🔵 By Tyler Bowman. Photo by lauragrafie.
A utopia does not exist simply because it cannot exist. Not with any human element involved, at least. And because a utopia by definition requires that there be a society, well, again, there-in lies the problem. This society would have to run perfectly, although, even that in and of itself is rather vague and subjective.
There would have to be precise directives in order to achieve the objective of said society perfectly. Some might argue that utopia, or nirvana, may be experienced in small doses, again subjective, depending on the objective and its intended duration. So if the objective is to create the perfect utopia, or perfect perfect, or utopia utopia, or heavenly nirvana, then an agreed upon set of parameters must be defined. What/who sets these parameters, and how are they measured?
What is perfect anyways but an accepted flaw? There is no utopian village, even one with the population of a single human being. The most sophisticated AI could never hope to produce such a model, ever. Only the existence of a God, and all its implications, could hope to produce such a heaven. And even then, what could that possibly look like? The human in us would have to me removed for the existence of such a place, leaving only one’s soul. But is it not one’s soul that makes them human, too?
All this brings us to the sad reality that no matter how intelligent our species or our creations become, utopias will always be referred to as science fiction or fantasy. It’s an objective less attainable than reasonable space travel and establishing a billion different societies on a billion different planets, none of which would ever become a utopia. For the sake of this essay and its own parameters, my utopia would consist of returning to the unperfect chaos of the world, and to live happily ever after. How’s that for a fantasy?
*Although our world may not be perfect and the allure of escaping our realities may be tempting, each person has the power to be involved in our world’s problems and its solutions. I encourage readers to be involved in the latter, because even though a utopia may be out of reach, it doesn’t mean we cannot come close.