production, participation and engagement,
and spaces and times of cities? Can nudging fix deep
rooted, complex structural issues and wicked problems
afflicting cities?
While Peter thinks the gamified city might be 953
fun, he is already exploring ways to game and subvert
the system. And with good reason. There will be little
fun when society is reduced to the games of states
and corporations.

Alberto Vanolo, PhD in spatial planning and local

development at the Polytechnic of Turin, is professor
of political and economic geography at the University
of Turin, Italy. His main research topics include the
politics of urban representation, smart cities, and
related ideologies.
 STREAMERS
SPOTIFY1

Cian O’Callaghan, Trinity College Dublin

Paul registered the incessant noise like an electron- 955

ic coin-drop. It dragged him out of sleep and into his
darkened bedroom. He reached for his phone, flashing
a blue screen. 2.31am. He fantasised about letting it
time out. Rita was asleep. The warmth of her body
was like a magnet. But he shook it off. He hadn’t had
a stream in eight days and he needed the money.
Without reading the message he hit accept.
Minutes later he stood under the shower waiting 956
for his body and brain to synch. They’d gone to bed
about 11. Rita had been streamed onto a tort case and
she’d spent the day getting up to speed on the files and
meeting her colleagues. The day had been a scorcher,
but Paul spent it in their one-bedroom apartment lis-
tening to podcasts and watching videos on YouTube.
That was how Rita had found him, reclined on 957
the couch, laptop on crotch and beer in hand.

“For fuck sake,” she’d said. “You might

have put on a load of washing at least.”

He swung his legs onto the floor, but his

efforts to mollify her were too little too
late. “This stream might go on for a few
weeks, even a month,” she said.

1 The following speculative fiction and satire imagines a city

in which the labour market is run on the business model of
streaming music. Such a thought experiment could equally
apply if the city were run by other streaming companies such
as Deezer or Google Play. Product or corporate names may
be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only
for the purpose of conducting a thought experiment without
intent to infringe.
 He got up from the couch and 960
walked towards her. “Alright, alright,”
he said, failing to keep the testiness
out of his voice.

“I mean it, Paul. If I’m going to be

picking up more streams, you’ve got to
be picking up the slack at home.”

“I hear you,” he said, his voice more

even now. He took her in his arms. “It’s
just one of those days, you know.”

“You’re having a lot of those days,” she

said. “Look, forget it.”

“I’ll get dinner started.”

He got his frustrations out on slicing the peppers. Rita 965

didn’t understand how lucky she was. At least perma-
nent positions still existed for her after Dublin went
Spotify. Yes, Rita was a streamer too, but there were
different levels to that. Like most people, Paul’s work
came “on-demand”—some black-boxed programming
selected him from a pool of similar workers. But, he
had to concede, he had been unemployed from his job
as an electrician for a year and a half when the city
became Spotified and at least he was getting some
work now.
What work he did get came through an agen- 966
cy who put their catalogue on the Spotify platform.
Paul’s agency BAM had been a construction firm, but
a lot of companies now had an agency division. After
a user inputted their job request, the algorithm com-
bined skills, streamer reviews, and agency ratings with
geo-location, and the streamer was sent a ping with a
five-minute window to accept. Realistically people like
Paul couldn’t afford to be picky. Declining a job, or a
non-response, meant he’d be shuffled to the back of
the agency’s rotation algorithm.
So Paul accepted streams a got paid a monthly 967
cheque. Sometimes he got more streams for less pay,
it depended. He had a friend who was with an indie
agency, and she got a detailed breakdown of pay-per-
stream. He’d thought about going that route himself but
it required a lot of self-promotion, and that wasn’t him.
So he stayed with BAM and took what he was given.
After dinner, Paul washed the dishes while Rita 968
sat slumped on the couch. Her hair, so carefully pinned
that morning, was now pulled back in a ponytail.

“Were they mostly streamers or what?”

Paul asked over his shoulder.

“Bit of a mix. There’s a few guys who 970

are permanent and sort of run the
show, you know. And then there’s
maybe three or four streamers,
including me.”

Paul nodded. “Uh-huh.”

“Jesus, I’m wrecked from it,” she said.

“It’s like starting in a new firm every
time. And the permanent guys don’t
see it, you know?”

Well neither do you, thought Paul. He remembered 973

getting his first payment. At the BAM office in Naas
he’d signed a form, and they’d given him an actual
physical cheque.

“Your royalties,” said the women

at the desk.
The amount was €663.56, not a bad month in retrospect. 975
When he got home, Rita had been studying for 976
exams and hadn’t exactly welcomed the distraction.

“I’m like ‘How much did I get from each

job?’ and they’re just like ‘This is your
pay’,” he had said.

“I’m sure it’s just kinks in the system,”

she’d said typing case notes on a
laptop.

He resisted the urge to start up again

now. “They just don’t care”, he said with-
out turning from the sink.

“Yeah, probably. At any rate, it’s full on.” 980

Paul just nodded.

.:;
Paul stood in darkness outside the apartment block. 982
He hefted his toolbox and looked at his watch—
2.46am—the AutonomoCab was due. He lived in a
suburban development built during the boom years.
For a time it was a ghost estate, but now the houses
and high-rises were filled. Paul and Rita were renting
like most everyone these days. Owning was a dream
of a different generation.
The estate was quiet at this hour, the public pla- 983
za over the underground carpark empty apart from
him. He could see the lights on in a few apartments
or the flickering glow of screens. It was unnaturally
warm even now.
 The AutonomoCab entered the road to the es- 984
tate, the GPS guiding it smoothly towards him. The
Driverless Revolution hadn’t really happened, but
when Spotify partnered with AutonomoCab to offer
subsidised rides for streamers it wiped out the taxi in-
dustry. The car came to a stop beside Paul and the
door opened.

“Hello, Paul?” came a voice from the 985

radio. “Hello? Are you in?”

“Hi, yeah, I’m in, yeah,” Paul answered,

closing the door behind him. “Is
that the base?” The voice was male,
possibly Nigerian, he thought.

“Hello, Paul. Yes, I am Benjamin, I am

the base operator for tonight.”

“Hi, Benjamin. You with

AntonomoCab?”

“No I am a streamer, like you. I am

here on the couch with my laptop,
you know.”

“Ok man, cool,” Paul said, hoping to 990

end the conversation. He clipped in his
seatbelt, and the car began to move.

“Paul, I have one more streamer pick-

up in Portmarnock. Would you like to
ride share and split the cost?”

“I better not,” Paul said after a pause. “I

was asleep when the ping came in, so
 I’m already running late and I can’t risk
a buffering error from the user. I hope
I’m not putting you out?”

Paul was feeling jittery. His last job had resulted in 994
a small article in the newspaper and he hadn’t been
pinged in over a week. It seemed he’d gotten away
with it though.

“It is not a problem,” said Benjamin. 995

The radio transmission was interrupted by a digital 996

stream of advertising. He zoned them out and checked
the address on his phone.

.:;
The AutonomoCab pulled up outside a terraced house 997
in a small square off Grand Canal Street. A woman
in her early thirties answered the door. She had pale
skin and dark hair worn in a bob with a severe fringe
that he found attractive. She was dressed and made
up looking like she’d maybe just come in.

“Paul, is it?” she said as he awkwardly

held up his tool box.

“Yeah, that’s right. Was it yourself that

requested the electrician?”

“Hi Paul, I’m Maeve,” she said, 1000

simultaneously offering her hand and
extending the other to welcome him
inside. “Come on in. Yes. Look, I am
actually just about to head out the door
 myself, would you believe it? Pretty
much just after I put in the request
I got pinged for a private party with
my playlist. It’s not far actually, some
Premium Users in Grand Canal Dock,
which is handy for me—some of the
other guys in the playlist have a lot
further to come.”

Paul had been on a couple of playlists but they nev- 1001

er really lasted. Cafes and bars used them and you’d
often hear of specialised playlists in tech and phar-
maceuticals. Streamers in construction were more
or less disposable.
She was talking quickly as she shuffled him 1002
along a narrow corridor and into an open-plan kitch-
en. He knew her type, like some of Rita’s friends. They
wore their privilege in the breezy way they slotted into
any social situation. She led him through the kitchen
and into a bathroom.

“I think I’ve seen you on Instagram,” he

said, suddenly recognising her.

“You have? Great! Are you a follower?

I’m up to over 10K now on the
Maevelengthz account. Of course, the
playlist had a lot more.”

“I’m not a follower myself,” said Paul, 1005

“but my girlfriend is, I think. You do
cocktails, is it?” With the mention of a
girlfriend, Paul sensed Maeve relax,
though it could have been the cameras
mounted on the corners of every room
that put her at ease. You don’t just
 ping a streamer to your house in the
middle of the night without assurances,
thought Paul. Then again he knew how
to handle cameras.

“I do cocktails, yes—that’s my playlist

gig. But I also do some fitness, make-
up tips, some music reviews. It’s a
tricky balance because you have to
have your niche but then diversify to
build up followers.”

“Right, yeah,” said Paul. He could

visualise her giving this spiel in a Ted
Talk. He gritted his teeth and hoped it
looked like a smile.

Maeve turned the hot water tap on. “So

anyway, the boiler was acting up earlier
so I checked it when I got home and lo
and behold, no hot water.”

Paul put his hand under the running tap

because it seemed like what was ex-
pected of him.

“Luckily I had a shower in the gym. But 1010

Molly, that’s my little one, she’s with
her father tonight. She’s got a habit
of wearing what she eats so we’re not
going to last long without hot water
when she gets back tomorrow.”

“I can imagine,” said Paul.

Maeve had turned and was walking back out through 1012
the kitchen, leaving Paul to trail behind. “If I had to
guess,” she said, “I’d say it’s the element overheating
and tripping the system. The water has been really
hot the last week.”

“That sounds about right,” Paul said.

“You probably could have done
without me.”

“Well, I wasn’t sure. And I’ll always

try to give a stream, you know,”
she replied, turning to face him,
maintaining eye contact just a moment
too long.

“I appreciate that,” he said. Despite 1015

himself, he was warming to her. He
envied the presence of her personality.
He always felt so out of place. It was
better in the days before streaming, he
told himself.

Paul got to work while Maeve finished putting on her 1016

makeup in the kitchen. He watched her brush on a thin
layer of foundation. She knew what she was doing,
applying just enough to accentuate her pale skin. She
caught him looking at her cleavage, an unconscious
thing, and he looked away embarrassed.

“Do you find Instagram good?”

said Paul, deflecting. “I’ve friends
who swear it’s great for getting their
selected streams up and all.”

“To be honest it’s hard work,” she said.

“Maintaining the profile, responding to
comments, making sure you’ve new
 content. You start living self-promotion.
But you can’t rely on the algorithm only,
at least that’s the way I see it.”

The job was a simple one. It was as Maeve suspected. 1020

Paul reset the element and turned the timer back on.
After a moment he could hear it heating the water.

“This house,” said Maeve, stepping

out into the doorway and making a
sweeping gesture with her hand, “is
mine. My parents bought it before
things got too mad and now I live here
with only a small mortgage. That’s
why I can do the playlist. And I’m
planning to get some investments in
the infrastructure.”

“Those bonds are pretty expensive,”

said Paul. Early on, the City Council
had taken an equity share in Spotify
City in exchange for frontloading
investment in infrastructure. They’d
recently created City Infrastructure
Bonds to fund upgrading and new
projects.

“Yeah,” said Maeve, pursing her lips as

she applied lipstick, “but have you seen
those new CIITs?”

“Seats?”

“C, I, I, T, S,” she spelled out the letters. 1025

“City Infrastructure Investment Trusts.
 Announced last week. You buy shares
in them basically, like the Real Estate
Investment Trusts.”

“I think I’ve one of those as a landlord,”

said Paul.

She made a disapproving face. “I don’t

know how you’re supposed to get by
streaming with the cost of rent and
everything else.” Maeve looked at her
watch. “Shit. I better run. Listen, I’ve
got a security stream coming later to
lock up properly. Can I leave you to
finish up?”

Paul felt like asking her to stay. He was

starting to enjoy their conversation.
And she looked good now, standing
there shrugging into a black leather
jacket. But wasn’t he just a streamer
in her house? Maeve tubed her lipstick
and Paul felt the gulf between them.
“Yeah no bother”, he said.

“Great, thanks, just close out the door

and they’ll do the rest.” She grabbed
a purse off the back of the chair,
checked for keys, and was gone.

Paul breathed out slowly and walked around the empty 1030
house. Conscious of the cameras he didn’t linger. The
rooms were clean but lived in, children’s toys in one
and some matching cups sitting dirty in the kitchen
sink. The place had an order to it, a sense of design
that was missing from his own rented apartment. His
mind went back to the last job. It had been a nice
house too, bigger than this but without the warmth.
He turned down the temperature setting on 1031
the element. The water wouldn’t be quite as hot but it
wouldn’t trip the switch either. These boiler systems in
old houses were sometimes finicky and just needed
a bit of finesse.
At the last job, he’d done it almost without think- 1032
ing. The woman had barely acknowledged him, like
he was an unnecessary human component to an au-
tomated service. Even after he’d seen the headline
it was hard to believe it had actually been him. The
article had mentioned an electrical fire. He’d taken
a screenshot and then later deleted it. But he hadn’t
stopped thinking about it.
Once he’d tidied up he opened the door and 1033
stepped out onto the street, but stopped. He looked at
the nice little square and the nice little houses, and he
imagined all the nice little futures that could be built
from such humble stuff. He turned on the doorstep
and went back inside to the boiler.
Afterwards, the city was in that liminal zone be- 1034
tween the end of nightlife and the start of the morn-
ing. Early risers would soon be getting up while oth-
ers would be coming down. He could almost hear the
ambient hum of all those proximate lives. And the city
was lit like dull chrome as he began his walk home.

Cian O’Callaghan is an Assistant Professor of

Geography at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. His
main research interests include creativity and place,
neoliberalism, housing, and political contestations
over urban vacant spaces.
 POTHOLES AND
PUMPKIN SPICE
STARBUCKS1

Kalpana Shankar, University College

Dublin, Ireland

Glenn Kaufmann, Dublin, Ireland

In the near future, in a town very much like yours, 1035

on a Tuesday...

Khaliq walks into the café but he is not interested in the 1036
slippers made of recycled plastic, the artisanal choc-
olates (“Now with 30% more insect protein! Still glu-
ten-free!”), or hemp shirts. Instead, he heads towards
the back where “City Hub” is emblazoned on a board
with the city’s trademark logo next to it.
He goes to the machine on the wall that dis- 1037
penses a ticket for the queue, but the machine has a
sign that states: “To provide you with better service,
baristas are now dispensing tickets.” So Khaliq walks
back out to the café and asks a barista for a City Hub
queue number. He’s handed 101. They are currently
on 65. He orders today’s City Hub Municipal Beverage
(CHMB) special, a tall half-caf free range pumpkin
spice oatmilk lacchiato and returns to the City Hub
services counter. He hovers around the booth with all
of the other citizens waiting their turn. It’s a bit con-
fusing and crowded and he gets restless, but just as

1 The following speculative fiction and satire imagines a city

run using the customer service-orientated business model
of a coffee shop. Such a thought experiment could equally
apply if the city were run by any chain coffee shop. Product
or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for the purpose of conducting
a thought experiment without intent to infringe.
he notices that there is an area with tables behind him
and is about to go sit down his number is called.
A smiling young man greets him; his
handwritten nametag says Ben.

“Welcome to City Hub! How can we

help you?”

“I’m here to sign up my daughter for 1040

school.”

“You know you can do that on CHAPP,

the City Hub App, right? We can
even text you right back once she’s
signed up.”

Khaliq replied, “The app didn’t work.

It just said ‘All schools are out of stock’
and I didn’t know what that meant.
How could schools be out of stock?”

“We understand your concern. We’re

happy to see you in our retail outlet; we
want you to treat City Hub as a home
away from home. What kind of school
would you like for your daughter?”

“Um, what are my options?”

“You can have full public, half public/ 1045

half private, half public/half private
with extra religious instruction or light
religious instruction. And what size
would you like—a half day, full day
or boarding? You can have an extra
shot of arts, music, dance, or science.
 Of course, you’ll need to pay extra for
the boarding. And you can be sure that
all of our teachers are trained to a high
standard and paid fairly, so it really
doesn’t matter which teachers are in
your daughter’s school. We control
50% of the schools directly so we
know they are all excellent quality.”

Khaliq pauses to take in this barrage of

information and grasps at the last bit
that was offered to him. “If you control
50%, who controls the other 50%?”

“We franchise those. We call them

‘Friends of City Hub.’ FOCH.”

Khaliq thinks back. “OK, let’s try full

public all day with the dance option
and in the Straystown neighbourhood.
My daughter’s name is Shayla. Shayla
Sellers.”

