Other worlds are possible

Intro

Just imagine a world up to your fantasies? Imagine the world we live in now, the reality we are stuck in would be different by a different decision in the past. Imagine if the movies you watch every day, the series you love and the books you read all night were actually reality. Interesting, isn't it? But including all the consequences. Now imagine horror movies, thrillers and science fiction movies would not just be fantasy, something someone came up with. Sounds frighting right? Imagine if covid had chosen a completely different direction or we would not only be sitting in a pandemic, but we would have a real apocalypse. These are all aspects and ideas for both utopia and dystopia.

Utopia

Utopia is the term for an imaginary world or a multiverse that shows a unique world where social justice is achieved and refers to a perfect society or community. A world during which the desires and demands for an improved future and reality come true. Since utopia may be a representation of people's desires and dreams, it's a comparison to the ‘impossible’. Whereby the impossible can never be achieved because the best society is predicated on political and ethical prosperity like economic commonality and where misery and poverty were exterminated. it's an area or a time or a reality that individuals label as perfect. ‘Utopia means elsewhere’ -John Malkovich But Utopia itself encompasses a different meaning. The word Utopia in Latin itself means "no place"- suggestive that Utopia is an unachievable notion that will never truly exist during this world. It’s natural to dream about utopia but could be a better world an unachievable goal?

The Monkey's Paw by W. W. Jacobs

The demand for a stronger life or an improved world depends on what quantity each individual is willing to pay or sacrifice. In life, there's a tag on everything. In some sense, life is defined by the prices one is willing to pay. this suggests a higher world exists, and it demands payment. within the story *The Monkey's Paw, * William Jacobs writes a man who acquires a magical monkey paw that will grant him three wishes. Much to his dismay, the person finds out that every wish comes with an unintended side effect. When the person wishes for 200 pounds, he receives it as compensation for the death of his son. When he wishes for his son back, he does as an undead being. The universe wants a price and if the person wouldn't choose his sacrifice, it will just be decided for him.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

The price can also harm in other ways. The first step for an ideal world is to eliminate the differences. And differences must not mean the external characteristics of people, but economic status, ethical intentions in life, and political equality of opinion. The residents of Aldous Huxley’s `Brave New World` is a dystopian social science fiction novel. People live in a technologically advanced reality: they're joyful, healthy, and youthful. When their time comes to an end, they go in peace. Class hierarchies exist but everyone has been psychologically ‘brainwashed’ to love their place within them. Babies are genetically engineered. The Citizens of this utopia have no attachments to one another. In other words, every person belongs to everyone. If in time a resident feels low, they can take a pill called Soma to uplift their mood. Soma brings on feelings of euphoria just like a drug with no downsides. To keep the utopia’s ideals of ‘community, stability, and identity ‘, people must make a big sacrifice. They give up their individuality, passion, religion, love, and freedom of choice. These utopias show that the possibility for other worlds is theoretically feasible, although for high prices, but, simply just impossible. Utopian thinking isn’t just confined to literature. The 20th century saw the possibility of many charismatic leaders claiming to know the way to a better future but, wherever they were leading us, the costs were too high. In some ways, human nature wants life the same way as the man with the monkey paw wants: he wanted the benefits of utopia, without the responsibility of bearing the consequences. But a ‘perfect world’ demands a price, and when we give up our responsibility, we give up our individuality and, eventually, our humanity.

Top-down Approach and Bottom-up Approach

Despite these examples, I do believe utopia is possible. This universe works like an algorithm. The algorithms are designed using two ways and these are the top-down and bottom-up approaches. In the top-down approach, the complex module is divided into submodules. On the other hand, the bottom-up approach begins with the bigger element and then transforms them further. You can think about everything at different levels of analysis. The highest level might be something like the universe. The levels that follow that, in incoming order, are the world, the countries, the community, the family or friends, and, lastly, the individual. The lower levels are all nested within the higher levels which means that the levels are all connected. The individual affects the friends and family, which affects society, and creates a domino effect on the higher levels. The opposite is also possible. The issue with conceptualizing utopia is that it gets created at the higher levels such as the community. By starting at the higher levels, we force the lower levels to merge with it. Anything, or anyone, that cannot harmonize with the highest level is seen as a misfit or a threat to utopia. This type of utopia always develops into a type of dystopia. The highest ideal is generated, and all the lower levels are adjusted to reach that ideal. Instead of starting at the highest like the universe, you start at the lowest level possible. In this case, it would be the individual. You start by creating a simple set of rules that govern the individual and lead the system to be reorganized. From individual’s acquaintances, communities, cities, and nations adapt to the new organization. This could affect a harmonization with the universe because they can evolve and adapt.

