“This should be an automated city where we can watch everything,” Neom’s Mohammed bin Salman-led founding board said, according to the documents—a city “where a computer can notify crimes without having to report them or where all citizens can be tracked.” — The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal digs into some of the documentation underpinning Saudi Arabia's forthcoming desert tech city, Neom. The Massachusetts-sized city-state, a pet project of the country's omnipresent crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, is being planned as part of an effort to turn the country into a producer of information technologies and other technological and industrial innovations.
Plans obtained by The Wall Street Journal envision a $500 billion technological wonderland populated by robotic maids, a Jurassic Park-style robot dinosaur theme park, and an artificial "moon" projection screen that live-streams images from outer space.
“Neom is all about things that are necessarily future-oriented and visionary,” Neom's chief executive officer, Nadhmi al Nasr, told The Wall Street Journal, adding, “So we are talking about technology that is cutting edge and beyond—and in some cases still in development and maybe theoretical.”
2 Comments
I wonder if they'll erect statues to Ahmad Khashoggi ?
What's disturbing is how similar a Saudi Sharia Law techno-theocracy is to top-down bureaucrat smart cities visions like Sidewalk Labs Toronto.
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