He goes on to give the staff member his address and

her birthdate, and requests a loyalty card since his
son will be signing up for school next year.

Ben beams. “Excellent choices. We’ll 1050

call you when your ticket is ready.
While you’re waiting, please enjoy this
City Hub Municipal Beverage (CHMB)
on us.”

Ben carefully enters Khaliq’s information into his

interface while Khaliq drinks his CHMB from a cup
with City Hub emblazoned in a large friendly font
with the city’s trademark logo next to it and the
statement “Now with 20% less lead!”
Not too long after, Khaliq hears “Karl! Your
order is ready!” Since no one else is getting up,
Khaliq decides they mean him and goes to the
counter. He is handed a slip of paper confirming his
order. It says: “Father: Colonel Sanders. Pupil: Sasha
Hester Sanders.”
He tries to catch the attention of Ben or one
of the other staff to correct the record, but they have
all moved on to new customer-citizens. Back to the
queue. This time, Khaliq’s number is 150.
A few blocks away, wandering through the
produce section of his local market, Khaliq’s partner
Tom drops a clutch of asparagus into his cart, then
moves along examining the selection of local apples.
Out of the corner of his eye he catches sight of a “City
Hub” sign, which he approaches. There is also a neatly
handwritten sign on a chalkboard offering the daily
specials in city services (“Water registration: €19.99
today only”).
As the queue clears ahead of him he steps up 1055
to the counter. A smiling young woman greets him; her
handwritten nametag says Tanya. “Welcome to City
Hub! How can we help you?”

“There’s a large pothole outside my

house. It’s been there for weeks and
is growing. I’ve been meaning to call
the roads and bridges department, but
never quite get around to it. Then I saw
your kiosk here, and wondered if
I could set up a repair.”
“You know you can do that on
CHAPP, the City Hub App, right?
We can even text you right back
once the hole is filled.”

“Maybe, but since I just saw the sign

when I was shopping, I thought I would
just do it now.”

“Sure, I can arrange it. First, I’ll need

your first name to set up a repair ticket.”

It’s Tom Wal...” 1060

“Oh, that’s all right, Tom. First name is

enough. Now, I’ll just need the address
where you live, or the location of the
pothole. And I’ll need to know what
kind of filler you’d like.”

“What do you mean, ‘what kind of

filler’?”

“For the pothole. You have a choice

of concrete, asphalt, Ready Set,
Permabond 3, or QuickLine.”

“I guess asphalt is fine.”

“Excellent. Do you want Midwestern 1065

Asphalt, Pure Volcanic Asphalt, or
Pristine Asphalt?”

“What makes it Pristine?”

“Oh, it’s conflict free.”

“And the Pure Volcanic?”

Tanya suppresses a sigh. “It’s free-

range but not conflict free. So you
want Pure Volcanic. And what size is
the pothole?”

“What are my choices?” 1070

“Maltesa, Sharpé, and Labradoro!”

“Uh...Labradoro, I guess.”

“Excellent choice. So you would like a

Labradoro pothole filled with free-range
Pure Volcanic asphalt, correct.”

“Yeah, sure. OK.”

After a few minutes, the clerk hands 1075

Tom a small yellow ticket and explains,
“We should have one of our Streetistas
out to fill your pothole by Thursday.”

“Wow, that’s fast.”

“We do our best to turn around

transport issues in 48 hours.”

“Well, thank you very much.”

As Tom starts to wander off, the clerk

stops him, “Uh, sir, you might want to
hang on to your ticket.”
 Tom stops and turns back to the 1080
counter, picking up the little yellow
stub. “Oh, right. Will I need it again?”

“It’s the only way you have to claim

your free fill guarantee.”

“Free fill guarantee?”

“Yes, sir. If we don’t fill in your pothole

by Thursday evening, or you’re
unhappy with your fill, we’ll give you a
free pothole fill of your choice anytime
in the next six weeks.”

“Oh, that’s good then.”

Tom pockets the ticket and goes back 1085

to the produce section.

Friday Morning
Tom briskly walks through the market and approaches
the City Hub counter. He waits in the queue until it’s
his turn. The same clerk greets him.

“How can we help you?”

“I was in on Tuesday about having a

pothole filled. It was supposed to be
filled by last night. But it wasn’t. I’d like
to claim my ‘free fill guarantee.’”

“Very good, sir. Do you have

your ticket?”

Tom hands over the yellow stub. 1090

The clerk scans the ticket.

 “Ahh, yes, welcome back, Ken. I see
the problem....”

First day of school—7:30AM

Tom yells upstairs: “Shayla, your school bus will be
here any minute. Come on!”
She runs down the stairs with her City Hub
schoolbag over one shoulder and a CH-logo water
bottle in her hand. Just then, they hear a bus outside
screech, then shudder to a halt.
Khaliq, Tom, and Shayla walk outside to the bus 1095
and see it buried up to its front axle in a pothole. The
bus driver looks at Tom exasperatedly, “Didn’t you re-
port that pothole months ago?”
Tom frantically opens CHAPP to check on
the status of the repair. He suppresses an expletive
as he scrolls past the introductory screen that says
“Welcome back, Ken!”

“We violated the neighbourhood ordi-

nance! We were supposed to get the
conflict-free asphalt! So they didn’t fill
it!”

The bus driver sighs. “I have to report

this to the City Hub Garage to get a tow.”

Tom says, “I already have the app open.”

He opens the CH Garage screen. “To
improve your municipal breakdown ex-
perience, City Hub wants to know: What
size tow truck would you like?”

Kalpana Shankar is a Professor of Glenn Kaufmann is a freelance writer

Information and Communication Studies and sound designer who lives in Dublin,
at University College Dublin. Her areas of Ireland. He writes about travel, food, arts,
research and teaching focus on “research and culture.
on research”, including the sustainability
of data archives, research evaluation/peer
review, and data ethics.
 THE STRIVE CITY
OF TOMORROW
STRAVA1
Katharine S. Willis, University
of Plymouth

Preface
The following speculative fiction imagines a city run 1100
around a quantified self platform and app and is a sat-
ire of the Ebenezer Howard’s treatise on the Garden
City, and takes liberally from his seminal 1898 book ‘To-
Morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform.’ In his book
Howard presented a utopian vision for a post-indus-
trial society where ‘human society and the beauty of
nature’ were to be enjoyed together. However, for all of
Howard’s vision of a utopian society, the Garden City
was also an economic model aimed at investors, with
detailed workings of costs and he even assures potential
investors of a 4.5% return. It is these two aspects of the
vision of a future city built-from-scratch—the idealistic
model of a type of post-urban lifestyle and the moneti-
sation of such a lifestyle through a business model—that
are drawn upon in the following text. It imagines a city
where people in a post-work economy would leverage
their data assets and how this might be realised in a city

1 Product or corporate names may be trademarks or

registered trademarks, and are used only for the purpose of
conducting a thought experiment without intent to infringe.
planning scenario similar to Howard’s. It takes Strava
as a basis because of some similarities in Strava Inc’s
broader aspirations around improving the quality of city
life (see quote below), and because of the commercial
venture Strava Metro,2 through which Strava commer-
cialises user data to sell to cities worldwide to improve
analysis and planning of urban infrastructure.3 The text
re-imagines garden cities as `Strive cities’, where land
value is replaced by data value, and your assets go up
or down depending on how hard you strive to improve
your quality of life. In some parts there are direct quotes
from passages in the original 1898 text 4.

.:;
‘We want people to know that your seemingly mundane 1101
activity that you’re doing every day to get back and
forth to work ... actually has the potential to improve
your quality of life in your city.”
Andrew Vontz, communications lead at Strava.5 1102

The reader is asked to imagine a city, embracing 1103

6,000 data clusters,6 which is at the moment purely
an industrial use, and has been obtained in a pub-
lic-private partnership between Strava and the City.
The purchase uses a business plan in which the run-
ning costs are raised through the monetization of ur-
ban data, with each citizen purchasing data shares

2 Strava does not release exact 4 Howard, E. (1898). To-Morrow: A

details of how much cities pay for peaceful path to real reform’ London,
access to its data sets, but in media Swan Sonnenschein and Co. Ltd
interviews it claims to do this for
semi-altruistic purposes, rather than 5 Campbell-Dolloghan, K. (2017)
pure commercialization. According “How Strava, The App For Athletes,
to Michael Horvath, Co-founder, Became An App For Cities.” Fast
Strava: “We’re not a philanthropy. Company. Link: https://www.
But we are interested in the impact, fastcompany.com/90149130/strava-
what it can do in these cities to the-app-for-athletes-is-becoming-
encourage people in these modes an-app-for-cities
of transportation. We see that as a
good return on our shareholders’ 6 Each inhabitant in Strive City is
investment.” Link: https://metro. considered a registered data asset,
strava.com and contributes data streams to the
6000 municipal data clusters, which
3 Link: https://www.theguardian. are in turn held in 120 core data
com/lifeandstyle/2016/may/09/ repositories. Data assets are streamed
city-planners-cycling-data-strava- according to inhabitants’ demographic
tracking-app data and activity profiles.
based on the amount of data within their residential
or work unit. One essential feature is that all taxes will
be calculated through a data census, and income will
be transferred to the Central Council of Strava Inc to
be used for the creation and maintenance of public
services and infrastructure.
The objectives of this development are multiple, 1104
and the chief aims are these: to find for our post-indus-
trial population healthier surroundings and to enable
professionals of all kinds to link their ambitions for a
higher quality of life with a city that enables them to
monitor their activity goals and to achieve their targets
of being healthier, fitter and successful in their lives.
Strava Inc. through its Strive City initiative success-
fully enables this aspiration of city living through the
commercialisation of the inhabitant’s data feeds and
through advanced data analysis that enables compa-
nies to target their products more effectively.
At the core of Strive City, which is to be the 1105
network at the heart of the 6000 data clusters, are six
magnificent district data dashboards that link com-
munities across a new model of urban/rural form. Six
district data dashboards—each dashboard draws from
Strava with 120 core data repositories to create a city-
wide data infrastructure. Each of the six data districts
is linked to an actual urban garden and to leisure facil-
ities such as gyms, swimming pools, cycle tracks and
sports centres as well as hospitals and schools. Each
dashboard presents a specific activity, with a district
for cycling, walking, swimming and running data, as
well as ones for transport data via bus and e-car.7 For
example, in the cycling district dashboard, cyclists can

7 Private car ownership is prohibited in

Strive City.
see live KoM/QoM8 and CR (Course Record) updates,
and get Flyby9 info for friends or colleagues.
The rest of the space is a Central Data Park, 1106
with a mixed range of sports and leisure activities,
which can take place within very easy access of all the
people. Here individual district data sets are mashed
around athletic social habits, to identify group activities
and suggest preferred training partners. This is creat-
ed to counter loneliness and encourage exposure to
otherness; high achieving athletes may see the benefit
of teaming up with those who are injured, or younger
people could match up with a more senior athlete for
advice about an upcoming race.
Located in the Central Open Data Park is a 1107
health and fitness Expo called CrystalPalace.com. In
wet weather this building is one of the favourite re-
sorts of the people. Fitness and nutrition goods are
for sale aimed at regenerating and boosting perfor-
mance. Here, most of the shopping is linked to an in-
dividual’s Strive City Data Feed and suggestions and
recommendations for goods or products are made
based on performance data. The space enclosed by
CrystalPalace.com is, however, a good deal larger than
required for these purposes, and a considerable part
of it is used as a Winter Garden—the whole forming a
permanent exhibition of a most attractive character,
that is easily accessible to every dweller in tow—the
furthest removed inhabitant being within 600 yards.
Passing out of the Market Place along one of
the key transport paths we cross Fifth Avenue—lined, 1108
as are all the roads of the town, with trees integrat-
ed with IoT sensors, facial recognition and motion

8 Acronyms which stand for King of the 9 Flyby means the activity took place
Mountain and Queen of the Mountain. within 50 meters of you at some
The fastest time on a segment point, and did not ride with you for an
enables the user to receive a special extended period of time (has a low
crown, meaning that you are the KOM correlation).
or QOM of that segment. Link: https://labs.strava.com/flyby
tracking cameras. Looking on to CrystalPalace.com,
we find a ring of excellent built resting/sleeping pods,
each standing in its own grounds. As we continue our
walk, we observe that pods are for the most part built
either in concentric rings, facing the various Avenues
(as the circular roads are termed), or fronting the boule-
vards and roads which all converge to the centre of the
town. Asking the friend who accompanies us on our
journey what the data population of this little city may
be, we are told about 30,000 individual inhabitant data
sets, and that there are in the town 5,500 living units
(collections of individual, dual or family living units) of
an average data store of a size of 5Gb—the minimum
space allocated for each node being 1GB.
Each sleeping pod has an allocated Strive City 1109
Feed Wall showing the household unit Activity Feed.10
Noticing the varied architecture and design which the
houses and groups of houses display—some having
shared gardens and cooperative kitchens—we learn
that the general observance of the street line is strict-
ly controlled by the municipal authorities. Individuals
are encouraged to express their taste and preference
through cultivating their Strive City Profile, which links
their activities and performance with their living pod.
The Activity Feed shows live data of the inhabitant’s
activities shown by day, week, month and year. Strive
City Trophies and Achievements are encouraged to be
displayed, and photos and maps from recent activities
convey the preferences of the inhabitant on their Strive
City Feed Wall.

10 ”The Strava feed presents activities,

posts, challenge joins, and
challenge completions in an order
based on what we think is most
interesting to the user.” Link: https://
support.strava.com/hc/en-us/
articles/115001183630-How-the-
Strava-Feed-Works
 Walking still towards the outskirts of 1110
town, we come upon “Grand Avenue.” This
avenue forms a green belt in which six sites
are reserved for public schools, gyms, as well as
Olympic-sized swimming pools, and cycle and
running tracks. These are co-located with Strive
cities own data centres that turn the heat from
the activities generated into power for cooling
of the servers.
 In the outer ring of the town are factories, ware- 1111
houses, dairies, markets, DIY centres, and logistics
hubs for web services, all fronting on the circular
Hyperloop track which encompasses the whole town,
which has sidings connecting it to a ready waiting
supply of autonomous vehicles (AV) which distribute
goods to the entire city.
Dotted about the city are seen various charita- 1112
ble and philanthropic institutions. These are not under
the control of the Strive municipality, but are support-
ed and managed by the philanthropic foundations of
Silicon Valley billionaires. These have been invited by
the municipality to establish their institutions in an open,
healthy district, and on land let to them at a minimal rent;
it occurring to the authorities that they can the better
afford to be generous, as the spending power of these
institutions greatly benefits the whole community.
These institutions serve people who are sick, 1113
morbidly obese, or have mental health or addiction
problems, or those less physically able in some way
which limits their capacity to provide a suitable activity
data feed that would finance their rent. As a require-
ment, they are contracted to wear heart rate, weight
and sleep monitors at all times to gather health data
and to attend monthly data check-ins where their
progress to a normal healthy, data feed is monitored
and supported. As those persons who migrate to the
estate are among the most energetic and data rich
members of the community, it is just and right that
their own helpless brethren should be able to enjoy the
benefits of a data-driven experiment which is designed
for humanity at large.

