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Smart cities – really smart??


RISKS & SIDE EFFECTS OF DIGITALIZATION

The economy, led by the tech companies, and their helpers in politics and the media never tire of praising the blessings of modern, fully networked, AI-controlled systems. All areas of public life, such as transport, medicine, education, information, entertainment and communication should benefit from this "technological quantum leap"...

But how much of it do we really need? Risks and side effects of this technology are swept under the table.

  • Total Control & Monitoring
  • "Education" on hyperconsumption with total overexploitation of nature as a result
  • Complete dependence on digital systems
  • Replacement of human activity and decisions by AI-supported systems
  • Inevitable radiation exposure everywhere
  • Fake life of the machines instead of real life in our cities

Increasing energy and raw material consumption

What is the idea of ​​the smart city? All possible devices should become “smart” – that is, equipped with transmission and reception technology. With the seamless automatic recording, transmission and processing of all consumption data (electricity, water, gas, etc.), provision should be optimized and consumption reduced. What at first glance appears to be a commendable approach turns out to be a sham on closer inspection.

The automatic reading, transmission and storage of consumption data alone costs more electricity than could ever be saved. In addition, all apartments are permanently exposed to radio radiation and the inviolability of the apartment according to the Basic Law is disregarded.

The equipment with transmission and reception technology, in turn, increases exponentially the need for scarce, finite minerals such as coltan and lithium. These minerals are often extracted under catastrophic ecological and social conditions (water consumption in dry areas, child labour, financing of civil wars, etc.). The electricity that drives all of this also has to be generated somehow. If you compare the power consumption worldwide, the Internet is the "country" with the third largest power consumption after China and the USA, followed by the EU. All relevant consumption forecasts point steeply upwards. There is also the question of whether we can produce so much electricity in a climate-friendly way? 

Privacy, Surveillance and Democracy Democracy

Smart Cities as a key driver of the digital transformation are based on "Big Data", ie always knowing where each person is, what they are thinking and what they are doing.

Have you ever wondered what happens to your data collected and transmitted by these "smart" devices? Who has access? You must also be aware that highly sensitive data is also collected and passed on - eg personal health data in the context of telemedicine.

The methods of data collection, data processing and data use are becoming increasingly powerful, such as automatic face recognition, emotion recognition, linking data from various sources to personal profiles, the introduction of a citizen identity number, the evaluation of contact and position data, the use of these profiles to identify people with to manipulate specially filtered and processed information. 

Already in the Smart City Charter of the federal government (May 2017) under the topic "Visions of a hyper-networked planet" the following is listed as a possible vision or disruption [1]: "Post-voting society - Since we know exactly what people do and want, there is less need for elections, majority voting or voting”. Behavioral data can replace democracy as the societal feedback system. Democratic decision-making processes are being replaced by artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms. Amnesty International also criticizes the obligation to evaluate personal data digitally. [2] 

We may not be able to imagine it yet, but large German and international corporations are already trading with the "gold of the 21st century" - with our personal data profiles. What will happen when every device in the smart home / smart city is networked and our user data is sent from machine to machine, stored, evaluated and used profitably? Ultimately, this can result in a disenfranchisement of the citizens! Democratic decision-making processes are being replaced by artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms, our “smart network” can be “hijacked” by others and used against us. 

 

In summary, the following scenarios are possible:

A) "Big Brother" scenario
A totalitarian regime uses all these possibilities to keep its citizens under control and to nip criticism in the bud, see China.

B) Big Mother Scenario
Profit-oriented corporations use all these possibilities to steer people's behavior in the direction of hyperconsumption, see Amazon, Google, Facebook, etc. Here, too, attempts are made to nip system-critical approaches and creative alternatives in the bud. 

Hacker attacks and system failures

The desired, completely networked infrastructure and minimization of data transmission times maximize the possibilities for hacker attacks. Since "smart" devices are usually integrated into an existing network without protection, it is easy for attackers to jump from one device to the next and include all compromised devices in a botnet, for example, and use a "distributed denial of service attack" (DDoS) attack. Twitter, Netflix, CNN and in Germany VW, BMW, power plants and the Chancellor's e-mail account have already been affected.

Can you imagine what it means when hackers paralyze governments or central supply systems such as electricity, water, gas, telecoms, etc.? Or an administration? Or a clinic? With billions of networked devices, this can no longer be controlled [3]

 

Increase in radiation and health hazards

Due to the wireless connection of the devices to this "smart" network and the enormously increasing amount of digital data transmission, the electromagnetic load from pulsed microwave radio will increase exponentially. Our modern cars are already real radio slingshots. With unforeseeable consequences for people and nature! A study by the Swiss government has just shown that the long-term exposure to mobile phones can damage cells and cause degenerative diseases such as cancer. [4]

For electrosensitive people, i.e. people who are already suffering from symptoms, some of which are severe, due to the ever-increasing electromagnetic environmental pollution, a visit to a city center such as Kempten is, due to the high density of transmission masts, the many WLAN hotspots and the many people who traveling with your smartphone switched on is already an ordeal. - If the "smart city" project is implemented, inner cities will finally become no-go areas for many people! 

 

Conclusion

There will be an ideal, colorful world for us, a digital wonderland promised, where the technology relieves us of everything unpleasant. It remains questionable whether the implementation will ever be possible in practice. This applies in particular to applications such as autonomous driving or "smart cities". [3]. In addition, all risks are hidden.

Really "smart" is at best the way in which all this is sold to us. If we simply replace the term "smart" with "spy" in all these great neologisms, then we know where we really are:

  • Smart Phone -> Spy Phone
  • Smart Home -> Spy Home
  • Smart meters -> Spy meters
  • Smart City -> Spy City
  • etc…

Although even the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) calls for the population to be informed about the risks and for further research into the health effects of 5G and mobile communications, practically nothing is happening. Citizens' initiatives take on a responsibility with few resources that the federal government neglects with large resources. 

That needs to change. Help us by demanding responsibility from politicians and not buying "smart" devices. This reduces the need for 5G and reduces radiation exposure. As before, you can continue to meet your digital communication needs without all of this. 

 

Credits

[1] cf. Smart City Charter, Sustainable design of digital transformation in the municipalities, Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety

[2] cf. Deutschlandfunk, November 21.11.2019, XNUMX, Amnesty International sees a threat to human rights

[3] cf. dr Mattthias Kroll, The effects of the 5G network expansion on energy consumption, climate protection and the introduction of further monitoring technologies, p.24, p.30 ff

[4] Study for the Swiss government proves: EMF cause of many diseases through oxidative cell stress

[5] cf. The Scientific Advisory Board on Global Change (WBGU): Our common digital future, Berlin, May 2019, XNUMX 

Provided by:
Octopus by Gordon Johnson, found on Pixabay

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CONTRIBUTION TO OPTION GERMANY


Written by George Vor

Since the topic of "damage caused by mobile communications" is officially hushed up, I would like to provide information about the risks of mobile data transmission using pulsed microwaves.
I would also like to explain the risks of uninhibited and unthinking digitization...
Please also visit the reference articles provided, new information is constantly being added there..."

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