Our Dystopian Future
- lucygardiner
- Jun 21, 2020
- 2 min read
Dystopia, deriving from 'bad place' in Ancient Greek, refers to an imagined place of great suffering or injustice. The complete opposite of the term Utopia. Dystopias are often post-apocalyptic versions of our world, in which society is in ruin.
Dystopian fiction is perhaps so popular due to its reflection on todays current events. All around us we have warnings of some doom that is inevitable to man, whether it be from nuclear war, global warming or the uprise of future AI, we are being fed these idea from all angles. Examples of fictional dystopian worlds can be seen in animations such as Pixar's WALL-E, in which the Earth has been destroyed through pollution and mankind has left the planet behind to fester. In video games such as The Long Dark which captivates players with it's survival situation storyline in which plummeting temperatures and rising crime causes locals to flee their homes and the wilderness chasing after them. As well as books such Cormac McCarthy's The Road, which follows the journey of a father and son battling to stay alive whilst surrounded by threat and danger.
Yet all these versions of a dead or dying world have hope for a better future at their core. A vision that the Earth can once again return to it's original glory or at least some slight version of it. Of course, this would not be possible in reality if we destroy the Earth through pollution or other means, the damage will me irreparable.
I really enjoyed reading an article written by the author Gareth L Powell, in which he describes a world that is united to resolving issue of global warming through engineering that is made possible buy removing political and industrial restraints. Titled Sci-Fi Eye: why a dystopian future isn’t inevitable, Powell talks of this idealistic world in which we ditch the efforts to colonise mars as we realise we are never to succeed and instead focus on out planet.
Could this realisation be the turning point in saving Earth from an environmental catastrophe that leads to our real life dystopia? Can the fear of dystopia drive us closer to utopia?
Sci-Fi Eye: why a dystopia future isn't inevitable.- Gareth L Powell: https://www.theengineer.co.uk/sci-fi-eye-why-a-dystopian-future-isnt-inevitable/
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