Katharine is Associate Professor in the School of

Art, Design, and Architecture at the University of
Plymouth. Her research interests include smart cities,
digital technologies, and the role of space/place. She
is co-author with Alex Aurigi of Digital and Smart Cities
(2017).
 THE ALLURE
OF THE
FRICTIONLESS
CITY
TAKEALOT1
Nancy Odendaal, Univer-
sity of Cape Town

I ordered my new iPhone 8 on Takealot, South Africa’s 1114

answer to Amazon. It arrived one day later, in my of-
fice, in its sparkling white box. I did not have to battle
Cape Town’s notorious traffic to purchase it in-store,
no parking to negotiate, no shopping centre convo-
lutedness to annoy me. Takealot’s local competition
is Bidorbuy, a local interpretation of eBay. As an auc-
tion platform Bidorbuy potentially offers greater sav-
ings to the consumer. But, Takealot offers less hassle.
Bidorbuy have to contend with the state postal service,
Takealot has a warehouse in Cape Town and offers a
seamless experience from that first click to the delivery
of goods: a digitised, codified value chain that cuts
out the intermediary.2 The delivery of my cell phone
struck me as a metaphor for how many people choose

1 The following academic article 2 MyBroadband (2017) “Takealot

uses Takealot, its business model vs Bidorbuy—South Africa’s big
and its relationship to the city as a marketplace fight.” Link: https://
metaphor for thinking about urban mybroadband.co.za/news/
development and spatial divisions business/207306-takealot-vs-
in African urbanism. Product or bidorbuy-south-africas-big-
corporate names may be trademarks marketplace-fight.html
or registered trademarks, and are
used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
to experience the city of Cape Town. The everyday
messiness of its urbanity: the shacks on its edges, the
informal traders on its streets and the homeless sleep-
ing rough contribute to a stark contrast with the city’s
beauty. The relationship between Takealot and the
city speaks to the symbolic need to disconnect from
the more messy aspects of contemporary urbanity.
There are also important implications to explore when
imagining a city run as a retail logistics hub. This piece
explores what some of these contradictions are and
argues that by seeking to travel towards a frictionless
future, the city runs the risk of optimising the present
for only a rich minority.
Upon arriving at Cape Town International Air- 1115
port, the visitor is treated to a range of sun-speck-
led images of the city’s beauty: the majestic Table
Mountain casting a benevolent shadow over some of
its most prosperous suburbs, the extensive beaches,
the vineyards and scenic mountain drives. It is easy to
forget that you are on the African continent. An Uber
will take you straight to your hotel, most likely located
within walking distance of good restaurants and de-
signer stores. One can be oblivious to the Zimbabwean
Uber driver’s struggles with intermittent xenophobic
outbursts in her neighbourhood and protracted visa
procedures that have made her feel unwelcome. The
freeway that connects the airport with the city enables
swift travel past the informal settlements that flank its
edges. Much like Takealot positions itself as a global
player in the e-Commerce market, the city of Cape
Town regards itself as a ‘world-class’ destination,
despite its stark urban poverty. The frictionless travel
that enables swift delivery promises efficiency. Cape
Town imagines itself as a city ready for business and
investment. Some would argue that it does this at the
expense of more pressing socio-economic needs.
Seamless connection that avoids the mess- 1116
iness of the real city, is an evident aim of the smart
city. The goal of logistic efficiency speaks to glossy
futures full of promise. A temporal thematic dimen-
sion also informs the symbolism of the retailer of my
new mobile. Much like the city strives to move away
from its contentious colonial past, Takealot has its own
questionable heritage to overcome. The company was
launched in June 2011, with financial investment from
US hedge fund Tiger Global, and South Africa’s largest
media conglomerate, Naspers, which since April 2017,
has had a controlling stake in the company.3 Founded
in 1915, and with a demonstrated history as a loyal
partner to the National Party during Apartheid, the
media conglomerate has reinvented itself as a savvy
international player, operating in 120 countries, and
identifies itself as one of the biggest technology inves-
tors in the world.4 Building a productive phoenix upon
Apartheid’s ashes is difficult when unemployment is
estimated at 27%5 and the city is one of the most un-
equal in the world.6 The past haunts the city’s future
but its economy performs better than other South
African cities. With its annual growth higher than the
national average, the strategy is to bypass national
constraints and compete globally. Its most recent iter-
ation of this vision is an emphasis on the creative econ-
omy, eCommerce and the information technology
sector in general. Takealot reflects the potential here:

3 MyBroadband (2017) “Takealot’s 5 Statistics South Africa (2018) Link:

plan to grow its R2.3-billion annual http://www.statssa.gov.za
revenue.” Link: https://mybroadband.
co.za/news/business/229775- 6 City of Cape Town (2016) “State
takealots-plan-to-grow-its-r2-3- of Cape Town Report 2016:
billion-annual-revenue.html Overview with infographics.” Link:
http://maitcid.co.za/wp-content/
4 Link: http://www.naspers.com uploads/2017/01/State-of-Cape-
Town-Report-2016.pdf
over the 2016-2017 financial year, the company’s turn-
over was R2.3 billion ($167m), processing almost 3
million transactions from around 1 million customers.
The CEO of Takealot believes that its company’s future
is in logistics:
“My head of buying comes from Bain—she is 1117
darn clever. I’ve got chemical engineers and people
from the auto industry, and technology geeks that spe-
cialise in artificial intelligence—they are the people
that develop the algorithms that make recommenda-
tions based on your previous browsing history which
helps to drive sales. We have a mix of industries and
intellects. If I hired retailers, then we would be building
just another retail business.”
Naspers’ R960 million ($73m) investment in 1118
Takealot in 2017 has ensured that the platform domi-
nates the South African eCommerce market. No one
is certain what the market gap is for e-Commerce in
South Africa but Takealot sees this as an opportunity,
especially given the country’s youthful demograph-
ics and high rate of mobile phone adoption. Takealot
claims their aim is to enable self-sufficiency through
investment in ‘organic growth—people, technology,
and processes.’ The current recession does not bother
the company’s CEO: with a customer base growing
between 30% and 35% annually.
Takealot appeals to the sensibilities of the con- 1119
nected class, with fashion platform ‘Superbalist’ quick-
ly integrated into the brand. The national e-Commerce
market is almost irrelevant to the company. “We are
fortunate in that we are doing the disrupting and canni-
balizing—our competitors are in retail, not other online
retail stores”, says the CEO.7 Reinvention and adjust-
ment are part of the City of Cape Town’s game. Can a
city’s international connectedness release it from its
national preoccupations? It appears not. Despite the
city’s favourable economic performance in relation
to the rest of the country, there are intermittent, and
sometimes violent, reminders of its socio-economic
realities in the form or protest action and high crime
rates. Takealot works for the connected classes, and
as much as the city administration wishes to ‘make the
city work for you’ (its marketing tagline) the spoils of its
international prosperity is accessible to the relatively
small number of middle—to high income residents.
What Takealot represents raises important 1120
questions about the city’s future. Like any good met-
aphor it crystallises the less salient yet highly prob-
lematic dynamics of its comparative companion. The
smooth path enabled through online purchase speaks
to a city that lays emphasis on its global connected-
ness at the risk of not truly addressing its margins
meaningfully. Social activism in the city has highlight-
ed the lack of proper sanitation in informal settlements
and affordable housing in the inner city as examples
misguided priorities for example. The desire to race
towards the future, embrace the promise of invention
and creativity, exclude the skills, abilities and aspira-
tions of a semi-skilled working class. The focus on
logistics and efficiency speaks to a post-industrial ra-
tionality that denies opportunities to those not trained
to engage it.
There is, however, another side to the delivery 1121
of my iPhone that speaks to a far more representative

7 Planting, S. (2017) “How Takealot

will spend the Naspers millions.”
Link: https://techcentral.co.za/how-
takealot-will-spend-the-naspers-
millions/73617/
picture of the city: that of what the actual phone en-
ables. It is now a well known fact that the cell phone
uptake in African cities has far outstripped expecta-
tions and commercial projections. Elsewhere I have
explored how this technological revolution has lead to
appropriation that speaks to the livelihood strategies
of the very poor. The cell phone represents mobility.
It promises connection ‘on the go.’ It is affordable,
accessible and fixable. It is tangible, yet also able to
transport the user to another space, a space where
connection is immediate and transient. Go the less
salubrious parts of Cape Town and evidence abounds:
informal traders using their phones to connect to sup-
pliers and clients, makeshift convenience stores (lo-
cally referred to as ‘spaza’ shops) sell airtime and sec-
ond-hand phones, next to bespoke container stores
offering cellular repair services. This is the real city,
where technology is malleable, tangible and capable
of reinvention. It also presents a missed opportunity
should we ignore urban messiness in favour of fric-
tionless travel.
Takealot represents how Cape Town imagines 1122
itself into the future. It is, however, the artifact it de-
livers to my door that captures the aspirations of the
majority of its residents. Choosing to bypass it, in the
pursuit of logistical elegance, would be short-sighted.
Cape Town’s future, like that of many other cities in
the global South, is as contingent upon technology
appropriation on its fringes as it is upon corporate
invention in the mainstream.

Nancy Odendaal is an associate professor of city

and regional planning in the School of Architecture,
Planning and Geomatics at the University of Cape
Town. Her research interrogates the intersection
between spatial change in cities of the global South,
infrastructure innovation and technology appropriation.
 CITIES NEED
MASS TRANSIT
TESLA1

Harvey J. Miller, The Ohio

State University

Elon’s vision: personalized urban mobility

Imagine getting into your vehicle for a pleasant ride to 1123
work. After turning on to an arterial road, the vehicle
pulls over to a platform along the curb about the size of
two parking spots. The platform lowers your vehicle to
a network of underground tunnels. Your vehicle pulls
away slowly at first but rapidly gains speed and joins
the stream of vehicles travelling at 200kph. When you
get closer your destination, the process reverses: your
vehicle pulls off to the side, slows down, rises to street
level on a platform, and rejoins other vehicles using
the street network, taking you to your final destination.
Maybe you do not or cannot own a personal 1124
vehicle. No worries! Scattered throughout the city, in
thousands of locations, are shared vehicle stations,
each the size of a parking space. You enter this vehi-
cle with others going to the same destination, it low-
ers to the underground network system, merges with

1 The following academic article speculates on how an urban

transportation system might be run and experienced if
Tesla’s business model was adopted. Product or corporate
names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and
are used only for identification and explanation without
intent to infringe.
the high speed traffic, whisking you to another shared
vehicle station near your destination.
In a TED 2017 interview, Elon Musk, co-founder 1125
and CEO of Tesla, explains how the fantastic vision de-
scribed above will be realized—cheap tunnelling. Musk
claims that he can lower the cost of tunnel building by
tenfold, facilitating construction of a vast underground
transportation network. This will remove practical limits
on our urban transportation systems. Unlike building
upward into the sky via bridges and viaducts, there is
no limit to how many levels of tunnels you can build.
Quoting Mr. Musk: “You can alleviate any arbitrary level
of urban congestion with a 3D tunnel network.” If the
network becomes congested, no problem—you can
always add another tunnel level deeper.2
Elon Musk’s vision for urban mobility is a highly 1126
personalized system, dominated by private vehicles
or small, shared vehicles. The shared component is a
later addition by Musk to his original vision. In a now
infamous interview with Wired magazine, Musk stat-
ed his preference for personal transit over collective
transit: “[Public transit] sucks. Why do you want to get
on something with a lot of other people, that doesn’t
leave where you want it to leave, doesn’t start where
you want it to start, doesn’t end where you want it to
end? And it doesn’t go all the time.”3 Musk also claimed
that public transit exposes you to serial killers, a biased
risk perception that often reflects a lack of experience
and a shunning of actual data.4 The addition of shared

2 Musk, E. (2017) “The future we’re 4 In fact, you are much more likely
building – and boring.” TED2017 to die using an automobile—see
interview. Link: https://www.ted.com/ Moser, W. (2017) “Elon Musk has
talks/elon_musk_the_future_we_re_ a very odd sense of risk on public
building_and_boring#t-157705 transportation.” Chicago Magazine.
Link: http://www.chicagomag.com/
3 Marshall, A. (2017) “Elon Musk city-life/December-2017/Elon-Musk-
reveals his awkward dislike of Has-a-Very-Odd-Sense-of-Risk-on-
mass transit.” Wired. Link: https:// Public-Transportation
www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-
awkward-dislike-mass-transit
vehicles to his vision was an apparent response to the
resulting backlash.5
Some transportation planners have identified 1127
the lift-based entry and exit points to the underground
network as crucial bottlenecks that would constrain
the system.6 Even if these bottlenecks could be re-
solved—somehow—the system is still likely to fail.

If you build it, they will come

Tunnelling to expand roads in a third spatial dimension 1128
will not alleviate congestion any more successfully
than the past century of expanding roads in two di-
mensions. The phenomenon of induced travel demand
means that expanding road capacity to solve conges-
tion spawns new traffic created by the new capacity.
Consequently, building new roads leads to only tem-
porary relief as congestion returns.7 Induced travel de-
mand is consistent with economic theory: increasing
supply lowers the cost of a good or service, increasing
consumption.8 It is also a type of rebound effect, such
as Jevons Paradox: efficiency improvements at the
individual level generating more resource consumption
at the aggregate level.9 In network flow theory, Braess’
paradox shows that adding a new link to a congested
network can increase travel times for all.10
Despite theoretical support, induced travel 1129
demand was controversial for decades. Resistance
stems from the dominance of a “predict and provide”

5 Morris, D. Z. (2017) “Elon Musk calls policies.” Journal of Planning

transit expert ‘an idiot’ and says Literature, 17, 3-20.
public transport ‘sucks.’” Fortune.
Link: http://fortune.com/2017/12/16/ 8 Handy, S. (2005) “Smart growth
elon-musk-public-transport and the transportation-land use
connection: What does the research
6 Tinoco, M. (2017) “Why experts are so tell us?” International Regional
skeptical of Elon Musk’s LA tunnels.” Science Review, 28, 146-167.
Curbed Los Angeles. Link: https:// 9 Alcott, B. (2005) “Jevons’ paradox.”
la.curbed.com/2017/12/18/16748436/ Ecological Economics, 54, 9-21.
elon-musk-tunnels-los-angeles-
criticism-explained 10 Steinberg, R. and Zangwill, W.I.
(1983) “The prevalence of Braess’
7 Cervero, R. (2002) “Induced paradox.” Transportation Science,
travel demand: Research design, 17, 301-318.
empirical evidence, and normative
planning paradigm that favours building more roads
to solve transportation problems.11 Induced travel de-
mand is also hard to measure: it can ripple over time and
space, cascading through shifts in route choices, travel
modes, destination choices, vehicle ownership levels
and land development patterns.12 Although evidence is
mixed on its magnitude,13 the evidence is sufficient for
Duranton and Turner to state the Fundamental Law of
Road Congestion: changes in the capacity of a road
network are met with proportional changes in traffic.14
We can eliminate traffic by reducing road 1130
vehicle capacity. Traffic evaporation is the mirror of
induced demand. Reducing street capacity to ac-
commodate pedestrians, cyclists and public transit
does not cause all traffic to shift and clog other routes;
rather, some of the traffic disappears as some travelers
make other choices, including alternatives to driving.15

Space matters
In principle, we could keep adding another level of tun- 1131
nels and eventually solve congestion since the Earth’s
population will eventually level off and there is only a
finite amount of time for travel in a person’s life. But the
cost and complexity of this system would be enormous
due to the “arm’s race” between roads and traffic.
All transportation modes are subject to induced 1132
travel demand but some modes handle it better than
others. Due to the space required, personal vehicles
are the least efficient form of urban transportation with

11 Næss, P., Andersen, J., Nicolaisen, 14 Duranton, G. and Turner, M.A.,

M.S. and Strand, A. (2014) 2011. “The fundamental law of road
“Transport modelling in the congestion: Evidence from US
context of the ‘predict and provide’ cities.” American Economic Review,
paradigm.” European Journal 101(6), 2616-52.
of Transport and Infrastructure
Research, 14, 102-121. 15 Cairns, S., Atkins, S. and Goodwin,
P. (2002) “Disappearing traffic? The
12 Litman, T. (2001) “Generated traffic story so far.” Municipal Engineer,
and induced travel: Implications for 151, 13-22.
transport planning.” ITE Journal, 71,
38-47.

13 See above: Cervero (2002) and

Handy (2005).
respect to throughput.16 This efficiency gap will be be-
come critical as the global population swells to 9-10
billion by the end of the 21st century, with the majority
living in cities.
A single lane on an urban street carries 600- 1133
1,600 people per hour assuming 600-800 vehicles
per hour and 1-2 persons per vehicle. A dedicated bus
lane in the same space can carry up to 8,000 persons
per hour and a fixed transit line can carry 10,000—
25,000 persons per hour. Limited access highway
lanes have higher capacity for private vehicles; this
is roughly 2200—2500 vehicles per hour per lane.17
Autonomous vehicles (AVs) can increase highway lane
capacity by reducing—although not eliminating—the
need for safe spacing between vehicles. With 100%
AV saturation, highway capacity could achieve 4000
vehicles per hour per lane.18 Assuming two persons
per vehicle results in 8000 persons per hour per lane.
In short, Elon Musk’s futuristic tunnel vision could
achieve the throughput of today’s dedicated bus lane
and not nearly as much as fixed transit lines.
Personal vehicles require storage space for the 1134
majority of time when they are stationary and unoc-
cupied. Consequently, huge portions of our cities are
devoted to parking, including the most valuable land in
the city center.19 While shared AVs can reduce the stor-
age problem, streets are still a bottleneck. Streets are a
public resource with a finite capacity to handle vehicles
in motion. The number of vehicles in motion required,
so that no one has more than few minutes wait for a
ride, is fundamentally unsustainable in dense cities.20
16 Energy too, see: Sanderson, E.W. 19 Peters, A. (2017) “See just how much
(2013) Terra Nova: The New World of a city’s land is used for parking
after Oil, Cars, and Suburbs. New spaces.” Fast Company. Link: https://
York: Abrams, chapter 11. www.fastcompany.com/40441392/
see-just-how-much-of-a-citys-land-
17 National Association of City is-used-for-parking-spaces
Transportation Officials (2016)
Transit Street Design Guide. Island 20 Schwartz, S.I. (2015) Street Smart:
Press. The Rise of Cities and the Fall of
Cars. Public Affairs.
18 Farmer, D. L. (2016) “Autonomous
vehicles: The implications on urban
transportation and traffic flow
theory.” ITE Journal, 86, 34-37.
The first mile/last mile problem
Elon Musk is correct about a crucial public transit 1135
problem: it often does not start where you want it to
start, it does not end where you want it to end, and
it does not go all the time. In public transit, service
frequency and span is freedom, but these are expen-
sive and must be concentrated in a limited number of
corridors.21 The first mile/last mile (FMLM) problem is
the gap between origins/destinations (such as home,
work) and public transit. Rather than replacing public
transit, AVs could be used to address the FMLM prob-
lem,22 via shared vehicles, jitneys,23 and on-demand
shuttles. The FMLM mix should also include bike and
e-bikes, and infrastructure that enables safe, convivial
and inclusive walking and biking, supporting health
and environmental sustainability as well as access to
transit.24 This solution would be far more efficient and
far less costly than boring a network of 3D tunnels.

