Essay Abstract

Throughout human history the idea of Utopia has served as a means of expanding the moral imagination and served as a prototype for how societies might be organized to better conform to human values. In the 19th century Utopia became tied the new reality of technological progress and the deterministic philosophy that surrounded it, which had the ultimate consequence of discrediting the Utopian ideal. Progressive technological determinism continues to be influential, but has lately come under increasing scrutiny, its historical horizon and the continued relationship between technological and social progress called into question. This change in our perception of technology might provide the conditions for a recovery of the Utopian ideal, which would also mean a restoration of our lost sense of freedom over the future.

Author Bio

Rick Searle is an Affiliate Scholar with the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technology and co-editor, co-author of the book Rethinking Machine Ethics in the Age of Ubiquitous Technology (IGI Global Press, 2015). He writes for the blog: Utopia or Dystopia: Where Past Meets Future http://utopiaordystopia.com/

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Hear, hear! Well put, Rick. Steering straight, toward an ideal, reduces the risk of running off the road. Even if we never get to that perfect world we're less likely to drive into a ditch. And even if we hit a signpost along the way, or the car breaks down, it's good to know we still have that destination.

    Hi Rick,

    I particularly liked the points that different people may have different Utopian ideals, and now having to decide what it means to be human. I can see conflict between those who see Utopia as a return to a natural way of living causing minimal harm to the environment and those who envision a technological future which may include trans-humanism and AI. Each might think the other Utopia misguided and inferior to their own. Perhaps there will be different Utopias for different societies rather than a single Global Utopian vision. I like the history of Utopian ideals and that you have emphasized the importance of believing that we can influence the future rather than it being fully determined. We have the wheel but will we hesitate too long trying to choose our Utopian destination/s?

    A really well written essay, Good luck Georgina

      Rick,

      The theme of utopia is hopeful and honest, especially basing it on such prospects of the past. As you suggest, it is alien in our current world. Even the social measures of technology you mention like longevity, child mortality and income are more measures of success and affluence compared to other countries than they are technological progress.We can all agree that someone must shape it to fit values of survival and common good. That is my perception as well. The imagination of Utopia is certainly an inspiration for achieving a better world which includes a viable survival.

      Jim

        Thanks Walter,

        It does seem to me that we have an atrophied idea of the future compared with the past not to mention a widespread cynicism regarding what types of societies we are capable of. My hope is that we can rethink this, and in rethinking help to change it as well.

        Best of luck on your own essay, which I hope to read tonight-

        Rick Searle

        Hi Georgina,

        I definitely would like to see multiple forms of modernity, though, as you point out in your own essay we still have global problems we will need to face together.

        "We have the wheel but will we hesitate too long trying to choose our Utopian destination/s?"

        I hope not, but the clock is certainly ticking.

        Best of luck!

        Rick

        Thanks Jim,

        Glad to see from your essay that you look to history as well...

        Best of luck!

        Rick Searle

        Hi Rick,

        I find some similarities between our positions, and you've convinced me (together with Sabine Hossenfelder) that I should take a look a Smolin's new book - I was avoiding it because I think he misunderstands what the block versus flow of time pictures imply vis-a-vis free will and fatalism. However, your concluding statement is very close to various themes in my essay:

        "The future is neither completely ours to shape nor something we are subject to without room for maneuver. For, continuing to think that our world cannot be made to better conform to our ideals is one of the surest ways to insure that what lies in our future is the farthest thing from Utopia. And so, if I were to answer the question that inspired this essay "how should humanity steer the future" directly, I would say that the question has no definitive and final answer but begins with the rediscovery that it is us with our hands behind the wheel."

        I concur.

        Best,

        Dean

          Hi Rick,

          I think that steering the future is as difficult as steering the past, there are so many coincidences that influence the future (see my essay : "STEERING THE FUTURE OF CONSCIOUSNESS") that it is even impossible to predict our second generation. It is not only the influence of for now unknown (unborn) individuals, that blur the future but also the difference of view of our participating individuals here and now.

          So "Utopia" can only be a subjective ideal, that is why so many religions are existing all with their own interpretation of a future "kingdom of heaven" , the subjective ideas are coupled and became rules to be lived in.

          It is in my opinion the overall "mentality" that has to change from egoistic short term profit ideas to a long term non-profit sharing our potentiality mentality. The average age of a human being is just 80 yers and that also influences his actions when they are influencing his wellnes during this time, if we would age longer then we would perhaps have more attention for a future that is longer away as those 80 years...

          I hope that you will find some time to read and leave a comment on my thread (link is above) and eventually give it a rating that is in acoordance with your personal valuation.

          Good luck and best regards

          Wilhelmus

            Anselm,

            I understand from a German perspective I might seem so, but please offer something to make you case.

            Rick,

            It is an observant and well thought out perspective, but I think the issues which need to be dealt with are more a matter of process, than objectives. We first really need to figure out what we are doing, before considering where we might be going.

