Top Tech Voices Podcast S2 E6: Smart Cities & Urban Tech

Professor Ratti is absolutely a "big picture" guy.  His view of a city's purpose and function is definitely more of a 30,000 foot view than how most of us see them.  I also think he's a bit of a data addict.

I liked his response to the data privacy question.  His response was that the data he was talking about was on such a huge scale that it inherently created anonymity.  I would agree.  I also liked his approach on how to mitigate that privacy concern - just put all the data out there.  The folks can focus on the information more than the method.  I think he used the term "opacity" a few times, but not in the typical way.  I may not have heard him correctly, but I liked the idea.  You can see the light but not the minute details of the source.  I thought it fit.  He also kept mentioning "flows".  Thinking of traffic in a large city, I think it's an appropriate term.

I really liked it when he stated that AI is not new.  And he is 100% correct.  He clearly sees it as a tool for processing mountains of data but also understands its limitations.

I didn't come away with any ideas or concepts that were personally useful - but it was pretty wild to listen to a guy who's view of things is massive.  "Big picture" doesn't seem to capture the scale of which he thinks.

EDIT:  JoRatcliffe I watch at home on a desktop - in the evening where I can give the entire episode my undivided attention.  Sometimes I even take notes.

Professor Ratti is absolutely a "big picture" guy.  His view of a city's purpose and function is definitely more of a 30,000 foot view than how most of us see them.  I also think he's a bit of a data addict.

I liked his response to the data privacy question.  His response was that the data he was talking about was on such a huge scale that it inherently created anonymity.  I would agree.  I also liked his approach on how to mitigate that privacy concern - just put all the data out there.  The folks can focus on the information more than the method.  I think he used the term "opacity" a few times, but not in the typical way.  I may not have heard him correctly, but I liked the idea.  You can see the light but not the minute details of the source.  I thought it fit.  He also kept mentioning "flows".  Thinking of traffic in a large city, I think it's an appropriate term.

I really liked it when he stated that AI is not new.  And he is 100% correct.  He clearly sees it as a tool for processing mountains of data but also understands its limitations.

I didn't come away with any ideas or concepts that were personally useful - but it was pretty wild to listen to a guy who's view of things is massive.  "Big picture" doesn't seem to capture the scale of which he thinks.

EDIT:  JoRatcliffe I watch at home on a desktop - in the evening where I can give the entire episode my undivided attention.  Sometimes I even take notes.

@kmikemoo Exactly! I really liked the segment around 21:30 where they discussed 'Technology vs. Community.' If a smart city is just a sterile, top-down surveillance matrix built by big corporations, it loses its soul. The real magic happens when open data empowers independent makers and community developers to build hyper-localized hardware tools—like a custom neighborhood air quality monitor or transit tracker—tailored directly to their own streets. It keeps the community at the center of the tech.