I write a Substack (https://lifeonsaturn.substack.com/) on projects that are envisioning a liberated future and actually building it in the here and now – like housing cooperatives and clean energy projects. I'm trying to share projections of how might we live, learn, heal and care for each other after the revolution (!)
I would love to include some examples of projects that are using technology to move towards utopia but I find that so much of the writing around tech innovation is either VC-driven (at best, solving middle class inconveniences, and at worst, enabling deeper exploitation/harm of vulnerable communities). As a result a lot of social justice warriors (🙋🏼♂️) tend to opt out of the conversation or only talk about tech harms – thereby depriving progressives of power to shape the future.
I don't want to contribute to that and I believe that tech can be a force for good – but I don't have really compelling examples 😬
My question for this community is: which projects would you point to?
Best examples of tech utopia?
byu/HumorVirtual8967 inFuturology
2 Comments
Two words: Star Trek
The Federation is the purest example of “Luxury Gay Space Communism” that represents a true post-scarcity society brought about by technological advances that are spread broadly and not hoarded by billionaires.
StarTrek has been mentioned. But you want concrete examples, that are not just green washing, which are hard to come by.
This is very difficult to provide definate examples because when you dig deeper most projects end up failing.
I was involved in getting recycling bins provided at a large location. Most people where willing to separate plastics, paper, glass etc but a very small minority seemed to delight in mixing the items together or dumping rubish in with the recycling, it took months to try to get them to stop, eventually having to ban them from using the facility. They seemed gleefully delighted in just making the world a worse place and sucking up everyone’s time.
That however wasn’t the main problem. We discovered the town municipality dutifuly picked up the recycling, keeping it all separate until it got to the final destination, passing through a couple of companies. It was then mixed together and thrown in landfill.
It seemed the municipality knew this but ‘technically’ could claim a green credit because they’d treated the recycling properly when they were directly handing it. We looked further and every municipality did exactly the same thing. Every single green recycling scheme was a fraud. We’d done our best to be green and had spent ages organising things, but all we’d done is add extra steps that added costs without any actual benefit.
I’ve had similar discussions with other (more professional) activists. The majority of green schemes don’t have any long-term environmental benefit. Envromentals go along with it because it’s raising awareness and it is changing public behaviours, but any real progress is short circuited by hidden disinsentives and short term profit motive. My concern is that it lets people feel good about ‘going green’ but lulls people into passivity thinking they are making a difference. If you list any schemes you need to provide verification that they provide an actual green benefit, not just publicity and making people feel good.
Sorry for the whinge but it’s disheartening to support a scheme then to find out that it’s all ultimately pointless.