Plans for the world’s first “smart city” are in order, and the first city is set to be located in Asia. Labeled “Songdo”, the city will rest upon a man-made island in the Yellow sea and will incorporate millions of wireless sensors and microchips throughout the city-scape.

“Smart appliances” such as refrigerators that let you know when you’re running low on certain foods and bathroom mirrors that let you know about your physical health will be placed in every home. Street lights that automatically adjust to the number of people out on the street will be available as well. The aim of this new smart city is to update our current inefficient model of the urban environment.

Science fiction wars however of high-tech control grids, such as the one that would be in place with a highly technologically advanced city. Big brother would easily be watching, and privacy issues would be a major concern. With the newly installed technology, citizens are treated like cattle as their every move is both tracked and recorded. How the data from these citizens is used could be cause for concern.

Songdo is scheduled to be completed by 2015, and if proven as a successful model, many cities would follow suit to try to implement and integrate the same technological command-grid. While these smart cities might have a lot of great positive benefits, like everything else, they run the risk of being abused by those behind the power of them. No system is every free of flaws, and this one certainly isn’t fool-proof, but it is a good start.

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