A medium-sized metropolis of the early 22nd century (population approaching two million), Union City (known colloquially as “UbiquiCity”) is a sprawling corporate charter city with fully-modernized public services in its central business district, as well as most of its urban and suburban districts. These civic upgrades have consolidated control of most city services and resources – via pervasive sensor networks and automated systems – under the watchful eye of the CitySystem AI.
In UbiComp zones, smart devices and AI-driven systems perform useful tasks in a way that minimizes your need to interact with computers as computers; in a sense, the computers become invisible and the whole world becomes “smart.” The UbiComp world is faster, simpler, and often capable of anticipating your needs. AI systems interpret your words and communicate with you in natural language; Augmented displays are placed on every available surface, visible to anyone with the right hardware; Interfaces are visual, verbal, or gestural; computing devices are network-connected and constantly available. From the standpoint of anyone living prior to the 21st century, it's a magical world populated by benevolent invisible genies. Another way to look at it might be living inside a giant computer, with a wide variety of data and services available to you at all times, “out of thin air” so to speak.
Pervasive computing systems handle not only the day-to-day activities of UbiComp citizens, but also industrial and municipal concerns such as energy, defense, health and safety, security and law enforcement, emergency response, consumer rights and education, healthcare, entertainment, transportation, waste management and logistics.
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