Imagining Dystopia / Imagining Protopia

So, what does the future hold? In the spring, we were tasked with imagining two future scenarios based on our thesis topics—one protopian and one dystopian. Writing these helped me identify the specific elements of present-day polarization that are guiding us toward destruction, or joy.

To contextualize each of these worlds, I employed the speculative design STEEP model, which involves first imagining the Social, Technological, Economic, Environmental, and Political forces influencing the world at the time in which it exists. I also identified key events that would result in my imagined future. Both futures occur in the year 2080.

I then wrote both of these worlds in the form of narrative excerpts, centering on characters. Both were difficult to write, but for different reasons: the dystopian future sounded a lot like the present, and I needed to push myself to write it further into the future. The protopian future was difficult because it was tough to imagine a future that really would be joyful for as many people as possible. However, writing these convinced me that, for better or for worse, both of these futures are possible, and there are concrete steps we can take in either direction. I hope we can rally around a protopia.