Does the world seem a little more crowded these days? If so, it might be because on Wednesday, May 23, 2007 a subtle but significant tipping point occurred: for the first time in human history, the world’s population became more urban than rural. On that day say researchers, the global urban population exceeded that of the global rural population by 125,849 people. The after-shocks of this seismic shift are just starting to reverberate in cities throughout the world. This week’s Friday Five features a collection of links about how and where we might live in this urban future.

The Smart City: New Songdo

A new key to the city: imagine a city in which a your house key can be used to not only unlock your front door, but also to pay for the subway, see a movie, borrow a free public bicycle or pay for a meal. A city where sensors and computers are built into houses, streets and office buildings that share data, where citizens enjoy wireless access to all of their digital content anywhere in the city. This is dream of New Songdo City, being built 40 miles outside of Seoul, South Korea. Billed as the world’s first ubiquitous city or “U-City” when it’s completed in 2014 it will be home to an estimated 65,000 people. The developers have spared no expense in promoting this vision: the website for the project reads like the trailer for a major motion picture, complete with its own soundtrack. How futuristic is New Songdo? It even has its own Wikipedia entry, though it hasn’t been built yet.

The Eco-City: Dongtan

China is building new cities almost as fast as it does cars. As it does, it’s tweaking the source code of the typical urban habitat. Dongtan, an “eco-city” planned near Shanghai, is one such example. According to the developer, Dongtan will “produce its own energy from wind, solar, bio-fuel and recycled city waste. Clean technologies such as hydrogen fuel cells will power public transport. A network of cycle and footpaths will help the city achieve close to zero vehicle emissions. Farmland within the Dongtan site will use organic farming methods to grow food.” Set it open in time for the Expo 2010, Dongtan is expected to be home to over a half-million residents by 2040.

The People-less City: The World Without Us

What about a city without people? Alan’s Weisman’s The World Without Us sets the stage for an alternative future that explores what would happen to the earth if humans suddenly disappeared. The New York Times described this as a “pop-science ghost story, in which the whole earth is the haunted house.” It’s the perfect description - without humans, how long would it take nature to reclaim its territory? (Answer: not as long as you’d think).

The Virtual City: Virtual World Population Explosion

If you think Beijing, Mumbai and Lagos are growing fast, consider virtual cities: South Korea’s Cyworld has a reported population of 20 million, while the tween virtual world StarDoll has over 10 million. Check out this cheat sheet of the major virtual world platforms and their current populations.

The Mega City: 192021.org

By 2030, two of every three people will live in an urban world, creating one of the most defining trends of the 21^st century: the rise of the megacity. In 1995 there were 14 cities with populations over 10 million; in 2015 there will be 21. 19.20.21 is a new project by Richard Saul Wurman (author and founder of the TED conferences) to collect, organize and package information on population’s effect regarding urban and business planning and its impact on consumers around the world by focusing on 19 cities with populations over 20 million in the 21^st century.

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