The perfect Society...

N

NenarTronian

Teenaged Transhumanist
Registered Senior Member
What would it be like? What government system would it be, or would it be a new one? How would the nation/city be run? I'm a fan of sci-fi so i'm really interested in how a realistic Utopia would work.

Here's a good read (huge though): Plato's Republic

Plato was the first dude we know of who gave serious (and philosophical of course) thought to Utopias and how they'd work. Way to go, Pla-to!
 
Have you read any fiction lately? There is tons of the stuff out there. I'm of the opinion of most of the authors: It doesn't work. At least, not very long. Eventually, someone somewhere is going to break out, and it will then all go down the hole. It always happens in fiction, is always happened in real life. I, personally, would not be able to survive for long in most of the ones presented.

The main problem is that everyone has to be continually working at it, and that just won't happen.
 
You are right. But maybe the very act of a society STRIVING to achieve a perfect society, IS the perfect society?

Something to ponder
 
A utopia is generally considered a state where nobody is in pain, dies of causes other than natural, and gets enough to eat. Basically, no pain and suffering.
 
?? Perfection is a path, not a state (something similar I saw on my biology teacher's desk)
 
Thats a really good question, i think a worl dthat is rationally balanced in power.... but then again I think the world that we have got is doing OK
 
A utopia is generally considered a state where:

nobody is in pain:
People will find someway to feel pain. I know a person who, in order to get sympathy creates pain...

dies of causes other than natural:
We may achieve in 60 years or so. Again exceptions will be war, major accidents etc. May be in 200 years we might replicate ourselves and transfer the memory...

and gets enough to eat:
50 years
 
May I suggest Thomas More's, Utopia, as an interesting (and occasionally humorous) view of how a 16th century gentleman conceived a utopian world.

Here's an excerpt from his chapter dealing with marriage:

"Before marriage some grave matron presents the bride naked, whether she is a virgin or a widow, to the bridegroom; and after that some grave man presents the bridegroom naked to the bride....All men are not so wise as to choose a woman only for her good qualities; and even wise men consider the body as that which adds not a little to the mind: and it is certain there may be some such deformity covered with the clothes as may totally alienate a man from his wife when it is too late to part from her. If such a thing is discovered after marriage, a man has no remedy but patience."

This wise precaution has generally become superfluous in the West today. ;)

Michael
 
LOL, thanks for the excertp and advice, Orthogonal. Actually, this and about 20 other books like it are on my "books to buy list". For whenever i get money to buy them, that is...
 
How about enough space? All this life extention stuff might tip the ecological scale even more off balance...it's wayy to much in favor of humans even now...

Note! I am a human. I am not an anti-human animal activist!! So do not take it the wrong way.
 
How could you not know her?? *expression of shock and disbelief**temporary heart failure*

It's the character Lina Inverse from "Slayers". It's a JApanese fantasy anime, y'know, the standard dragons/magic/deathgod bit. It's a teeeny weeeeny bit cliched, but any Japanese anime is good. Those artists put themselves INto the pictures, not anything like the cheap Spiderman comics trash you find all over the place in the US. Not that I'm insulting you American comics artists :D Japanese artists just make a whole lot more effort with a whole lot more skill.
 
Originally posted by Zero
How about enough space? All this life extention stuff might tip the ecological scale even more off balance...it's wayy to much in favor of humans even now...

Note! I am a human. I am not an anti-human animal activist!! So do not take it the wrong way.
Click to expand...

Always look at the big picture...

Higher the technology - more people needed to support it. Complex the technology - more experienced people needed to support it.

more experienced=more years. Retirement age should be extended to 100 in 2020.
 
I haven't been able to browse anime as much as I'd like. Forgive my ignorance.:eek:
 
*still clutching chest*

Ach. I still do not approve of all this life extension stuff. Oh well. maybe I'll weaken when I am 90 with cancer and everything. Ugh, what would I look like?:bugeye:
 
Originally posted by Zero
Ugh, what would I look like?:bugeye:
Click to expand...


oldman.jpg
 
That aint bad. I could live with it.

I absolutely refuse to be convinced that there can be such a thing as utopia on the face of this earth. It is a limit, you keep trying to reach a certain point but you never get to it.

Mount a good argument and try to convince me if you want to.
 
Perhaps utopia would not be a perfect society, but a society striving to be perfect.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top