Dystopia vs. protopia: harnessing the power of imagination

In the mid-20th century, much of the world experienced optimism with science fiction in entertainment mediums. World War 2 ended while the Cold War preserved a status quo equilibrium between the emergent great powers of the United States and the Soviet Union. The Soviets sent Yuri Gagarin into space. NASA sent men to the moon. While the possibility of nuclear war gripped the world in fear, there was also a hopeful outlook. Global problems from energy to disease and famine were to be solved by technological progress in both the East and the West. By 1975, the Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft were docking together above the Earth. Space and exploration were to lead the way to peace and prosperity for all. Do we still share this vision of the future?

Science fiction played a large part in driving this collective imagination. The 1963 Soviet film Mechte Navstrechu¹ (A Dream Come True) depicts the struggle of the journey to build collaboration, trust, and a new future with personal sacrifice. It is an adventure into space with an alien message for Earth that remains untold, a story still to be completed by us.

In the West, the 1966 television series Star Trek, took us to a future of no money, little disease, and plentiful free energy. Science fiction and media entertainment of the time illustrated an exploration of various possible futures. With Star Trek, we imagined a future of personal communicators² and medical tricorders. These dreams are now our present-day cell phones, instant-read electronic thermometers, and blood oxygen readers. The ‘60s animation series The Jetsons taught us about television calls and robots that vacuum our homes. We imagined the technological future in fantasy before we made it a reality.

By the 1970s, we thought about the dark side of what technological advancement and nuclear war might bring. The dystopian films Rollerball, Logans Run, and the Planet of the Apes explored societal collapse, corporatism, authoritarianism, centralization, and artificial intelligence. In balance, and into the 1980s, Star Trek and Star Wars continued to deliver hope in a space future where social justice prevailed against the oppressed.

In the 1980s, real science continued to inform the public about black holes, time travel, and multiple parallel universes with documentary shows like Carl Sagan’s Cosmos. These ideas permeated future Star Trek 1990s series like The Next Generation and Voyager with examinations of a future navigating peace, cultural diversity, and exploration while the basic survival needs for having enough food for everyone is no longer a question.

By 2004, the film What the Bleep Do We Know!?³ , used the imagination of the metaphysical to apply ideas about multiple universes and quantum physics to our daily lives. If all futures exist at once, as science suggests, then do we have the possibility to select the futures we want to experience? Can we create our futures with personal or collective imagination and intention?

In 2006, the best-selling self-help book, The Secret suggests, yes, we can shape our futures with intention and vision boards. Putting out the energy of what we want to accomplish can take us there. This leaves us to wonder, did we create and adopt cell phones because of a vision of the future projected out to us by Star Trek? Can we create other futures we want to experience with imagination and intention? Can we select which universe reality we experience out of the many possibilities we could pass through?

This makes me think about what we are imagining today. The NASA Space Shuttle program ended in a shroud of tragedy. We are no longer going to the moon. Going to Mars is a promise that remains on the drawing board. Global governmental budget cuts regularly slash dreams of progress on a multitude of subjects. The International Space Station has become a symbol of fading international cooperation.

Sources of positive science fiction inspiration remain low. Dystopian films, video games, and streaming on Netflix ⁴ or Apple TV depict many futures of war, social disorder, and disaster. The 2021 film, Don’t Look Up imagines a future where we can’t face the truth about climate change by utilizing a metaphor of a comet collision, and everyone dies. Even in the 2020-2023 Star Trek, Picard, we find a future of uncertainty, refugees, betrayal, and distrust. The real world we experience today is now in control of our fantasies. We must find a way back to imagining a better future.

Where and when did we stop dreaming of a better future with technology and progress? How can we create these better futures if we no longer can imagine how they can unfold? If we dwell on our fears of AI taking over the world, will we create that future? We don’t have to go down that road. We could go back to an imagination of optimism to select a different future quantum universe.

Fed up with her daughter’s uninspired reaction to The Last of Us, The Hunger Games, and The Handmaid's Tale, Kathryn Murdoch of the Quadrivium Foundation did something about it. Inspired by hopeful futures instilled in us specifically by shows like Star Trek, Murdoch co-founded Futurific Studios with Ari Wallach to produce content to inspire the next generation with protopian ⁵ imagery. Her first project was the 2024 series for PBS, A Brief History of the Future ⁶ . Moving in this direction, Murdoch hopes to produce additional programs, games, and content to illustrate a hopeful and positive future where society's challenges can be solved.

Let’s not let our many global social ills overwhelm us and capture hold of our imaginations. The future does not have to be a place of climate catastrophe, neofascism, or AI-induced apocalypse. Instead, let’s use our imaginations to select a new positive future. Let’s dream not of dystopia but of protopia ⁷ , once again.