Son Eun-ji’s newborn son will start the first few months of his life in a sci-fi-like home, located in the middle of a sparse river delta, which until recently was still a vast green onion field.
This young family will move into an experimental project early next year to showcase South Korea’s ambitions for the city of the future. Robots will patrol the streets, mow grass and deliver packages. Homes will be powered by renewable energy sources, and the excess electricity will be shared between neighbors or absorbed into the grid. Benches, street lights and trash cans will be connected to the Internet and collect data to optimize efficiency. Residents' vital signs will be monitored, and gyms equipped with artificial intelligence will provide health tips.
Internal and external sensors, meters, and cameras will buzz in 24/7 surveillance. The technology-filled "smart cities" built on South Korea’s southern coast embody most people’s daily transactions: giving up personal data and privacy in exchange for convenience, order, and security.
Every wrinkle in life will be monitored-except for fleeting thoughts and daydreams. The son's son Logan will be very different from his millennial parents. They are weighing the miracles and doubts brought about by fast-moving technology, but Logan’s generation is being born in an already digitally interconnected reality. Before he grows up to consider the concept of privacy or express his consent, big data and artificial intelligence Will shape his daily life.
This is the seventh in a series of incidental stories about the challenges young people face in an increasingly dangerous world. The report was funded by the Pulitzer Center.
Steven Feldstein, a senior researcher focusing on democracy and technology at the Carnegie Foundation for International Peace, said: "In public and private life, the idea of anonymity in any form is rapidly disappearing." The way my children are being tracked now, their medical information, the music they play, the content they watch, all these are recorded and accessed in different ways."
The COVID-19 pandemic heralded the trade-offs in this emerging world, when cities and countries decided how much to violate personal freedom to protect public health. Some of the countries that go deep into private lives to track infections have managed to keep mortality rates low, curb rampant transmission, and prevent the medical system from being overwhelmed.
South Korean authorities rely on the panoramic software they have been developing to manage the "smart city" project-a dashboard that collects and analyzes data to improve city life. The platform was quickly reused as an epidemiological tool. It allows the contact tracker to lock a person's cell phone location data, credit card usage and movement status within minutes. Fast and detailed tracking is at the core of the country's widely acclaimed success in pandemic control: more than 240 people per 100,000 people in the United States have died of COVID-19, while South Korea lost only 8 people.
However, as the planet turns to the reality of coexisting with the virus, the long tail of the pandemic will also include the accounting and liquidation of deployed intrusive technologies. The future of Logan is unfolding, as the revelations about government surveillance of citizens, corporate espionage, and data mining on Facebook and other social media platforms have raised concerns about who holds the power of technology among the 8 billion people around the world.
"The pandemic marks a really serious turning point for many of these things... who decides when the COVID disappears? If it never disappears, then these technologies and systems may never really disappear," Monash University Xinxing, Australia Said Jathan Sadowski, a researcher at the Technology Research Laboratory. "As history has shown, we rarely go back in time. Once new doors are opened, people don't want to close them."
The problem for Logan and his parents—as well as the government, technology innovators, and rights groups—is how to maintain the same technology so that the benefits of "smart city" life will not be compromised by jeopardizing civil liberties. When the street is watching and the wall is listening, is the reward you get really worth it?
After her 35-year-old son quit his job as a nurse around 2015 and started writing a travel blog, she tasted the rewards of opening up to strangers.
As her blog became more and more popular, she received free meals, free hotel accommodation and a fully paid trip to Switzerland. This is a worthwhile deal. Recording every aspect of her life and sharing it online has almost become second nature. A few years ago, she started posting video blogs on YouTube, which included some of the most intimate moments of her life-when she was engaged, when she found out she was pregnant, when she revealed the news to her mother, in her eyes With tears.
The advertisement seeks people to move into the "smart city" project in western Busan. Although it requires extensive technical monitoring, it seems to be a far cry from her lifestyle. She is already using a smartphone and fitness bracelet, and has installed a dash cam in her car, which is very common in South Korea.
She eagerly applied to live with her sister, mother, and soon-to-be husband (an English teacher from California) to join a five-year futuristic living experiment in exchange for free housing. This family will be one of the 56 families that will move into the final plan to develop into 30,000 households.
