The fab and the smart city

Abstract

During the last decades, the relationship between technology and people has been continuously changing; the first computers and cnc machines appeared at the middle 50's, personal computers on the 70's, the popularization of Internet on the 90's, and more recently the smartphones (which combine both), produced an evolution on how and for what we are using extended capabilities to relate ourselves with the reality. These new tools are now part of our everyday activities and lives, giving us a vast access to the production (and consumption) of knowledge as never did before, and also the opportunity to share it from/to anywhere, at anytime, and by/for anyone. A simple microcontroller in a control room of the city could affect the lives of thousands of people, a twitted message could modify our mobility patterns, or a broken stoplight can change the time we arrive to our daily activities. It seems that we are more and more dependent on technology, but we might change that. The provision of tools for citizens to reinvent their cities could change the dependency of technology, and furthermore develop a closer relationship between humans and machines, working together for a common purpose.