The Smart City Paradox: Are We Losing Our Humanity?
October 13, 2024
As I wander through Western European cities, one thing becomes apparent the moment I land—everything is about technology and crowd management. Every process seems designed to minimize hu-man interaction. You board a train or a plane with little to no need to speak to anyone. This is the "smart city" of 2024. But instead of creat-ing a human-centered society, we’ve built a technological one.
This got me thinking about October 10, 2024—not just the day Cu-raçao celebrates its autonomy within the Dutch Kingdom but also World Mental Health Day. I overheard a conversation between two psychologists—my wife and daughter. My daughter remarked that for good mental health, a person should converse and make eye contact with at least eight people each day. While I missed the full context of her comment, it resonated with me.
Our core issue is that we are drifting further away from a human-centric society rather than getting closer to it. Technological ad-vancements alone won’t solve this problem; we need to put humans back at the center of our processes. It is not just about making sys-tems more efficient if it strips away the very human connections that nurture our mental and emotional well-being.
Our growing reliance on technology risks isolating us, even as it claims to connect us better. Real progress is not about gadgets or algorithms—it is about people. If we genuinely want to thrive as a society, we need to focus not just on smart cities but on human cities, where connections and interactions are prioritized alongside techno-logical advancement.
Miguel Goede
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