Let us say a classic: Society focuses sharply on the principles of the free and open society, and fully implements the principles of rule of law, and the core freedoms. Education is the top priority. Companies that grow too large are stripped first of their right to secrecy, then put under democratic control. International relations are far improved, with larger countries no longer bullying smaller ones, yet insisting on spreading information to the populations of all countries to avoid tyrants keeping their people ignorant. Intellectual property laws are changed to become a support for creators and not a sledgehammer for big conglomerates to wield on their way to monopoly.
How? Well, once lie detection by fMRI works well enough, it should be trivial to weed out the grasping and the power hungry from office everywhere.
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Let us say a classic: Society focuses sharply on the principles of the free and open society, and fully implements the principles of rule of law, and the core freedoms. Education is the top priority. Companies that grow too large are stripped first of their right to secrecy, then put under democratic control. International relations are far improved, with larger countries no longer bullying smaller ones, yet insisting on spreading information to the populations of all countries to avoid tyrants keeping their people ignorant. Intellectual property laws are changed to become a support for creators and not a sledgehammer for big conglomerates to wield on their way to monopoly.
How? Well, once lie detection by fMRI works well enough, it should be trivial to weed out the grasping and the power hungry from office everywhere.
So a Few force the laws on the many?
No. Free and open societies refuse to let dictators keep their people ignorant. All cultures are not of equal value.
Like Kurt Vonnegut, I see utopia as living in small family groups again. However, I also see it happening in a futuristic sense in that there are no wars for space and resources because people have figured out how to create new dimensions, and can hop them to meet up only when they choose to.
However, each demiplane, as it were, belongs to an extended family group, and it is not societally accepted to use communication devices more than a few times a week.
Medical technology can detect and remove any pathology at birth (including psychopathy and sociopathy, if desired) or later in life.
Countries no longer exist unless someone wants to name their demiplane something hilarious.
In my Utopia, private property would be abolished, with warehouses holding all goods available upon request. Each household would have two slaves--either criminals or prisoners of war--and they would wear chains of gold. Physical adornments, like jewelry and fine clothes, would be abolished. Prospective marriage partners would be able to examine each other naked before exchanging vows. And there would be no lawyers.
I am the only one left.
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Utopia would be a free society, with a republic government which works like a well-oiled machine to act as a net for those who fall and as a ceiling for huge corporations and the like. There are no lobbyists, we are well on the way to solving global warming and deforestation, with only a few months to go, the rest of the world has adopted the model, and the people are free to make their own decisions.
A free and open culture is always better than one that is neither. There is always a strong reason to why people are not allowed to make their own decisions or learn what is going on. Cultural relativism is only a pathetic attempt to justify dictatorship crap. The only reason dictatorships appear to have popular support is because they lie about election results, health data, and every other relevant piece of statistics.
All current cultures, at least in the West, carry most of these values and pay lip service to them. That is not to say they live up to them... but it isn't a cultural issue that prevents them.
My utopia?
Less war, more open carry of melee weapons, less stigmatization of sexual activities, more intimacies in friendships, less individual glories, more shared victories, less ignorance, more courtesy, less treachery, more competition, less pride more accomplishment.
In my Utopia, private property would be abolished, with warehouses holding all goods available upon request. Each household would have two slaves--either criminals or prisoners of war--and they would wear chains of gold. Physical adornments, like jewelry and fine clothes, would be abolished. Prospective marriage partners would be able to examine each other naked before exchanging vows. And there would be no lawyers.
Ah, a classicist.
I hope comrade anklebiter was joking :|
My utopia is also one where private property (but not personal property) would be abolished, as would wage labor and the kyriarchy.
Society organized from the bottom upwards, with people voting on the issues that affect them, or giving away their vote to a representative (but they can revoke the voting right at any time). A formal law could be in place, but only on the most basic topics, apart from that rules are localized and agreed-upon by those in affected by them (using a consensus system, and where that isn't at all possible, a majority vote).
As much work as possible would be automated, and any strides forward in technology would be to the benefit of the workers. The duty to aid society would be mostly based by norm, but if someone who could help refused to consistently they'd be expelled from society.
Continuous meetings within each group would happen, where discussions and methods of preventing hierarchies to arise.
If people break the rules, the standard consequences would probably be: - Acceptance/forgiveness under provision of them not redoing it,
- Acceptance/forgiveness under provision of them getting educated about the rule and potentially getting mental health care if that's needed,
- And lastly being expelled from society, if the people feel they're too destructive to have around.
Death penalty would be completely abolished (though someone expelled would have to find somewhere else to be and a society has the right to defend itself if attacked by an outside force). The exception would be people who use the term "free society" like it means something, those would be hung. G~***~n I hate that expression, freedom is like EVEN MORE nebulous and arbitrarily used than "democracy".
Well, thank you. I am not too fond of commies either.
