A Map as Big as the Territory

“A map as big as the territory” is a line inspired from a Spanish fiction story by Jorge Luis Borges. Fiction stories allow authors to create their own world of possibilities. In many cases, such vivid imagination has been the precursor to reality. A Boston Consulting Group (BCG) article on digital disruption maps this notion of Borges’s map to emerging business architecture. This architecture highlights the importance of data as infrastructure.

Interestingly, we are in a world where a map as big as the territory is becoming a reality. Today, we have a detailed digital mapping of any territory that is of interest to us. The cost of capturing, consuming and keeping this information up-to-date is decreasing. Telematics and connected cars will take this a notch further.

It is predicted that by 2020, the cost of human genome sequencing will fall much below what it costs to get a chest x-ray today. This has been achieved after more than a decade of painstaking work. Another territory conquered!

The US government has funded 100 million USD to start mapping the brain. Private funding is also pouring into this research area, which is primarily driven by the implications of deep learning. Suddenly a 3D image of a brain as visualized in Iron Man 3 (Aldrich Killian giving a virtual tour of his brain to Pepper Potts) doesn’t seem just futuristic. Borges’s world is no more fictional. We are keen to create a highly granular digital print of the physical world.

Let’s see if we can extend this further to our dynamic world. Is there a need for this? Do we have the instrumentation to enable this?

Let’s solidify this with a specific example. We are heading towards massive urbanization. Energy, water, waste, transport, healthcare, education, law and other amenities expected by every citizen needs to be made available in a socially equitable way. Also, pollution levels need to be minimized for all. A push towards renewable energy will lead to a large population living off the grid. India alone has a published target of 40 GW of solar energy, using roof-top panels, by 2022. We definitely need to map the demand, consumption and supply patterns in real-time at a granular level.

Will citizens support in sharing such information? Globally, social behavior is gravitating towards notions of shared future and collective upliftment. Privacy fears aside, today we are more open towards self-disclosure of lifestyle choices and our surroundings if it serves a greater purpose and the effort involved is minimal. So this is not a problem and furthermore, sharing tends to have a strong network and information effect where people follow each other.

Do we have the instrumentation to enable granular measurement? Yes! Smart meters are becoming the norm across Europe (electric, gas, water, heat). Smart meter PoCs are already being done in India. IoT enablement of consumer devices is even enabling granular measurement and ease of sharing. Measurement devices for water pollutants, indoor and outdoor air pollution, are available and prices seem to be falling much faster, driven by economies of scale and technology advancement. Telematics is enabling the measurement of transportation. Building automation technology is enabling measurement of energy and pollution for large structures. Availability of IoT in healthcare-including home and geriatric care -is well documented.

So, all we need is a framework to collect and aggregate the data provided by citizens. The information available with local municipalities, counties, and governments for residential, industrial and commercial properties, transportation and related citizen information provides such a framework for aggregation. Imagine the possibilities, where you as a citizen know the level of information that is available with the government and can benchmark it against the best. This real-time map, as granular as our society itself, can open a whole new realm of possibilities in self-governance.

What do you think?