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http://io9.com/371704/paradise-is-a-lie-a-history-of-false-utopias
Paradise Is A Lie: A History Of False Utopias [False Utopias]
By Charlie Jane Anders on triviagasm
If you're living in a shiny happy world where everything is provided to
you, and your white pajamas never ever get stained, then chances are
you're in a false utopia. Someone's going to be coming and harvesting
your organs, or culling you at age 30, or drugging you into obedience.
The fake paradise built on a foundation of shit seems to flourish most
during times when technology seems to be solving all our problems (like
during the dotcom boom.) Click through for a list of false utopias.
You could argue that most dystoipan movies are really false utopias,
because the rulers of a dark, bleak dystopia (like, say, Brazil) still
try to pretend that everything is perfect and wonderful. The difference
is, most dystopias start out bleak and dark, and just get more horrid
until the protagonist is forced to confront the darkness around him/her.
But in the "false utopia" subcategory of dystopias, everything is bright
and wonderful, and the main character is either getting some great
drugs, or having lots of fun sex, or both in the case of Brave New
World.
The "false utopia" genre, says Transparency Now,
shows humanity lost in false paradises of technology and simulation.
In one subcategory, we see enclosed high-tech cities or habitations with
apparently well-ordered societies full of people who are trapped by
their dependence on automation and computers. They may also live
decadent lifestyles that serve to distract them from the truth of their
circumstances.
Here's a brief and cheerful history of fake utopias:
1909. "The Machine Stops" by E.M. Forster. Forster's reaction to some of
H.G. Wells' more optimistic fiction. In the distant future, humans live
underground, each in a separate "cell," with all of his or her needs
provided for by the all-powerful Machine. Human culture stagnates, and
people wrongly believe they can't survive on the surface of the Earth
without protection. Over time, people start to worship the Machine like
a god, forgetting they made it. And then eventually the Machine starts
to break down.
bnw.jpg1932. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. It's 2540, and
everybody's drugged up to the gills on Soma, a sort of
anti-depressant/psychotropic, and people can learn in their sleep.
There's lots and lots of casual sex and orgies, and people chanting
"orgy porgy" while having orgies. It's awesome. Oh, and people are
incubated artificially instead of being born "naturally." The lower
classes are engineered to be less intelligent and curious than the upper
classes.
1956. The City And The Stars by Arthur C. Clarke. It's a billion years
in the future, and humans have mostly abandoned Earth to go off and
create super-ultra-awesome minds in space. In the domed city of Diaspar,
people lead perfect lives, governed by the Central Computer. When they
die, the Computer stores their memories and grows new bodies for them,
making them nearly immortal. But then it turns out humans have been lied
to about why they have to stay on Earth.
1971. The Futurological Congress by Stanislaw Lem. Ijon Tichy goes to
sleep (or does he?) and wakes up in the trippy year of 2039, an utopian
era without money or want. Everybody's mood is kept carefully controlled
using drugs. Many people have pointed out the similarities of this
drug-induced utopia to The Matrix: At one point, Tichy's girlfriend
offers him a choice between two pills: The black pill will make him
forget their relationship, the white pill will make him commit more
deeply.
1976. Logan's Run, the movie based on the 1969 novel by William F. Nolan
and George Clayton Johnson. Everything is perfect in the domed city,
with all the casual sex and meaningless hedonism you could ever want.
Machines provide for all of your needs, but there's one drawback -- when
you turn 30, you have to die.
1994. The Giver by Lois Lowry. In this award-winning young-adult novel,
it's a perfect world: bad feelings and conflict have been eliminated,
thanks to perfect communication and drugs. (It's always drugs.) People
get around by bicycle, and there are very few cars or airplanes.
Romantic love and sexual desire (called "stirrings") are illegal, and
are suppressed via medication. Instead, couples are matched up based on
compatibility and can adopt up to two children from "birth mothers": one
boy and one girl. Here's a Christian review warning against this book
based on a misconception that it's actually utopian.
1998. The Truman Show. Truman lives in a lovely small town, surrounded
by nice people, with possibly the only job in the insurance industry
that doesn't totally suck. The only problem is, he can never leave town,
and he's kept scared of the ocean by a fake story about his father
drowning. He doesn't realize that everything in his world is a lie, and
he's really one of the Pussycat Dolls.
2002. Equilibrium. I he
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