Towards sustainable mobility

Electric vehicles, batteries and rockets are complex 1136
technical systems. But, urban transportation is a com-
plex human system not amenable to purely engineered
solutions. Similar to the Tragedy of the Commons and
the Prisoner’s Dilemma, mobility is a collective action
dilemma: it is individually rational for a person to be
as mobile as desired, but when everyone is mobile the
outcome is collectively irrational. Elon Musk’s vision of
personalized urban mobility reinforces a competitive
21 Walker, J. (2011) Human Transit: How 24 Burden, D. and Litman, T. (2011)
Clearer Thinking about Public Transit “America needs complete streets.”
Can Enrich Our Communities and ITE Journal, 81, 36-43.
Our Lives. Island Press.
25 Miller, H.J. (2013) “Beyond sharing:
22 Berrebi, S. (2017) “What Elon cultivating cooperative transportation
Musk gets right about transit.” systems through geographic
CityLab. Link: https://www.citylab. information science.” Journal of
com/transportation/2017/12/ Transport Geography, 31, 296-308.
what-elon-musk-gets-right-about-
transit/549134/ 26 Banister, D. (2008) “The sustainable
23 Mitchell, M. and Faren, M. (2014) “If mobility paradigm.” Transport Policy,
you like Uber, you would’ve loved 15, 73-80.
the jitney.” Los Angeles Times. Link:
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/
op-ed/la-oe-mitchell-jitneys-uber-
ride-share-20140713-story.html
transportation system that will fail in a crowded, highly
urbanized world.
One way to resolve the social dilemma of mo- 1137
bility is by facilitating cooperative behaviour. Trans-
portation shares the properties of goods and services
that invite collaborative consumption, including critical
mass, large unused capacity and capabilities for build-
ing trust: almost everyone needs transportation, much
of the system is idle during off-peak times, and new
apps allow users and providers to rate each other. Bet-
ter collective outcomes do not require everyone to be
altruistic: the nature of transportation networks means
that marginal improvements in pro-social mobility
choices can have disproportionately large outcomes
on performance. There is growing evidence from bio-
logical and social sciences that cooperative behaviour
is more common than recognized. Evolutionary game
theory suggests that time and space—key dimensions
of transportation—also enable cooperation.25
A sustainable transportation system does not 1138
maximize travel demand and minimize travel times.
A sustainable transportation system manages travel
demand and achieves reasonable, reliable travel times.
It prioritizes walking, biking and public transit over
personal vehicles. It reduces the need to segregate
people and traffic by slowing some movement down,
reclaiming streets as shared mobility space for all us-
ers. The goal of a sustainable transportation system
is accessibility to opportunities; mobility is only one
means to achieve this goal.26 Tesla’s focus on speedier,
personalized mobility is not sustainable.

Harvey J. Miller is the Bob and Mary Reusche Chair

in Geographic Information Science, Professor of
Geography and Director of the Center for Urban and
Regional Analysis at The Ohio State University. His
research interest include GIScience, time geography,
mobility analytics and sustainable transportation
 SWIPE RIGHT
TO WELCOME,
LEFT TO REJECT
TINDER1

Linnet Taylor, Tilburg University

Everyone agreed that the refugees were not doing well. 1139
They had been borne into the city on a wave of good-
will fuelled by revelations about torture, drownings and
unspeakable deprivation. As time progressed it be-
came clear that the years spent waiting for residency
had taken a toll on their ability to learn the language
and find a foothold in the labour market. It was not just
the refugees, it was all the people who had moved to
the city without a clear plan: people from countries
worldwide attracted by the vision of a strong urban
economy and a tolerant citizenry. But now attitudes
were becoming less tolerant. Votes were moving to-
ward the right. There was a growing tacit agreement
that certain people were eligible for decent jobs, de-
cent housing, and the presumption of innocence, while
others, if not actually suspect, were not.
It was not just the city authorities who accepted 1140
Tinder’s offer to provide ‘de-marginalisation’ services.

1 The following speculative fiction and satire imagines if a

dating app was applied to urban integration policy. Such a
thought experiment could equally apply if the city were run
by other dating apps such as Grindr. Product or corporate
names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and
are used only for the purpose of conducting a thought
experiment without intent to infringe.
The national parties were eager to see the results: this
seemed like a short-cut for a thorny social problem, like
a universal basic income or legalising weed. What if
the repurposed dating platform could leverage people’s
kindness and goodwill to do the work of integrating the
newcomers more efficiently? What if it could target
progressives interested in helping?
Tinder Welcome, as the purpose-built app was 1141
called, was designed to connect local residents with
immigrants who were searching for employers, friends,
teachers or guides to the city. The migrants just had to
sign up, and a connection with them would be on offer
to anyone who wished to help them out. An app-based
approach was immediately embraced by the elector-
ate as something invisible yet proactive, increasing
efficiency and reducing the tax burden—and above
all something that could be done while sitting on the
sofa, by those who didn’t like seeing their fellow citi-
zens torching asylum centres.
The first year was golden. Everyone except the 1142
populists downloaded the app and started not only
swiping right on those they would like to help, but on
their choice of immigrant plumber, driver, freelance
bike mechanic, or delivery person. The unions were
unhappy, but the gig economy was already well un-
derway and it was clear that the platform was just em-
bracing an inevitable future. There was a brief flurry of
public debate when the service started to help people
source longer-term jobs which had traditionally been
unionised, but it had been so impossible in recent
years for immigrants to get hired that positive cover-
age abounded.
 Soon everyone had their pet migrant; the per- 1143
son who could pick up the kids if you were delayed,
could provide unusual recipes from Chechnya or North
Africa for your dinner party, and generally make mid-
dle-class life in times of crisis more interesting and
morally defensible.
After a year the platform proposed that the data 1144
be monetised. No one saw a problem. Although the app
had been procured using public funds, people largely
agreed that this was the private sector and the com-
pany should get some financial benefit beyond what
the city could afford. Choice had become a way of life:
at first the service had been mainly used by ageing
hippies and intellectuals, but now everyone was swip-
ing. You could choose the person (or ‘problem solver’
in the language of the app) who looked right for your
lifestyle: there was a brief bio, a picture, and nothing
more. If you didn’t like them you swiped left to reject
them, and they would never know.
The company was savvy about promoting the 1145
‘social good’ aspect of its service, offering the press
stories about successful alliances between natives
and newcomers: women freed from oppression, men
from unemployment, children and old people from
isolation. Schools started using the app for their bud-
dy programs, and the youth and sports organisations
picked up on it as a way to bring migrant children into
teams and centres. Some daycare centres used it as
an option for people to pair their children up for socially
conscious playdates.
There were warning signs in the second year. 1146
An investigative journalist discovered that Welcome’s
algorithms had swiftly learned that even progressives
had implicit bias based on skin colour, visible signs
of religious affiliation, and gender, along with other
things that were fuzzier, interacted with each other,
and were much harder to correct for. The system con-
scientiously replicated these biases. Migrant women
were more visible in relation to some tasks and pairings
than others.
Controversially, a code audit performed by con- 1147
tractors found that the algorithm was optimising for
‘easy’ pairings of like with like, so that lower-educated
or linguistically slower migrants were paired mainly
with similar natives. As a result, they were effectively
excluded from social and economic mobility. The press
loved the story of a refugee sociologist seeking lan-
guage practice who found herself matched for coun-
try walks with a famous public intellectual (they later
delivered a well-received TED talk about the potential
of the platform economy). There was less reporting on
the many cases of lower-educated and disadvantaged
migrants who wanted to achieve literacy and a living
wage, but who did not benefit from the ‘instant and
intuitive’ swipes of app users. These problem solvers
were pushed by the algorithm towards lower-income
and less-educated problem owners in the city.
In year three of the app’s use, two things hap- 1148
pened. The first was a proposal from Tinder that the
city experiment with the app for all its public functions:
you should be able to swipe left or right on public ser-
vants to choose someone to provide you services; on
teachers for your children; on doctors. Next, it was
proposed that urban planning decisions and even
municipal elections should be decided by swipes.
A pilot programme was approved, and after a year
in beta mode, people got used to it without ever ac-
tually having to confirm it should stay. The second
was the accidental disclosure by a Tinder employee
that the company had been generating an individual
‘ALO’ score for every person in the system. 2 One’s
ALO score (according to the best guesses of the city’s
consultants) was based on a combination of how often
a person was liked by natives; the ALO scores of those
natives (the higher the better); and the proportion of
their associations that resulted in what was algorith-
mically judged a ‘successful relationship.’
The ALO score was important because it de- 1149
termined whom you became visible to: lower scores
meant lower-rated matches in terms of socioeconomic
status, and therefore less opportunity for social mobili-
ty. Some migrants managed to game the system once
they got to know enough natives: stories emerged of
neighbourhoods collaborating to raise their favourite
newcomer’s ratings and ensure them opportunities
outside the community. There were even crowd-lik-
ing campaigns using other social media or notices on
lampposts in the neighbourhood: ‘Help X find a per-
manent job! Like him on Tinder Welcome!’
Five years later, it was apparent that the machine 1150
learning and design decisions that had gone into mak-
ing Tinder Welcome seamless and useful had also cre-
ated a parallel class system. Somehow, caste systems
from the migrants’ places of origin had been integrated
with the city’s existing social strata. The app, despite its
one-sided nature, worked to promote those with skills

2 Link: https://www.fastcompany.
com/3054871/whats-your-tinder-
score-inside-the-apps-internal-
ranking-system
and language aptitude, the attractive and well-present-
ed and acceptable, into full social participation in the
city, and generated a wealth of positive headlines in the
media. Meanwhile the underclass, which now included
anyone who looked alien at first sight, became digitally
and socially invisible, to the city’s own functionaries
(who all used Tinder Welcome to check those they inter-
acted with) as well as its residents. The city shelved the
populists’ legislative proposal for a burka ban: it simply
wasn’t necessary. Only a crazy person would submit
a profile photo of themselves in a burka.
There was a growing sense amongst the city’s 1151
residents that the app was not a serendipitous tool for
matching the deserving with the socially conscious,
but a way of defining what a ‘deserving’ migrant was.
Native-born users had no incentive to make their inter-
actions ‘meaningful’ unless a migrant appealed to them
intuitively: they could simply swipe left to disengage,
and the person would never be shown to them again.
In the sixth year, the first assault occurred. 1152
Reports of ALO scores had been confirmed: migrants
understood what was determining their chances. A mi-
grant who had been working stressful and ever-chang-
ing jobs in the gig economy for half a decade while
searching for ways to improve his language skills and
employability, but failing to achieve the pairings that
would help him do it, came across a resident whom
he recognised from the app as someone who, after
an initial conversation about how he could help, had
ghosted him by swiping left.
The resident had a broken nose; the press had 1153
a story. The liberal faction was appalled that migrants
would hold the city and its residents responsible for
their own failure to integrate, but the discussion that
followed in the council chamber showed the first
cracks in the city’s faith in app-based integration.
The protests grew: migrants marched in the 1154
streets, a whistleblower explained how Welcome’s
algorithms were influencing people’s chances, and
residents started to see the system as unfair. They
joined the protests, and a local civil rights movement
emerged. There was a general debate: should they
ask the city to boycott the app? Should they reform
the algorithm to make it fairer (though the app devel-
opers were unsure they knew how to do this without
breaking the system altogether)? Should they lead a
residents’ boycott?
People were shocked and disillusioned. It 1155
seemed almost as if, instead of combating discrim-
ination, the app had automated it, and had been paid
to do so by the city.
There was one major complication: the app had 1156
been picked up by other cities and eventually by the
national government. All over the country, the massive
amounts of background data it had been collecting
on people’s behaviour, relationships and consumption
patterns had been put to use in predictive systems that
enabled politicians to understand what made people
swipe left or right on each other, and on the politicians
themselves; the paths that led to riches or poverty; the
warning signs of street violence. The country’s data
double was deeply embedded in Tinder Welcome, and
Tinder made sure the politicians knew its benefits.
 Eventually the remedy came from the market 1157
itself. Tinder decided to offer a service: anyone who
had engaged with the app could now pay not to use
it. The company would still have all the rich data it had
collected on its users (who by now formed a large seg-
ment of the population). However, for a fee, it would
not use it to profile you. For those users who could not
afford the fee, which was substantial, the company
offered reduced-cost schemes where only certain
types of data were fed into the country’s economic
and political decision-making systems.
The results were, predictably, asymmetric. The 1158
migrant population was largely unable to afford the
opt-out, and was at the mercy of marketers and ma-
nipulators. Their Tinder data was used for predictive
policing, for immigration decisions, for pre-citizenship
checks, for spam. But at least there was a discount on
the opt-out fee for children, and for those whose data
had been sourced through daycare centres, schools
and clubs when they were small.
Then there were riots. 1159
Ten years after the original contract was 1160
signed, the city council made a truly progressive de-
cision. It would award Invisibility Grants, so the so-
cially marginalised could opt out of Tinder Welcome.
The company upped its prices in response, but the
city paid. Eventually a substantial proportion of the
budget was going to keeping the marginalised invisi-
ble, but in the protest camp outside the city hall peo-
ple felt something had been achieved. A student did a
survey of the camp: it was socially diverse, and fairly
well integrated.

Linnet Taylor is Associate Professor at the Tilburg

Institute for Law, Technology, and Society (TILT). Her
research focuses on digital data, representation and
democracy, with particular attention to transnational
governance issues. She leads the ERC Global Data
Justice project.
 SEEKING
FOLLOWS
TWITTER1

James Ash, Newcastle University

Lisa awoke and checked the smart sleeve of her shirt. 1161
Displayed on the fabric in e-ink was her total number
of lifetime followers on Twitter and the number of fol-
lows she had to spend. 93 available follows. Lisa was
aiming for 100.
Since Twitter had taken over the governance 1162
of London, following the great democratic dissolution
of 2038, things had changed significantly. Although
Twitter had begun as a social media company in the
mid-2000s, it had rapidly expanded. First streaming
video and live events through the Twitter platform in
the late 2010s, by the mid-2020s it had partnered with
a series of challenger banks to create a new form of
digital currency: the follow.
The follow as a unit of exchange was trans- 1163
formative. No longer created through the production
of goods or services, the follow was a unit created
through the direct capture of human attention itself.
In early versions of Twitter, people could follow one
another and broadcast messages to their followers.
In turn, Twitter used its knowledge of user behaviour
to target advertising through promoted tweets within
a user’s timeline.