            One point I keep making in various conversations on the FQXI forums, as well as prior contests is that we experience time as a sequence of events and so think of it as the present moving along a vector from past to future, which physics distills to measures of duration, but the underlaying reality is of the changing configuration that turns future into past. Tomorrow becomes yesterday because the world turns, not that there is some extradimensional flow from yesterday to tomorrow. So while the past has certainly been determined, the future remains probabilistic, because the input into any particular event only coalesces with its occurrence. We affect our world as it affects us. It is just the opportunities for greatest change are in times of maximum chaos. The punctuations of the equilibrium.

            A more specific problem with the concept of utopia goes to the heart of our current philosophic and religious assumptions, in that the universal state of the absolute is basis, not apex. It is the essence from which we rise, not an ideal from which we fell. The nature of complex systems is that the more complex they are, the more inherently unstable they are. Just look at the periodic table. So as we build out these social systems, they exhibit a wave pattern of compounding and then collapsing complexity. Nature incorporates this by having individuals be born and die, which the DNA slowing evolving as the stable state.

            In my own entry I focus on our treatment of money as a form of commodity, rather than the contract it is, as the most resolvable source of our inability to exist in a stable form of society. A currency is a promise by a community to its members and its value is entirely dependent on the health of that community, not how many such notes are in circulation, so when we sacrifice inter-communal relations and other resources in order to create and collect these notes, it is counter-productive.

            Regards,

            John Merryman

              John,

              Thank you for taking the time to read my essay and for your thought provoking comments. I am actually a great fan of Joesph Tainter's The Collapse of Complex Societies which I've written about here:

              http://utopiaordystopia.com/2013/03/10/immortal-jellyfish-and-the-collapse-of-civilization/

              We are actually largely in agreement.

              In my post I was really trying as the title suggests re-conceptualize the idea of Utopia. It's not that I think Utopia will solve our problems, I just think reviving it as a practice might be helpful. It might help us in the form of actual experiments that would give us examples of how societies might be differently organized- one of the vulnerabilities of our current global industrial society being its lack of diversity.Some of this lack of diversity might be traced to versions of determinism at least that's the way I interpret thinkers like Kevin Kelly.

              As an intellectual practice Utopia might remind us what societies are actually for, which is to act as a vehicle through which we can actualize our full humanity.

              Reading and voting on your essay is the first thing on my agenda tomorrow. I want to give it all the time (and wakefulness) it deserves.

              Best of luck!

              Rick Searle

              Sure, Mike. Freely state whatever you think. I am here to learn. And I am eager to read, comment and vote on yours once I have the proper sleep.

              Rick

              Rick --

              Excellent essay, and I'm much in tune with your way of thinking. The last sections of my own essay on communications technology develop the same thought, that as "technology is moving intimately closer to our humanity... we really do have choices regarding how this particular phase of technological evolution will unfold, in a way we have not before."

              Your argument about technological determinism makes sense, though of course it's one aspect of a bigger picture. Part of the reason utopian thinking died out is that by setting up a vision of how things should be in contrast with how they actually are, it implies that we can just switch over from the wrong way of doing things to the right one. That seemed sensible in the 18th century, but didn't fit as well with the 19th-century realization that our history goes back a long, long way, and passed through many evolutionary stages. That also gave us the longer-term, progressive view of our future that made utopianism seem shallow and naive.

              Yet you're completely right about the importance of a "cartography of the future" in the utopian spirit. We badly need to develop new pictures of what it looks like when we've got it right. This is something I didn't attempt in my essay -- under present conditions I find it hard to envision hopeful scenarios. But some of the contest entries, including yours, are making me want to try.

              I'll have to check out some of your footnotes. It's very encouraging to think that "many are asking fundamental questions not so much about what it means to be human as what we want being human to mean..."

              Thanks -- Conrad

              Rick,

              The only reason I take issue is that utopia is a social idealization and I find there is a dangerous tendency to conflate ideals with absolutes. If we can first understand that what gives rise to form is context, so when we start distilling away and generally sterilizing the messy aspects, we don't want loose sight of the reasons for the forms in the first place. Otherwise there becomes that overpowering pull to the center, as the elementary fabric is weakened.

              So yes, we very much need our goals, desires and standards, but also a sense of proportion and balance have to be part of the mix as well.

              Looking at the way the world is going today, that sense of proportionality and equilibrium seems to be lost, as the various factions express their deep desires and apply standards they themselves might not uphold.

              Regards,

              Wilhelmus,

              I have read your essay and tend to leave a more extensive comment there, the long and short of which is I have my doubts as to if quantum fields,the nature of consciousness or theories of the multi-verse are as important as more mundane goal setting at least in terms of the near-term future.

              Where I think you and I are in solid engagement is that deterministic ideas of the future that follow only one path are not only socially dangerous but scientifically inaccurate as well.

              Best of luck on your essay!

              Dear Mr. Searle,

              A nice change of pace. I found your essay a joy to read, and not as outrageously oversimplified as one would tend to think.

              Regards,

              Joe Fisher

                Thanks, Joe. I'm a utopian with a lower case u.

                I intend to read and vote on your essay tonight. Please grade my essay if you haven't done so already.

                Best of luck!

                Rick