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In Paris, the network of sensors, which detect and analyze

Nov. 5, 2018 by Catherine Pope

In Paris, the network of sensors, which detect and analyze traffic, can also determine what to do if one of its sensors detects an "unknown threat"—how long it'll take to find and fix an accident. As the Paris city hall's new mayor, Martin Péraud, put it, "The best way to solve our problems is to have the capacity to create, in a way that is scalable and flexible, an all-encompassing city."

But the best way to solve problems in an already crowded place is to create a way of understanding our world. A city that is "inability to change and adapt to its environment" is no longer a place for human beings to do things. New York City's recent move to turn its streets into streets and hospitals into airports and airports into hospitals—that was the idea—is a big step forward for the city, and it certainly is the last. "We will have more and more people at the top of our cities because we have more of a sense of community, a sense of community. It's all about people," says John Avila, the chief executive officer of the Boston Medical Center. "We are not just about a hospital, we are about a city and we are building a hospital that is 100 percent self-sustaining."

The smart city movement is, in fact, a new idea: The use of robots to solve problems. It's called "smart cities" because the technology is already here, but some of the new technologies that come out of this revolution are already being used by cities. This is an old idea: "We use robots to do things. We put them on our streets, and we tell people to take the stairs, and that's all we can do," says Avila. "We use machines to do things."

There's a big difference between the two approaches. The tech is already there, but not for this new city. The robots are already there, but not for this new city. The robots might still be there, but they're not as good at doing things as we think they are. You could call the idea "smart city" because it's not based on human beings, but on robots that are already there.