First principles

The Internet, back in the early days was called the information superhighway for good reason. Trillions of bits (1s and 0s) moving at high speeds from one hub to another signaled the arrival of the digital age. These digital networks were similar to how trillions of atoms (you, me and stuff) were transported on our streets and highways.

The web set off an inexorable force of 1s and 0s influencing and controlling the actions and activities of you, me, and stuff 👫 + 🚚.

Ubiquitous broadband, cheap hardware, machine learning, and new paradigms of decentralized record-keeping (Blockchain), are signaling an arrival of yet another inflection point. Some call this the new Industrial revolution.

This hard to discern point in time, in the near to very near future will involve reaching and surpassing peak human-decision i.e. a point in time where more operational decisions are made by machine than man. This is distinct from, less visible, and more far reaching than robot automation.

In a field where reality testing is difficult under the best of circumstances, where inauthenticity can be assumed, an AI takeover may prove undetectable — Walter Kirn, “Crossing the Valley”. Harper’s Magazine. April 2016

City operations is where reality testing is particularly difficult and constrained for all the wrong reasons. I call reality testing Ground Truthing. I believe that our cities should be better laboratories to ground truth, at scale. In an age where truthiness can bully the best science, attaining a ground truth is vital.

We are already witnessing signals of new industrial forces at play that significantly affect our ability to discern the Ground Truth.

This post is an attempt to articulate how street maintenance operations (a literal Ground Truth) can be reimagined leveraging bits and atoms while ensuring equitable outcomes.

Where else do we start but pursue the literal Ground Truth?

Software eats the Street

The arrival of self-driving technology has created a flurry of emotions ranging from fantasy -to- skepticism -to- fear.

Cars and Computers, flagship industries of the 20th century converge to influence our 21st century civic futures. To realize desired market potentials and growth graphs, our streets will inevitably need to comply.

I’d want to belabor this point but here are some great graphs from the Bloomberg/Aspen initiative report on Taming the Autonomous Vehicle : A Primer for Cities, a project I was briefly involved with.