What Busan Hands to the Next Generation

A city hands down buildings, roads, airports. But what it truly hands down is something else. As AI rebuilds the structure of the era, the one thing Busan must hand to the next generation is recognition infrastructure. The eleventh essay in Busanloop's "18 Questions for Next Busan" series, paired with Q10 as a same-day companion. Where Q10 diagnoses the last ten years, Q11 looks at the possibility of the next ten. After tracing five shifts of the AI era — replacement, redefinition, increase, democratization, and the changing position of the city — it proposes the recognition infrastructure Busan must hand down across four places: selection, education, community, and the global network. It cites Momos Coffee, which began in Busan in 2007 and connected to the world without leaving the city, as a case of one company building the recognition infrastructure the city failed to build.