By Arnold Roquerre
The City: One of Humanity’s Greatest Creations.
There is no single definition that can fully capture what a city is—large or small. Perhaps the closest we come is this: you know when you are in one. A city is not a definition but an experience that overwhelms the individual with processes, people, and structures too vast to be fully grasped at once. It is a densely populated, organized human settlement that concentrates political power, economic exchange, filled with complex infrastructure, and a myriad social systems all happening in the confines of the city. A complex creation of humanity to organize, provide shelter, concentrate power and secure resources requiring multiple center of power and coordination, a vast, integrated system of networks to deliver water, and transportation systems to remove waste, distribute goods and food, facilitate movement, includingf citizens, commerce and enforce common norms. It is the continuous management of life and death within over a large, densely populated and diverse population over a large area that is the essence of a city. Within this environment, intricate systems of cooperation and interdependence emerge to serve a wide range of human needs and desires.
Why do we build cities? Human beings are not ants programmed to build colonies and serve the the queen, but building cities is an ingrained genetic predisposition, defining characteristic of our species, Homo sapiens—an emergent outcome when necessary conditions are met to sustain large numbers of human beings in a finite area. We are social beings that are programmed to form social groups, cooperate together and create as large of a community possible and maintain it as long as it benefits enough groups. We have more in common with crabs once mature, move into shells and cluster into loose communities. Human beings build our shells and organize them into cities. Urbanization reflects a deeply rooted pattern of human behavior is manifested in cities when population size, food supply, and water availability reach sufficient levels to sustain large numbers, humans build cities. But, cities only exists only as long as they meet the needs of enough of the inhabitants to keep the city alive. In this sense, human cities mirror slime molds, sponges, and myxobacteria. People aggregate to build complex structures, then disperse when conditions turn hostile (e.g., Maya and Inca city abandonments), leaving ruins to decay.