Kobe Bryant was born with basketball already in his blood. His dad was a former NBA star. When Kobe was six years old, his dad started playing basketball in Europe, so his family moved to Italy. The family stayed there for seven years. While living in Italy, Kobe learned to speak good Italian and started playing basketball.

The family moved back to the United States when Kobe was 13 and he started playing high school basketball. Kobe figured he was already good enough to play in the NBA, so he skipped college and was chosen right after high school by the Charlotte Hornets in the first round of the 1996 NBA Draft. In a trade the Hornets are still crying about, they sent Kobe to the LA Lakers. Although he did not go to college, Kobe was a quick learner on the courts of the NBA. He played in the NBA All-Star Game for the first time in 1998 and by 2000, Kobe had developed into one of basketball's best players. Kobe and Shaquille O'Neal teamed up to lead the LA Lakers to three straight NBA Championship Titles from 2000 to 2002. In 2003, Kobe was caught by the police.

In 2004, the case against Kobe was dropped, but Kobe still had to live with a damaged reputation(受损的名誉). In 2004, Kobe tried to show that he could lead the LA Lakers without Shaq. After Kobe told the Lakers he wouldn't be wearing the purple and gold if Shaq was in the team, O'Neal was traded to the Miami Heat before the 2004-2005 season. The trade was good news for the Heat, who won the NBA championship冠军with O'Neal. In the next few years, Kobe grew disappointed as his team repeatedly suffered first round exits（退出）. The 2007-2008 season is when the LA Lakers finally got over the hump. They went on to have the best record of any team.

Cities around the world are racing to become “smart”. It’s just like a classroom full of hard-working students. Take Toronto, Canada, for example. Tech company Google has made public a 1,500-page plan. It is going to remake two neighborhoods with things like snow-melting roads.

To build smart cities, we need lots of new technologies, such as robots and artificial intelligence (AI). These technologies will lead to safer and more efficient (效率高的) cities. However, they will also raise questions about privacy.

But there is a more serious problem: Smart cities will be difficult to manage.

As we know, tech products are sometimes unreliable (不可靠的). The Internet and our computers break down regularly. Tech products also age quickly. Only a few years into their lives, problems may become commoner and commoner.

In smart cities, many basic systems and services, such as water services, are based on such tech products. What if they break down regularly? Can you imagine the result?

New technologies in 2020 will be outdated before 2025. If we use smart technologies widely in cities, we will need to be prepared to replace them every few years. But who would want to pay this bill?

The most important problem is whether having a smart city will make us better at solving urban problems. Smart technologies can’t solve problems on their own. Suppose AI programs discover a road that needs to be repaired. It still requires people to show up with asphalt (沥青) and a steamroller (蒸汽压路机), doesn’t it?

As an engineer, I think smart technologies should have a place in cities. However, that place is not everywhere. For many of our urban problems, we don’t really need the latest technologies. The best of the old ideas works better.

The Yellow River is known as the mother river of the Chinese people. However, flood control and disaster forecasts (灾害预报) of the river have always been challenging for people. Now, scientists can better work on these problems by giving the river a digital twin.

The digital twin of the Yellow River uses different kinds of technologies, including big data, artificial intelligence and the internet of things. Devices(设备)are set up along the river to collect and transmit (传送) information to the center. Based on the information, a 3D model of the river is showed on the computer screen. It’s like the Yellow River has a twin that describes its real conditions.

One big thing in the digital governance (治理) is “smart stones”. A smart stone is a detector (探测器) with chips, a battery, and a signal transmitter. They are put in important dikes (堤坝) to record and report the movement of dike stones. If it feels any movement of the dikes stones, it will send an alarm to the center for quick response.

In the sky, there are flying drones (无人机). They are designed to look at the river, its dikes and flood prevention projects. The drones provide researchers with photos and information. The researchers use this information to update a 3D model to watch the changes of water to avoid disasters.

Under the water and up in the sky, intelligent systems are helping to protect the Yellow River. According to the Ministry of Water Resources, in the future, we can expect to see an even more complete digital system for the river.