News from the transhumanism laboratories

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Within a few years, blockchain will be everywhere - for example, digital economy researcher Don Tapscott calls it "the second generation of the Internet." But this does not mean at all that soon we will all pay with bitcoins. Blockchain is not only a method of cryptocurrency transactions, it has much more important and promising opportunities. One of them is city management.

Some countries are starting to prepare for this now. I recently returned from Dubai, where we were negotiating with Smart Dubai, an organization that is just introducing technology into city management. She has a whole department that deals only with blockchain. I myself am working on a product that will transfer city management to the blockchain, and I am sure that such technologies will forever change the approach to city management.

From the gaming industry to city management

Since 2001, we have been developing platforms for multiplayer online games at Idea Fabrik. Remember the game Star Wars: The Old Republic? Our engine is there. Some of our employees have been involved in 3D modeling for over twenty years, and we have long thought about making a platform not only for games. The most obvious direction for a gaming company is cities. We've been building virtual worlds for a long time already.

3D models of cities have been made before. For example, the Tomsk company Unigine creates such platforms for games, and the Chicago-based innovation accelerator University + Industry Labs last year completed work on the technology for creating a 3D map of the city's underground infrastructure for ease of management. But we wanted to create technology that would prevent disasters and emergencies. And in the future, it will connect city residents, administration, companies and all city processes.

None of the existing platforms could make it so that disaster scenarios could be played out on a 3D city model. Our current developments in games could solve this problem if we combine 3D modeling, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and an understandable system that will ensure the reliable transfer of information from decentralized sources - that is, the blockchain.

Back in February 2011, after the terrorist attack in Domodedovo, my colleagues and I tried to create a game application for organizing microwaves during natural disasters and catastrophes. It was supposed to allow you to quickly find people who need help. Then not everything was done - we simply did not have enough experience, and the product was not launched. But we did not give up, and six years later we created the HeroEngine. World platform. It will allow solving the problem on a much larger scale - not to deal with the consequences of disasters, but to find ways to prevent them and reduce the damage.

Now our technology is beginning to be implemented in the Advanced Disaster, Emergency and Rapid-response Simulation service for Toronto, where we simulate the work of all rescue services as part of a terrorist attack in the city center. We will visualize the city and will simulate emergency scenarios - for example, large-scale terrorist attacks that require the evacuation of entire areas and the coordinated work of all services. We have already signed contracts for city modeling and development of rescue services in Dubai, Toronto, and Astana. The first prototypes will be launched in early 2018.

It will cost the city about $ 18-20 million to implement such a system. Our business model is that we do not take this amount, but credit the city for the amount of development and initial implementation. The support is covered from monthly loan payments, which are about $ 1 million.

How it works

Modern buildings are not designed according to 2D drawings, but as a 3D model. Evacuation scenarios are also designed in three-dimensional space. To predict disasters, it is important to have a unified three-dimensional model of the city, where all areas are visible in real time.

How to track city processes on this map online? With the help of the Internet of Things - a network where objects or devices exchange data with each other and can be controlled automatically, without human intervention. According to a study by Juniper Research, the number of connected IoT devices will reach 46 billion by 2021. Smart things will connect to data networks and help in city management and modeling scenarios of possible incidents. The network of IoT devices can include residents, local authorities, organizations, universities, developers, taxis, IT companies and many others. It looks like a computer game, only on the platform real life scenarios are worked out - traffic jams, fires, rallies.

To become part of the platform, you will need to download an application that will connect the owner of the device to the server. This is where blockchain comes into play. All relationships with the platform - for example, data transfer - are governed by smart contracts (a contract in a decentralized environment based on an electronic algorithm with the involvement of cryptocurrency). Thanks to them, the system receives objective information about the compliance with the conditions by all parties.

Transactions of all system participants take place in the internal cryptocurrency. Anyone can make money from transmitting their data and pay to get other information, be it an educational institution, a weather channel, an architect, or a utility service.

The most interesting thing about blockchain is that it creates trust networks - networks in which everyone believes in each other. This happens due to the fact that the blockchain is transparent and you can observe what is happening inside any process. It is an indispensable technology for urban space.

There is another important component of such platforms - artificial intelligence. He will predict emergencies in the city, cataclysms and suggest solutions.

Process control and obstacles

Although the main focus of such technologies is predicting emergency situations, they will help to work out other scenarios. All areas of the municipal economy will be able to combine information in a single center. Strong machine intelligence will process it and control most of the processes in modern cities. And the blockchain will make this whole colossus accountable and visible for a comprehensive audit.

Imagine a self-driving bus arriving at your stop, the schedule of which is flexible and depends entirely on the flow of passengers. To navigate city streets, he uses data from millions of sensors and devices of citizens. And its predictable driving style saves fuel consumption and reduces harmful emissions.

If the city's infrastructure is based on open and secure data, it will be possible to respond faster and more accurately to emergencies. It will be possible to control the quality of service to the population and even get rid of the complicated workflow. Now each bureaucratic chain is a long process of interactions and agreements. The blockchain can create a single document for each such chain, where the participants see the details of the operation, which takes effect when all parties confirm it. It is convenient and safe.

But with this, certain difficulties may arise. Indeed, in order to automate one bureaucratic chain, it is necessary to carry out preliminary painstaking work. Adopting the technology requires a massive overhaul of an urban system with many actors, each of whom must take on some risk and some costs. In addition, the introduction of blockchain requires a new legislative framework. Plus, the introduction of technology will entail a change in outlook and lifestyle, which people do not always meet with warmth.

Today, blockchain is not yet fast enough technology to decentralize trillions of microscopic events in real time. However, this is the safest way to combine chunks of data into one system - where everyone can see what data is coming from and from whom.

Business and the future

I am confident that blockchain in the urban space should spur business development. By 2030, everything that we have today will be united into a global self-organizing network that operates on the blockchain.

Law firms, car dealers, travel agencies, banks and shops will be able to improve the quality of their services. For example, if you sell designer clothes, then using the blockchain, you can certify the buyer of its originality. Using distributed ledger technology, a product can be traced back to its open digital certificate of authenticity. Such a certificate acts as a kind of watermark that can be used for all types of goods and transactions. The market for fakes will disappear into oblivion.

Of course, blockchain is not a panacea, but it will take up more and more space in all processes. Only global catastrophes can hinder the growth of the efficiency of smart cities - but they can also be prevented with the help of technology.