1 The following speculative fiction and satire imagines living

in a city where a social media business model becomes a
credit/payment system. Such a thought experiment could
equally apply if the city were run by Facebook or Instagram.
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for the purpose of
conducting a thought experiment without intent to infringe.
 Alongside promoted advertising, companies 1164
quickly became aware that users with the most follow-
ers had significant influence and paid such ‘influencers’
to implicitly and explicitly advertise and market their
products and services directly. As such, two economies
operated on Twitter at any one time. The formal atten-
tion economy involved Twitter selling targeted adver-
tising to its customers (the companies and businesses
that wanted to advertise on it). The informal economy
involved users selling the attention they had garnered to
companies directly, evidencing their influence through
the number of followers they had.
For Twitter, the success of the platform and its 1165
ability to create profit was based on the overall number
of users on the platform as a whole. But for individ-
ual users what mattered was their specific number
of followers, which they could use as a currency to
convince advertisers to pay them.
The follow currency, introduced in 2024, had 1166
begun as an attempt to expand the formal economy of
Twitter as a space for selling advertising and attention.
No longer confined to the screens of PCs and smart
phones, Twitter took advantage of the wide-scale
adoption of Alternative Reality (AR) lenses, projections
and fabrics that now overlaid almost every surface of
the built environment and formed the material of most
clothing. As well as ‘earning’ followers by posting in-
teresting content to the Twitter platform, users could
also earn follows by viewing and displaying advertising
that was emitted from these surfaces, which were cus-
tomised to users’ individual Twitter profiles (mandatory
since 2039).
As a currency, follows had both a public and 1167
private aspect. On the one hand, follows referred to the
publicly visible total number of follows and followers
gained over the lifetime of a user’s account. On the
other hand, follows referred to a privately visible avail-
able number of follows, which were the total number of
follows that could be exchanged for services. A user
may have 1000 lifetime follows, for example, but have
spent 600 follows, meaning that they had only 400
follows available to use.
Twitter argued that the follow currency was a 1168
great means to generate additional income, especial-
ly for the low paid and those on zero-hour contracts,
who now made up around 67% of the working age
population. Whereas the national currency, the Great
British Pound, could be earnt and spent on anything,
the follow could be used only on a range of Twitter-
owned or approved services, such as utility bills, city
taxation and, in some cases, city housing.
For the rich or Twitter famous, follows meant 1169
little as a currency of exchange. Utilities, rent and tax
could be paid using pounds. At the same time, veri-
fied users and popular influencers could join the fol-
low exchange programme and cash out their follows
for pounds, allowing them to leverage the follows they
were paid as part of advertising deals to enhance their
monetary wealth. But, for people like Lisa, who were
neither verified, famous, or part of the follow exchange
programme, follows remained a necessary means of
accessing services. For Lisa, follows were the differ-
ence between heating the flat and going cold. Follows
were the difference between paying her city tax or
having bailiffs knocking on the door.
The 100 follows that Lisa needed would pay 1170
her overdue electricity bill. Although she worked at a
logistics packing warehouse, her hours were unreli-
able, and she never knew if there was a shift available
until two hours before it was due to start. With no email
confirming her on the morning shift, Lisa had little oth-
er choice than to tap on the smart sleeve of her shirt
and browse the range of self-advertising options. As
well as paying users to view adverts, Twitter would also
pay users to broadcast adverts from their own smart
clothing. The number of follows earned depended on
the profile of the user, the type of advert emitted, where
the user was located, and the length of time the advert
was emitted.
Twitter celebrities with hundreds of thousands 1171
or even millions of followers were in high demand for
self-advertising. These users had the option from
Twitter to advertise aspirational and designer brands
such as Louis Vuitton, Rolex and Chanel and could
earn thousands of follows per minute for doing so at
the right place and time. In the same way that verified
users could exchange their follows for pounds, more
popular users could also utilise hashtags to influence
trends and conversations on their followers feeds,
generating more followers and thus more money.
As a user with only 93 available follows, Lisa’s 1172
options were rather more limited. If she stayed in a pub-
lic space in her own neighbourhood, Brixton, she could
advertise dog food for 1 follow per hour or an escort
service for 5 follows per hour. ‘Gross’, she thought. If
she travelled on the underground to Covent Garden
she could probably advertise ice cream or English
tea to tourists for 2.5 follows per hour. However, she
wouldn’t know what products were available to adver-
tise, or their rate of pay, until she actually arrived in
Covent Garden, as Twitter’s advertising service would
only offer self-advertising options depending on her
location at the time. The underground cost 2 follows
to use, so travelling to Covent Garden was risky.
 Lisa also had to take into account the anti-loi- 1173
tering laws that Covent Garden had introduced when
self-advertising on smart clothing had become popular
through Twitter. In the first few months residents had
complained that people from poorer areas would travel
to Covent Garden and stand in the same spot all day in
order to earn the maximum number of follows. As such,
in Covent Garden, the advert would only emit from her
clothing if the GPS in her shirt registered movement,
with stops of no more than three minutes allowed at
any one point. In Brixton, however, she could loiter all
she wanted without the advert, and thus her earnings,
being interrupted.
She would take a risk. Leaving the flat she 1174
walked to the underground and took the train to Covent
Garden. Leaving the station she checked the options
on her smart shirt again. Scottish shortbread for 2 fol-
lows an hour. It would do, she thought. Activating the
advert, her shirt turned a bright red tartan. The short
bread brand logo began to rotate across the surface
of the shirt and a short bag pipe tune began to play
from the speakers sewn into the shirt’s lining. Rolling
her eyes in dull acceptance, she began to walk the
streets around the market.
Many ignored the advert as she walked. Using 1175
face and eye tracking technology in the cameras on
the shirt, the advertising API recognised the lack of in-
terest and increased the volume of the bag pipe tune.
The regulated volume limit for self-advertising in Covent
Garden was 84 decibels, but even so, the tune gave Lisa
a headache. Lisa knew that if the advert did not register
enough attention, then her rate of pay in follows would
drop until she was earning nothing and the advert dis-
appeared from the surface of the shirt. Within an hour,
the advertised rate of 2 follows an hour had dropped
to 1. Seven hours later Lisa had earned enough to pay
her overdue bill and a fare home to Brixton.
Paying her electricity bill as she walked back 1176
to the underground station, Lisa looked around her. In
London, not having advertising on your smart clothes
was itself a sign of distinction and wealth. Twitter had
promised that the follow currency would usher in a
new era of reduced costs and democratic access to
services in London. For Lisa, and many others like her,
it had done the opposite.
Earning the human attention that the follow 1177
currency was based on required being out in public,
but doing so physically marked out those who could
only earn follows through self-advertising. Trapped in
a cycle of spending and earning follows, such users
had little to no chance of accessing better self-adver-
tising deals or the kind of direct advertising offered to
popular influencers on Twitter.
While Twitter had transformed the aesthetics 1178
of the city and how it was used, it seemed that this
transformation had reinforced existing inequalities
between rich and poor, the haves and the have-nots.
Arriving back at her flat at 10pm, Lisa went to bed
with the ringing of sampled bagpipes in her ears. As
her eyes closed she wondered if she would be called
up to take a shift at the warehouse in the morning or
would have to resort to more self-advertising. Neither
option offered much appeal.

James Ash is a Senior Lecturer at Newcastle

University, where they research the cultures,
economies and politics of digital technology. They
are the author of Phase Media (2017), The Interface
Envelope (2015) and an editor, with Rob Kitchin and
Agnieszka Leszczynski, of Digital Geographies (2018).
 THE SEDUCTION
OF UBERCITY
UBER1

Agnieszka Leszczynski,
Western University

Rob Kitchin, Maynooth University

Smooth, seamless, efficient, just-in-time,

on-demand city services
You need to make a business meeting in the city cen- 1179
tre, but know that finding parking downtown will be
impossible in the middle of the day. You could take
public transit, but the trip planning app informs you that
it will take too long. So, you decide to request an Uber.
You open the app and see both your real-time position
as well as the locations of nearby available Ubers. The
app notifies you that there is presently a high demand
for rides, meaning that your trip will cost a multiple of
the standard fare, but you decide to proceed. The app
then displays information about the driver dispatched
and their estimated time of arrival. Upon arriving at
your destination, the payment is made automatically
by the app using stored credit card details, and you
rate the driver’s service.

1 The following academic article speculates on how a city

might be run and experienced if Uber’s business model was
adopted. Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification,
explanation and speculation as part of a thought experiment
without intent to infringe.
 So convenient, so user-friendly, so tailored to 1180
your individual, real-time needs. Uber and its com-
petitors such as Lyft have transformed not only how
we move through and navigate cities, but also how
we access private-sector goods and services in ur-
ban centres. We can order our meals and have them
delivered to us via UberEATS. When street traffic is
backed up, we can hop out of an Uber and hop onto a
JUMP electrified bike, all without leaving the Uber app.
Given the rate at which Uber is expanding its 1181
services, we can envision a hypothetical UberCity
wherein Uber subsumes a range of municipal ser-
vices into its ecosystem. By adopting the UberCity
platform (for a fee, of course), cities could unload the
responsibility of coordinating and delivering municipal
services to a third party broker, with UberCity (or a
rival intermediary) mediating between private citizens
requesting services and denizens willing to share their
labour towards fulfilling those services. In a scenar-
io that reads like a scene from the fictional television
series Black Mirror, service users and providers alike
become rateable entities regarding their level of civility
and citizenship: being courteous, efficient providers,
and responsible, fair citizens. UberCity handles the
monetary transactions, retaining a portion of the city’s
fee as its agreed-upon cut.
Take, for instance, a pothole on a residential 1182
street. Residents would open the UberCity app, take a
picture of the problem road segment with their smart-
phone, and upload the image along with a request
for the pothole to be filled. Harnessing the phone’s
GPS, the UberCity app would automatically tag the
request with its real-world location. An algorithm would
match the issue requiring attention with another city
resident—in this case, a tradesperson with skills and
expertise to fix the issue who is looking for a paid ‘gig.’
Gig workers would check-in via the app to indicate their
real-time availability. Dispatched to a location, they
would be compensated for completion of the task as
well as wholesale material costs through their regis-
tered bank details. The resident could review and rate
both the labourer and the quality of work. Quality con-
trol would be ensured through the deactivation of gig
workers receiving repeated low ratings and negative
feedback from the app.
Beyond infrastructure maintenance, UberCity 1183
would make any number of civic services accessible
on-demand through a suite of in-platform utilities: rub-
bish bin overflowing? (UberTrash!); walking home along
dark residential streets at night? (UberStreetLights!);
medical emergency? (UberAmbulance!); power lines
down? (UberEnergy!); sudden loss of water pressure?
(UberWater!); neighbour’s dogs running through your
yard again? (UberAnimalControl!); snowed six inches
overnight? (UberSnowPlow!). Each competing with
other similar privatised services.
What’s not to like about such a proposition? 1184
In theory, the aspirational model of the UberCity 1185
provides opportunities for residents to source seam-
less, efficient, just-in-time solutions to a multitude of
municipal tasks. It allows residents the flexibility to se-
lect the type of service required; as with the ride-shar-
ing services offered through the app, these would
range from carpool style rides at the most affordable
end of the spectrum (UberPOOL) to professional driv-
er services at the higher cost end (UberBLACK). The
surge pricing model would similarly apply to times
when demand for services is high. When the power
lines are down on your street and you want your house
to be amongst the first to be reconnected to the grid,
you may choose to pay a multiple of the standard rate
to ensure the prioritization of your needs.
Through its coordination of a two-sided mar- 1186
ketplace, UberCity could also mobilize a potential
workforce that matches skills and performance with
these tasks. No longer beholden to set work hours, city
residents could work around their personal schedules,
picking up gigs when and where convenient to provide
full, or supplementary, income. And rather than waiting
for a bi-weekly or monthly paycheque, gig labourers
would be compensated directly through the app im-
mediately upon completion and satisfactory rating of
tasks. Such a city service gig economy model might
democratize access to presently lucrative and difficult
to secure city jobs.
UberCity alleviates city administrations from 1187
the responsibilities of not only functioning as a service
provider, but also from functioning as a service broker—
the former gets shifted to city citizens, the latter to the
platform. This would have a number of effects, such as
allowing municipalities to divest themselves from own-
ing and maintaining depreciating assets and to do so
with little to no public investment. In the same way that
Uber does not own any of the cars driven by their pool
of driver contractors, cities as service brokers do not
need to own equipment or materials needed to maintain
municipal infrastructures: snowplows, raw earth materi-
als, busses. It would also potentially generate huge cost
savings that could compensate for present municipal
budgetary shortfalls: cities would be able to drastically
downsize their municipal workforce and offload pen-
sion obligation costs (which have already bankrupted
several US cities and which threaten to bankrupt yet
others2). Moreover, as private contractors, municipal gig
workers would not be owed the same kinds of benefits
as city employees, releasing city administrations from
expenditures associated with overheads such as payroll
taxes and health insurance premiums.
By expanding choices available to citizen con- 1188
sumers, city halls can boost their approval ratings and
shield themselves from repercussions for poorly exe-
cuted and incomplete tasks. Equally importantly, the
Uber model allows municipalities to conveniently sup-
plement gaps in their own service provision capacities
through outsourcing via the platform. Cities like Los
Angeles are already looking to partner with ride-hailing
companies as a solution to providing transportation to
areas critically underserved by public transit.3

The UberCity underbelly

On the surface, the logic of arguments to shift the re- 1189
sponsibilities of a city to a third party service broker and
the gig economy appear commonsensical and straight-
forward. Yet the coherence of such wishful Uber-like
thinking is possible only when we ignore the realities
of platform urbanism, forego conceiving of the urban
realm as a shared public good, and fail to understand

2 Mooney, A. (2017) “US faces crisis as 3 Marshall, A. (2017) “LA Looks to

pension funding hole hits $3.85tn.” Rideshare To Build the Future of
Financial Times. Link: https://www. Public Transit.” Wired. Link: https://
ft.com/content/f2891b34-3705-11e7- www.wired.com/story/la-rideshare-
99bd-13beb0903fa3 public-transit
cities as complex, democratic, multiscale entities full of
competing interests and wicked problems.
In terms of using services delivered through an 1190
Uber-like model—envisaged here as a hypothetical
UberCity platform ecosystem—access for citizens
is likely to be patchy and divided rather than univer-
sal, favouring those with the means to pay (especially
when surge model pricing kicks in). Uber has been no
equalizer of access to transportation, with residents of
poor urban neighbourhoods chronically underserved
by ride-sharing services because drivers see wealthier
enclaves as preferred origins more likely to generate
more lucrative trips.4 As such, the brokering of services
for the profit of private entities works to deepen rather
than ameliorate urban inequalities.
The urbanites that drive for Uber either have 1191
failed to gain secure full-time employment or need to
supplement their income because their 9-5 jobs no
longer pay enough to their living costs. The work is
flexible, insecure, relatively poorly paid, and (in most
jurisdictions) has no benefits such as health insurance,
pension contributions, severance pay, or parental or
sick. It shifts many of the costs of production onto
workers, who must purchase, pay taxes on, and in-
sure the ride-share vehicle. Such arrangements can
be used to exploit workers. For example, as part of its
strategy to recruit drivers, Uber launched a subprime
auto loan program targeting the socioeconomically
disadvantaged5 —a practice that in the aftermath of
the housing market crash of the late 2000s we know
to be predatory and to have disproportionately stripped
ethnic minorities of wealth and assets.

4 Wells, K., Attoh, K. and Cullen, D. 5 Richter, W. and Street, W. (2017)

(2018) “Uber, the ‘Metropocalypse’, “Uber’s subprime auto loans
and Economic Inequality in D.C.” are causing a lot of problems.”
Working Class Perspectives. Business Insider. Link: http://
Link: https://workingclassstudies. www.businessinsider.com/uber-
wordpress.com/2018/02/05/uber- subprime-auto-loans-running-it-off-
the-metropocalypse-and-economic- the-road-2017-8
inequality-in-d-c
 While the gig economy might seem a meritoc- 1192
racy, a system underpinned by ratings and rankings is
a zero sum game: for some to be ranked highly, others
have to be lower down such that they may be ‘deacti-
vated’ by the platform. Such ratings are informed not
only by the quality or speed of service delivery, but
also by a breadth of social biases including racism, ho-
mophobia, xenophobia, and sexism amongst others.6
There are also those that would struggle to compete in
a gig economy, the differentially-abled, the chronically
ill, and those with care responsibilities that leave them
little time flexibility.
From the perspective of a city administration, 1193
the Uber model assumes that all public services are
run on a consumer rather than client basis and are
therefore open to market interventions. Rights and
entitlements as a citizen are swapped for choice as
a consumer, selecting services from a marketplace
of providers based on the individual means to pay.7 It
also assumes that the delivery of city administration,
services, and infrastructure are relatively simple and
autonomous and can be divided into bounded, coher-
ent markets that operate largely outside of democracy
and policy. In reality, running a city involves significant
levels of knowledge and expertise; inter-agency and
multiple stakeholder collaboration; diplomacy and ne-
gotiation; political decision-making and policy formula-
tion and implementation; and trying to serve the public
good in a time of austerity. Cities are full of competing
interests and wicked problems, their fortunes shift, ad-
ministrations change, and they are difficult to manage.

