Beyond Zuccotti Park contributor Saskia Sassen spoke at TED2013 recently. Sassen’s talk revolved around technology and cities, her main point being that “while technologies become increasingly obsolescent, our cities endure for centuries.”

Sassen’s theories about urban areas and their relationship with technology is based upon the idea that cities can speak, that cities can show us their change. The danger, however, is that with an increase in technology, urban areas no longer have a voice of their own and are being spoken for by surveillance and other means of technology. In this is the danger of completed cities. Sassen believes that cities need to remain unfinished in order to survive the onslaught of technology and to save themselves from becoming obsolete too quickly.

See the full article on Sassen’s talk here.