THEORY 2.03 Imagining The Future: Utopias, Dystopias and the 'New Man'
Utopia
An Imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect.
Dystopia
The opposite of Utopia, Dys- meaning bad, badly, depraved, difficult, working badly, painful.
Utopias do not just refer to the future, but could also be refrence to the past, and to something that we have lost.
Fictions grouped as utopias (Raymond Williams):
An Imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect.
Dystopia
The opposite of Utopia, Dys- meaning bad, badly, depraved, difficult, working badly, painful.
Utopias do not just refer to the future, but could also be refrence to the past, and to something that we have lost.
Fictions grouped as utopias (Raymond Williams):
- Paradice
- Externally Altered World
- Willed Transformation
- Technological Transformation
Film to watch: HG Wells's "Things to Come"
Video to watch: Classroom of the future 1987
4 main types of dystopias:
- The Hell
- The Externally Altered World
- The Willed Transformation
- The technological transformation
A good example of a dystopia caused by technological transformation is "The Matrix"
We tend to create and imagine dystopias more than previous centuries due to certain events such as the World Wars, The Great Crash of the US stock markets, Terrorism, Genetics
Utopias are usually a comparison of the present
Exponents of radical ecology frequently criticise human alienation from nature, and suggest a return to nature, an "Ecotopia"
The advocates of the new virtual urbanism seek to impress us, and tell us than new technological systems will help create a better life. The real question is what do these advocates want us to buy in to?
Building The New Man
Watch the new "Robocop" movie as a good example of asking how technology affects human nature.
Cyborg (Cybernetic Organism)
Hybrid of Machine and Man
The idea was originally the result of military research in to the prostheticization of the human body for space travel.
Posthuman theorization
The theory that the human body can be improved on using technology
The case against and for Utopia
Exponents of radical ecology frequently criticise human alienation from nature, and suggest a return to nature, an "Ecotopia"
The advocates of the new virtual urbanism seek to impress us, and tell us than new technological systems will help create a better life. The real question is what do these advocates want us to buy in to?
Building The New Man
Watch the new "Robocop" movie as a good example of asking how technology affects human nature.
Cyborg (Cybernetic Organism)
Hybrid of Machine and Man
The idea was originally the result of military research in to the prostheticization of the human body for space travel.
Posthuman theorization
The theory that the human body can be improved on using technology
The case against and for Utopia
The perception that we can create a purer society, but doing so we are dismissing those who we do not like
VS
A perspective and motivational idea, to produce positive changes, and to dream on how to make our lives better
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