Even as conceptual models, distinctions between "rural" and "urban" have become blurred--by changes in transportation, telecommunications, computer technology, business expertise, formal education, health care, and citizenry expectations/knowledge. Two typologies describing future trends and incorporating changes in rural/urban definitions facilitate observation, research, and decision making. Typology I, the selective incorporation of urban and attributive-to-urban values, symbols, processes, perspectives, and behaviors into rural life is a neutral, casual process. Typology II, ruralification of urban life, is a most dynamic typology since urban planning can use the urban setting itself as one of a myriad of interacting environmental variables. Examples of urban ruralification include green belts and pocket parks, proliferation of clubs and associations, and "neighborhood watch" protection strategies. Area planning, greater freedom of industry location, new communications systems, and an increasingly aware citizenry will soon enable society to select the best from both ways of life to create a new "hybrid" lifestyle. Societal life in the future will be a series of "lifestyle layers," each being relatively free of geographic designation, and will be based upon the person's/family's/community's decision as to how the hybrid options are to be combined. (NEC)