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Los países de la península arábiga y del golfo pérsico llevan tiempo explorando modelos económicos alternativos ante el final anunciado de los combustibles fósiles. El último país en sumarse a esta tendencia es Arabia Saudí, quien además se abre al mundo con novedosas iniciativas tecnológicas, políticas y religiosas, que buscan consolidar su liderazgo en la zona. Una de las áreas a explorar, dentro de los nuevos modelos, es la relacionada con la planificación urbana: los edificios y las ciudades inteligentes y lo más novedoso: los espacios cognitivos. Un concepto que trasciende al de ciudad inteligente.
El Indo-Pacífico se presenta como una nueva área geográfica, desde la óptica de las relaciones internacionales y la geopolítica, que presenta retos y oportunidades. En esta investigación se analizan, en relación con el Mundo Actual, los siguientes elementos: crisis de combustibles fósiles, acción por el clima, diversificación económica, urbanismo futurista, ciudades inteligentes y urbanismo cognitivo. Todo ello, en el ámbito de las megalópolis de la región del Indo-Pacífico, que han florecido rápida y desordenadamente, albergando muchas de ellas a más de diez millones de habitantes. Esto plantea un problema que requiere soluciones inmediatas, eficaces y, sobre todo, respetuosas con el medioambiente. La propuesta saudí podría contribuir al liderazgo regional y, por tanto, a un papel como puerta a occidente. La propuesta saudí de una ciudad cognitiva, para el urbanismo futurista, contribuye a consolidar el liderazgo de la nación árabe en la región. De ejecutarse con éxito el modelo de ciudad planteado, Arabia Saudí se postularía además para el papel de puerta al espacio del Indo-Pacífico gracias al reto demográfico que supone. Este menester es, asimismo, trascendente, ya que, crear ciudades y comunidades sostenibles se presenta como el Objetivo 11 dentro de los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible de Naciones Unidas (ODS).
En las conclusiones constatamos el peso que, como potencia regional, Arabia Saudí ha conseguido en pocos años al albur del liderazgo de su primer ministro y príncipe heredero Mohamed bin Salman. También se reflexiona acerca del rol en las nuevas ciudades, marcadas por el empleo masivo de la tecnología, con respecto a los desafíos del Indo-Pacífico, uno de los espacios con mayor peso demográfico y urbano hoy en día. En cuanto al modelo de ciudad cognitiva, The Line constata que, pese a que está impulsada gracias a los beneficios de la industria dedicada a los combustibles fósiles, su éxito no depende sólo de la ejecución técnica, sino de la capacidad de generar beneficios intangibles para la sociedad y económicos para los inversores.
The Indo-Pacific is presented as a new geographical area from the perspective of international relations and geopolitics, which presents both challenges and opportunities. This research analyses the relationship in the contemporary world of the following elements: fossil fuel crisis, climate action, economic diversification, futuristic urbanism, smart cities, and cognitive urbanism. All of this is within the scope of the rising megalopolises of the Indo-Pacific space that have flourished quickly and disorderly, many of them housing over ten million people. This is presented as a problem that requires immediate, effective, and environmentally friendly solutions. The Saudi proposal could contribute to regional leadership and, therefore, to a role as a gateway to the West.Regarding geographical space, we focus on the Arabian Peninsula and especially Saudi Arabia for three reasons: the geographical location between, West and East; it is a strategic place in world trade, and it is the State where two of the three most important areas for the Muslim religion are located, especially Mecca. As an intersectional issue, it should be noted that the Asia-Pacific region is home to over 60% of the total number of Muslims, around 1.5 billion people. The figure could be similar in the Indo-Pacific space and even increase if some other places with Muslim majorities gain weight in the borders. The obligation to comply with the religious precept of traveling to Mecca once in a lifetime makes this action (called Umrah or Hajj) an element of soft power for Saudi Arabia in its sphere of influence regionally and in the Indo-Pacific space. The religious issue is not minor, because although there is skepticism in the West, the progress made in Saudi Arabia in the last decade at the dawn of the leadership of its prime minister and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is remarkable. In a religious sense, the agreement promoted by Dr. Mohammad bin Abdulkarim Alissa, leader of the World League of Islam, with the approval of the Mecca Charter in 2019, is noteworthy. An agreement was signed by religious leaders from one hundred and thirty-nine countries, reflecting a significant effort to promote unit and cooperation among the global Muslim community.We proceed with a mixed methodology. On the one hand, we conduct a specialized interdisciplinary bibliographic review, although focused on international relations. On the other hand, due to the novelty of some aspects discussed, institutional sources available on the internet have been consulted. Finally, a series of profiles have been identified to proceed through semi-structured interviews, from which qualitative analysis insights have been extracted to establish conclusions.This paper presents a five-point structure in addition to the conclusions. In the introduction, a brief historical contextualization is made, the methodology is detailed and the profiles of the semi-structured interviews are indicated. The first item is entitled The Challenges of the Indo-Pacific. The theoretical debate on the geographical scope of space is referenced and some of the most outstanding challenges are identified through semi-structured interviews. Likewise, the Saudi position in the region and the visibility of the Arab Peninsula in a new space, the Indo-Pacific, which decentralizes the picture of China and India, is argued. The second point, the Smart City and the cognitive city propose the critical exploration of the ontological limits of the new models of urbanism in which human beings give up control to intelligent algorithms. If these actions are not backed up with human supervision, there will be a risk of falling into algocracies. The current regulatory proposals regarding artificial intelligence are between total state supervision and even biometric control of people in the People’s Republic of China versus the European model of Artificial Intelligence Law that guarantees rights and freedoms and respect for privacy. In this section, the model of the cognitive city is presented at the dawn of the epistemological debate on its suitability to solve the challenges of the megalopolises of the Digital Revolution. The point is concluded by warning of the danger of the dictatorship of the algorithm or algocracy, if the limits and controls to artificial intelligence in futuristic urbanism are not well planned.All the points above show the coherence in the scientific discussion and converge in the title The Line and the Gateway to the Indo-Pacific. This is the point at which, after exploring the challenges of space, analysing the role of the Arabian Peninsula, and planting the differences between the smart and the cognitive city as a proposal for the challenge of megalopolis urbanism, we go on to explain Saudi Arabia’s proposal about futuristic urbanism and to offer an analysis on the role of the link between East and West and therefore of a gateway in the Indo-Pacific. At this point, the Line Cognitive City project is justified and argued from Saudi Arabia’s position in the Indo-Pacific, futuristic urbanism in the region, and how it could serve as an agent to consolidate Saudi leadership in the area. Some of the technological proposals and models of interaction between humans and machines are explained, defining the cyborg city model, since the approach of the cognitive city, The Line aims at constant communication between citizens and artificial intelligence, understanding it as a whole. The research is not based on rejection, skepticism, or technological Luddism, but this work refers to challenges, sensitivities, and high expectations regarding deadlines and compliance.As for the conclusions, Saudi Arabia’s weight as a regional power is confirmed, achieved in a few years at the dawn of the leadership of its prime minister and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. It also clearly reflects on the role of the new cities marked by the massive use of technology concerning the challenges of the Indo-Pacific as one of the spaces with the greatest demographic and urban weight today. As for The Line cognitive city model, it is found that, although it is driven by the profits of the fossil fuel industries, its success depends not only on technical execution but also on the ability to generate intangible benefits for society and economic benefits for investors.
