Cities are molded and defined through their networks.

---

In the past, these seemingly connective infrastructures of energy, transportation and economy have worked largely independent of one another. Today, web-based technology is providing a new and unprecedented digital-network that will push cities to evolve differently. Here are some thoughts on how Steemit’s digital ecosystem may one day transfer over into the built environment…

Path and Waterways

---

Rivers, lakes and oceans were the very first networks that allowed early civilizations to communicate, grow and mature. The very first of these “cities” were located in Ancient Mesopotamia, nestled between two rivers; the Tigris and Euphrates. The word “Mesopotamia” actually translates to “Land between Rivers.” Through water, these early civilizations were able to tap into the broader network of the Persian Gulf, fostering regional trade while simultaneously advancing local irrigation and agriculture.

Today, the basic ingredients of a city are not so different from the rules of 12,000 years ago. Nearly three-quarters of today’s largest cities are adjacent to a waterbody, and an estimated 80% of the world’s population lives within sixty miles of a coastline. Our global economy is very dependent (even growingly dependent) on port cities to serve as a threshold for international trade. Today, perhaps surprisingly nearly 90% of everything we buy has travelled by ship at one point or another en route to your doorstep. Water remains an ever-critical resource for cities to establish and thrive.

Airways

---

In the 19th century, air travel spurred a new type of network within a previously unimaginable avenue. Air. With air travel, cities began to lose their thousand year old formula-for-success of river, lake and ocean. This new window on the world opened up incredible growth and a new threshold of progressive thinking. Just sixty years after the two Wright Brothers flew in Kitty Hawk, we and landed two astronauts on the Moon. Within just a handful of decades, our infrastructural timeline has begun to compress.

The World Wide Web

---

Today, in the 21st century, the internet is only a couple of decades old. But already, debates of content ownership, privacy and inefficiencies are mounting. We are primed for an explosive new level of networking based on the first principles of the internet. Something that can re-write the architecture for communication. “Blockchain” the backbone of Steemit, is setting up to become a catalyst for the next stage of disruptive infrastructure.

Fundamentally, cities are intersections of partnerships and places of exchange. Layers of infrastructure assist in strengthening these partnerships. This can mean an electrical grid infrastructure, water and sewage, or public transportation. Cities only work as well as their networks. Ideally, traffic lights should work in unison, subway schedules must stagger to catch more commuters at the beginning and end of a weekday, protesters are allowed to pop-up and absorb public spaces. In a utopian example, cities are accommodating to everyone and controlled by no one individual. Through a web of networks; both cities and blockchains are engineered to grow and mature within a central, yet de-centralized environment.

“Hyper-Reality” concept film by Keiichi Matsuda.

---

Healthy participation makes a decentralized world possible. A dialogue, a back and forth of pros and cons help keep a city's arteries clear and healthy. In just a handful of months, Steemit has built a growing community of incentivized participators. We upvote good content, downvote the bad and share information every minute. Ideally, the information that has the greatest communal value receives the greatest visibility. The time factor is interesting here too, because a good post doesn’t last on the front page forever. New ideas are rewarded and promoted to take the place of past ideas. Older ideas become archived and venues of dialog inside an ever-growing library. The blockchain grows stronger and more stable as participation grows. Just as a city grows and becomes more efficient as it’s trails grow to roads, later streets, avenues, boulevards, highways and interstates.

Urbanism, Balancing the Physical with the Digital

---

Our digital world is progressing at a far faster rate than anything achievable in the physical realm. It takes well over a decade to design and build a skyscraper, but just hours to fabricate an image of one. (Example of digital modeling in the GIF above.) With the boom of augmented and virtual reality we are just now beginning to experience urban places through digital lenses. The implications that this has on social behavior is massive! Last Summer I would walk through New York City and see droves of Pokemon hunters migrate between Union Square, Central Park and randomized landmarks. Around the same time that the Poke-craze began I started exploring Steemit. The social utopia was fresh on my mind as I observed an army of smart phones descend on Union Square in search of a Snorlax. They were sprawled all over the plaza area which (for those who aren’t familiar) is big open paved area with long stone steps, pockets of benches and railings to lean on. The southern side of the Square was teeming with millennial aged New Yorkers who seemingly left work early to hunt an augmented digital creature.

Union Square is of particular significance here in relation to its history as a place for people to unionize and demand greater value for the work they do collectively. Today, it remains a progressive site for protest and free speech. In this context, Union Square sounds a lot like the earliest generation of Steemians!

A New Formula for the Public Realm

---

The physical and digital worlds we experience today are ripe for a new avenue of interaction. The pairing of crypto and social media represents an opportunity to bridge the gap between how we live, express and explore. It’s an exciting time! The future is collaborative and about a redefinition of the environments we engage with. Steemit has the building blocks to become that catalyst for revolutionizing the way we experience a place.

In an effort to take that first step (leap?) my design collective @hitheryon is attempting to put Steemit upvotes to the test. Our big question? What would a city look like if you could upvote the spaces and places around you? This summer, in Brooklyn, we’re beginning this experiment with a Steemian Community Garden. Every plant, planter and bench will be powered through Steem. With your help, we can build a something special...

If you haven’t already, take a look at our project and teaser - link here.

Stay tuned for more updates on our Steemian Community Garden project. In a few days we’ll officially begin our Steem-crowdfunding efforts. Steem on!

follow me @voronoi | design collective @hitheryon