Have you had a good trip to come here?
Borrow our urban networks,
whether they are road, public transit,
telecommunications, or electric,
is not always a pleasure.
Especially when it comes to coming to distant lands like Saclay!
(Laughter)
Yet today together,
we will see that walks in these urban networks
can be the occasion of a game,
in a sense that I am going to define you.
To play in these urban networks, you have to start with players.
And here I allow myself a bold postulate:
every man is born a player.
It’s one of the roles of society,
and some of his eccentric researchers,
to give that taste of the game,
and to maintain it,
to show life in a fun way,
and to set good rules
to arrive at an effective collective solution,
so that we do not make these urban networks
the place of a purely individual walk.
And there you probably already say to yourself:
“But how did he get there,
to be so close to the plate?
(Laughter)
Did not he take bus 91.06 to get here? “
(Laughter)
Let’s go back to my roots
to understand this game virus.
At 10-12 years old,
warm under the duvet and lit by a dim lamp,
I reread a magazine
found I do not know where,
and with evocative names:
Vassalopet,
Transjurassienne …
These names surely do not tell you anything – in fact, I hope for you.
These are cross-country ski races in the cold, under the snow,
where you have to travel up to a hundred kilometers.
You understand,
in my case,
the game virus was built around sport.
In particular,
around great sporting challenges,
in which the personal limits are exceeded
only thanks to a momentum and collective support.
Ten years later, of course,
I’m on the starting line of an equally mythical race,
the SaintéLyon.
So here I am
surrounded by lovely comrades,
with a headlamp, because in addition, it is played at night.
Well, the principle is simple, I remind you,
we leave Saint-Étienne, and we arrive in Lyon,
with only his allies his sneakers,
and therefore the headlamp.
I’m on this starting line,
with my lamp,
-10 degrees,
and a T-shirt.
I stop there the description of my own game virus.
I am sure that all of you,
in a personal form,
also holds in him this playful fiber,
a happy fiber.
When we watch the rampage of crowds with Pokémon Go,
the living forces of the nation on their mobile,
playing in the morning while going to work,
we do not doubt this joyful fiber, playful also.
But where did we get there?
What I propose today,
that I live in my mathematical developments, and in my sporting challenges,
it’s about making life in our urban networks a game.
There, you surely miss something: what is a game?
So without going into too difficult mathematical developments,
I will give a theoretical definition of what a game is.
It starts with a set of players,
that we are all.
Then, these are actions available to each of these players.
And finally,
it’s a cost
for all players.
And in this cost, you see two dimensions intervene.
On the one hand, an individual dimension;
it depends only on our own action.
And a collective dimension,
it always depends on our own action
but also that of all the players around us.
Do not coordinate in modern urban networks,
it’s going to meet, all together,
significant collective costs:
time spent on the road, pollution, noise.
Good, but watch a little more this magic formula,
and in particular the alpha parameter.
O beautiful alpha!
In urban games,
Alpha is life!
To understand it,
let’s say that the collective cost represents the pollution in our cities,
the individual cost, a notion of comfort and time spent
when we go through these cities.
Set alpha equals zero,
it’s opening a boulevard to the individual dimension
and the 4×4 on the Parisian arteries, by the way.
Fix on the contrary alpha equals plus infinity,
it is pushing in the direction of the collective dimension.
Difficult choice that is that of alpha,
and which hides glaring inequalities:
some people, above the fray,
have the opportunity to evade an alpha set by the public power.
Other people can not get around it.
But let’s leave these political debates,
and now, I will honor the promise I made to you:
to show you that walks in our urban networks
can be put into the form of a game
in the sense that I have just defined you.
You came to Saclay, you saw Saclay.
In few hours,
we will have to start again.
I propose you to make the return journey with me in a fun way.
Like any good worker in Saclay, when you go out,
if you do not have a car, no luck,
you have two options:
you can take a shuttle between companies
which will go, via the road network, directly Porte d’Orléans,
or else to try public transport,
with the bus 91.06,
then the RER to Paris.
The end-of-day worker is not crazy,
he wants to return home as soon as possible.
He takes out his beautiful smartphone, performs two searches:
one to estimate how long it would take
to go to Porte d’Orléans by shuttle,
the other for the same route made by public transport.
Usually,
he chooses the fastest option.
There you surely think that it is a purely individual choice,
you do not have the game virus yet.
Let me contaminate you!
In fact,
this decision depends of course
of all the choices made by those gone before you.
If they took the route you planned to take,
there will be big caps.
You have to interact.
One way to interact
is to see this situation as a game.
The rules of the game are defined by an urban operator,
who is master of the game, but also referee, we will see.
Well, now, suppose we took the shuttle.
On the way, very quickly,
we will surely fall on this panel.
(Laughter)
This panel,
it’s a concentrate of game theory.
Imagine the operator playing with the journey time values
on this panel.
By a simple change in value,
he can lose or win a few minutes
to thousands of Parisians, returning home, in a hurry.
