Today I set forth to writing a long and winded discussion over whether the world at large is headed towards dystopia or utopia, but you know what? It doesn't really matter at all, it's frivolous to even be contemplating about such matters if your intention is other than to write a science fiction novel/story.
See, the thing is we're living now and we should make the most of it. What we're headed towards doesn't matter at all because it's too far removed from now. Dystopia nor utopia is coming next week, next year or even in the next decade. Why? Simply because it cannot and even if it does we won't notice.
The world of today seems utopic in many ways for the people living in the middle ages, but it seems completely normal to the people from the 1990's because the transition is smooth rather than immediate. The few times anything changes in a quick manner the change is so abrupt people cannot live with it and it either destroys or engulfs them. If utopia were to come tomorrow I'm fairly certain 50% of us would die in the process and the other 50% would have to follow a strict regime governed by an outside entity just to keep utopia going.
Dystopia is a bit simpler to come by, but again falls under the same basic rules of killing many and forcing the other many into strange compromises. And quite often the line between utopia and dystopia is so greatly blurred it's nigh impossible to distinguish between the two and it's merely a matter of degree. Want a war-free world? Well you're gonna have to lose all your privacy for that because otherwise it's impossible to make sure there is nobody around who's decided they hate the world as it is and want to change it. Want infinite life and lack of genetic deseases? Well then you have to go into genetic manipulations and it's only pragmatic that genetic racism would come around soon enough. Even if outlawed, which is logical.
So in the end I've come to the conclusion of simply not bothering about what happens with the world. I'll do my best to make my mark in it and to get as fluently as possible from today to tomorrow. If on the way I accidentally contribute to either utopia or dystopia so be it and if I don't then who cares.
Continue reading about Heading for dystopia or utopia?
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