Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Utopias...

Just a thought, but when was the last time you read a science fiction novel set in a genuinely better world?

Doesn't happen often, and the reason is that better worlds are boring. Dystopias are both far more fun and, sadly, far more likely.

When I was in college I listened to a speech by a proponent of classic Utopian theory, and I immediately asked the obvious question: Who's going to empty the trash?

Of course, the answer in my own mind now is 'The robots'. But still...how do you make a fair and just society that still works with human nature? With our tendency to form hierarchies, with our need for charismatic leaders, with the complications that come from our fairly high level of behavioral sexual dimorphism?

This is a question for science fiction writers - and for everyone else. But writing about such a society would be...boring.

Hrm.

No comments:

Post a Comment