6 Ramaswami, C. (2017) “‘Prejudices citizen participation in Dublin,

play out in the ratings we give’— Ireland.” GeoJournal 84(1): 1-13.
the myth of digital equality.” The
Guardian. Link: https://www. 8 Darrow, B. (2017) “Why Uber and Lyft
theguardian.com/technology/2017/ Might Be Hurting Stressed Public
feb/20/airbnb-uber-sharing-apps- Transit Systems.” Fortune. Link:
digital-equality http://fortune.com/2017/10/13/uber-
lyft-public-transit-ridership
7 Cardullo, P. and Kitchin, R. (2018) 9 Althusser, L. (1971) Lenin and
“Being a ‘citizen’ in the smart city: Philosophy and Other Essays.
Up and down the scaffold of smart London: NLB.
 An uberisation of public services is likely to 1194
make shepherding and coordinating urban fortunes
more difficult, shifting essential services beyond dem-
ocratic control and oversight. In fact, it may work to
accelerate the financial and service provision crisis
affecting many cities. The introduction of ride-hailing
services into urban markets has at times worked to in-
tensifying and accelerate a public transit infrastructure
crisis by reducing ridership,8 which itself reduces des-
perately needed revenues to fund and maintain ser-
vices, further eroding service availability and pushing
what profitable services remain into the private sector.
Extending the Uber model across the city administra-
tion and infrastructure will simply extend this neoliberal
process, pushing more-and-more public services into
crisis and fuelling the demand for uneven, unequal,
and unaccountable for-profit alternatives.
The philosopher Louis Althusser9 warns that a 1195
key driver of capitalism is that it is seductive: platform
urbanism promises individual freedom and choice.
But seduction can be a veil, in this case obfuscating
broader processes of furthering neoliberalization and
accumulation by dispossession that may disadvan-
tage us in the long run. We need to ask whether the
promises of convenience, user-friendliness, individ-
ualization, and utility value in the UberCity are worth-
while trade-offs for digital democracy and the city as
a public good.

Agnieszka Leszczynski a digital geographer and

geographic information scientist. Her current
projects examine digital platforms in Canadian cities,
and location-based technology startups in the digital
economy.

Rob Kitchin is a Professor in the Department of

Geography and Maynooth University Social Sciences
Institute. His research focuses on the relationship
between technology and society, especially related
to the creation of smart cities, and he is the principle
investigator for the Programmable City project and
the Building City Dashboards project.
 THE COL
AND THE
BLACK-OUTS
VODAFONE1

Jessica Foley, Maynooth University

The Fox and The Lion

WHEN the fox and the lion first happen’d to meet, 1196
Poor Reynard fell down at his majesty’s feet,
So great was the terror inspired;
But the next time he met him, not quite so afraid,
When the lion approach’d an obeisance he made,
And after his health he inquired.
But the third time he met him, “Old crony,” said he,
“Pray whither so fast? I must say, to be free,
That you’re grown somewhat cool and unkind.”
The dignified lion deign’d not a reply;
But taking the fox to a river hard by,
Cool’d him, both in body and mind.

Thought the fox, whilst emerging in woe-begone state,

“This comes of one’s making too free with the great.”
 Aesop’s Fable (Jefferys Taylor version)

1 The following speculative fiction and satire imagines living in a

divided city where one part is disconnected from the telecoms
network. Such a thought experiment could equally apply if the
city were run by other telecoms such as T-Mobile or Verizon.
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for the purpose of conducting
a thought experiment without intent to infringe.
Sam was already waiting by the swatch. He sat in the 1197
morning sun, by the channel water lying between the
shores of the Yeffil River, spacing out to the life of air-
borne seeds, dust and insects. Every now and then
his gaze would tilt towards the sound of a cockling in
the water, currents in tension or a rare fish leaping.
Sam’s shoes were off to one side and his toes splayed
and wiggled lazily in the silt-sand of the estuary shore.
In the distance huge container ships were freighting
cargo to the port, disappearing down the barra, the
oldest engineered channel of Niblud City. They passed
behind the great South Wall, that modesty screen be-
hind which port-workers and their drones distributed
goods amongst the citizenry, rebuffing the dirty eyes
of Lagnif Black-Outs like Sam.
Squinting into the haze, Sam saw Caitlin pick- 1198
ing her way lightly across the dragons-teeth, rows
of pyramidal concrete blocks laid down along the
intertidal zone of Lagnif. He pulled his feet from the
silt rubbing them together to dislodge the most of the
grit and jumped up into a head-rush. He waved, two
arms overhead, as if landing a plane. Caitlin raised an
arm, vertical, in stoic reply. They were headed for their
weekly parley at the Steps.
The Steps was the place where city folk used to 1199
go to bathe in the summer heat, but only the jellyfish
basked in blooms there now. The Steps cascaded in
wide rough platforms perpendicular to a long prome-
nade that jutted out into the bay. Washed-out lemon-co-
loured changing huts stooped and huddled, still offering
shelter. At the end of the promenade, a latticed steel
tower stretched into the hot blue sky. This was one of the
northern gateways that had been shut down after the
redline riots, leaving hundreds of thousands of people
without access to communications services, making
Lagnif an official black-spot, a rogue tribe of Black-Outs.
 During the chaos of the redline riots, a lead- 1200
ing Mobile Network Operator had taken over the
Niblud City Council, making all city departments,
from Business to Culture to Housing to Roads and
Transport, yoked subserviently to Networks and
Communications. Under the MNO administration, the
various forms of network dependency across the city
had ramified. Young families in particular struggled.
The new administration recognised the boon this af-
forded them in terms of sustainable revenue, offer-
ing more and more subscription applications over the
network that promised to help monitor and manage
the challenges of family life and to help develop social
cohesion through the networked city.
The attentions, and indeed the relationships, 1201
of families became routed and mediated, almost ex-
clusively, through City approved parenting apps like
BoldStep and PlayDate, while children were encour-
aged to manage transitions from online to offline
through apps like TantrumTrap. This app allowed the
child to divert their tearful screams at moments of dis-
connection (such as bedtime) into a conical mouth-
piece that recorded the decibel level, prosody and
duration of the ‘tantrum’, offering child and parent a
means to chart patterns of behaviour, identify ‘trig-
ger-warnings’ and seek out appropriate app-based
treatments. But the application-heavy, bureaucra-
cy-by-surveillance approach to City administration
meant that infrastructures had become varicose from
over use and underdevelopment. City dwellers paid a
premium, in terms of income, privacy and personality,
for network continuity.
In Lagnif where network resources had been 1202
aggressively denied, the communities had long since
become familiar with network separation and had
come to recognise this so-called disadvantage as a
privilege. Over time they had found ways to manage
the transition offline, to contextualise their anxieties
and negotiate new forms of relation with each other
and their environment. By necessity, this rogue en-
clave made the most of its modest resources and had
developed a canteen culture that appreciated and nur-
tured the complex human relationship between individ-
ual and collective. Every child across every canteen
knew the Remaining Useful Life of each instrument
and technological system in their neighbourhood.

.:;
Heat had rendered Lagnif brittle and translucent. 1203
Beneath cracked pathways, water pipes leaked deep
into the foundations of the city, the bring centres be-
tween districts swelled with pungent waste while street
vendors stirred more appetising smells for squat diners
breakfasting under nylon umbrellas. Caitlin was al-
ways first in her household to wake. She slipped down
from her top bunk, pulling her clothes with her before
dressing quietly in the hallway between the bedrooms.
In the canteen she prepared a small pack of 1204
fruit, biscuits and water, including sunscreen and a
towel. Every noise was amplified in the quiet, her fum-
bling hands, her swallow, her heartbeat. At the back
door she stuffed one foot then the other into her street
shoes, pulling the heels aright as she hopped into the
hazy drenched sunshine, her pack loose around her
shoulder. She had a shift at the Black-Outs Bridge,
a school assembled upon a disused bridge over the
Yeffil River, between Lagnif and the City of Niblud.
Then she would meet Sam.
She worked the morning shift at the school, 1205
which meant working with City dwellers and their
children. Only the most desperate would come, those
who were being sunk out of the network, or those who
had realised their network addiction, but couldn’t put
a language on it to think their way through it. One of
the first things to develop spontaneously in Lagnif,
after the disconnection, was language. It flourished.
People began to tell stories, new stories. The Black-
Outs Bridge School was a grey space, where city
dwellers and black-outs could share and make cul-
ture, a process that had all but ended in Niblud. The
City was now a brand, with a new motto: De Future est
excitando. Paratus?

.:;
Sam and Caitlin had no sense of a future, exciting or 1206
otherwise, and it didn’t worry them. They spent their
days together exploring the coastline along Lagnif,
gradually finding and forming names for the things
they observed and felt. Before the riots they might
have been called poets, but in the official lexicon of
Niblud City Council, they were simply Black-Outs.
The young friends made their way to the Steps 1207
where they would sit, toes in the water with their backs
against the massive legs of the gateway, sleepily play-
ing with sounds and songs.

“Look, there’s a bit of a glister coming

in there, d’you see Sam?”

“Oh yeah, that’ll make a good squall for

the freighters.”

“The gulls are already luffing mad... the 1210

kep-shites!”

“Are you hungry? I brought some peas

and potatoes.”
As Sam twisted around to unpack the food from his 1212
backpack he stalled, shushing Caitlin who had been
humming intervals to herself.
Through the aime rising from the heated prom- 1213
enade Sam could see a figure moving towards them,
their white body shimmering. After some minutes, the
figure pulled up at the base of the tower carrying a
chrome flightcase and dressed in a plain, crisp cotton
shirtdress and trousers. Its head was sheathed by a
fine chrome silk, reflecting Caitlin, Sam and the Steps
in a silvery sharp resolution. Without saying a word, the
figure opened the case, took out a small black box with
a clear glass face and adhered it to a leg of the tower,
facing towards the horizon and Caitlin, who was now
standing up to get a better look at this virginal appari-
tion. With a little too much haste, the figure closed the
case, turned and walked quickly away, its head glinting
like a polished tooth.

“What was that about?” asked Sam.

“I don’t know”, said Caitlin, “They must 1215

be from the city.”

“What’s a Col doing out here though?”

“That wasn’t a Col, Sam; they’d never

send the councillers out here.”

“Well, who was it then?”

“I don’t know, maybe they’ll come

back”, Caitlin said thoughtfully, tapping
the glass box.

.:;
The Col did come back. The second time he spent hours 1220
checking the glass box, making reference to an electric
tablet, seeming to take notes or readings. Without ad-
dressing either Caitlin or Sam, he set up a small stool,
about 10 leg-leaps away. And while neither party spoke
to the other, and appeared to be indifferent neighbours,
the young friends had for the first time in their lives the
uncomfortable feeling of being watched remotely.

“They’re just monitoring that box thingy

for the gateway”, Sam said once the
Col had moved on.

“I’m not so sure”, said Caitlin shaking

away a shiver.

“Well, let’s come out earlier next time,

during firesmoke”, suggested Sam.

.:;
Sure enough, Sam and Caitlin made their way to the 1224
Steps the following week, just as the sunset was blend-
ing with the misty evening dew. They set up a small
camp fire to make toast and tea and chat as the chilly
dark set in around them. Around the Steps the breeze
roused hobbles of choppy, short waves to make mild
melodies on the concrete, a lullaby.

“See, this is nice. No disruptions. No 1225

Col”, said Sam.

“I guess they weren’t interested in

us after all”, Caitlin said, releasing
a long sigh.
 “You sound disappointed”, laughed
Sam pouring steaming tea into their tin
cups, “familiarity breeds contempt, isn’t
that what they say?”

“No more than neglect”, said Caitlin

accepting her cup.

The hobbles of waves lapped and made small talk in 1229

the silence between them. At the foot of the tower,
between the massive legs of the sealed gateway to
the City, to the network, to the future, two stray Black-
Outs, shadow-danced in the firelight. They were joined
imperceptibly by a third shadow, the now all too familiar
stranger.
“We’ve been watching you”, the Col’s voice 1230
came out in a digital whisper through his silvery mask.
Neither Sam nor Caitlin heard him, mesmerized as
they were by the twitching of the camp fire. As if em-
barrassed, the Col glanced about. He broadening his
shoulders. Clearing his throat and with a deep breath
in, he tried again. This was his final dispatch for the
council. If he could get these Black-Outs on friendly
terms it could mean promotion.

“We’ve been watching you, Sam,

Caitlin,” the Col announced
rather dramatically.

“Hob-Gobblin, what the hell!” shouted

Sam. Caitlin fell backwards off her
stool, cursing the hot tea that spilled
across her chest.

“You total brimfuster! What do you think

you’re doing creeping up on us like
that!?” yelled Caitlin, standing now and
wiping her front roughly.
 “Apologies”, the Col stated awkwardly.

The three stood triangulated between the huge legs 1235

of the cell tower.

“We have been watching you”, he said

again, slowly repeating his script, “for
some time now.”

“I knew it!” said Caitlin stomping

her foot.

“Shush, let’s hear what the network has

to say”, said Sam, making air quotes.

“I come from the City of Niblud”,

the Col said, gesturing an open
palm southwards, “The council are
considering reconnecting Lagnif.”

Sam and Caitlin cast each other a shadowy look. The 1240
Col inhaled deeply through his chrome mask, bringing
his hands together peaceably, as rehearsed. Sam and
Caitlin remained quiet, listening.

“I am here to change your life. You

don’t have to be Black-Outs, you can
be more. I’ve seen how you live. I’ve
watched your canteen culture, tracking
your movements, your conversations,
your sleep patterns, your diets. You
are a struggling people. Your homes,
your communities are starving for
reconnection! I can make this happen...
with your help.”
The silence gave the Col courage. Taking a step to- 1242
wards the young friends, he went on. “I want to of-
fer you both a chance to open up the Black-Spots.
Help me prove to the City Council that there is a dis-
ciplined appetite for connection, here, in Lagnif. No
more redlining, no more riots, no more black-spots.
You can lead the campaign to show that Black-Outs
are ready!”
The figure paused dramatically, arms out- 1243
stretched, his chrome face flickering orange in the
firelight. “I’m offering you, and all of Lagnif, a future
in the City, and that future is exciting. The question is,
are you ready?”
Sam and Caitlin laughed and with a unified nod 1244
each sprinted sideways to grab an arm and a leg of
their would-be saviour, lifting the Col straight off his
feet and swinging him head first into the hobbles and
blooms of the Black-Out’s bay.

Note
Some of the more unusual words in this fable were gleaned from Robert Mac-
Farlane’s book Landmarks (2016). The word Col means “utmost spot to which
anything (human or creature) can be driven.” The story is modelled on Voda-
fone’s brand positioning The Future is Exciting. Ready? and Aesop’s Fable,
The Fox and The Lion, the moral of which is ‘Familiarity breeds Contempt.’

Jessica Foley is an Irish Research Council

Postdoctoral Fellow at the Social Sciences Institute
at Maynooth University, where her practice-based
research explores the function of fiction in relation to
‘smart’ technologies.
 ADDRESS.
ERROR.503
WHAT3WORDS1

Jim Thatcher, University of

Washington Tacoma

What3Words is a “really simple way to talk about loca- 1245

tion” in which the entire world is broken up into 3m by
3m grids. Each grid is assigned a three word phrase,
such as ‘pork.perfect.dog,’ and users navigate from
location to location by entering these purported easily
to remember and communicate phrases.

.;:
“Alright, looks like you only have five
overnight deliveries on your route today,
Stan. Think you can finish by five?”

“Thanks, Jess. Depends, where

are they?”

“Looks like you’ve got one at pipes.sums.

gender, another at assist.figure.games,
direct.wiping.blocks, surely.worker.foster,
and, uh, clown.blitz.behind.”

1 The following speculative fiction and satire imagines living

in a city where the postal geography has been altered to
a privatised service. Product or corporate names may be
trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for
the purpose of conducting a thought experiment without
intent to infringe.
 “Hold on, hold on, I’m trying to enter
these into my tablet. It says here pipe.
sums.genders is in Russia? Some
place called Bilibino? I’m pretty sure
that’s outside of our delivery range.”
“Stan, I said pipes.sums.gender, it’s
like half a mile from here on the old
Centre Avenue. It looks like assist.
figure.games is right down the street
on Centre as well.”

“Okay, got it. Wait, Jess, is surely. 1250

worker.foster in the back of a building?”

“Yup, getting rooted to the actual drop

off point is one of the reasons the city
switched all addresses to What3Words
last month, makes it easier for us.”

“Yeah, spare me the hype. But, sure,

looks like I can get these done by five.”

“Okay, Stan, see you at churn.cult.

healthier after then?”

“Cheese and crackers, Jess, do you

mean Lefty’s? Yes, I’ll see you at Lefty’s
when I’m done with these packages.”

