Smart Cities: How do we Build the Cities of Tomorrow: Hugh Green at TEDxEmory

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

[mikfermi]

Good point, in real life we just need to win over corruption and insane greed of few people, common sense and creativity will provide new solutions.

[roksraka]

As a student of architecture, I am very passionate about such topics...but this was a bad TED talk! I don't care if my streets have "F1 sensors" in them. He mentioned video conferencing as something revolutionary, even though we've had Skype for 13 years. What we should really focus on are urban problems which can't be solved with an app! Also, you can't entrust the design of cities to everyone with a smartphone - that's what architects, urban planners and engineers are for!

[johnkim]

There definitely has been an exponential growth in urbanization for the past two centuries along with the most systematically redefining events happening within urban areas. We've also seen the formation of suburban areas which in some areas are almost a sort of hybrid between cities and rural areas. But nearly no one lives in purely rural form disconnected from many areas anymore. The clustering of massive amounts of people does have some inefficiencies and unintended consequences even though the benefits far outweigh the negatives for most cities. Cities should definitely be getting greener, more environmentally friendly, and more personal. But the way that some of these smart cities are being planned frightens me as the changes are dictatorial and inflexible. It's given the government too much surveillance powers, too much contracting rights for public projects, too much zoning restrictive abilities, etc. A truly smart city should be one decentralized where people can initiate change and good ideas are adopted, not one where good ideas are forced upon and implemented with tremendous long term inefficiency.

[nihar-]

Modi is trying to develop 100 smart cities in India and soon world will face a shining smart India.

[georgiapeach]

God help us all. 24/7 monitoring of everyone. All day, all the time. Everything you do will be tracked and logged and shared with the "appropriate" people monitoring every move you make. God please wake up people. Have you seen the movie "Gatica"?

[shashankarya]

Abandoned buildings can give birth to micro level of jungles in any locality which can give birth to a whole new environment.

[LittleOrla]

Dear God, go look at an image of this magnificent Masdar. From above it looks like a mother-board.

[marcelmauer]

No idea of urban planning, social sciences or the basic fundamentals of governance. Very poor content. 

[shrednow]

it is now 2018, and both Songdo and Masdar fell short of their goals...

[shashankarya]

floating inverse pyramids can refine sea water to drinkable water.

[pedrodomingo]

Hows Australia's approach to getting the people on board?
Sinister as fk.

[joelvancranenbroeck]

That is really the most stupid presentation I have ever seen here in TED !
How the speaker can talk about SONGDo in South Korea like that ? It's 1984 by George Orwell and ... indeed in South Korea they are really embarrassing to recognize that suicide increased much here that in other city. Narrow streets to get sun shade is what has been done largely before ... I am sorry but the speaker should get a blaming note. Good talker but really nothing in the content.

[k.ganesanganesan]

There is no place for CONCRETE JUNGLE.

[zoneTherapyCures]

How smart is exchanging fossil fuel pollution for electrosmog? Do we really want to live in Alexaworld? Powering the electrical grid down worldwide as a form of control? Powering down our cars, our heat, our phones, etc. as a form of control? Sterility as a form of control?

[zoneTherapyCures]

We've had 45 years of rule by finance sector. We KNOW that private sector governance is malicious and dysfunctional. We don't need a 7th pro-business, anti nation-state president who wants to shut down government permanently to end democracy, rights, environmental protections, safety inspections, freedom to roam, home and car ownership, citizenship.

To the libertarians who created and still support neoliberalism, (even though it's been thoroughly discredited as an economic policy since the 2008 crash), "freedom" means ECONOMIC freedom only. They prefer privately owned "charter cities" to replace nations. Is this what smart cities are as well?

"In a libertarian society, there is no commons or public space. There are property lines, not borders. When it comes to real property and physical movement across such real property, there are owners, guests, licensees, business invitees and trespassers - not legal and illegal immigrants.” ~ Jeff Deist, president of the Mises Institute

[jeffkeith]

изменение климата, the climate has changed in deed and in fact; just ask Hillary Clinton.