Utopia not imagined

[code1211]

Well, the first thing Alduous Huxley did when he wrote his dystopian Utopia novel "Brave New World" was to remove choice and replace it with illusion of choice.
Echoed in the Matrix movies in a frequently misunderstood scene as: "The problem is choice".

Pop-culture references aside, there is a nice little book written by a guy named Noah Harari titled "Sapiens".
It describes how a certain group of primates seems to have become dominant on the planet in large part by being weak but fairly smart, and therefore prone to a species-based type of anxiety that spurs constant innovation. If that hypothesis is accurate, it would also imply (among a great many other things) that if we were ever to achieve Utopia, we would immedately start evolving our way out of it; a conclusion that resonates fairly well with my own preconceptions.

Regarding the highlight, we will need to evolve our way into it first.

We are, by our nature, competitive. If everyone is miserable, then we are happy. If any are less miserable, we want "more" to match up with the less miserable.

That is what the Democrat Party seems to be based on today. That group has more than your group. Burn that building down.

The foundation of Utopia calls for a Universal attitude of gratitude. If even one person in the Utopia is not thankful for his lot, that is the end of that Utopia.

 

[HangLow]

Actually not true. Human nature certainly includes violence brutality, but also empathyand care, love and hate, generosity or greed, etc...

Which we are depends on which we choose. Appealing to "human nature" to say we HAVE to act one way or the other because we are hardwired that way is just shirking responsibility and freedom to choose to do the right, but harder thing. Appeal to human nature is just an excuse.

This is not personal opinion. It is the opinion of lots of different kinds of people who study human nature: anthropologists, sociologists, historians, philosophers, psychologists, etc...

​

 

[ataraxia]

OK, but is free will (individual freedom to choose) compatible with Utopia?

It is very contingent on how smart and prudent vs shortsighted and stupid we are.

 

[reinaert]

Depends on whether you think it means good-place or no-place.

 

[quip]

Do you think there's any merit in thinking Utopia possible if the humans who create it in the future have advanced and evolved to hold a philosophical/moral outlook on society that we can not conceive of yet?

Perhaps in our distant evolutionary future. As long as human survival entails a finite supply of necessary resources, there'll be a dominate group which will devise a means for acquiring them.
Perhaps technology coupled with human evolution will render this instinct obsolete.