The Cybercity concept

Def. Cybercity (n). A town or city with high levels of automation and artificial intelligence designed to run and maintain itself autonomously for the benefit of its inhabitants.

History

The  concept of the self-maintaining city was extensively developed in twentieth century science-fiction [refs]. A typical plot-line features an automated city deserted for thousands or millions of years, which springs back into activity when the protagonists rediscover it.

In the early twenty first century the concept was elaborated into a detailed vision of a cheap 'machine system' which could 'terraform' an extended area of wilderness into a fully-formed and functional city. Visionaries imagined automated-machines digging sewage and communications tunnels, laying down foundations, erecting high-tech solar-powered houses and setting up communications networks, self-driving transport systems and shops without staff. Some thinkers imagined the main application of the cybercity concept to be that of colonizing Mars.

Realism soon set in, however. It became understood that a town or city is a number of different 'machines for living' and that each subsystem had to be treated separately. Indeed, a major issue was systems integration. It was further understood that the act of initial creation, 'breaking the ground', was fundamentally distinct from the demands of ongoing management and maintenance. And even here, full automation was not required.

Contemporary Developments

The modern theory of cybercities envisages an initial act of city-creation, relying on heavy equipment, usually remote-operated, and prefabricated structures. Once the elements of the city are in place and system-integrated, inhabitants can be allocated to their dwellings and can begin their new cybercity life.

The cybercity's management is remotely-operated. Surveillance systems are ubiquitous and a number of drone-like 'effector' systems perform tasks such as repair, transport, personal and medical care, and security. Some of these are fully-automated and operated by on-board AI systems, others are remotely operated from the cybercity control centre (which can be on a different continent), and some are hybrid.

Cybercity Economics

Cybercities deploy some of the most advanced automation and telecommunications systems currently available, and were initially deployed in first-world settings where they had a competitive advantage. The three main drivers were military bases in dangerous theatres, overspill towns in poor or run-down areas and refugee camps. As costs came down, it became possible to deploy cybercities for the first time in countries such as India, Latin America and Africa where they have had a huge impact, particularly in poor rural areas and urban slum-sprawls.

Although costs are born by that fraction of the world population which is both highly-educated and highly-paid, it is generally felt that the tax-burden is manageable, and that all alternatives are worse.

Security Issues

Where most of the inhabitants of a cybercity are relatively uneducated with poor job prospects, there are inevitably issues with gangs, criminality and violence. The cybercity approach to this problem features both carrot and stick. The stick is comprised of ubiquitous surveillance and pro-active security drones capable of apprehending an offender; the carrot features numerous diversions including VR and simulations, sports and leisure centres as well as facilities for clubs and competitions.

Prospects for the Cybercity

As automation continues to increase in capability and decrease in price, it is expected that the remaining human involvement in both building and operating cybercities will continue to decline. At first sight this would appear to create an ever-growing problem of un- and under-employment. However, with a concomitant rise in the sophistication of diversions which are inherently more interesting than work, this problem is generally felt to be manageable.

Idiocracy: a glimmer of hope

From Mike Judge’s film "Idiocracy" (2006):

 “Most science fiction of the day predicted a future that was more civilized and more intelligent. But as time went on things seemed to be heading in the opposite direction. The years passed and mankind became stupider at a frightening rate. Some had high hopes that genetic engineering would correct this trend in evolution. But sadly, the greatest minds and resources were focused on conquering hair loss and prolonging erections.”

'Idiocracy' portrayed a society where the left-hand side of the bell curve (those with IQ less than 100, lack of conscientiousness, lack of impulse control, .etc, etc) had reproduced uncontrollably while those folk with the smarts hadn't bothered. In the quantitative genetics literature, this would be called truncation selection, in this case breeding for stupidity.

The results were that nothing worked. The complex infrastructure of logistics, power, water, sanitation - even keeping the streets clean - had broken down. People lived in decaying hovels and lived on scraps. The other, less obvious, feature of 'Idiocracy' was that innovation was now impossible: the extremely bright people who drive innovation either didn't exist, or lacked an infrastructure to do anything with their ideas.

The mean IQ of "Idiocracy" society was pretty low, I would guess well south of 90, but there are societies around today which are not dissimilar. Turn on the News.

Well-meaning people - which is most of us - typically have three main responses to these continuing human tragedies:

• Hope for some unspecified 'development' which will fix things - a sadly illusory prospect.
• Rely on a discredited neo-colonialism from outside to fix/run things (Ebola care is the latest manifestation of this).
• Hope for future genetic engineering to increase the cognitive capabilities of these populations (as in the quote above). Good luck with that.

Yes, it looks hopeless.

You're may think I'm referring to the societies of sub-Saharan Africa but even in advanced western countries we have our areas of 'Idiocracy' - our bleak, welfare-ridden estates.

So what would an answer look like?

The low-IQ societies of today and of the past were (and in some cases, still are) equatorial hunter-gatherers, operating in a relatively non-seasonal environment, in smallish groups and mostly in the here-and-now*. In that environment they didn't experience any 'cognitive limitations' - they were adapted. We can't go back to that situation, which was hardly ideal in terms of lifestyle difficulty anyway. Besides which, the numbers are now too great and we've largely lost the ecological environment which made that lifestyle possible.

No, we have to create a simulated environment which pushes similar ecological buttons, but which operates at much higher population densities. It may sound ridiculous, but the model which comes to mind is that of a very-robust, highly-automated and free theme park.

• The activities there would permit a variety of inter-personal relationship types including, for example, status-contests for the males (e.g. sports competitions).
• Basic human requirements such as food, shelter, entertainment and medical care would be provided free-of-charge.
• The mil-spec automated systems would fulfill a social role of 'slaves' - something we couldn't do with real, technically-competent people.**

I would guess we're less than a hundred years from being able to create such an effective and affordable infrastructure***. In that time we're not going to lose the many very smart people we need to create and maintain it. Let's get on with it.

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* Sub-Saharan agricultural and pastoralism is fairly recent (cf the Bantu) in evolutionary terms.

** As last seen with the Romans and their Hellenic slaves.

*** You may be thinking 'zoo' but this would not be for the benefit of spectators: such a competent social environment would be pretty utopian for all of us.