Cities: irresistible lure for dreamers, doers, and the desperate, urban areas will soon hold half the world's people. How they adapt will help define the 21st century.

There once was a time when big cities thrilled and amazed people. "It is the metropolis of the universe, the garden of the world," Ibn Khaldun, the Arab historian, wrote of Cairo in 1382. English traveler Thomas Coryat described Renaissance Venice as a "beautiful queene." French artist Marcel Duchamp, in 1915, called New York City "a complete work of art." Since their appearance about 3000 B.C., cities have always been the natural center of everything that mattered: the temple, the court, the market, the university.

And for anyone with a particle of ...

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