Smart Cities and the Narratives of the Future

Abstract

It has been a while since we have come from a polis to a technopolis. The evolution of digital media has rendered cities into a machine 2.0. Now citizens trust in the images of the future and in sustainability proposals as well, just as in renewable energies and improved urban mobility. While the automobile is reconfigured in this new concept of city, the smartphone, in its turn, becomes the remote control to provide access to the city of bits (digital information). In the smart city our digital trail is embraced by the city’s technical framework. These days we also consume narratives of futurity, we want to believe that we can actively intervene in smart cities. And once the computer is out of the box, the future promises access granted to an information society in which the city is the new futuristic stage to access data, capital, trends and new and promising culture industries. More than just being an archive of the past, the new smart cities are getting ready to welcome new and more active and creative citizens. What is left to know is wether or not reality itself will be consolidated in an utopia, a dystopia or a protopia (which is the most likely), due to the expansion of digital media, even if one respects each city and its narrative of futurity.