Will Zurich also soon be a "Smart City"?

Until recently, many would have waved off the warning that Europe would soon be like China's mega-cities. Another conspiracy theory!

But it is now a fact that Bologna, Vienna and Rome want to reward their citizens with social points for adapted behaviour.

The municipality in Rome puts it this way: 

"The Citizen Wallet is a rewards platform that encourages virtuous behaviour by city users to improve the city's environmental, social and economic sustainability in line with the goals of the 2030 Agenda." ¹

What is meant by this is, for example: Please use online services when you need to contact the municipality and pay the Metro cashless!

It gets really scary when you read the formulation of the Roman plans elsewhere:

"Digital innovation is not exclusively a technological issue, because it does not only concern the management of information systems or infrastructures that connect people, sensors or machines." ²

Is this really where the ideas of transhumanism come in, which are about the fusion of man and machine?

The city of Vienna is also emerging as a smart city in a worrying way. A 'Vienna token' is being planned that will measure the movements of all citizens via GPS. Those who walk, take public transport or cycle instead of getting into a car will be rewarded with points, which he or she can then use to attend cultural events more cheaply. 1000 participants are at the start, and the project will begin in autumn 2022.

The fact that the EU is already thinking aloud about the digital euro is also receiving too little attention. The legal basis for a digital central bank euro is to be created as early as the first quarter of 2023. This can then be wonderfully used as a 'social credit token'.

Incidentally, in central Switzerland, tickets for the famous Lucerne city festival were to be purchased only with Twint or card. There was fierce resistance to this. Now those responsible are going over the books again.³

It is evident: we are heading towards a surveillance state that will look after us at every turn, monitor us, control us and - if need be - punish us.

That certainly does not fit in with a direct-democratic society!