Marxism - a way of Utopia

When talking about utopia and dystopia, one is aware that these stories are mostly fantasies transformed into literature or entertainment. One that studies the history and movement of communism (which is very similar to the society of Utopians- no one has private property and no money) can see that this society never works out when put into reality with true human society. Thomas More's book Utopia, written 500 years ago, sparked the continuation of not only the philosophy of communism - Marxism - and marked the beginning of the genre of Utopia/Dystopia in literature - in which many books were written either predicting the or simply were novels suggesting what a perfect world would be like. Utopian communism is called a few of the socialist currents that existed in the eighteenth century when philosophers Karl Marx and Federico Engels emerged with their theories of scientific communism. Perfection in society and economy, freedom, unity and equality are the foundation for Utopia, sharing similar ideas to communism. It is an actual system with clear rules and ideas. But since Utopia is a “perfect world”, it is subjective and therefore impossible to achieve.

Opposite of Utopia – Dystopia

Dystopia stems from the word utopia which was created by Sir Thomas Moore in his book of the same name written in 1516. It details a perfect society along with varying details regarding how it functions when this book was made the new world was a relatively new concept to the European public and as such was a prime location for Moore's perfect society. In his book, he also wrote down a dystopia. It tells the story of a conqueror who used his power in a kingdom to dominate other nations. As the opposite of Utopia, Dystopia is a speculated community or society that is undesirable or frightening. Nowadays, many people know dystopian examples, as they are often based on such realities. Science fiction films, series or books are based on fantasies of authors who create an image for another world. The 21st century has given us plenty of futuristic food for thought. Dystopia does not necessarily say a “bad” future, but a futuristic setting is rather a choice by authors who use it to show a terrible destination for the human world in case it stays on a path that it’s on now. In other words, creating a dystopia is a way of issuing a warning about existing or impending dangers. In the 20th century, these dangers were fascism, dictatorships, technocracy, eugenics – those are the reasons why Huxley wrote Brave New World.

Divergent

Divergent is a very well-known example of a dystopia. Society is controlled by the government (or in this case, five organizations) through a tangle of red tape, relentless regulations, and incompetent government regulations. Divergent is set in the future, in a dystopian version of Chicago that has been divided into five factions: Abnegation, Candor, Amity, Dauntless, and Erudite. People are divided into different factions, have their assigned duties, and are not allowed to leave them. The novel is about the protagonist who is one of the few citizens who fights against the system of government. Dystopian Characteristics: -A concept is worshiped by the people in each faction -Independent thought and freedom are restricted -Citizens are perceived to be under constant surveillance -The society (faction) is an illusion of a perfect Utopian world

The Hunger games

The Hunger Games successfully demonstrates the dystopian element of oppression and rebellion. The people of Panem are forced to give their children up to compete in the hunger games and the protagonist unknowingly starts a rebellion ageist the capital. By defying the capital she sparks a rebellion against the oppressing capital. It successfully demonstrates the element of constant surveillance. In the District, the are special police known as the Peacekeepers. They are everywhere and constantly monitor “problem people”. The tributes for the games are always watched before and during the game. The Novel also shows the element about the wage gap: The higher the number of the district, the poverty there is. The people from the Capitol have way more money and are wealthy. The actual Hunger Games is used as propaganda. It makes the citizens listen to the Capitol and remind people the Capitol oversees everything.

Conclusion

If we go back to the real question: Are other worlds possible? Is it possible to get Utopia? This question remains open in many ways because we as individuals cannot change the world. A place where there are no problems or conflicts is impossible because we're too flawed and ignorant to realize our own mistakes and learn from them. On the other hand, humans are only beginning to scratch the surface of technology today. With continued advancements in science and technology coming out daily. In order to achieve utopia, society has to work as one unit.