"We don't blindly give up private information. We provide it because it's good for us," Son said. One of her friends refused to accept the idea that the residents' weight would be recorded-but Sun Zhengyi responded that she was not worried because she was not overweight. "I'm not sure exactly what data to collect. I'm a little worried about the CCTV, filming and motion detection at home-but they say at least not in the bathroom."
South Korea has pledged to invest US$8.5 billion in public funds by 2025 to participate in the global digital race between technology giants and the government to create tomorrow’s cities. Son Zhengyi’s budding family will become part of South Korea’s commitment. In addition to transforming and constructing cities in the country, South Korea also stated that it will export "smart city" technologies and platforms to all parts of the world, including proposed projects in Uzbekistan, the Philippines, Kenya, and Indonesia.
Compared to their new home, the humble apartment that Son and her husband Nathaniel Kebbas currently live in may still be in the dark ages—the couple don’t have smart speakers, security cameras, or connected thermostats, and are still considering baby cams for their son . Although waiting for their technology will be a major adjustment, the 34-year-old Kebbas said that as long as he does not use data to force him to do things he disagrees with, he will live comfortably in cameras and sensors. He said that when he returned to Salinas as a teacher, his classroom was always monitored by cameras.
"I am an open book. Of course, you want to collect some data in exchange for life experience, why not?" he said. "I think there is a kind of communication. Just like work, you trade freedom for compensation. There is a trade-off."
In September, Sun Zhengyi went to sign the move-in document. The information she and her family agreed to share with the city’s operators and technology suppliers is several pages, single-spaced lists: the grams of food waste they throw away; their blood pressure, blood cell count, and cholesterol levels; they The exact time of entry and exit at the front door.
Signing on the dotted lines one after another, she felt a little uneasy about the long list of private information she agreed to share. But she swallowed, flipped through the pages of the book quickly, and it was done in a few minutes.
"There is nothing you can do except embrace the future," Kebas said. "We started from a safe place for my son. This is the first five years of his life, and it is safe."
For about a month in early 2020, Kim Jae-ho, then a researcher at the Korea Institute of Electronics Technology, worked around the clock to reorganize the "smart city" data center he had been helping to create for Korea's rapidly growing COVID-19 case control.
"All this data is one of the most important resources of a city," he said. "We are developing technology to enable data to seamlessly [flow]... a center that uses the Internet of Things, cloud, big data, and artificial intelligence to collect, process, store, utilize, and provide urban data."
When the new epidemic control system was launched, King started investigating taxi drivers at will. How do they think that the government can almost immediately access credit card data and cell phone tower information to track individuals to control those infected with the coronavirus? He was surprised that they would accept or even welcome stalking, if it meant they would be warned of potential infections.
Professor Kim of Sejong University in Seoul said: "This system saves lives by preventing the spread of disease more than any harm it can cause." "On the other hand, you can think of it as sacrificing privacy, but with the consent of society. "
South Korea is not the only government reusing the "smart city" system to collect data to fight COVID-19. Singapore and China have carried out extensive tracking work. In the United States and Europe, health authorities work with Palantir Technologies Inc., a big data analytics company that sells its software for terrorism investigations, immigration enforcement, and predictive policing to track and control coronavirus cases.
Before the pandemic, the idea of "smart city" was promoted by companies such as IBM and Cisco in the mid-2000s to use marketing technology to solve urban problems, but it encountered resistance in parts of the world. After residents questioned who will own the collected data and who will make a profit, the Toronto Waterfront Development Project, which is affiliated to Google, proposes to eliminate heated sidewalks and self-driving cars in 2020. However, when deploying intrusive technologies against COVID-19, most countries do not have time for open dialogue.
This emergency situation “may be the moment when the government introduces new intrusive forms of data collection, which has just become the new normal because there are deeper allowances in terms of public trust and legal authority in times of crisis,” said Assistant Professor Ben Green at the University of Michigan Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. "There is rarely the feeling of stopping and reflecting, because it feels like there is no time to deal with the global pandemic."