Sir Thomas More wasn't a commie.
Also, your rejection makes me sad, Madame Sissyl.
Global population would be severely reduced. Most of the Earth's population would be moved off planet or only live in arcologies. The vast majority of the planet would be returned to a natural state, and most of the jobs outside of arcologies would be in returning the planet to that state (atmospheric scrubbing, invasive species removal, salvage, bioremediation, etc). Genetic Technology (or time travel?) would be used to restore every species that has gone extinct in the last 10,000 years to the planet.
I hope comrade anklebiter was joking :|
Not at all; he described the original Utopia quite accurately.
I wasn't quite as accurate in describing him as a classicist - the classical Utopia (although it predates the term) is of course Plato's Republic.
I've yet to see anyone who can actually improve on the enlightened despotism of Plato's philosopher kings. I want a society ruled by someone with absolute and unfettered power to make arbitrary decisions, and I want that person to always make the correct decision.
This also has the advantage of being substantially more realistic than any other Utopia I've seen proposed. I think it's much more likely that there would be one god-like person around than it is that everyone would agree to forego the pursuit of power and abandon xenophobia.
“[T]he weakness of all Utopias is this, that they take the greatest difficulty of man and assume it to be overcome, and then give an elaborate account of the overcoming of the smaller ones. They first assume that no man will want more than his share, and then are very ingenious in explaining whether his share will be delivered by motor-car or balloon.” (G.K. Chesterton.)
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My Utopia....no goverments.
Sir Thomas More wasn't a commie.
Also, your rejection makes me sad, Madame Sissyl.
Ah well, you know, gobbo, I did some of those drug-fueled orgies already. While fun, I am now more in a decadent phase. And you know I like you, even if you are a commie. You can change. Grow up, as it were.
My Utopia....no goverments.
Because Somalia is such a pleasant place to live?
Genetic Technology (or time travel?) would be used to restore every species that has gone extinct in the last 10,000 years to the planet.
Wouldn't it be better to just restore species that have gone extinct due to man's interference?
My Utopia....no goverments.Because Somalia is such a pleasant place to live?
Um....what?
As you quote itself stated...
“[T]he weakness of all Utopias is this, that they take the greatest difficulty of man and assume it to be overcome, and then give an elaborate account of the overcoming of the smaller ones. They first assume that no man will want more than his share, and then are very ingenious in explaining whether his share will be delivered by motor-car or balloon.” (G.K. Chesterton.)
Sure it is unrealistic....but to think any form of goverment will lead to the perfect world...is like saying lets put fire out with more fire...or lets remove ice by adding more water.
“[T]he weakness of all Utopias is this, that they take the greatest difficulty of man and assume it to be overcome, and then give an elaborate account of the overcoming of the smaller ones. They first assume that no man will want more than his share, and then are very ingenious in explaining whether his share will be delivered by motor-car or balloon.” (G.K. Chesterton.)
Sure it is unrealistic....but to think any form of goverment will lead to the perfect world...is like saying lets put fire out with more fire...or lets remove ice by adding more water.
Agreed, we're dealing with different levels of unrealism here. But the point of government is to find a way to settle disputes calmly and without violence. Government generally solves more problems than it creates, therefore.
"Rule of law" is one of the best steps forward that humanity has ever managed to take. I'm simply expressing disbelief that a utopia would eliminate it.
for a perfect utopia - no or little taxes, free health care, transport, food coupons and free entretainment
though i wouldn't leave it to humans for very long, we'd just mess it up :P
I think that one arrived "messed up" out of the box. No or little taxes seems incompatible with free anything; mathematics doesn't really work that way.
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I think that one arrived "messed up" out of the box. No or little taxes seems incompatible with free anything; mathematics doesn't really work that way.for a perfect utopia - no or little taxes, free health care, transport, food coupons and free entretainment
though i wouldn't leave it to humans for very long, we'd just mess it up :P
well there are 2 ways to go around the monetary problem
1) The community is renown for its philanthropy, everyone giving far more than what they get back to enrich the society and pay for what would be taxed instead.
2) The use of AI/robots to work for everything that would be needed to pay for, therefor little money is needed to run the utopia
Now, the question is which of the two is more likely
“[T]he weakness of all Utopias is this, that they take the greatest difficulty of man and assume it to be overcome, and then give an elaborate account of the overcoming of the smaller ones. They first assume that no man will want more than his share, and then are very ingenious in explaining whether his share will be delivered by motor-car or balloon.” (G.K. Chesterton.)
Sure it is unrealistic....but to think any form of goverment will lead to the perfect world...is like saying lets put fire out with more fire...or lets remove ice by adding more water.
Agreed, we're dealing with different levels of unrealism here. But the point of government is to find a way to settle disputes calmly and without violence. Government generally solves more problems than it creates, therefore.
