The People's Infrastructure
The thesis aims to address the emerging ethical and technical issues of AI and quantum technology by reframing the infrastructure as an urban space of entangled collective, natural and artificial intelligence. Grounded in Dr Carlo Ratti’s theory of entangled intelligence, the project aims to converge these three forms into a single entangled system on site, where intelligence is both generated and experienced by people. The scheme provides a feasible alternative to rural hyperscale data centres by embedding edge computing within urban brownfield sites. The location allows for a closed loop cooling system that reuses waste heat for an onsite greenhouse and district heating network, reframing the infrastructure as an energy generating resource for the community. This integration of critical infrastructure, alongside a citizen's assembly, crucially makes technology more visible which reduces centralised control and fear whilst giving citizen’s agency over the ethics of emerging technology.
