Phil and Stephen talk about perfect worlds and why we never seem to get to them. Or, when we do get to them, why they aren’t really perfect.
First up, a future that people are more worried about than thinking will be perfect — a world where the robots do all the work.
Automation may mean a post-work society but we shouldn’t be afraid
Alternatively, some more near-term utopias are all about the work:
The Futurist Start-Up Sui Generis Is Uber, but for Techno-Socialist City States
These city states are modeled on Singapore. They are run as business entities — not democratic.
Lots of trade and commerce of various kinds going on. Also, people can do voluntary “public work” using an Uber-like app to generate income.
Let’s compare these utopias with the surprisingly transhumanist vision of a Disney’s animated film Zootopia.
Here’s a world that enjoys the benefits of animal uplift, but they have achieved it independently — without human help. (Apparently there are no humans in this world.) But even in the over-the-rainbow future where predators no longer eat prey, trouble still has a way of rearing its ugly head — and fangs.
What might this tell us about our own over-the-rainbow futures?
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