BORG URBANISM

What if urban populations increasingly connect their brains and nervous systems to cities, perhaps using brain-computer interfaces developed by companies such as Elon Musk’s Neuralink, or wearable devices? 

Growing investment in neurotechnologies means that much new thinking is required, including about changes in the way people interface with the urban environment.

The concept of BORG URBANISM imagines networked cities that read and respond to the neural states of those inhabitants who are connected to the cybernetic whole. Drawing on science fiction and using the metaphor of Star Trek’s Borg civilisation, it considers the resulting human rights issues and, setting out a program of action, urges for thinking, public engagement, and other steps to address these challenges.

As well as considering mental privacy and autonomy, it calls for the monitoring of larger-scale qualities of Borg cities. Attentive to issues of equity and political economy, it envisages real-time, bidirectional connections between brains, data systems, and urban infrastructures, and draws attention to system-level dynamics including possible emergent properties.

Here is an entry point to BORG URBANISM,  an emerging paradigm which arises from a collaboration between urbanist Simon Marvin and law academic Allan McCay. It tracks the history of the idea:

1. The 2023 University of Sydney panel event that led to the collaboration

2. A short precursor to the idea in the Conversation which mentions some military  thinking that inspired the use of the Borg metaphor (Marvin and McCay 2024)

3. A podcast interview (University of Sheffield 2025)

4. An academic paper which sets out the concept in full, noting the merits of looking at military thinking in relation to the anticipatory project of BORG URBANISM  (Urban Geography, Marvin and McCay 2026)

5. Media summaries of the concept ( English, Spanish, French 2026)

In related work McCay has focussed primarily on neurotechnology's implications for law and human rights with an emphasis on the impact on individuals, and Marvin has developed other thinking about neurotechnology and cities along with co-authors (see here and here).

Many minds, one city

In short, BORG URBANISM sets out a program that envisages cybernetic cities that directly interface with human neural states, creating real-time feedback loops between minds and urban systems. 

Considering both the benefits and risks of neurotechnologies in the urban context, and taking an anticipatory stance together with an action-orientation, it combines critical perpsectives on governance of the mind with a consideration of system-level dynamics.