The App of Life 手機(jī)應(yīng)用：讓城市生活更完美

Simon+Kuper1

I am a late adopter of new technology， so I only recently discovered that an age-old urban problem had been solved. I was in a restaurant with friends. Outside it was cold， and on Sundays the bus ran only every 20 minutes. When to go to the bus stop？ My friend pulled out his smartphone， and told me when my bus would arrive. It was a little trick—like finding another friends house on my smartphones GPS with three tired children in tow2）—but it made urban living easier. Thanks largely to smartphones， this is probably the best time ever to live in a packed city.

As my economics guru3） Stefan Szymanski4） explains， when the internet arrived many pundits5） predicted the decline of cities. After all， why live in a flat in Hackney6） when you could send emails from an old farmhouse overlooking a sheep meadow？ But the prediction was wrong. Overcrowded， overpriced cities only became more popular， which is why Hackney flats have gotten so expensive. Meanwhile the countryside has turned into something of a desert， inhabited by farmers and old people， and used by the rest of us chiefly for long walks. In 2008， for the first time ever， most humans lived in cities.

They are lured by social networks. To be rural is to be isolated. You live in a village or suburb to have space， not to meet people. But cities create contacts. Someone you run into at a party or your kids playground can give you a job or an idea. The perfect one-on-one urban encounter combines mating， education and business development over a cup of good coffee. Mathieu Lefevre， executive director of the New Cities Foundation， says： “In a dense city you have these two-minute chance encounters that make your life richer. You and I have nothing in common， but maybe we meet and start Facebook together.”

For two centuries， technologies damaged cities. Factories brought dirt and noise. Then cars added sprawl7）： Los Angeles creates fewer encounters than dense Manhattan. Even in the 1990s， the desktop computer swallowed valuable space， and chained each person to his own desk. Carlo Ratti， director of the Senseable City Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology， says 20th-century technologies were no use to a dense city such as Venice.

But the internet was perfect for cities. It created new networks that reinforced older urban networks. Patrik Regardh， head of strategic marketing for the mobile-phone operator Ericsson， says urbanites email， phone and use social networks more than people outside cities. After all， they have more contacts， and so they communicate more. In Stockholm， for instance， women use Facebook to team up for safe jogging tours at night.

When laptops arrived， urbanites could use the new networks anywhere—but they often still needed a coffee shop to get online. Starbucks rose thanks to the laptop computer. Now， though， people carry their networks around in a 10-sq-in device. This is transforming city life in countless ways： everything from finding a date to finding a bus in an instant. Greg Clark， the UKs minister for cities， says the London bus finder app “actually makes the transport system hugely more effective.” Now we just need a good app to find parking spots. Clark sighs： “A lot of congestion comes literally from people driving around looking for a parking space.”

In short， smartphones are helping make the densest cities the best places to live， as witnessed by property prices in Hong Kong， New York， Paris and London. By contrast， sprawling cities that rely heavily on cars—Moscow， Istanbul， Beijing—are becoming dysfunctional as roads clog up8）. I recently took three hours on a Saturday afternoon to reach a Moscow airport. If you live like that， your networks shrivel9） because you stop meeting people.

The technological revolution in cities has barely begun. Indian slum-dwellers without electricity will soon use solar-powered phones to find cheap healthcare nearby， says Parag Khanna， who， with his wife Ayesha， just published Hybrid Reality： Thriving in the Emerging Human-Technology Civilization.

The next step is urbanites using technology to help run their cities. Dublin has thrown open its data on everything from water use to transport， hoping that software developers will create apps to improve life. Were starting to see almost an “open-source design” of cities， says Ratti.

Elisée Reclus10）， a 19th-century thinker， said the ideal city would combine rural pleasures with urban pleasures. Ratti says， “And I think that has happened.” In post-industrial London， the war on cars has made the air and the river cleaner. In cities everywhere， tiny or invisible technologies are replacing big old industrial technologies. That has created space for bicycles， new parks， piers and summertime beaches， all packed with people on smartphones. Steve Jobs was a lifelong suburbanite， but it turns out he perfected the city.

