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A City Is Not a Computer: Other Urban Intelligences
A bold reassessment of smart cities that reveals what is lost when we conceive of our urban spaces as computers
Computational models of urbanism--smart cities that use data-driven planning and algorithmic administration--promise to deliver new urban efficiencies and conveniences. Yet these models limit our understanding of what we can know about a city. A City Is Not a Computer reveals how cities encompass myriad forms of local and indigenous intelligences and knowledge institutions, arguing that these resources are a vital supplement and corrective to increasingly prevalent algorithmic models.
Shannon Mattern begins by examining the ethical and ontological implications of urban technologies and computational models, discussing how they shape and in many cases profoundly limit our engagement with cities. She looks at the methods and underlying assumptions of data-driven urbanism, and demonstrates how the city-as-computer metaphor, which undergirds much of today's urban policy and design, reduces place-based knowledge to information processing. Mattern then imagines how we might sustain institutions and infrastructures that constitute more diverse, open, inclusive urban forms. She shows how the public library functions as a steward of urban intelligence, and describes the scales of upkeep needed to sustain a city's many moving parts, from spinning hard drives to bridge repairs.
Incorporating insights from urban studies, data science, and media and information studies, A City Is Not a Computer offers a visionary new approach to urban planning and design.
Computational models of urbanism--smart cities that use data-driven planning and algorithmic administration--promise to deliver new urban efficiencies and conveniences. Yet these models limit our understanding of what we can know about a city. A City Is Not a Computer reveals how cities encompass myriad forms of local and indigenous intelligences and knowledge institutions, arguing that these resources are a vital supplement and corrective to increasingly prevalent algorithmic models.
Shannon Mattern begins by examining the ethical and ontological implications of urban technologies and computational models, discussing how they shape and in many cases profoundly limit our engagement with cities. She looks at the methods and underlying assumptions of data-driven urbanism, and demonstrates how the city-as-computer metaphor, which undergirds much of today's urban policy and design, reduces place-based knowledge to information processing. Mattern then imagines how we might sustain institutions and infrastructures that constitute more diverse, open, inclusive urban forms. She shows how the public library functions as a steward of urban intelligence, and describes the scales of upkeep needed to sustain a city's many moving parts, from spinning hard drives to bridge repairs.
Incorporating insights from urban studies, data science, and media and information studies, A City Is Not a Computer offers a visionary new approach to urban planning and design.
200 pages, Paperback
Published August 10, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 12, 2024
Very nice metaphors for explaining the (ethical) problems with the use of digital technologies in cities. Mattern points out why we need human knowledge and libraries as places where people can meet and engage in bottom-up community projects.
December 20, 2021
This is a quick and good read and is a very useful review of different views on how city metaphors don’t really work, but that technology *may* be used well in improving cities.
December 30, 2021
It seems like Mattern is trying to pull digital metaphors out of systems that are inherently/fundamentally physical and vice versa. I liked all of the fresh perspectives (e.g. role of libraries in cities) though. There are 30 times Mattern used the word "epistemological". That very word could describe how the book is written: a very broad scope of knowledge that ends up boiling down to something a little left of the title. I think reading it is a nice launch pad for future thought, but I don't think it's *the* urban tech book.
September 27, 2023
I've never considered comparing a city to a computer, but it is a remarkable parallel. This book does a great job of diving deeper into many parts of a city. It also paints a strong case for how we should not take the computational outlook to design these urban hubs as we do with computers.
Below are two of my favorite pictures from the book (coincidentally on consecutive pages in the book!):
Motorola 68030 CPU
This picture shows the intricacies of a computer processor. Shown above are hundreds of thousands of transistors, which allow the flow of electricity to be processed through its logic gates. Looking at a CPU from this view makes me wonder how fair the parallels between urban planning and computer design can be.
Oswald Mathias Ungers, City Metaphors, 1976
This image parallels human beings, urban structures, and electric systems. While these systems may look similar to someone not wearing their glasses, they all serve different complex functions.
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Regardless of personal opinion on the topic, I recommend giving this book a read. While reading it, my mind tried to think of arguments for why we should approach certain areas of urban planning in a more math-centric way (i.e., Breaking down the requirements of a district into nodes, creating a mathematical structure that connects the nodes and allowing an algorithm to generate a hypothetical final state of the district), which made it a mentally engaging piece of literature. It also made me think about the many different types of human beings that cities provide a home and community for. Since we are not computers, it isn't easy to approach urban planning when the safety and well-being of a broad set of human beings are being considered.
Below are two of my favorite pictures from the book (coincidentally on consecutive pages in the book!):
Motorola 68030 CPU
This picture shows the intricacies of a computer processor. Shown above are hundreds of thousands of transistors, which allow the flow of electricity to be processed through its logic gates. Looking at a CPU from this view makes me wonder how fair the parallels between urban planning and computer design can be.
Oswald Mathias Ungers, City Metaphors, 1976
This image parallels human beings, urban structures, and electric systems. While these systems may look similar to someone not wearing their glasses, they all serve different complex functions.
--
Regardless of personal opinion on the topic, I recommend giving this book a read. While reading it, my mind tried to think of arguments for why we should approach certain areas of urban planning in a more math-centric way (i.e., Breaking down the requirements of a district into nodes, creating a mathematical structure that connects the nodes and allowing an algorithm to generate a hypothetical final state of the district), which made it a mentally engaging piece of literature. It also made me think about the many different types of human beings that cities provide a home and community for. Since we are not computers, it isn't easy to approach urban planning when the safety and well-being of a broad set of human beings are being considered.
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April 21, 2023I get that this book draws heavily on the non-representational/assemblage approaches to urbanism, but the text gets quite lost in speculating over different metaphorical structures before landing on a claim that is quite expected (and a bit left of the title). Most useful for politicians, less useful for people who have already done some thinking about the issues at hand
December 11, 2021
Sure, a city is not a computer. And this book, so littered with its own mixed metaphors as to be mis-ontological, is not a good use of your time.
May 20, 2022
A well-researched and broad book with good metaphors. An good look at digital cities.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews