Fridays with Attar: Staying on the Edge of Mystery in Smart Cities
We are searching for better cities. Cities that are liveable, resilient, sustainable, inclusive, smart, etc. But are we willing to do the inner work needed to get there?
Advanced technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) powered by AI and advanced spatial computation technologies promise to solve some of the most complex problems of cities, namely climate change and delivering higher quality urban services. However, with this degree of digitalisation comes a metaphysical question. Is it possible to remain deeply connected to life’s mystery while living in the smart cities of the future? This question directs this episode of Fridays with Attar: Staying on the Edge of Mystery in Smart Cities.
The birds of the world search for a new king.
This is how Attar’s Conference of the Birds begins. The hoopoe bird, the mythical and awakened bird, guides the birds towards the “Simorgh”, a mythical bird that lives on a very remote mountain; reaching her requires you to go on a journey. Says the hoopoe to the birds.
Nevertheless, this journey is not easy. Birds should decide whether they want to meet with this king and whether they have what it takes to be on this journey.
The hoopoe maps out the structure of the journey for the birds into a clear seven-valley journey. However, once the reader begins reading the story, Attar masterfully shows the twists the journey might take and helps the reader to reconcile with the mystery of the journey.
The reconciliation with the unknown is widely ignored in the smart city dialogue. In this episode, we show how we use the Conference of the Birds by the legendary Farid-du-Din Attar, Persian Mystic, sacred pharmacist and poet, as a pedagogical tool for our times where the AI is taken as a road finder toward this mythical city we call “Smart City”.
In short, we want to reclaim and protect the state of awe in the age of technological expansion.
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