Are Big Cities Obsolete?

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA began, very recently, as a rural, wilderness population, with a few small scattered towns. We are a young country, and that explains everything. The towns grew, and became huge cities. In 1925, for the firtst time in American history, the number of people living in cities equalled the number living in rural country. Ever since, more and more people have been moving from farm to city. Throughout history, cities have been vital, as cultural centers. But do we need them anymore? Have cities become obsolete? that seems like a rather shocking question, a question which challenges our basic assumptions about ourselves. If cities are obsolete, it is because transportation and communication have advanced so much that humans need no longer congregate in cities in order to be close to each other. I live in a very small town, of only about two thousand people. Yet, we have a pretty big factory here. A poultry processing plant, which employees quite a few people. Only one, but, hey, if every town in America larger than my town has such a factory, which they do, America would be a prosperous country, which it is. Prosperous, even before you factor in big cities. In our modern world, millions of people can congregate at short notice, either in real space and time, or cyber space and time, and accomplish anything that needs done. Permanent, huge cities begin to seem like a luxury, rather than a necessity, in our modern world. Perhaps the future world will have a smooth and even distrubution of humans across teh world, with big cities and population in general limited to reasonable size. We can evolve away from dependance on big cities, but we wouldn't want to do without their other charms, so, we'll probably choose to keep them around.