Utopia, a poll (with other completely unconnected question)

[andrewducker]

"The Culture" in this case refers to the space-faring civilisation in Iain Banks' awesome series of novels.

[Poll #1792224]

Comments

[andrewducker]

Well it would for you - being told your place would drive you crazy.

For the people living _in_ the utopia it makes them happy and content.

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

Well, by that standard we could simply flood the public water supply with opium and create utopia, because that too would keep them happy and content.

[andrewducker]

If that would work, then yes. But I think you'd also need social change to go along with it. People get bored of opiates, and try to wean themselves off of them. Also, after a while nobody would be left to run the system and it would break down, leaving people starving to death and without opiates any more.

I remember the discussion in BNW of how they tried having less work in the week, but people got bored and were less happy. People need contrasts :->

[pennski.livejournal.com]

For me it's the lack of books that makes it a dystopia. A pretty shallow response I know.