我是一個(gè)較晚使用新技術(shù)的人，所以我直到最近才發(fā)現(xiàn)，一個(gè)由來(lái)已久的城市問(wèn)題已經(jīng)得到解決。我和一幫朋友坐在一家餐廳里，外面天氣冷，而且是周日，公交車每20分鐘才來(lái)一趟。該何時(shí)前往公交站呢？我的朋友拿出他的智能手機(jī)，然后告訴我公交車將于何時(shí)到達(dá)。這只是一個(gè)小把戲——就和我一邊帶著三個(gè)疲憊的孩子，一邊用自己智能手機(jī)上的GPS找到另一位朋友的住處差不多——但它卻讓城市生活更加輕松。如今可能是有史以來(lái)在一個(gè)人滿為患的城市里生活的最好時(shí)候，而這很大程度上要?dú)w功于智能手機(jī)。

正如我的經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)導(dǎo)師斯特凡·希曼斯基解釋的那樣，當(dāng)互聯(lián)網(wǎng)時(shí)代到來(lái)時(shí)，很多專家都預(yù)言城市將要衰落。畢竟當(dāng)你住在可以俯瞰一片牧羊場(chǎng)的古樸農(nóng)舍里就能收發(fā)郵件時(shí)，你又何必要住在哈克尼的一套公寓里呢？但是這個(gè)預(yù)言錯(cuò)了。擁擠不堪、物價(jià)過(guò)高的城市只會(huì)變得更受歡迎，這也是為什么哈克尼的公寓售價(jià)如此之高。與此同時(shí)，鄉(xiāng)村已經(jīng)變得有點(diǎn)荒涼，只有農(nóng)民和老年人住在那里，其余的人則主要把它當(dāng)成徒步旅行的場(chǎng)所。2008年，有史以來(lái)第一次，大多數(shù)人都住在了城市里。

因?yàn)槿藗兪艿缴缃痪W(wǎng)絡(luò)的誘惑。而生活在農(nóng)村容易被孤立。你住在村莊或郊區(qū)能獲得空間，卻無(wú)法與人會(huì)面。但是城市能為人們創(chuàng)造接觸的機(jī)會(huì)。你在派對(duì)上或者你的孩子們的游樂(lè)場(chǎng)上偶遇的人能給你提供一份工作或者一個(gè)主意。城市里完美的“一對(duì)一”邂逅能讓你在品嘗一杯美味咖啡的時(shí)間里同時(shí)進(jìn)行交友、教育和業(yè)務(wù)拓展。新城市基金會(huì)執(zhí)行董事馬蒂厄·勒費(fèi)爾說(shuō)：“在一個(gè)人口密集的城市，你擁有很多與人偶遇兩分鐘便能讓你的生活更精彩的機(jī)會(huì)。你我可能沒(méi)什么共同之處，但是可能我們相遇后就開(kāi)始一起開(kāi)個(gè)像Facebook一樣的公司?！?/p>

在過(guò)去的兩百年里，技術(shù)的進(jìn)步對(duì)城市造成了破壞。工廠帶來(lái)了灰塵和噪音。接著汽車促使了城市的無(wú)序擴(kuò)張：洛杉磯的偶遇概率要低于人口密集的曼哈頓。即使在上世紀(jì)90年代，臺(tái)式電腦也在占領(lǐng)個(gè)人的寶貴空間的同時(shí)，把每個(gè)人都束縛在各自的書(shū)桌前。麻省理工學(xué)院感應(yīng)城市實(shí)驗(yàn)室的主任卡洛·拉蒂表示，20世紀(jì)發(fā)展起來(lái)的技術(shù)對(duì)于諸如威尼斯這樣人口密集的城市來(lái)說(shuō)是無(wú)益的。

但是互聯(lián)網(wǎng)技術(shù)完全適合城市的發(fā)展。它創(chuàng)造了新型的網(wǎng)絡(luò)，該網(wǎng)絡(luò)又加強(qiáng)了城市的老式社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)。手機(jī)運(yùn)營(yíng)商愛(ài)立信公司的戰(zhàn)略營(yíng)銷部經(jīng)理帕特里克·雷高指出，城市居民發(fā)郵件、打電話和使用社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)的頻率要高于非城市居民。畢竟，他們有更多接觸的機(jī)會(huì)，因此交流也更多。比如，在斯德哥爾摩，女性利用Facebook組團(tuán)在晚上慢跑以保證安全。