Jess chuckled to herself as Stan picked up his pack- 1255

ages and headed towards his car. Looking at them, he
could see one was marked urgent—keep cold. While,
given the fees, pretty much anything sent overnight
was urgent, Stan figured this was probably medical
supplies and he’d set his route to drop it off first. Clown.
blitz.behind, heh, he giggled as he punched in the ad-
dress and started up his car.
 Once Stan had entered the three word phrase, 1256
the What3Words app passed the location back to his
Google Maps application as latitude and longitude
coordinates and it, in turn, provided him his now-fa-
miliar driving directions using the street names of
Pittsburgh he’d known since childhood. Pulling out of
the Crafton Post Office, he took a left onto Bedford
Avenue. Fifteen minutes later and Stan was pulling into
the parking lot of Carter’s Automotive, the location of
Clown.blitz.behind.
Weird, he thought, who gets medical supplies 1257
delivered to an automotive shop? Oh well, not my prob-
lem, let’s get the signature and get out of here.
As he walked into the shop, a woman poked her 1258
head out from under a Camry she was working on and
asked “Hi, can I help you? That old Subaru giving you
trouble? The rear differentials can go out on the hills
around here.”

“No, I’ve got a package here for

a Catherine Stoutletz. I’ll need a
signature.”

“No one with that name here, are 1260

you sure you have the right address?
Carter’s Automotive?”

“Well, it says here clown.blitz.behind,

that takes me right to your front door.
It’s marked urgent—keep cold, you
sure you don’t have a Stoutletz here?”

The woman got out from under the car and pulled 1262
out her phone. “Well, yeah, clown.blitz.behind is our
new address, huh. Let me take a look at that... Hey,
look here, there’s an S yinz missed. This was sent to
clowns.blitz.behind, not here.”
 Stan took the package back and looked close- 1263
ly, she was right, the post office had missed an S.
He punched the new address into his phone and
What3Words helpfully directed him to a rural area in
southwest Missouri, a good thirteen hour drive away.
Well, shit, he muttered to himself.

“Okay, well, thank you for your time.

Have a good day.”

“You come back if that differential starts 1265

acting up,” she called out, slipping back
under the hood of the Camry.

Stan called Jess once he was back

in the car. “Stan, what is it, you left
something behind again?”

“Jess, we’ve got a problem. That

medical delivery, it got sent to the
wrong address. It’s meant to go to
Missouri, not here.”

“What?”

“It was sent to clowns.blitz.behind,

not clown.blitz.behind; that’s all the
way out in rural Missouri. It’ll never
get there today.”

“Ugh, Okay. We’ll reroute it when you 1270

come back to the office. No chance
it gets there today, so it’ll go out first
thing in the morning.”

“But, Jess, I’m pretty sure this is

something medical, it says to keep
cold, what if it doesn’t last that long?”
 “Not our problem, we’ll reroute it as
fast as we can. Besides, you can’t be
sure what it is, maybe it’s just frozen
strawberries or something.”

“I guess. Okay, I’ll see you later.” Stan hung up and 1273
punched in the next address. Jess was right that it
wasn’t their problem, except that it seemed to be one
that happened with all too much frequency. Usually,
it was his fault—spelling had never been his strong
suit—but this time it was the entire routing network.
The S was lighter, but someone should have caught it
along the way; except most of those someones were
now mostly somethings—automated scanners all con-
nected to the What3Words API, sacrifices on the altar
of efficiency.
His next three deliveries were fairly uneventful. 1274
Pipes.sums.gender and assist.figure.games were both
on Centre Street and within a few blocks of one another.
Stan did a loop and dropped them both off before head-
ing up to the corner of Webster Avenue and Devilliers
Street. Direct.wiping.blocks led him to the front porch
of a boarded up row house. The package didn’t require
a signature, and as he set it down he could hear stirring
from behind the boarded up front windows.
One of the few advantages to the new address- 1275
ing system, from Stan’s perspective, was that folks
without permanent addresses could now receive pack-
ages wherever they might be living at the time. Some
of his colleagues wouldn’t leave the package, and
official policy was still murky on this point, but Stan
felt it was only right—if you give every few meters an
address, then you can damn sure deliver a package
to that space.
As he walked back to his car, a large brown dog 1276
with shaggy fur ran to the window of the house next
door and began idly barking at him. One more and
I’m off to an IC Light or three with Jess and the others.
Let’s see, surely.worker.foster. It was that weird one, at
the back of some building. Should be near here. After
entering the address, Stan waited and the dog barked.
Nothing happened. He closed the app, grum- 1277
bled and reopened it. This time something did happen;
an error message appeared: “Error 503: A problem has
occurred with the What3words API.”
What the hell is an API? Stan repeated the pro- 1278
cess of opening and closing the application, he was
once more greeted with the error message. The dog
was still barking. He got out of the car and approached
the house with the dog, its barking increased in fre-
quency. After he knocked, an elderly man opened it.
He was holding onto the dog’s collar as it jumped ea-
gerly at Stan.

“Down, Stoona, down. Hi, you need a

signature for something?”

“No, no. Not today, I’m wondering if 1280

you might check an address for me in
What3Words. The application won’t
work for me and I’ve got an overnight
delivery to make somewhere south of
here.”

“Sure, let me get my phone.”

The old man walked into the back room, dragging 1282
the dog. He returned without it and holding a
smartphone. “What’s the address?”

Stan told him the address, but—even after checking 1283

to make sure the spelling was correct—the old man
received the same error: “Error 503: A problem has
occurred with the What3words API.”
“Sorry, doesn’t seem to be working.
Don’t know why.”

“Well, thanks for trying.” As Stan 1285

walked back to his house, the dog ran
once more to the window and eagerly
barked at him.

I know the address is the back of a building and I’m 1286

pretty sure it’s south of here, but I have no idea where
it is. Surely.worker.foster... No clue. Well, if the appli-
cation won’t work, I can’t deliver. Fuck it, I’m going to
Lefty’s. At least I know where that is—2021 Penn Ave,
down by Primanti’s.
It wasn’t until the somewhat blurry-eyed morn- 1287
ing that Stan remembered the medical package that
needed to be kept cold.

.;:
What3words has assigned every 3m by 3m square a 1288
sequence of three words, which are matched to latitude
and longitude coordinates, thus geolocating it. As the
vignette above illustrates, that means places like “churn.
cult.healthier” come to refer to the front door of the dive
bar Lefty’s. As a start-up company W3W promises its
addressing system “enhances customer experience,
delivers business efficiency, drives growth and supports
the social and economic development of countries.”2
In truth, it can help with some of those things in some
places. For example, as Stan’s delivery to an official-
ly uninhabited building suggests, giving everywhere

2 Link: https://what3words.com/about
an address is useful in locations that previously strug-
gled with efficient postal delivery, such as Kiribati3 and
Mongolia.4 It can also be useful for navigating dense,
small scale environments, such as in Cape Town’s
Lourensford market5 or at a music festival.6
What3words supposedly makes addresses sim- 1289
pler to remember and more efficient to navigate to;
however, even its most basic functions come with trou-
bling caveats. First, as Stan learned, a single missed
letter can move an address thousands of miles. The
What3words API provides an AutoSuggest resource
that allows for corrections based on spelling, word or-
der, and geographic area, but this hardly guarantees
accurate results and seems an additional hurdle added
to what was meant to be a simpler, easier to recall
addressing system.
Second, and also above, the system relies 1290
upon the What3words API to translate the three words
into latitude and longitude coordinates. At present,
it relies upon other routing systems (Google, Bing,
Citymapper, Tom Tom) to provide directions between
the coordinates. In other words, ultimately any direc-
tions gleaned from What3words come from anoth-
er service’s ability to process latitude and longitude
coordinates that can be passed along only when the
What3words API is operating. While supposedly eas-
ier to communicate, What3words suggests that one
must have a smart phone to decode their addressing,
but such a phone would be unable to transmit latitude
and longitude on its own (i.e., without the obfuscation
into three words).
Third, the What3Words system exists at only 1291

3 Link: https://what3words.com/ 5 Link: https://what3words.

partner/kiribati-post com/2018/04/visitors-find-their-
favourite-market-stalls-in-cape-
4 Link: https://what3words.com/ town-with-what3words
partner/mongol-post
6 Link: https://what3words.
com/2018/03/finding-your-way-at-a-
crowded-festival-with-littlegig-and-
what3words
one, static scale—that of the 3m by 3m grid. Since
words are assigned randomly and, due to the nature
of language, cannot nest hierarchically, properties will
consist of multiple, semantically unrelated phrases.
A given quarter-acre plot, for example, will consist of
slightly over one hundred independent three words
phrases. Further, a given plot cannot be sub-divid-
ed in the What3Words system; this means that were
What3Words to replace other surveying systems,
property lines would need to be redrawn to conform
to this static, overlaid grid.
If a city were run on What3Words, its citizens 1292
would face a host of problems, both obvious and sub-
tle. On the one hand, when used as a delivery-oriented
addressing system What3Words gives those without
formal addresses the ability to specify a permanent
space for delivery. This allows said individuals to par-
ticipate in the many activities, such as package deliv-
eries and job, loan, and bank account applications,
which require such an address. On the other, in order
to do so What3Words inserts an interstitial layer of
digital technology between individuals and their abil-
ity to navigate the world. Addresses become findable
only when the What3Words API is able, or potentially
chooses, to decode the entered three word phrase.
Fundamentally, this enrols a core function of the 1293
state within its privately owned API. Addressing has
long been a means by which the state has made space
knowable, calculable, and controllable.7 Handing this
responsibility and power to a private corporation shifts
the relationships between citizen and state. On one
level, as in the end of Stan’s tale, this can make places

7 Rose-Redwood, R. (2012) With

Numbers in Place: Security, Territory,
and the Production of Calculable
Space. Annals of the Association
of American Geographers. 102(2):
295-319.
virtually unreachable when their system is down (either
intentionally or due to technical error). On another, it
is important to note that the What3words API is free
only for personal use. They employ “a fee structure
that provides qualifying organisations with a range of
free and discounted usage plans.”8
As cities adopt What3words for their address- 1294
ing needs, they are tying the ability to know where
something is to a fee-based API call. This isn’t a plea
for the return of state-controlled spaces of calculation,
but rather a note of wariness against what might take
its place.

8 Link: https://what3words.com/
pricing

Jim Thatcher is Associate Professor of Urban Studies

at the University of Washington Tacoma and an
affiliate with the school of Geography at the University
of Washington. His work examines the recursive
relations among extremely large geospatial data, the
creation and analysis of said data, and society.
 A CITY OF THE
PEOPLE, FOR
THE PEOPLE, BY
THE PEOPLE
WHATSAPP1

Ayona Datta, University College London

The alarm rang. Arun sat up on the bed, his eyes still 1295
shut. His mobile was lit up with a series of WhatsApp
messages. ‘GM’, ‘gm’, ‘g’morning’, ‘g’day’, ‘good morn-
ing dear’, ‘please send good morning wishes to at least
20 others or else’ ... a cacophony of distant voices
tagging the global time zone of wakefulness.
He stepped out of bed and opened the other 1296
messages. The CEO of BotCash (a successful internet
startup) had been assaulted by a few ‘attention-seek-
ing ladies’ as he was getting out of his car. These la-
dies alleged that he was taking their pictures, when he
said he was just forwarding a good morning message
to his wife. The police had apparently planted pictures
of these ladies in his mobile phone and then arrested
him for stalking women.
In another news, a software engineer had giv- 1297
en up his multimillion job to help street vendors. He
gave them free training to use his VendMe app which

1 The following speculative fiction and satire imagines living

in a city where a social messenging platform thoroughly
permeates everyday life. Such a thought experiment
could equally apply if the city were run by Facebook or
Twitter. Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for the purpose of
conducting a thought experiment without intent to infringe.
enabled vendors to advertise and pay registration fees
and users to search for nearby vendors. VendMe had
revolutionised informal street trading, in turn leading to
an exponential growth in the sales of Android phones
for using the app.
These forwarded WhatsApp messages would 1298
end with critical questions: Why do you think the main-
stream media did not report this? Why do you think the
media is not interested in helping the poor? Why do
you think mainstream newspapers rely on WhatsApp
for their journalism?
As a citizen of WhatsApp City, Arun was lucky. 1299
He didn’t have to search for news, or try and figure
out which was ‘real’ and which was ‘fake.’ Real news
came straight to him once he had registered his mobile
phone with WhatsApp customer services and given
them access to his camera and location in real time.
The best part of being a citizen of WhatsApp 1300
City was that Arun received news that was tailored to
who and where he was. It was curated and circulated
by WhatsApp’s global network of citizens. A contact in
his golfing group who circulated sports news; a distant
auntie living in California who reminded him of auspi-
cious religious dates; the friendly neighbour next door
who took a more than casual interest in tracking and
circulating news of gang rapes. Regular updates from
vigilantes informed citizens of safety, terror threats
and other risks; doctors informed citizens of health,
germs and viruses; schools informed parents of new
cashbacks for making an application.
In WhatsApp City, the mobile phone was the 1301
only technology necessary to have a good life, its
principal economy built around the information man-
ufacturing sector.
City of the people
Transformed by investments made by the global mes- 1302
saging service after the 2008 global economic crash,
WhatsApp City is a success story of inclusive consum-
erism. Whatsapp had made its billions by including
the poor in its business model. It was revolutionary in
being one of the first to be accessible to those using
cheap, second hand and low-tech feature phones.
Before 2008, when the city of Kalpalok was 1303
renamed WhatsApp City, its citizens’ lives were dys-
functional to say the least.
It was looted by politicians promising citizenship 1304
for votes, civil servants taking cuts out of infrastructure
projects, and developers stealing government land for
building non-existent homes. When citizens asked
questions, they were told that information on the city’s
wealth and how it was spent, was confidential. They
filed for information under the Rights to Information
(RTI) Act, but the RTI activists kept getting murdered.
Citizens began to access information through brokers
and middle-men, but there was no way of knowing
which was fake and which was real. Information be-
came so valuable, that it became the new currency,
even as WhatsApp’s own shares crashed in the global
market.
When WhatsApp took over, they put their shares 1305
where it mattered—information exchange.
WhatsApp rebuilt Kalpalok around mobile te- 1306
lephony. They gave citizens all the information they
needed via their messaging service, since by then
most citizens were using WhatsApp anyway to barter
information in mobile space. WhatsApp told them that
no news would ever be the same, and no news would
be fake. It would be crowdsourced, geolocated, cus-
tomised and above all, pleasurable.
 Managed efficiently through the safe, encrypt- 1307
ed secure networks, the beauty of WhatsApp City was
that there was no State surveillance, no State secrets.
The government could not snoop into citizens’ mes-
sages, they could not follow the trail of messages, nor
the voice conversations or video chats. They did not
know who sent messages or who received them, their
mobile numbers or IP addresses, locations or con-
tacts. No covert or overt surveillance was possible by
the government, ever.
WhatsApp City was completely of the people, 1308
managed and run efficiently by a global information
company.

City for the people

Ruhi was late for work. She had stayed with her boy- 1309
friend overnight. Her parents thought she was doing
an all-nighter at work. That was a regular occurrence
given how demanding it was to mine information each
day, so her parents had no reason to suspect other-
wise. Her parents understood that she needed to work
very long hours. Because if she lagged behind her tar-
gets, she would lose her chance of landing her dream
job with Whatsapp.
So what if it was an unpaid internship at pres- 1310
ent? If she could also get 10 more interns to join she
would get WhatsAppCoins worth a month’s salary paid
into her bank account.
Ruhi turned round the corner towards her of- 1311
fice. The outline of the WhatsApp building was just
about visible at the end of the street. A young man
was coming in her direction, she tried to step aside
but he moved towards her, came right up to her and
touched her arm.
 ‘At last I get to feel your supple skin.’
In his hand was a phone playing videos
of Ruhi and her boyfriend making love.

‘What the ... Who are you? What do you

want?’ she screamed.

‘Give me what you give him every day.

I am far better than he is.’

‘How did you get this? Who took 1315

this video? Who gave this to you?’ she
demanded.

The man laughed at her. ‘It’s

everywhere on WhatsApp news.’

