Most Utopian World in Fiction

[Commodore]

If we take the unofficial expanded universe of my little pony into consideration sex won't be a problem

If this site weren't moderated as well as it is, I would say you just opened the floodgates for all sorts of disturbing things with this post.

 

[Kaitzilla]

Thomas More's Utopia, of course.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopia_(book)

There is no private property on Utopia, with goods being stored in warehouses and people requesting what they need. There are also no locks on the doors of the houses, which are rotated between the citizens every ten years. Agriculture is the most important job on the island. Every person is taught it and must live in the countryside, farming for two years at a time, with women doing the same work as men. Parallel to this, every citizen must learn at least one of the other essential trades: weaving (mainly done by the women), carpentry, metalsmithing and masonry. There is deliberate simplicity about these trades; for instance, all people wear the same types of simple clothes and there are no dressmakers making fine apparel. All able-bodied citizens must work; thus unemployment is eradicated, and the length of the working day can be minimised: the people only have to work six hours a day (although many willingly work for longer). More does allow scholars in his society to become the ruling officials or priests, people picked during their primary education for their ability to learn. All other citizens are however encouraged to apply themselves to learning in their leisure time.

Slavery is a feature of Utopian life and it is reported that every household has two slaves. The slaves are either from other countries or are the Utopian criminals. These criminals are weighed down with chains made out of gold. The gold is part of the community wealth of the country, and fettering criminals with it or using it for shameful things like chamber pots gives the citizens a healthy dislike of it. It also makes it difficult to steal as it is in plain view. The wealth, though, is of little importance and is only good for buying commodities from foreign nations or bribing these nations to fight each other. Slaves are periodically released for good behaviour. Jewels are worn by children, who finally give them up as they mature.

Other significant innovations of Utopia include: a welfare state with free hospitals, euthanasia permissible by the state, priests being allowed to marry, divorce permitted, premarital sex punished by a lifetime of enforced celibacy and adultery being punished by enslavement. Meals are taken in community dining halls and the job of feeding the population is given to a different household in turn. Although all are fed the same, Raphael explains that the old and the administrators are given the best of the food. Travel on the island is only permitted with an internal passport and any people found without a passport are, on a first occasion, returned in disgrace, but after a second offence they are placed in slavery. In addition, there are no lawyers and the law is made deliberately simple, as all should understand it and not leave people in any doubt of what is right and wrong.

Utopia seems really hit or miss to me.

 

[gay_Aleks]

I think we all can ignore the whole slavery business and focus on one thing: "There are no lawyers".

 

[Leoreth]

Hm, interesting. Because in the grand scheme of things nothing changes or because it felt unrelateable?

Because of the weird combination of (trans)human characters being boring and AIs usually having the more interesting character while at the same time not being as relatable.

Another problem is that people living in a society where most needs are already satisfied are unlikely to have interesting struggles. I guess the question of how to make your life worthwhile in such a setting is an interesting one, but in my opinion it doesn't make for a good story. It's like watching rich white people struggle with their petty relationship problems in picturesque locations in one of those feel good TV romance productions.

For instance, in The Player of Games, the main character is not only utterly boring, but also everything important that happens during the plot is completely unrelated to his actions. What a protagonist!

Don't get me wrong, I think The Culture is a great sci-fi setting, I just wish I cared about anything that happens in it.

 

[Hygro]

Still don't know why they don't make their whole bridge a holodeck....

 

[gay_Aleks]

Still don't know why they don't make their whole bridge a holodeck....

Perhaps it's mounted to the Fourth Wall. Or even worse, the original crew is dead, and the Computer is playing holograms to it's amusement...

 

[EgonSpengler]

Still don't know why they don't make their whole bridge a holodeck....

Thinking much about the science and technology in Star Trek is a sure way to give yourself a migraine.

 

[gay_Aleks]

Thinking much about the science and technology in Star Trek is a sure way to give yourself a migraine.

To be fair, that applies to most (except the harder ones, which ST really isn't.) Sci-fi, too. Tech is a tooi to tell a story, and plausibility remains at a second place.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

I presume a plausible explanation is so that a "power fluctuation" or whatever will not make the bridge disappear. Seems very problematic if that happens in a battle situation.
A better question is: Why are there no holo soldiers? Though in general VOY made an absolute wreck out of holo technology. One glaring thing was that the doctor's identity was apparently stored in his "holo matrix" - which was his physical appearance. But shouldn't it be stored in the freaking computer? A cheap trick to make him more like a human. TNG put a lot more thought into the plausibility of its technology than VOY.