Why do we build cities?

I've just watched a programme about the great ingenuity that that goes into building and maintaining a city, and the massive engineering challenges they bring. There's the obvious stuff, like figuring out how to build an insanely tall and functional building that wont fall over, and the less obvious stuff like figuring out how you pipe fresh water in and sewage out for so many people crammed into such a small area.

But what I ponder is this. Why do we build huge cities in the first place? I can see the sense in the idea of people living in communities, like villages and small towns, where they can all work and trade together etc, but surely there's an optimum size for a settlement, and its much smaller than most cities. As soon as it become a major challenge to just to keep a city functioning, then surely it has got too big?

I wonder if there is something built into us humans that make is swarm, but if that's so, I wonder what evolutionary advantage that brings us when it just increases the risk of us dying of disease (more people in close proximity = more opportunity for germs to breed and spread), and of course it makes us vulnerable to hostile action. Then of course there's the psychological wellbeing factor, how can it be right to be overwhelmed by concrete and to never, ever witness silence?

 

I think the 'sheep' syndrome comes into this Clueless. We all know if we park our car in the middle of an empty car park, the chances are the next person to drive in will park in the lot next to ours. Therefore, I think it's the same with cities and large towns. Are these people frightened to go it alone perhaps? Do they need the company of others thinking they will give them some sort of support if needed?

Personally, I'm not of that nature and would go mad surrounded by all those buildings and people.

 

Who knows, one day the "city effect" might be what wipes out the human race.

 

I think that's actually quite plausible.

I know people who live in little villages in our area that sometimes get completely cut off for days at a time due to road closures due to snow and ice. In one such village where I used to work, the locals delighted in telling the story of the time the pub ran dry. For the first few days people drank their normal choice of beer. When that ran out, they started working their way through everything else. There was great humour about the fact that old fishermen were seen supping red or even white wine by the time the road was reopened.

The greatest impact of them being cut off for a few days was that they had to drink wine instead of beer.

What if the same had happened to a major city? If nobody could get in or out of London or Tokyo for a few days, it would be deemed a disaster.