Imagine you are the leader of a great rebellion that just overthrew the most powerful government on the planet and now with all this power, you must now dictate what kind of society is best in your mind…
Given unlimited resources to complete your goals, what would be the main factors of your utopia? How would things be run? How would society function? How would your economy operate?
“Given unlimited resources to complete your goals… … how would your economy operate?”
You might want to delete the last question.
Anyway, mine is to centralise philosophy, sciences, arts, sports… and most importantly, exploiting the universe for new planets and living beings.
The quote “given unlimited resources to complete your goals,” was in reference only towards installing the utopia…after that the unlimited resources rule would no longer apply…in which case, you would need a system to manage your utopian economy.
Anyway…your utopia would mainly focus on perfecting the human condition through physical and mental exercise, as well as an overall goal of space flight to obtain knowledge of the universe outside of the spectrum of the naked eye?
I convey a message here: those things that I mentioned are the best of us, the elite of us should devote into. Nothing to do with perfecting the human physique. The goal is to get happy without screwing everyone else around you in competition for material resources. Too bad the current world is more or less this way, one more reason to go con!
Forget about space fight, it’s just my way of suggesting a new thing to do just in case that we run out of what we can do here on earth.
Okay, so we’ve overthrown the Illuminati. I would like a society with inspiration from a late-Medieval society, complete with a soft-Theocracy (freedom to practice anything decent) over the hereditary Kings, and guilds moderating business and employment. Also, from the present age, I would include more technology (guilds for scientists too), economic safety nets, and constitutional monarchy would have elected houses of government. (The King is there for stability and propriety – having at least veto power.)
I always thought it would be interesting if the Star Trek crew met a monk in their travels – more like a Babylon 5 type of thing, I guess.
Ah!.. City air makes free!!!
un chevalier mal fet
Utopia, circa 2075
My ideal Utopia is a constitutional republic with a very small government concerning itself primarily with maintaining the nations infrastructure, defending the borders and providing for the national defense. Courts exist to enforce the laws, and a limited number of federal agencies exist regulate food, medicine, aviation and the like. There is no IRS, and very little taxation is needed as the government doesnn’t provide many services.
The Utopian Constitution has something akin to the Bill for Rights, except that the equivalent of the 2nd amendment is worded in such a way that Teddy Kenedy wouldn’t have been able to keep a straight face and argue it didn’t guarentee the RtKaBA for all citizens. All citizens have an affirmative right of self defense, although a combination of an armed populace and very low poverty rates has made violent crime a near non-issue. But the law makes no pretense that the weapons are meant for hunting or mere self defense: the constitution recognizes that government, like fire, is a dangerous tool and a fearful master. The people recognize that an armed populace is a free populace and that no legitimate government ever fears its people. Therefore, in the interest of freedom from enemies from without, and future tyrants from within, the affirmative right to own personal weapons will not be abridged or limited.
The laws prohibit the establishment of a state sponsored religion, but don’t interfere with the public practice of religion. Not that it’s much of an issue. Between a libertine carriculum taught from grade K on up, the public is enlightened enough that religion is mostly just a the relic of the rustic past. The people also are enlightened and enobled enough to understand that suffering by any member of society dimishes them all. There’s very little government handouts, but little is needed- there exists a very robust safety net of private and corporate philanthropy. The economy is be capitalistic, but the people instictively understand that the social contract that binds the fabric of civilization together is based on the sure knowledge that the wealth distribution must benefit the society as a whole, not just the 1/2 of 1% at the very top. Relatively low taxes provide an incentive for corporate philanthropy the likes of which have never been seen in human history.
My Utopia is built on forward thinkinig technologies. The citizens of Utopia learned that the Earth is fragile and that we must live in harmony with it, not in opposition to it. Much of the power is provided by 100 sq mile ocean wave stations. Geothermal provides power to large sections of areas with good access to the Earths’ heat, as does wind power. Cold fusion reactors, financed entirely by private enterprises with no tax money, have only recently come online, creating nearly free energy for the entire planet. Advanced applications of genetic research on plants yeilded draught & insect resistant crops that require a fraction of the water of older strains. These advances, couple with nearly limitless cheap, clean energy (along with comprehensive population control measures) virtually stamped out hunger by 2040.
The typical work week for an average person is around 25 hours. Automation has replaced most of the most arduous and dangerous jobs. The average person spends several months per year travelling and enriching himself spiritually and intellectually.
