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Do we learn more from utopian or dystopian science fiction?

127

Conor L. Myhrvold

@conormyhrvold

Feb 17, 2021

Utopian but suspect dystopian more represented in pop culture.

Smerity

@Smerity

Feb 17, 2021

I've been curious how much of the pop culture representation is simply due to dystopian fiction being easier to write. Many of the tenets of fiction fall out naturally from trying to mend what is breaking or broken.

Replying to

and

Yes and some of my fav movie plotlines draw heavily on that (zombie outbreak and post apocalyptic ones). Being a critique of our society as it stands. I think other sci fi have an element of dystopia, like Interstellar, but have more hopeful endings.

7:32 AM · Feb 17, 2021Twitter Web App

Replying to

and

Gattaca is another one of my favs that's also dystopian in a lot of ways, but optimistic too in its ultimate message. Most of the zombie / apocalypse ones may have a "we survived" ending from the point of the main characters, but OTOH hard to view as too positive. 😄