He can of course tell the truth, announce the actual journey times.
But all people will rush to the shortest option.
Naturally, a few moments later, a plug.
Coordination needed!
In the United States, they make other choices.
They show the tariffs to use the tracks:
more travel time.
The,
the public choice is completely different.
In France,
the value of time spent on the road
is 10 euros per hour for all French motorists.
It’s the same alpha.
In the USA,
each person can choose his alpha.
If we have the means, we pay.
We take the express way and we do not live the collective costs.
Is this really the game we want to play?
Other solutions exist, I reassure you,
including carpool.
So there, often, lanes are reserved
to well-filled cars, at least two people on board,
but be careful, let us beware.
Remember,
the men are very players.
Sometimes so many players that they become cheaters:
up to put their inflatable dolls
instead of their dear carpoolers in the passenger seat,
and rush valiantly on the way reserved for carpoolers.
Naturally, the urban operator, the local sheriff,
must act, to play its role of referee.
My dear doll, you’re offside!
(Laughter)
Remember, we are in the shuttle, we arrive at Porte d’Orleans.
Terminus! Everyone goes down!
Arrive the last kilometer,
often the longest.
And here, let’s move towards a self-service bicycle system,
we are in Paris,
our bike is called Vélib.
New battlefield where men’s individual decisions
confront each other:
take a bike quickly,
drop it off quickly.
This was my first job as a researcher:
a few months to imagine men using vélib as players,
to arrive at a superb theorem.
I put it back.
Still,
I am quite moved:
it is of no use to me when, every night,
I fork a vélib,
and I want to go home as soon as possible.
I remember two messages.
The first :
to prove the existence of a balance, it is beautiful mathematically,
but in the short term it does not help the community.
Second message:
we can not play against the individual decisions of all,
in the case of a Vélib network,
or any other urban network.
We need to find good average information on the situation of these networks,
here the average number of people using the stations.
But we must go beyond the limits.
This theorem is not enough, I erase it.
Let’s finish on foot.
We arrive at my house in front of the door,
I open it,
and before you walk like every night,
– six floors all the same –
I open the mailbox,
an invoice from the condominium.
A note for the elevator.
New collective cost,
shared within the building.
And a new alpha,
related to the value, say the floor on which we live.
You understand it, new game
The rules are simple:
we share the collective cost of the elevator proportionally
on the floor where we live.
Every night when I walk,
the elevator does not go up,
I earn money.
But what I discover while reading this invoice,
when I walk,
all my neighbors are making money.
I am delighted.
Well, but we’re in the sixth room outside my door.
I leave you there, I’m sorry, I’m a little tired.
A little advice in passing:
playing with excess carries risks.
But hey, for me, azimuth couch.
And there, just sitting,
a little throbbing voice in my head:
“Have not you forgotten the most important game? “
I rush to the door: “Come in, you’re welcome!
One last part? “
Indeed, my thesis proposed to bring the game into a new world,
to take it out of its traditional applications,
place to electrical networks.
Explain this game with a simple task:
wash a shirt.
Tomorrow is TEDx,
I have to wash my best shirt.
Old fashioned, I could take this shirt,
put it in the bin and press the button.
Error !
Or rather, “Can do better”.
The collective play in the electric world,
it is not to forget our teaching of the electric catechism.
For your neighbor,
the network, you will not deteriorate.
For his health,
good tension, you will maintain.
For our good air, non-polluting means of production,
you will ask.
Yes, but, so what?
My thesis proposed to play
between them so-called flexible electrical consumptions,
– that can be shifted in time –
washing machine, electric vehicle, dishwasher, no problem.
These flexible drinks will play with each other in the neighborhood.
They will start a discussion.
iteratively
on the basis of a collective information of which I showed the value,
they will discuss; as long as they do not agree,
the discussion continues.
Fortunately, very quickly, the discussion stops,
they converged on a decision
which for each is individually stable,
and good collectively,
the best for our electrical system.
So,
each of us will hold a part of this collective solution
for a better electric world.
And all that from our couch, rest assured!
But then, at the end of this long journey,
let’s go back to my basic postulate:
are we ready to show us players in these urban networks?
We have seen it,
looking at the signs on the A6,
by pedaling in vélib,
taking the elevator,
we are already playing without knowing it.
But are we ready to play with our electricity consumption too?
To bring an answer element, I propose a walk,
Let’s all get together in Montmartre.
And there, from the heights of Montmartre,
we see the illuminated Earth.
At this moment, as in the first climb of the SaintéLyon,
that I turned,
and I saw the ballet of the headlamps come alive,
that it gave an image of the collective effort at stake,
at this moment, the spatial heights of Montmartre,
to see this multitude of lights in the world’s dim light,
this potential number of players,
gives me a great glimmer of hope.
The referee saw it:
the players are ready.
He whistles the kickoff:
“Together, let’s win this new game! “
Thank you.
(Applause)
”
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