E-Topia: "Urban Life, Jim--But Not as We Know It"

Changes and advancements are already at our front door: in political philosophy, technology, communications, infrastructure as well as shifts in attitudes and behavior of people. It all will affect regions, cities and communities, and basically alter the requisites for future planning and the role of professionals. Today we are faced with two complex processes: urbanization and globalization. This is closely followed by the development of increasingly sophisticated information technologies and radical transformations of other network-complex infrastructure systems such as telecommunications, transport, energy, etc. What seems to set itself as one of the most interesting challenges today is the complex interaction between infrastructure networks, new information technologies and emerging new architectural and urban patterns and forms. In "e-topia", William J. Mitchell, dean of School of Architecture and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the author of the well-known work City of Bits, gives us an insightful view about tomorrow cities and the way we may live in them. Given his dual background in Architecture and Information Technology field, Mitchell offers a very vivid-balanced and at times thought provoking view on how information (digital) technology will shape our regions, cities, communities, neighborhoods and homes in the (near) future. Mitchell's main emphasis is on how the new technologies will shape and alter the urban form. "E-topia" consists of 10 chapters, which can be read as a whole and as separate entities. This gives an additional quality to this work, apart from the pristine language and clarity of discussion, which can appeal to wider non-technical and non-architectural audience. The concise, compact written, well-structured and well-referenced 10 chapters span a whole range of topics, starting from more "hardware" issues to those of more "software" character. The detailed discussion takes us through the digital technology revolution of the moment, its different use, application and possibilities. One can feel a strong MIT research & development presence here. It can be argued that the discussion of significant research in the digital technologies could have taken a broader outlook, but on the other hand MIT is one of the global centers of R & D, teaching and learning in this sector. Aside from Mitchell's City of Bits, books by MIT's Professors Nicholas Negroponte (Director of MIT Media Laboratory) Being Digital and Michael Dertouzos (Director of Laboratory for Computer Sciences) What will be and Bill Gates's The Road Ahead, give a state of the art on the technological underpinnings of the digital revolution. Elegantly balancing between natural and social sciences, Mitchell continues the discussion through a sort of global/region/city sphere, focusing especially on community, neighborhood and home level. The influence of IT on workplaces, social places, commercial marketing and exchange of information p

The evolving digital telecommunications revolution, dissolution of geographical barriers, miniaturization of electronics, commodification of bits and the growing domination of software over materialized form adumbrate the emergent but still invisible cities of the twenty-first century. While the two texts "City of Bits" and "Etopia" overlap, he takes cues from current trends in digital technology, and puts forth five main points in dealing with the evolving digital revolution and the associated interactive urbanism. As he discusses his ideas of Dematerialization,Demobilization,Mass Customization,Intelligent operation and Soft Transformation, he often creates scenarios of human beings completely wired with their surroundings. This phenomena may help solve many of our current day problems and help conserve human energy, preserve natural resources and control environmental problems. However, it also raises many questions about the cities of tomorrow - both in the developed and the developing world. There are loopholes and contradictions when one weighs efficiency attained by bodily connectivity to the world wide web, versus privacy, individuality and the role of the human being in an increasingly wired society. There are also ethical questions to be answered about new forms of interpersonal relationships, public life,governance and power holders,inequality due to digital divides - basically adapting to a whole new social, economic and political scenario. The tasks of future architects, urban planner and designers will need redefinition too. It will mean design of interior and exterior environments that allow people to participate, and not just inhabit space. His theory is apt and thought provoking for the time, but must be debated and questioned as thoroughly as the first cloned human baby, perhaps more.

- (From Planeta Journal) E-topia is a joyous, philosophical joy ride on the Internet.Author William Mitchell provides a history lesson about the role of information and technology. He examines the implications of the new digital infrastructure and provides some not-so-futuristic examples of things to come, including wearable technology and new urban infrastructure.Dean of the School of Architecture and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mitchell makes a convincing case that we must extend the definitions of architecture and urban design to include virtual realities as well as physical ones. His proposals are creative and practical and show the possibilities of increased interconnectivity on both a personal and a global scale.While the entire book is a tour-de-force, the last two chapters of the volume shine. "The Economics of Presence" neatly summarizes synchronistic and asyncronistic communication. "Lean and Green" takes on the topic of green building techniques. E-topia is a superb introduction to the digital revolution at hand.

