Glowing Rectangles and the Built Environment

A recent LA Times opinion piece asks a question which is often on my mind: How will the exponential growth of information technology continue to alter our relationship with the built environment?
While this article touches on several aspects of that issue, I am most interested in the idea that our perception of the world around will be (perhaps literally) filtered through the lens of technology. As GPS technology and applications such as Google Goggles develop, they will radically alter our relationship with the built environment; we will have an enormous amount of data about the world which surrounds us.

In a sense, this will make cities far more interesting. Before the decade is over, we will probably be able to "look" at a building and learn about its building materials, architectural style, and history. We will be able to go to a new neighborhood (or city) and find a list of events, stores, restaurants and cultural institutions tailored to our interests. We will be notified as we enter the proximity of people who share our interests (which has already been done on a small scale). Geeky urbanists such as myself will be in Heaven; the types of detailed demographic data which now requires immersion in advanced mapping software will be instantaneously available. Want to know the zero-car household rate among 18-25 year olds within a mile of your location? Or the density of small grocery stores within a three-mile radius? Click. There it is. And to think I spent all those sleepless nights studying this stuff in grad school…

In other ways, these trends will probably weaken the human of cities. We may become so enmeshed in information about our environment that we no longer be as present, in real time. We may be too awash in data to actually have a sense of being in a place—particularly after decades of increasing technology.

As a planner, I wonder how we will have to build our cities, towns and suburbs to accommodate forces of technology which we cannot quite anticipate. Certainly, it is part of a strange paradox of our time. In some ways, location matters more and more; in other ways, we are becoming more and more disconnected from our locations.

P.S. Apologies to The Onion for the
Glowing Rectangles reference.