Utopia, Dystopia, and the False Binary

Two illusions about the future—both missing complexity.

Focus:

• The dangers of techno-utopia and fear-based dystopia

• Black Mirror vs. Star Trek: competing futures of collective imagination

• How fiction shapes policy and belief (narrative power)

• Realism: localized adaptive systems over grand idealism

• Collapse as bifurcation, not binary: multiple futures unfolding

Optional Cheatsheet: “Future Visions: Escaping the Utopia/Dystopia Trap”