Since the 2010s, many “brain” and “nervous system” concepts have emerged in the field of IT technology, such as Internet brain, Google brain, Baidu brain, 360 security brain, Huawei urban nervous system, etc. City brain is one of them. This is an interesting phenomenon. Why is there an intersection between the IT field and brain science, with a large number of brain science concepts emerging?
The main reason behind this is that in the past 20 years, the Internet, the global technological framework that has profoundly affected human society, has undergone major structural changes and is evolving from a mesh structure to a brain-like structure (1)
In the process of the development of the Internet brain, the continuous development of various nervous systems has triggered the wave of science and technology in this century, cloud computing and the central nervous system; social networks and neuron networks, 3G, 5G and nerve fibers ” Internet of Things and sensory nervous systems, Industrial Internet, Industry 4.0 and motor nervous system; edge computing and peripheral nerves, digital twins and thinking space. .
The combination of the brain-like structure of the Internet and enterprises has led to the creation of applications such as Google Brain, Baidu Brain, 360 Security Brain, Alibaba EI Brain, etc.
The combination of the Internet’s brain-like structure and industry has led to the emergence of systems such as industrial brains, agricultural brains, construction brains, metallurgical brains, and transportation brains. .
The combination of the brain-like structure of the Internet and the modernization of cities has produced urban brains, urban nervous systems, urban super brains, and urban super brains (2)
It can be concluded from this that the background of the emergence of urban brains is the brain-like transformation of the global technological ecology caused by major changes in the Internet architecture over the past 30 years.
Notes: (1) In 2007, Liu Feng, Peng Geng, and Liu Ying of the Academy of Sciences published a paper “7 Laws of Internet Evolution” proposing and establishing an Internet brain model.
(2) In 2015, Liu Feng’s research team proposed the definition of urban brain in the paper “Smart City Construction Based on the Internet Brain Model”)
In 2020, driven by waves of technology such as 5G, big data, artificial intelligence, blockchain and new infrastructure, “urban brain” has become a new hot spot in the fields of urban construction and cutting-edge technology. It should be said that City Brain is an original scientific and technological achievement born in China. In 2015, the definition of urban brain based on the Internet brain model was first proposed. In 2016, Hangzhou started the construction plan of urban brain for the first time in the world. As of June 2020, hundreds of cities across the country have announced the construction of urban brains. Hundreds of technology companies, including Alibaba, Huawei, Baidu, Tencent, iFlytek, Zhongke Brain, 360, Didi and JD.com, have announced their entry into the urban brain field, and have successively proposed their own “pan-urban brain” technology plans. At the National Two Sessions in May 2020, many representatives proposed that the construction of urban brain construction standards should be put on the agenda. Since there are currently no unified norms and standards for urban brain construction, domestic cities leading carry out construction work according to different technical frameworks based on their own understanding and exploration with the help of hundreds of technology companies: some from the perspective of city-level artificial intelligence hubs Some start from the perspective of urban transportation and security, while others start from the perspective of urban life forms. The problems include. First of all, there are no unified specifications for people, machines, and AI systems in various fields of the city to connect to the city brain system without any obstacles. There are also problems of departmental islands, industry islands, enterprise islands, and regional islands. Secondly, various needs of cities cannot be solved uniformly on the same platform. Thirdly, there is no synergy between the technology companies undertaking the construction of the city’s brain. The construction of a city’s urban brain is often monopolized by corporate giants, and small and medium-sized technology companies rarely have the opportunity to participate. Looking forward to the next 3 to 5 years , when different cities and different countries need to realize the interconnection of urban brains, the shortcomings of the current urban brain construction method will be highlighted. It should be said that the emergence and development of urban brains are not only engineering and technical issues, but also basic scientific research issues. Since the 21st century, cutting-edge technological fields have emerged, including urban brains.
Keywords: switching input and output module