There are many ways to hack the world. Graduate students at Parsons The New School for Design developed a guide for hacking the biggest piece of technology humans have developed – the city.
One of the things we love here at Hackaday is how hacking gives us a tool to make the world a better place for ourselves and those around us. Even if it’s a simple Arduino-based project, we’re (usually) trying to make something better or less painful.
Taking that same approach of identifying a problem, talking to the end user, and then going through design and execution can also apply to projects at a larger scale. Even if you live in an already great neighborhood, there’s likely some abandoned nook or epic vista that could use some love to bring people out from behind their screens to enjoy each other’s company. This guide walks us through the steps of improving public space, and some of the various ways to interact with and collate data from the people and organizations that makeup a community. This could work as a framework for growing any nascent hacker or makerspaces as well.
Hacking your neighborhood can include anything: a roving playground, a light up seesaw, or a recycling game. If you’ve seen any cool projects in this regard, send them to the tipsline!
Actually meeting my neighbors has directly lead to all of us hanging out watching the kids play out front, outdoors. Best hack. Rediscovered to be sure.
Warning: Toolkit is not a proper flowchart. You can wind up stuck, going backwards, or having two possible ways to go (two “yes” or two “no” paths).
I just read it as left to right
haha yeah that flow chart made me angry
anyways the endpoint is always restrict cars
Thing about it not as “restricting” cars. Rather, think about it as not requiring cars to live a normal life.
For your very own “They Live” moment, reread the above statement, but replace the word “cars” with the word “freedom”.
Cars are one solution to the mobility problem. But not the only one, and at rush hour, probably not the best one.
If you live out in the country, sure. But the article is about urban planning. Different thing entirely.
Sounds like a flowchart for grassroots gentrification, use with caution
Nerd alert: wouldn’t the largest pieces of technology humans have created be VLBI radio telescope arrays? Those are comparable with the size of the Earth!
The world these days would actually really appreciate it if people quit trying to “hack” them, Harari-style. They are starting to get incredibly upset about that, actually. Might be a good time to pull your head up and look around.
I’ve seen how bleary-eyed utopians “help people” and “save the world.” I wouldn’t wanna live in such a city. Regardless, I’m sure in the future I will be forced to either do just that, or else become a hermit. Or maybe some secret third thing will happen when enough people are fed up with enlightened meddling and social engineering…
What is the point in making it creative commons and then disabling downloading on issuu?