The laughter kept ringing in her ears as she ran away, 1317
crying. The ground felt like it was slipping under her,
the office tower blocks closing in, suffocating her,
choking her. The man was running after her, jeering
and shouting lewd questions.
Ruhi stumbled into her seat at work shaking. 1318
She felt sick at the thought that her father might re-
ceive the video on his mobile. He would die of shame
and disown her.
She wanted to throw up, but knew she needed 1319
to get to work.
On her screen was a database table consisting 1320
of tens of thousands of mobile phone numbers, each
with a list of device type, mobile network, data on web
pages visited through the app, time of chats, duration
of chats, IP addresses, location and contacts.
The phones in the small cubicles around Ruhi 1321
began to light up with raw information—videos , voices,
text messages. They were all uploaded to the central
WhatsApp server for interns like Ruhi to work on.
Though she found it difficult to concentrate, 1322
Ruhi began to run algorithms on the information,
cross-linked with phone numbers, locations and de-
mographic profiles to process them into different cat-
egories of news for different WhatsApp groups.
Some news just would not run unless they 1323
were part of a chain of fear—forward this to 20 other
groups or else... Other news would not need much pro-
motion—sending this to one individual who was well
connected to several groups was enough to make this
viral. This was usually news of soldiers’ sacrifices or
of minority appeasement. Stories of rags to riches or
successful entrepreneurs helping the poor were also
very popular. News about rapes or sexual harassment
didn’t do too well, although if they were associated with
images and videos, these spread like wildfire. Stories
identifying alleged murderers or kidnappers did the
best, and were sent directly to the vigilantes so that
they could lynch the suspects.
Kalpalok’s police and the courts had been slow 1324
and ineffective. In WhatsApp City, news was enough
to ensure quick justice for all.
Ruhi was one of the thousands of unpaid 1325
WhatsApp interns who had the important job of ‘in-
formation mining.’ Two years ago, when she started,
information mining was very challenging. WhatsApp
only kept basic metadata on users, and Ruhi could not
access enough personal information to customise or
place the information. She did not know what the citi-
zens’ likes or dislikes were, what their political leanings
were, who they were friends with. This was the sort
of data that Kalpalok had never collected pre-crash.
Now her work was far easier. WhatsApp was 1326
bought by a global social media company with a data-
base of 2.2 billion users. Detailed personal information
on each customer was readily available, their sleep-
ing, eating, partying habits, their likes, dislikes, sense
of humour, political leanings, sentiments, their global
connections, you name it.
Now WhatsApp news had far more depth and 1327
reach. Ruhi could mine information faster customise
better and circulate wider. This made Ruhi hopeful that
soon she would be able to move to the paid position
of ‘Story crafter.’ Assuming that video didn’t ruin her
chances and also destroy her family life. As she well
knew, WhatsApp often lacked a censor filter and could
ruin as well as enhance lives.

City by the people

Arun’s day had just begun. Ruhi had produced reams 1328
of information directing him to potential news stories.
He was continually impressed by her work, she will go
far he thought again.
But today the news she had prepared seemed 1329
to be of a different tone: ‘Videos of gang rape should
be banned by WhatsApp’; ‘circulation of hate news
should be banned’; ‘Please share how this developer
has removed slum dwellers just before the monsoons
to build multi-million dollar flats’; ‘Share the story of the
tribals who are fighting against the global corporates
who want to build a new city on their ancestral land.’
He shook his head. This didn’t make sense; none 1330
of these will go viral. What’s up with Ruhi today? Arun
began to rewrite each story before sending them out.

1. As part of our crowdsourcing policy, 1331

your bedroom videos will be publicly
 accessible from tomorrow. Forward this
to 10 other people, spread the news...

2. As part of our citizenship policy, you 1332

will be able to send pictures of suspi-
cious people directly to the police, who
will immediately apprehend them under
the new Anti-National Act.

3. Today we are protesting against the 1333

anti-nationalism of left-liberals. Take a
picture [attached] of a communist and
share it for others to spot.

4. We do not need scientists preaching to 1334

us about GM crops. We need the com-
passionate work of entrepreneurs [video
attached] to train farmers sell their pro-
duce online to global markets.

Arun was a ‘story crafter.’ While interns like Ruhi mined 1335
and processed crowdsourced information, Arun mar-
ket-tested and curated news stories. Arun was not a
journalist or an activist, he did not engage in political
agendas. He circulated clean, clear news that citizens
wanted to hear. The news was crowdsourced by the
people, mined and processed by the people, and cir-
culated by the people.
Kalpalok was now seemingly a democratic 1336
city—of the people, for the people and by the people.
Owned and managed by a commercial com-
pany for private profit.

Ayona Datta is Professor of Human Geography

at University College London. Her research and
writing broadly focuses on the gendered processes
of citizenship and belonging and the politics of
urbanization in the global north and south.
 LET’S MAKE
THIS CITY
AN URBAN
PRODUCT
EVERYBODY
WANTS
Y COMBINATOR1

Shannon Mattern, The New School

City of Baltimore
Official Transcript
December 10, 2024

Y Combinator Inauguration and Request for Startups

Tyler Lucky, YC Partner / Mayor: 1337

Baltimore! We are beyond stoked that you, the great
people of this great city, have chosen us, Team
Y Combinator, to make your city even greater.
Together, we’re going to transform Baltimore into
a massive living lab—a model of how to do cities
right. We’ll develop solutions and platforms and
services that promise a bigger, better, brighter
future for everybody living right here in Charm
City. And while we’re focused on the local—
the streets and schools from Mt. Washington to
Curtis Bay—we’re also aiming big. Everything
we do here will scale up and migrate. Within a few
years, cities all over the world will compete for the
privilege of calling themselves “The Baltimore of
the South”...or Far East or Northwest or whatever.

1 The following speculative fiction and satire imagines a city

run by a social innovation accelerator and investor that
seeks to disrupt existing ways of running the city. Such
a thought experiment could equally apply if the city were
run by other accelerator companies such as Uncharted
or Echoing Green. Product or corporate names may be
trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for
the purpose of conducting a thought experiment without
intent to infringe.
 As you know, Y Combinator is the world’s 1338
premier seed accelerator; we’re the people who
brought you Dropbox, Airbnb, Reddit, and lots of
other companies that make your life more fun and
convenient and healthy. Do your kids stream video
games? They’re probably using Twitch; that’s one
of ours. Have you bought something online from
Glossier, Warby Parker, or Blue Apron? Well, you
used our Swipe payments system. Are you trading
Bitcoin or Ethereum on Coinbase? That’s us, too.
We’ve backed biotechnologies and renewable
energy storage systems and career recruitment
services for marginalized communities. We’ve
promoted nonprofits that support rural farm laborers
and healthcare for people in developing countries.
We’re also behind Soylent, the revolutionary “meal
in a bottle” you’ll all find in your swag bags.

Jennifer Wellstone, YC Partner / Deputy Mayor: 1339

That’s right, Ty. Engineered nutrition in five fabulous
varieties. Personally, I’m cuckoo for the Cacao flavour!
In all seriousness, though, this little miracle drink
is a perfect metaphor for what we can do here in
Baltimore, starting now. Imagine: over the course of
a day you can drink five bottles of Soylent, achieve
complete nutrition, and unlock your full potential—
all without wasting a minute on food shopping or
prepping or cooking or clean-up. My daily bandwidth
is already totally maxed out, as I’m sure is the case for
all of you, too. Soylent takes the burden of eating—
like, real food—off our already-full plates. Actually,
I don’t even need plates anymore! Or a table! I
just turned my dining room into a makerspace!

Heckler: 1340
But I like cooking with my family!
Dinner is the only time we...

<Audible scuffle as agitator is removed from the premises.>

Wellstone: 1341
In getting to know you, Baltimore, our team has spent
a lot of time at some of your favourite haunts. One
thing we’ve noticed is just how much of a hassle is
for you to consume your beloved blue crabs. All that
manual labour, all the mess—and all the alienation for
those, like Tam, who happen to be allergic to shellfish!
Heckler 2: 1342
But crab-shucking is part of the whole social experi...

<Audible scuffle as agitator is removed from the premises.>

Wellstone: 1343
So, to celebrate our new partnership, we’re proud to
announce that Soylent is launching a new Charm
City Crab Cake line, in both imitation and real crab
varieties. Imagine the time you’ll save, the waste
you’ll avoid! No more need to handle the carapaces of
dead animals or confront the ecological and ethical
implications of your consumption habits! No more Old
Bay seasoning stuck under your fingernails for days!
Gross! This is just one example of how we can keep the
Baltimore spirit alive, but make it leaner and cleaner.
Now, let’s scale up that scenario. How much 1344
time do you waste every day in commuting to work,
negotiating with doctors and public administrators,
consulting with your kids’ teachers and babysitters,
fussing with passwords and turnstiles and interfaces?
<The crowd boos.> As much as we might not want to
admit it, one of the main reasons these inefficient,
outmoded systems persist is that they justify the
continued existence of the agencies that oversee them.
Your inconvenience is the price we pay to maintain the
bureaucracy. We’ve been stuck in an administrative rut.

Heckler 3: 1345
I’ve been a nurse for thirty years! My
patients tell me things they’d never tell...!

<Audible scuffle as agitator is removed from the premises.>

Wellstone: 1346
But it doesn’t have to be this way—and it won’t be
this way much longer. YC is here to tell you that
the waste and injustices and indignities end now.
We’re here to break things. <The crowd erupts into
cheers and applause.> We’re wiping the slate clean,
disbanding all city agencies, and starting fresh.
We’re going to build the future of our city—and,
ultimately, change the world—by making things that
city people want.2 How? That’s where you come in.

2 Y Combinator’s motto is “Make

something people want.” Many
phrases from this essay are adapted
from interviews conducted with Y
Combinator founders and partners.
 Delora Childs, YC Partner, Council Chair:
Exactly, Jennifer. Your new city government under
YC will serve primarily as a platform to help you
make the city that you, and your fellow urban users,
really want. So, today, we’re thrilled to launch
our first RFCS, or Request for City Startups. We
invite you, Baltimore’s user-public, to hack your
own government—to propose novel, lean urban
products and services that do the work of good
governance without all the bureaucracy. How
might we rethink public health, public education,
public transit, public housing, public utilities?
By getting citizen-hackers and venture 1347
capital invested in city government—and by
tapping the expertise and resources of our
commercial partners—we’ll ensure vastly improved
government accountability, innovation, efficiency,
and, most important, impactfulness. We’ll set
some key performance indicators and monitor our
metrics. Given YC’s awesome track record, we’re
pretty confident we’ll achieve stellar results.

Heckler 4: 1348
But governments and corporations
don’t uphold the same valu...!

<Audible scuffle as agitator is removed from the premises.>

Childs: 1349
We’ve actually been dreaming of just such a total,
seamless urban solution for quite some time now,
and we shared some of those dreams with you in
our campaign. Eight years ago, in announcing our
New Cities research initiative, we recognized that
“the world is full of people who aren’t realizing their
potential in large part because their cities don’t provide
the opportunities and living conditions necessary for
success.”3 Poverty, crime, racial tensions, insufficient
housing, and a host of other pain points have long
created a toxic ecosystem that’s stunted Baltimore’s
growth capacity. We figured one “high-leverage”
means of unleashing this massive, unrealized potential
is by “making better cities.” So, we issued a Request
for Locations: “We want to build a city,” we said. “Know
of a specific location that works?” we asked.4 You
responded, and here we are! So let’s make Baltimore
better. No, let’s make it the best. Let’s crush it, people.

3 Adora Chung (2016) “New Cities.” 4 “Request for Locations.” New Cities:
Y Combinator. Link: https://blog. Y Combinator Research (no date).
ycombinator.com/new-cities/ Link: https://cities.ycr.org/request-
for-locations/
Clevor Hackney, YC Partner / 1350
Chief Technology Officer:
The best indeed, Delora! We’re eager to start
innovating and iterating with our first batch of citizen-
hackers. Send us your proposals. Pitch us a product!
Suggest a service! How, for instance, might we seize
the promise of virtual reality to help our senior and
disabled citizens navigate the city? We’re currently
testing our Fountain of Youth system in my grandma’s
retirement village; she and her friends think they’re in
their 20s again! They’ve started a roller derby team!

Heckler 5: 1351
That’s dangerous! What if they break a....!

<Audible scuffle as agitator is removed from the premises.>

Hackney: 1352
What new apps or surveillance technologies might
help streamline interactions between parents and
teachers, patients and doctors, foster parents and
Children’s Services, parolees and parole officers?
No more time-wasting in-person visits and awkward
chit-chat; we can instead rely on objectively
gathered data to automate social and health services.
Maybe a social credit score, similar to China’s
wildly successful system, can help us solve income
inequality? Those who play by the rules—who pay
their bills on time, who live within the law, who love
our country—clearly deserve a better quality of
life than those who contribute nothing to society.

Heckler 6: 1353
What about the sick and disabled? Or
those fleeing oppressive regi...?!

<Audible scuffle as agitator is removed from the premises.>

Hackney: 1354
Maybe we can install chemical sensors throughout
public housing facilities to detect the presence of
controlled substances? While we’re at it, we could
implant microchips in all babies born into public
assistance, and sync them up with the social
credit system—to ensure they stay on the straight
and narrow. Or maybe some new gene therapy
can end social deviance and, by extension, mass
incarceration? Maybe we can deploy robots to
diffuse the homeless and, while they’re at it, issue
parking tickets? Maybe Soylent-distributing drones
would be more efficient than soup kitchens?

Heckler 7: 1355
Crime isn’t a genetic defect! It’s a
product of social injusti....!

<Audible scuffle as agitator is removed from the premises.>

Hackney: 1356
I’m just riffing here, but the point is: there are so
many possibilities! So much potential—and it’s all
inside you! <Cheers.> The answers to your city’s
problems, the secrets to its success, are embedded
in your imaginations. The YC team has given you an
administrative blank slate upon which you can build
a shiny new city government without all the messy
politics. And, frankly, given that you essentially
have no existing municipal agencies or services
at the moment—we sent everybody pink slips this
morning—it’s now your public duty as citizen-
hackers to turn your civic dreams into start-ups.
Help us make Baltimore the City of Unicorns.
Then, together, we can empower those 1357
unicorns to take wing, to migrate to other cities around
the world. We can franchise your amazing ideas,
transform your startups into scale-ups. Baltimore
can become a change agent for the world, demo-
ing new global paradigms, iterating our way out of
injustice and inequality, cultivating new ecosystems
for full optimization and self-actualization.
Join us, friends. Let’s make this city an
urban product everybody wants.

Shannon Mattern is a Professor Anthropology at The

New School. She’s written books about libraries,
maps, and the long history of the urban intelligence,
and she writes a column about urban data and media
infrastructures for Places Journal. You can find her at
wordsinspace.net.
Design Notes
The typesetting of this publication aims to create
an uncanny text rendering in the context of digital-led
dystopias. For this reason, it is set in a combination
of six very similar typefaces that fall into the category
of Neo-Grotesques. The slight contrast between
each letterform’s main features produces a visual
granularity that provides an ominous aesthetic
while not compromising the reading experience.
Taking a close look at these features opens up
a crack that leads the reader to question the
processes which determined the combination.

Considering the potential of contemporary

publications to be remediated/transmediated
into different channels and formats, the design
purposefully ignores the traditional imposition
of pagination as the editorial measuring unit.
Instead, paragraphs are seen as units of content
which allow citation and signposting in ways that
surpass platform-dependent infrastructures.
 Aa Bb Cc Dd
Ee Ff Gg Hh
Ii Jj Kk Ll
Mm Nn Oo Pp
Qq Rr Ss Tt
Uu Vv Ww Xx
Yy Zz 0 1
2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9
AAAAAA aaaaaa BBBBBB bbbbbb CCCCCC cccccc DDDDDD dddddd
EEEEEE eeeeee FFFFFF f f f f f f GGGGGG gggggg HHHHHH hhhhhh I I I I I I i i i i
i i JJJJJJ j j j j j j KKKKKK kkkkkk LLLLLL l l l l l l MMMMMM mmmmmm NNNNNN
nnnnnn OOOOOO oooooo PPPPPP pppppp QQQQQQ qqqqqq RRRRRR
rrrrrr SSSSSS ssssss TTTTTT tttttt UUUUUU uuuuuu VVVVVV vvvvvv WW
WWWW wwwwww XXXXXX xxxxxx YYYYYY yyyyyy ZZZZZZ zzzzzz 000000
111111 222222 333333 444444 555555 666666 777777 888888 999999
Other publications by Meatspace Press include:

Graham, M and Shaw, J. (eds). 2017.

Towards a Fairer Gig Economy.

Shaw, J and Graham, M. (eds). 2017.

Our Digital Rights to the City.

All Meatspace Press publications listed above are

free to download, or can be ordered
in print from our website.

meatspacepress.com
Should cities be run like businesses?

Should city services and infrastructure

be run by businesses?

For some urban commentators, policy-makers,

politicians and corporate lobby groups, the answer
is ‘yes’ to both questions.

Others are critical of such views, cautious about

shifting the culture of city administration from
management to entrepreneurship, and transforming
public assets and services run for the common good
into markets run for profit.

The stories and essays in this book explore how a

city might look, feel and function if the business
models, practices and technologies of 38 different
companies were applied to the running of cities.

They ask: what would it be like to live in a city

administered using the business model of Amazon
(or Apple, IKEA, Pornhub, Spotify, Tinder, Uber, etc.)
or a city where critical public services are delivered
by these companies?

Collectively, the chapters ask us to imagine and

reflect on what kind of cities we want to live in and
how they should be managed and governed.

ISBN 978-0-9955776-7-1

9 780995 577671 >