A speculative Ambient Minor Infrastructural Disaster Detection Network is informed by the brutal fact that cities will have to make do with the rotting infrastructure that it's got. Its coffers will remain too paltry for major overhauls while its tax base recover from economic and population collapses. Funds from state and federal governments will trickle down slower than molasses, that is, if there's the political will in slash-happy legislatures to dole out the necessary earmarks. Even if some budgetary miracle is divined, competing interests from every private and public sector will torpedo any hope of realization.
One component of this network, then, might be what we prefer to call as Pothole RSS, despite the absence of a web syndication. “Several cities,” writes Popular Science, “have developed apps that allow citizens to report things like downed tree branches, breaches of city ordinance, or potholes in roadways, but the city of Boston is trying to take the human out of the process. An app called Street Bump will take advantage of smartphones’ GPS data and accelerometers to automatically report potholes to city authorities without the user having to raise a finger.”
Other components are yet to be imagined. By our readers. In the comments. Thus saving us time.
