GEAB 134

– Smart cities: Fundopolis?
– Human-friendliness: Back to basics
– Oil: the fly in the ointment
– Cryptocurrencies – Cake sharing
– Uber – Cheese with holes
– Fee-based Internet – Whose turf?
– Autonomous vehicles – AI? Yes! But…
– Coffee – A Brazilian hostile takeover

Smart cities: Fundopolis?

The modernisation of cities consists in meeting the dual challenge of integrating many more people while improving sanitary conditions and reducing the environmental impact. New technologies are, of course, the magic wand that will make it possible to respond to this paradoxical injunction. The challenges are there and the tools to meet them, too. But the key component is still missing: money. While Western public authorities fail to reactivate tax mechanisms, there is no time to lose and it may ultimately be up to citizens, professionals, private companies and public services to work together to invent innovative methods of local financing. We invite our readers to look for what is already in existence in the field of smart city financing… or, for those with more resources, to be inventive. Either offers the prospect of good profits: growth starts here!

Human-friendliness: Back to basics

The environment is the human habitat. Nevertheless, as the environment is growingly defended against humans, part of humanity has come to rebel against the environment and environmental policies. A good way to bring everyone to their senses would be to replace the ‘environment-friendly’ labels with ‘human-friendly’ ones. In the age of trans-humanism and ecolo-fascism, this would bring the cursor back to the centre: neither new technologies nor ecological combat make any sense if they do not serve humanity.  Such a label would remind us of this; it would be consensual and remobilising, and it would cover a broader and better-balanced spectrum of subjects and actions.