I think, that the artifical intelligence would not have to be limited only into machines, robots etc. but an entire city could be sentient. Such would have a lot of good points, for example, if cars or whatever vechiles we would be using then, would be automized and a person could simply say that where he/she wants to go, the car could ask for an optimal route from the city, which would tell all the worst traffic areas etc.

Ofcourse also for example crime could be reduced when the city could act as a police as well, or atleast report ongoing criminal activities. The city´s eyes could be cameras which would be placed all around the city and it could also perhaps have robots to its command to work as "arms".

There could ofcourse be negative sides as well, people could become paranoid ("I swear, sometimes the city´s whatching me!") and feel that they would not have enough privacy (ofcourse every homes wouldn´t have cameras, only in streets and large public buildings). Also IF the artifical intelligence would somehow malfunction, or be hacked or just somehow find somekind of backdoor through which it could do what ever it would want etc. it could be a dangerous thing. Just think of it, if one of these cities would become hostile towards humans, it could kill all the people in the city and use the factories and rescourses of that city to build an army of robots etc. But on the other hand, perhaps the city could care about humans, know that it is made for that specific purpose and therefore only carry out its given duty as well as possible.

Perhaps there could be some team monitoring the city´s activities. The city could also perhaps monitor itself and think about ways that would make the city a better place for humans and ask for permission to carry out some uprages, changes or new construction plans from the monitoring team.

Still I´m sure that a sentient city would have huge amounts of benefits and creative purposes, I´m just too tierd to start thinking them right now.

But post your own ideas and opinions :cool:

I´m going to sleep :p

Hi Yang,
all of us would certainly agree to the fact that the AI is NOT limited to computers or robots,our vehicles are certainly becoming intelligent day by day.eg. i saw program on BBC showing a mercedes S-class car having an auto steering system,whereby all the routes of a town were fed into the computer and then all we had to do was feed it with necessary information,with the help of global postioning it give us directions to drive to the correct way,while on the wrong way it would start beeping loudly.As for idea of city ai,well i have heard "walls do have ears to listen";)

There could also be several AI´s running different jobs. One AI could for example handle to trasportation and traffic control, while another one could work as a medical AI, observing the healt of the people in the city (everyone could have a small probe in theyr body, which would monitor our body, for example incase of a heat attack, the AI would send emrgency team to the location quickly).
Also if a person would travel from one city to another, the cities could co-operate so, that in the way for example the medical probe would stop trasmitting the information to the city from which the person left and start trasmitting the information to the nearest city.

Also satelites and minihelicopters (which would have a mounted camera in them) could work as the eyes of the city as well.

And if you throw a beer can out of the car, the city will send you a $100 fine ticket, or better yet, deduct from your checking account.

"And if you throw a beer can out of the car, the city will send you a $100 fine ticket, or better yet, deduct from your checking account."

No no no, I think the city should have (huge) mechanic legs and when you spit in the ground, throw cans out of your car etc. the city would stand up and crush you like a bug. Or it could have robots which would be like huge flying legs :p the ultimate population control technology :cool:

Also satelites and minihelicopters (which would have a mounted camera in them) could work as the eyes of the city as well

Omg! the ultimate big brother?
You wanna live in a civilisation where your every move is tracked and personal freedom is a concept long since dead?

Are you sure cities aren't sentient?

The first, and simplest step towards this is to properly socialize/engineer people to be what society desires them to be. At some point, we'll need to treat humans as nothing more than programmable intelligent agents with a reasonably powerful neural net. That is, even more than we do currently.

Originally posted by Porfiry
Are you sure cities aren't sentient?

we'll need to treat humans as nothing more than programmable , .
arent we already the same?

"Omg! the ultimate big brother?
You wanna live in a civilisation where your every move is tracked and personal freedom is a concept long since dead?"

Even though someone or something knows where you are and in which state of healt you are, it doesn´t mean that you aren´t free to do what you want. Altough ofcourse this kind of invention could be used as a political too, but that would depend on humans. It could also be used for good, helping and saving humans, making life easier etc.