The wandering of millions of people captivated by their screens every day influences, without us realizing it, the way cities are built and experienced.

Our cities are populated by a strange, hybrid species, halfway between the real and the virtual, half-man half-smartphone: the smombies. The smombie is a word between “zombie” and “smartphone” invented to describe pedestrians so absorbed by their screens that they no longer notice what is around them.

A daily reality that we all face. In the subway, in the street, in a waiting room, etc. With colleagues, friends, parents, children, oneself – especially with oneself.

The smombie is everywhere. It has kept the zombie’s hesitant, stumbling, clumsy gait. It has also taken its propagation. Because as eyes lower, as the world falls silent, as life pours onto screens, the temptation to take out your own smartphone grows…

And because of this propagation, cities are adapting.

Hubert Beroche is the founder of URBAIN AI, an organization dedicated to AI in the city.