Digital societies come with a design paradox: On the one hand, technologies, such as Internet of Things, pervasive and ubiquitous systems, allow a distributed local intelligence in interconnected devices of our everyday life such as smart phones, smart thermostats, self-driving cars, etc. On the other hand, Big Data collection and storage is managed in a highly centralized fashion, resulting in privacy-intrusion, surveillance actions, discriminatory and segregation social phenomena. What is the difference between a distributed and a decentralized system design? How "decentralized" is the processing of our data nowadays? Does centralized design undermine autonomy? Can the level of decentralization in the implemented technologies influence ethical and social dimensions, such as social justice? Can decentralization convey sustainability? Are there parallelisms between the decentralization of digital technology and the decentralization of urban development?

中文翻译：

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数字社会的去中心化——一个设计悖论

数字社会伴随着设计悖论：一方面，物联网、无处不在的系统等技术允许在我们日常生活的互联设备（如智能手机、智能恒温器、自动驾驶汽车）中实现分布式本地智能等。另一方面，大数据的收集和存储以高度集中的方式管理，导致隐私入侵、监视行为、歧视和隔离的社会现象。分布式和去中心化系统设计有什么区别？现在我们的数据处理有多“去中心化”？集中式设计会破坏自治吗？实施技术的去中心化程度是否会影响道德和社会层面，比如社会正义？权力下放能否传达可持续性？数字技术的去中心化与城市发展的去中心化之间是否存在相似之处？