Utopia: The Next Big Thing

What if we had to invent Utopia? What if we’d done everything else and there was nothing left to do? Might as well make Utopia, eh?

The biggest impediment to utopia has always been population growth. So long as the world’s population was growing exponentially, utopia could be no more than an ephemeral, regional dream. Eventually the chaos of overpopulation would disrupt the entire world. So, for a long time—forever, really—utopia has been a visionary dream, an impossible fantasy, a foolish dawdle in the sands of time.

It turns out we were wrong; we’re not going to die of overpopulation. We won’t all be forced to revert to vegetarianism. We will survive. Unless, of course, we don’t. But we now know it won’t be because of too many people. It appears that crisis is over. Women are having less babies. Everywhere. Even in the jungle, on the steppes, in the mountains. Suddenly everyone has an iPhone and less babies. Perhaps they’re too busy talking these days. “Not now, Tonto, I’m on the phone.”

Distribution will still be a problem, but at least not as desperately as before. We’ll have time to figure the kinks out. Once population stabilizes, we can all stop racing for the bottom. Yes, we can start the socialistic redistribution of wealth. There, I’ve said it. Yes, we can do it; we can make the world rich. We’ve got the time. We’ve got nothing but the time.

Look at it this way: either we’re going to kill ourselves off tomorrow with warfare or environmental degradation or not. If the world-wide reduction in all forms of violence, including war, continues as it has for the past 40,000 years, we’ll probably escape armed obliteration; and it seems we can and are getting a handle on pollution.

That only leaves us with greed and madness. We should be able to handle those, no?

So, isn’t that utopia? A sustainable world reaching out to the stars? What more could we want? Is that not our destiny?

You coming?