The Computable City: Histories, Technologies, Stories, Predictions

At every stage in the history of computers and communications it is safe to say we have been unable to predict what happens next.

When computers first appeared nearly 75 years ago, primitive computer models were used to help understand and plan cities, but as computers became faster, smaller, more powerful, and ever more ubiquitous, cities themselves began to embrace them.

As a result, the smart city emerged. In 'The Computable City', Michael Batty investigates the circularity of this peculiar evolution: how computers and communications changed the very nature of our city models, which, in turn, are used to simulate systems composed of those same computers.