筆記本電腦出現(xiàn)后，城市居民能在任何地方使用新型網(wǎng)絡(luò)——但是在很多情況下，他們?nèi)孕枰哌M(jìn)一家咖啡店才能上網(wǎng)。星巴克的興起就得益于筆記本電腦。而如今，人們可以通過(guò)十平方英寸的設(shè)備隨時(shí)隨地上網(wǎng)。這正改變著城市生活的方方面面，從找約會(huì)對(duì)象到飛快地搜索某輛公交車都可以實(shí)現(xiàn)。英國(guó)城市大臣格雷格·克拉克指出，倫敦公交搜索應(yīng)用“實(shí)際上大大提高了交通系統(tǒng)的效率”。如今，我們只需要一個(gè)不錯(cuò)的應(yīng)用幫我們尋找停車位?？ɡ烁袊@道：“很多道路堵塞其實(shí)是由人們開(kāi)車四處尋找停車位所造成的?！?/p>

簡(jiǎn)而言之，智能手機(jī)正使得人口最密集的城市成為最宜居的地方，這一點(diǎn)由香港、紐約、巴黎和倫敦的房地產(chǎn)價(jià)格可以作證。相比之下，那些嚴(yán)重依賴汽車而無(wú)序擴(kuò)張的城市——莫斯科、伊斯坦布爾和北京——正因?yàn)榈缆窊頂D而變得運(yùn)行不暢。最近一個(gè)周六下午，我花了三個(gè)小時(shí)才到達(dá)莫斯科機(jī)場(chǎng)。如果你照那樣生活，你的社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)將會(huì)縮小，因?yàn)槟銜?huì)不愿與他人會(huì)面。

城市的技術(shù)革命才剛剛開(kāi)始。保勞格·康納表示，現(xiàn)在還沒(méi)用上電的印度貧民窟居民很快就能用太陽(yáng)能充電的手機(jī)來(lái)搜索附近價(jià)格便宜的醫(yī)療服務(wù)。保勞格和他的妻子艾莎剛剛一起出版了《混合現(xiàn)實(shí)：在新興的人類技術(shù)文明中繁榮》一書(shū)。

下一步是城市居民運(yùn)用技術(shù)來(lái)協(xié)助管理自己的城市。都柏林已經(jīng)向外公布了從用水到交通的所有數(shù)據(jù)，希望軟件開(kāi)發(fā)者們能研發(fā)出改善生活的各種應(yīng)用。拉蒂稱，我們將看到對(duì)城市的一次近乎“開(kāi)源的設(shè)計(jì)”。

19世紀(jì)的思想家埃利澤·勒克呂曾說(shuō)過(guò)，理想型城市應(yīng)能將田園的樂(lè)趣和城市的快樂(lè)融合在一起。拉蒂認(rèn)為：“我想這已經(jīng)變成了現(xiàn)實(shí)?！焙蠊I(yè)時(shí)代的倫敦對(duì)汽車的管制已讓空氣和河水更干凈。在城市的各個(gè)地方，微型的或是看不見(jiàn)的技術(shù)正在取代大規(guī)模的傳統(tǒng)工業(yè)技術(shù)。這已經(jīng)為自行車、新公園、碼頭和夏日海灘創(chuàng)造了空間，這些空間將被智能手機(jī)的用戶們填滿。斯蒂芬·喬布斯一生都住在郊區(qū)，但結(jié)果表明他讓城市變得完美。

1. Simon Kuper：西蒙·庫(kù)珀（1969～），英國(guó)撰稿人，歐洲最好的足球記者之一，畢業(yè)于英國(guó)牛津大學(xué)，擅長(zhǎng)從人類學(xué)的角度來(lái)寫(xiě)體育，曾供職于《衛(wèi)報(bào)》及《觀察家報(bào)》等，現(xiàn)為英國(guó)《金融時(shí)報(bào)》專欄作家。

2. in tow：（被）拖著；隨著，陪伴著

3. guru [?ɡ?ru?] n. 導(dǎo)師，指導(dǎo)者

4. Stefan Szymanski：斯特凡·希曼斯基，經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)教授，倫敦卡斯商學(xué)院MBA課程主任，著名的體育經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家，曾與本文作者合著《足球經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)》（Soccernomics）。

5. pundit [?p?nd?t] n. 專家；學(xué)者；權(quán)威，大師

6. Hackney：哈克尼區(qū)，英國(guó)英格蘭大倫敦內(nèi)的倫敦自治市之一，位于大倫敦中北部。

7. sprawl [spr??l] n. （城市的）無(wú)計(jì)劃擴(kuò)展

8. clog up：堵塞

9. shrivel [??r?vl] vi. 變小，減少

10. Elisée Reclus：埃利澤·勒克呂（1830～1905），法國(guó)地理學(xué)家，著有19卷巨著《宇宙地理》（Universal Geography），并因此獲得巴黎地理協(xié)會(huì)的金獎(jiǎng)。