The Rise of Smart City Technologies in the 21st Century

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i was wondering if you could expand on how lewis mumford's work has informed your response to smart city technologies. I think his huge span is really useful in showing us that there's a really deep history to a lot of the stuff that we think of as really new to day. Just the fact that he talks across multiple historical periods, cultures, forms of materiality, kind of flavors of technology,. helps us to realize that thereare ther ways that other cities have served as computational devices.

Paris Marx is joined by Shannon Mattern to discuss what we miss when we see the city solely through the lens of the computer, and how other institutions and ways of knowing can help inform richer ways of understanding the city.

Shannon Mattern is a professor of anthropology at The New School for Social Research and President of the Board at the Metropolitan New York Library Council. She is the author of “Code and Clay, Data and Dirt” and “A City Is Not a Computer.” Follow Shannon on Twitter at @shannonmattern.

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Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.

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