The most prevalent disruptive technologies in cities today are big data, autonomous vehicles, drones, internet of things, and blockchain, all of which are enabled by mobile network technologies such as 5G. These technologies have played an important role in furthering the safety, security, and operational efficiency within our cities by enabling stakeholders of city services to gather information from daily interactions, form extremely complex and large data sets, and process them and make “better” decisions. In most cases, this notion of “better” tends to be synonymous with increased efficiency and adds predictability to the system dynamics of how cites operate. While this increased predictability can be incredibly useful to ensure city logistics can collaborate and function effectively, we cannot disregard the unintended consequences that introduction of technologies within cities have.

Disruptive technologies, in their application to facilitate relationships between city services and residents, often hinder incentives to tame the inherent randomness in cities, and as a consequence, discourage the pursuit of forming new social bonds, seeking belonging in physical communities, and participating in cultural exchange with those in the vicinity. When leveraged to create and apply a digital layer to the built environment, we start to see disruptive technologies influence who we interact with, what within a city we value, and who’s pursuits within the city are rewarded and are deemed worthy. In the world of branding & marketing, “perception shapes behavior shapes outcomes” it is a well known mantra and by changing our perception of the people and places around us, disruptive technologies are constantly enabling massive efficiency gains both from an operational and financial standpoint in exchange for reduced unpredictability in cities.

Take, for example, food delivery apps. Before these apps existed, people had an incentive to address the unpredictability that comes with the challenge of finding a good place to eat in a city by asking locals for recommendations, either digitally or in-person, and actively forming social bonds and relationships while trying out restaurants. Today, that pursuit has largely been taken over by recommendation engines and aggregated reviews enabled by the aforementioned tech that guides our decision-making and adding homogeneity to what we choose to optimize for convenience, diversity of choice, and cost.