Fiction Can someone explain the Utopian ideology to me?

[CashewCraft]

I've been poking around on Reddit, forums and such, after one of the powerplay figures caught my attention. Alas, the information I have found about the Utopian regime have been vague at best and guesswork at worst. So I was wandering, could anyone explain to me who exactly these people are? I think I have a general idea, and so far it has made me interested in jumping ship from Zachary Hudson (whom I care little for anyway, what with the suspicious circumstances surrounding Starship one.) over to the Utopian boat.

I have not played any of the frontier games and have only played a little of the original elite, so if you could bear that in mind.

 

[Markovich]

I would love to know the answer to that question as well. Most of the people say that they are cultists/religious fanatics, but it seems to be like that is not the case. They don't have Gods or and Deity, what they do believe in is science and technology, and since science and technology are coming from scientific methods - it is far from being a religion or "just a theory". So yeah, it is definitely ideology, not a cult or religion.

Now, is it a good ideology, I don't know. It seems to like it is similar to communism - good on paper, but hard to make it reality with the human nature. We humans are individualists, only taking care of our own ass, and those close to us who can actually help our ass. So Utopia is really just that - Utopia. Because of that Pranav needs to use some suspicious methods to actually chance human behavior - like those sims that they are using to persuade people to change their views. In a sense they are washing their brains but with the good intent. Even then it is still questionable ethics wise....

Overall, it seems to me like all the powers are good or evil to extent. Winters is probably the only really positive one. I started playing for Utopia though - simply because I love science and I do believe that it is a reachable goal for humanity if culture changes enough to overcome the genetics of human beings.

 

[Susimetsa]

Traditionally, utopia has referred to a sort of a communist society where everyone works for common good and more or less everything is shared. An example is the Finnish built utopia outside Vancouver, BC, called Sointula. Finns moved there and built a fine commune that survived only for a short time. The leader, Matti Kurikka(*, was basically an idealist with no talent for realism and bankrupted the entire community by offering to build a bridge for the City of Vancouver for a pittance (not realising that cutting and transporting wood from the island to the mainland would be hard work). He managed to anger the people who had joined him, building the village and the entire thing pretty much collapsed afterwards. In the 1960's the island was overtaken by hippies and very few Finns live there anymore.

So, the ideal utopia would certainly be a great place to live in, but human nature being what it is, such a place could never survive for long.

*) Matti Kurikka was also a newspaper man and a fiction writer. He actually wrote one pretty decent werewolf short story as well.

 

[Markovich]

Susimetsa that is interesting I didn't know that. Historically I can agree with you that it can't work, because of human nature. However, if population stops at 10 billion, which is predicted, and if we get unlimited energy (Fusion for example), plus technology advancement - maybe that would open doors to something like Utopia. As long as resources are limited - human nature will prevent it from happening, as you already said.

 

[Susimetsa]

Susimetsa that is interesting I didn't know that. Historically I can agree with you that it can't work, because of human nature. However, if population stops at 10 billion, which is predicted, and if we get unlimited energy (Fusion for example), plus technology advancement - maybe that would open doors to something like Utopia. As long as resources are limited - human nature will prevent it from happening, as you already said.

Indeed, unlimited energy and Star Trek like replicator technology might provide the necessary basis for utopia as well. Provided that no one would have to work to keep the system up and it would all be automated. As long as there are clearly separate work force layers in existence I doubt we'll achieve the kind of harmony that is required for a technological utopia. Furthermore, I'd be worried that limitless energy and replicators would stop people from striving forward and our level of technology would pretty much peak there with no further development in view...

 

[whozk]

Indeed, unlimited energy and Star Trek like replicator technology might provide the necessary basis for utopia as well. Provided that no one would have to work to keep the system up and it would all be automated. As long as there are clearly separate work force layers in existence I doubt we'll achieve the kind of harmony that is required for a technological utopia. Furthermore, I'd be worried that limitless energy and replicators would stop people from striving forward and our level of technology would pretty much peak there with no further development in view...

Actually, Star Trek even covered how they avoided that, too.
Asserting dominance is ingrained in the human mind from conception. The greater the tech, the greater the power. The greater the power, the greater the temptation.