E-topia presents a top-level, grounded look at a distant future through the impact of Internet technology specifically related to rich-nations urban spaces, architecture, work and leisure. The concise, intelligently written, well-referenced chapters span:* march of the meganets- digiphiles versus digiphobes, after the digital revolution, information infrastructure & opportunity, new networks and urban transformation, the big pipes, connected to the backbone, new global interdependence, from POP to your door, the network city extended, the end of rural isolation, residual wireless backblocks, public and private, behind the firewalls and filters, and the task ahead.* telematics takes command- proscenium and display, screenspace, out of the box, center and periphery, up in the lights, virtual reality, and augmented reality. * software- new genius of the place- embedded intelligence, instant networking, and form fetches function.* computers for living in- wear ware, body nets, appliance intelligence, electronic teamwork, buildings with nervous systems, intelligent resource consumption, adaptive behaviour, reconceiving construction, the I-bahn, and smart cities.* homes and neighbourhoods- displacement of space, reconfigured homes, rethinking planning/zoning, sociology of wired dwellings, localisation, renucleation, twenty-four hour electronic neighbourhoods, redistributed secondary relationships, and dual cities.* getting together- online meeting places, shift in scale, invisible boundaries, virtuality, connectivity and sociability, electronic co-ordination, cyberturf, e-vox populi, civitas and urbs decoupled, and reinventing public space.* reworking the workplace- exchanging intangible products, delivering information products, remaking making, value from knowledge, relocating production, make after buying, the recombinant workplace, and mobilising enterprises.* the teleserviced city- typology of service systems, summoning assistance, keeping tabs, surveillance and seclusion, delivery at a distance, web of indirect relationships, telerobotics, the teleservice paradox, electronic fronts & architectural backs, and serving space.* the economy of presence- the cost of being there, traditional limits, asynchronous alternative, information mobilization, remote interaction, modes and operations, costs and benefits, and power of place.* lean and green- dematerialisation, demobilisation, mass customisation, intelligent operation, and self transformation.Initially this reviewer was put-off by the sometimes obscure vocabulary, and relative-complexity of grammar (compared with a recent reading-list of simplistic e-business texts). By the end of the book, the synergy of contributions & style proved a key strength. Other strengths include: the coherence, attractiveness and power of future scenarios presented; and related discussion about the rich-poor gap within neighbourhoods and the World. Improvements could include:

With Low Orbit Satellites blanketing the entire earth in the very near future, what exactly stops anyone from investing a mere $10million to create a solar/wind/water energy, recycle treatment, organic 21st century electronic village that's only accessible via helicopter and a 30mile dirt road, protected and luxuriated by latest greatest technology from all the elements of discomfort & insecuruty?Who needs undrinkable floride water, low-speed copper wired communication and urban hatred? In 2 decades the entire urbanization will seem like a bad housing project.The foundations of urbanization is severely decaying by the minute. Sewage, water, electricity, communicaton, education, healthcare, trade are all in a state of crisis almost every spot in the globe without an exception.The global tax-free marketplace of eCommerce will not only wipe out the economies as we know it, but, the geo-political boundries as well. Am sure there is enough philosophy & practical content that elucidates the disintermediation of politics, urban infrastructure, healthcare, mortgage and insurance to be replaced by a temporary utopia that will fall prey to its own decay before cycling thorough another revolution.The question is not 'whether' such a possibility is feasible, except in the minds of the terminally cave-dwelling media-generated mass-produced drones, but one of 'when' such a transformation will occur.Heavens! with the new cheap ECNs replacing ancient trade hubs, maybe the concept of barter may take on a new meaning altogether.The delay is, who will foot the first $10million to create a prototype of 21st century hamlet? A mere play-money for many a sillionaire.This is certainly an excellent book for those who are not complacently satisfied with the state of the world & want to do something genuinely creative and is a wonderful ammunition for armchair doomsayers.