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UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers talks with writer and philosopher Matthew Crawford about the creeping tyranny of the “Smart City”—a vision of the future where urban life is optimised by data, and human unpredictability is treated as a “bug” to be fixed. But what is the spiritual cost of a “frictionless” existence? As tech giants begin to govern like nation-states and cars become subscription services that can be throttled from afar, Crawford asks the question: are we building paradise, or a “glorious, collisionless” prison? From the defiance of skateboarders to the ULEZ “Blade Runners” destroying cameras in London, they discuss the fight to reclaim the “unruly felicities” of a life truly worth living.
In the intro to this video there is a bug which speeds up Freddie’s speech fourfold. It sort of summarised my view of cities. The ant-colony.
Ah good to see Mr Crawford back!
Yeah, he’s a serious thinker. I can never skim his essays. They require real thought.
Hate his rhapsodizing about free-range skateboarders in city centers and city plazas.
Why should office workers, tourists & delivery people have to traverse illegal insta-skate parks while worrying about having their ankles broken by an errant skateboard? Why transfer the skateboard risk to ordinary pedestrians?
Homeless encampments? Ok – he backtracked on that. But, I think it’s telling that that even came to mind for him. Homeless encampments? What?? But, the look on Freddie’s face was priceless!