The Medical Tort Reform Act of 2022 has had two remarkable effects: one, a new system of Tort and malpractice law combined with advanced medical technology has made quality heathcare available to everyone in the society. Frivolous lawsuits are thing of the past, as are the deplorable early 21st century practices by legal bean counters to weigh potential profits from drugs vs human lives. Now foisting off unsafe drugs designed to make a quick buck from a trusting public is punishable by imprisonment of the entire board of directors of the company. And the 2035 law banning patents on new medicines & prohibiting all advertising of prescription drugs has drastically lowered the prices of all pharmaceuticals. Now, instead of 14% of all drug company budgets going to research while 45% go to marketing, as it was back in 2005, the bulk of moneys go to researching better medicines. With rampant lawsuits and corporate profiteering a thing of the past, work in stem cell research & gene therapy led to a cure for cancer in 2024, a cure for AIDs in 2026, and a universal innoculent for influenza in 2029. Work with epithilial stem cells has led to gene therapies that have extended the average human lifespan to over 140 years, and more promising techniques are in the pipeline.
One unfortunate and unforseen result of the tort reform, however, was that by 2023, nearly 90% of societies attorneys were out of work. Corporate retraining programs were able to find most of them useful roles in society, however.
Part of the incredible wealth and vitality of Utopia came from abolishing the IRS and the Federal income tax. With the State performing just those functions that only a government can effectively do (eg road building, national defense, etc), the State takes very little money to run, and most of that is raised on taxes on the few nonrenewable energy sources used for aviation, transportation taxes and from a national sales tax on non-commodities. A huge amount of taxpayer burden was relieved when the government abandoned cradle-to-grave entitlement programs in 2026. A combination of lower taxes, restructered employer 401ks and private retirement accounts called IRA24’s (after the Social Security Restructuring Act of '24) has given all citizens an effective retirement fund with minimal governent intrusion.
The society is not completely perfect. Improved meteorological and geological equipment has nearly eliminated deaths from storms and earthquakes, but there is still loss of property. Despite a great intellectual awakening, flame wars and trolling on the SuperNet Philosophy Discussion HoloWeb has sadly not entirely gone away. And despite a new 3.5 trillion dollar stadium in Minneapolis, the Vikings have still not managed to win a Super Bowl.
Wonderful post Phaedrus…I loved your points on the medical industry and laughed wholeheartedly at your comment on the Vikings…I really like your idea about a government that requires very little, being as it provides very little. Your utopia sounds like the closest thing that would happen if people pulled their heads out of their asses and starting thinking with them.
What about religion?
Unfortunatley, Utipia means “no place.” 
And sadly, the only part of my utopian prognostication that’s likely to come true is the part about the Vikes. 
I hope medical science increases our lifespans long enough for me to see them win one! 
Just one possible way society could evolve. Or maybe we’ll become more religious. I don’t really know.
The Picean Age is ending Phaedrus…soon the Aquarian Age will take over and silly religion won’t be much of an obstacle towards keeping man from discovering more secrets about the universe.
My perfect utopia would be reminecient of communism, The government power structure wqould noit look like a pyramid, but a pyramid with the top 3/4 chopped off. Their would be a ruling council each divised into groups to oversee different aspects of society:Transport, Construction, health care, education etc… their wont be any “leader” but a colaboration of groups with mutual intrest in each other, these groups would be monitored by another group. This monitor group will have no authority except to make sure everyone is doing their jobs, not other peoples jobs, the people they oversee do the same for them, all government exploits are open to the public. Thisa way the government is for the people, by the people. People will have to apply to a review board to get their names signed up to the voting list. After they are approved by this board, they are voted in by the people. This way it will limit the number of sleaze bags entering office. the government operates all vital functions of society, but since all exploits are open to the public, they will not be able to hide anything. In the future machines will do most of the work, and money will become more and more futile. There, a society that is designed to limit our human tendancies of greed and powerseeking, and limits the power of money, both of which has been the persuit of humanitys elite since … well as far back as i can tell.
A society based on people will be much harder to corrupt than societies based on money and power.
This should help humanity for a while if this ever happened.
First, I would not come to power by rebelling, but if by fair means I have resources to complete my goals, utopia would look something like this -
Earth is not owned by anyone, not even the government. Therefore, as soon as a person is born, since he cannot live in space, he is immediately entitled to own a piece of land that will be his for life. He can emigrate/migrate of course. I would change that to free standard housing in exchange for income tax, according to age for all. Houses go on for ever (a long time) and we like stupid people waste energy again and again and again for housing unnecessarily even though the whole earth (land) is FREE!!!
Since love is a feeling and liable to change, therefore, forget love, consider money as making the world go round. Money has to find equitable distribution. In essence, a basket ball player with the same amount of energy spent as the dishwasher, will get paid the same. Don’t laugh because money is the prime reason for most of the problems in this world, even the problems related to love. Equal rights in a marriage would not exist at the end but throughout, spouses who earn, half of their cheque goes to the other spouse right from the source.
I wouldn’t need anything more!!!