"Rule of law" is one of the best steps forward that humanity has ever managed to take. I'm simply expressing disbelief that a utopia would eliminate it.
Well in my Utopia we have moved beyond the need of a goverment. IE we can settle disputes without the violence.
And yes right now goverment probably create less problems than it solves. zthough sometimes that is hard to tell.
I think that one arrived "messed up" out of the box. No or little taxes seems incompatible with free anything; mathematics doesn't really work that way.for a perfect utopia - no or little taxes, free health care, transport, food coupons and free entretainment
though i wouldn't leave it to humans for very long, we'd just mess it up :P
well there are 2 ways to go around the monetary problem
1) The community is renown for its philanthropy, everyone giving far more than what they get back to enrich the society and pay for what would be taxed instead.
2) The use of AI/robots to work for everything that would be needed to pay for, therefor little money is needed to run the utopia
Now, the question is which of the two is more likely
Well, #2 is literally impossible, while #1 is unlikely. Sherlock's directive suggests that we should go with #1.
But money (and by extension taxation) is simply a method of resource allocation. Resources are limited, wants are unlimited. Unless you can literally conjure anything people want in unlimited quantities -- and by anything, I mean "anything" : beachfront property on the Riviera, genuine Stradivarius violins, non-simulated nights of passion with the leading supermodel of the day -- you'll need money to pay for things.
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Free liquor for all! Not the cheap kind, either.
F%$~ yeah! Now we're cooking with oil!
Ah well, you know, gobbo, I did some of those drug-fueled orgies already. While fun, I am now more in a decadent phase. And you know I like you, even if you are a commie. You can change. Grow up, as it were.Sir Thomas More wasn't a commie.
Also, your rejection makes me sad, Madame Sissyl.
I love you, too, baby, but, alas, at 36, I'm as mature as a male goblin gets.
Genetic Technology (or time travel?) would be used to restore every species that has gone extinct in the last 10,000 years to the planet.Wouldn't it be better to just restore species that have gone extinct due to man's interference?
99% of those species did become extinct from human activity. There is a pretty shocking pattern of human arrival followed shortly by major extinction wave. I think the estimate of extinctions from just the Polynesian colonization wave (which only really occurred in the last few thousand years) is something like 2000 species of bird, which doesn't even take in account reptile extinctions.
F$&# yeah! Now we're cooking with oil!
Oil is the milk of capitalist swine.
I love you, too, baby, but, alas, at 36, I'm as mature as a male goblin gets.Ah well, you know, gobbo, I did some of those drug-fueled orgies already. While fun, I am now more in a decadent phase. And you know I like you, even if you are a commie. You can change. Grow up, as it were.Sir Thomas More wasn't a commie.
Also, your rejection makes me sad, Madame Sissyl.
Indeed. But childish notions are also things one can grow up from, are they not?
I must also take the time to ask... do female goblins live longer, or shorter, lives than their manly relatives?
Although the goblin sexes have relatively similar life expectancies, in goblins, like humans, the female matures much more quickly than the male.
So, where the human female matures around 14-16, the male remains a man-child until around, oh, let's say 52.
Do the math, translate for goblins, voila, you've got your answer.
More importantly, international proletarian socialist revolution isn't a childish notion and if you keep voicing such counterrevolutionary opinions I'm afraid that even all of my love and affection for you, Madame Sissyl, won't save you from a fun-timey reeducation through labor supercenter.
F$&# yeah! Now we're cooking with oil!Oil is the milk of capitalist swine.
I meant olive oil.
spartAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
God, what I would do to take absolute control of a small country. No larger than 10x10 square miles, since I do not want that much territory...
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In my Utopia every human and other sentient being (hereafter referred to as person) is equal in rights and responsibilities. Everyone and every culture is fair game for criticism and all human rights are upheld. Highest priority for state expenses is education.
And coming off age every person gets to choose one free dinosaur to keep as a pet and/or mount.
My Utopia....no goverments.
I'm on board. My current character is helping to overthrow the government of Chelliax in council of thieves. Ren will continue to help overthrow any government that comes into power there. IRL i'm more of an anarco-capitolist with peaceful diplomacy. In golarian he's a crazy alchemist.
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I'm thinking a sealed society, abolish currency, everyone is allocated to the most appropriate job and given whatever they are entitled to requisition. Probably some kind of organization by merit so you can be promoted to a higher level and get to requisition more things.
As it's unlikely you could run this with a human government (corruption is inevitable) then it'll probably need a computer in charge to oversee everything.
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I'm thinking a sealed society, abolish currency, everyone is allocated to the most appropriate job and given whatever they are entitled to requisition. Probably some kind of organization by merit so you can be promoted to a higher level and get to requisition more things.
As it's unlikely you could run this with a human government (corruption is inevitable) then it'll probably need a computer in charge to oversee everything.
Happiness is mandatory. The computer wants you to be happy. Are you happy, citizen?
A desert.