In the early 1990s technology pioneer Bill Gates wrote about the future of the connected city in his book, The Road Ahead. He talked about how the human relationship with the home and the city would change dramatically. He expanded on visions originally proposed by Arthur C. Clarke in the 1950s foreseeing a future where the computer change the way we live and work. Gates believed that such changes were 5 to 10 years away at that point but, due to a number of circumstances, we are only now being able to see some of the first iterations of how our cities are evolving based on increased digital information. 

So what are these areas that will evolve and change the way that we know and respond to the urban environment? I would break them into three simple categories related to (1) how we live or house ourselves in a civil society, (2) how we work and travel to places of employment and (3) how we play and recreate.