This article offers a fundamental critique of technological solutionism by examining the interdisciplinary mechanisms through which digital technologies, algorithms, and data infrastructures are framed as direct remedies for complex social and urban problems. The introduction shows that solutionism, by erasing the historical and contentious dimensions of public issues, reduces politics and policymaking to a technical domain while reshaping the ways problems are perceived, defined, and rendered governable. Methodologically, the study draws on critical textual analysis, theoretical frameworks from Science and Technology Studies, critical theory, smart-city research, and reviews of Iran’s national planning documents. Rather than relying on quantitative data, it adopts conceptual genealogy, power analysis, and comparative assessment of techno-political formations across national and global contexts. The findings unfold in three central directions. First, the article demonstrates that solutionism rests on technological determinism and instrumental rationality, which naturalize technology and elevate efficiency at the expense of political imagination and normative judgment. Second, the analysis of surveillance-oriented and data-driven infrastructures shows that the presumed neutrality of data is itself a political construct that reproduces epistemic exclusion and expands authoritarian control. Third, a comparative examination of smart urbanism and Iran’s national planning reveals that technocratic logics exacerbate institutional fragility, reduce accountability, and limit meaningful public participation. The article concludes by arguing for a reflexive and democratic technopolitics centered on epistemic plurality, institutional learning, and substantive public engagement. Such an orientation positions technology not as an instrument of control or exclusion, but as a means for strengthening democratic agency, social justice, and institutional resilience.