The government is trying to assure citizens that the enhanced surveillance system will only track and manage the spread of COVID-19. This line is blurred in some places. In Singapore, the police obtained information on a voluntary contact tracing application to investigate suspects, which caused an uproar. Dahua, a Chinese company that produces heat map cameras for detecting individuals with fever, has dozens of public contracts in California. The company also provides facial recognition software that can perform ethnic recognition and has won a contract from the Chinese government to conduct surveillance in Xinjiang, which is home to the persecuted Muslim Uyghur minority.
China is one of the most closely monitored countries in the world. Its companies and cities are also the most enthusiastic and advanced in developing, deploying and exporting such technologies. According to a 2020 report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, more than half of the world's "smart city" projects are in China.
In South Korea, Bucheon this year expressed concerns about a publicly funded project aimed at developing an artificial intelligence program that uses facial recognition technology to track the movement of individuals from camera to camera. The city said the technology will ease the workload of contact trackers who manually analyze footage for hours. Koreans have been living in restaurants with QR code sign-in and contact tracking using mobile phone and credit card data, but the ghost of facial recognition technology proves disturbing.
The city was full of angry voices, and protesters camped in front of the city hall. Officials said this anxiety is wrong because the software is still scheduled to be completed in January and will only track known infected persons, rather than being used as a trawl to the public.
Kang Minggu, a professor of urban and regional planning at Seoul National University and director of the Smart City Research Center, said that such technologies promoted by technology companies whose profits are threatened will not be easily controlled.
"For politicians, they like symbolism and huge promises that this event will provide this rosy future. For supplier companies, this is a business opportunity and a flow of capital. But what about citizens and residents? ?" He said. "The city is a public realm; it needs a high degree of accountability and responsibility. But it is driven by the interests of architecture and IT, as well as talkative politicians."
Sadowski of Monash University in Australia said the pandemic may have a lasting impact on people's acceptance of technological surveillance. "That floor has been raised collectively. Things that we would hesitate not long ago have become normal," he said. "What happens when it is no longer needed and it just exists?"
On a drizzling day last summer, Sun Zhengyi's family drove to the showroom near the construction site where they were building their new home. Inside, the showcase highlights the technologies they will use soon.
Kebas fiddled with a virtual fitness tool, shaped like a huge smartphone screen, which used a camera to analyze his physique and correct his form. It tells him that he has good flexibility and above-average agility, but below-average core stability and poor balance. "I'm not entirely sure whether to collect these, but professional athletes, they have," he said. "I can think of myself like this."
Nearby, his mother-in-law was standing in front of a smart mirror. The mirror put on different clothes for her, which she could buy without leaving the bedroom. The “master plan” of the village on the side of the showroom is full of lofty and concrete promises: three-year life extension, improved health, 46% reduction in traffic accidents, and 25% reduction in major crimes.
Son said that she is happy to be a pioneer in various innovations, even though practicality, necessity, and privacy implications are still being studied. However, when she considers the future of her young son, she has some concerns about the future of technology, the environment, and humanity.
"It is very useful and convenient, but I do worry that humans may become slaves to artificial intelligence," she said. "I hope that humans are the core, and technology is the dressing. When I think that humans might become dressings, I am afraid."
More from "the world they inherited"
Where will the next pandemic start? The Amazon rainforest provides disturbing clues
Young climate activists warn their elders: stop destroying the earth
For these young people in privileged areas of the world, the pandemic is an opportunity
Hunted and imprisoned: Young Asian revolutionaries have no rest and danger
The pandemic has plunged millions of Latin Americans into poverty. Young people are inheriting the consequences
He tried to commemorate the erased history. China detained him and then also deleted
(This is the seventh in a series of incidental stories about the challenges young people face in an increasingly dangerous world. The report was funded by the Pulitzer Center.)
Must-read stories from the Los Angeles Times
Get the most important news of the day through today’s headlines that we send every morning of the working day.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
Victoria Kim is a Seoul correspondent for the Los Angeles Times. She has previously reported on state and federal courts, participated in investigative projects and reported on South Korean communities in Southern California.
More from the Los Angeles Times
No disciplinary forces killed Afghan civilians in U.S. strike
One year of vaccine: Many lives were saved, many lives were lost unnecessarily
Opinion polls found that Omicron raised concerns about COVID-19, but did not trigger preventive measures
Thousands of people still lack heat and water after the deadly tornado