«America is the original version of modernity – we are the dubbed, the sub-titled version,” stated the philosopher, Jean Baudrillard, mischievously in America, a searing essay published in 1986. The theoretician of contemporary society had underestimated the huge changes in the world which were just beginning at the time. Since then, we have entered the age of ‘global cities’: cities which are worlds in themselves have sprung up. They vy with each other in audacity on all the continents, attracting both wealth and talents, imposing their power and proclaiming to be the heralds of globalisation and a new modernity. From New York to Singapore, London to Shanghai, Melbourne to Bombay, Lagos to Sao Paulo, a string of megacities already represents a new ‘society of the spectacle’, that of a ‘great transformation’ at work. They have undergone numerous changes, including demographic, technological, environmental and sometimes even democratic ones – a huge field for all-round and infinite innovation and experimenting which have begun to to revolutionise our everyday life.

Major cities have changed more in two decades than in a century. “We are on the brink of a technological revolution” states Carlo Ratti who directs the most prestigious of the urban planning laboratories, the SENSEable City Lab at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in Boston; Internet is now spreading to the physical space which used to be the preserve of architects and city planners and it will enable us to interact with the objects all around us in a thousand and one ways. This movement is behind the development of what are truly ‘smart cities’: from energy to waste management, from mobility to water distribution, from urban planning to civic participation,…

Big data and artificial intelligence

In support of his demonstration, Carlo Ratti takes the example of driverless cars. The idea originated at the end of last century and it is gradually taking shape. The boldest experiment has just begun in Singapore. Cars have a visual field which is equal to or greater than that of man and they are going to transform city living: ‘Your car will drive you to work, then, instead of sleeping in the garage, it will be used by other members of the family, neighbours, or even a social community with whom you share it” . Carlo Ratti gets carried away and goes on to state that “an MIT study has forecast that between 30% and 40% of private cars will disappear.” Fewer cars means faster transport time, less-congested roads, more protection for the environment, etc.”

This urban transformation is fuelled by the combination of data and artificial intelligence. These cities are all fully equipped with sensors. In a report on the major urban trends of the year, presented during the Netexplo, in Paris, last April, Julien Lévy, a professor at HEC, summed up the ongoing movement thus: “We have moved from a phase in which the issue was one of transforming everything into data, to a new phase in which the issue is one of transforming everything by the use of data.”

This extends to every aspect of urban life. The winners of the prizes in the world-wide competition for urban innovation launched by Le Monde, act as a yardstick on every continent. In Nigeria, the start-up WeCyclers (First Prize) has invented an on-demand waste collection using confirmation of transactions by SMS and sophisticated bicycles. In Singapore, the city has designed and developed a revolutionary system for public transport based on driverless, electric cars. At Pittsburgh in the United States the Robotics Institute at the Carnegie Mellon University has perfected a high-performance system crammed full of artificial intelligence devices for the flow control of urban traffic (Surtrac, Mobility Prize). In India, in Chandigarh, a start-up launched a platform linking bike-taxi (rickshaws) drivers and clients for transport and deliveries. In Grenoble, a French firm Sylfen (Energy Prize) achieved a world first with an innovative solution for the hybrid stocking of energy.

To assess these transformations and discuss their multiple impacts on our societies, Le Monde has organised for the first time a prestigious event in Singapore, the world laboratory of ‘smart cities’ in the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy on 2nd June, 2017. Some thirty speakers from all over the world, along with all our partners, L’Atelier BNP Paribas, Engie, the Caisse des dépôts, Saint-Gobain, Keolis, Veolia and Enedis will take part in these discussions as well as in the smart cities innovation award ceremony (see p.4). The town of tomorrow will be invented in the informed discussion of the views of all those concerned. Residents will be given priority; their demand for inclusion, participation and involvement in the co-construction of their living conditions is obviously one of the keys for the success of this urban transformation. In the words of the American essayist, Thomas Friedman, “If a society does not construct a foundation under the feet of its members, many will want to raise walls”.