Utopia

Utopia is the title of a Latin book by Thomas More (circa 1516).

It's a fictional depiction of a rationally organised society, narrated by a voyager, Raphael Hitlodaeus, that arrives from an exploration travel. The Utopian society has no lawyers, and doesn't send its citizen to war, but hires mercenaries among its warprone neighbours. Probably More, a Church man, was inspired by the monachal rule when he describes the working of his society. It was an inspiration for the Reducciones established by the Jesuits to Christianize and civilize the Guaranis.

The title has since been used as a generic word to describe both works of fiction in which the author's theories of a better way to organise society are dramatised, and actual communities founded in attempts to put such theories into practice.

The word "utopia" is coined from two Greek roots meaning "nowhere" (ou meaning "not" and topos meaning "place"). The prefix u ("not") is similar to eu (at least in English pronunciation), which means "good", so utopia is often misinterpreted to mean "perfect place".

The utopia can be idealistic or practical, but the term has acquired a strong connotation of optimistic, idealistic, impossible perfection. The utopia may be usefully contrasted with the undesirable dystopia (anti-utopia, pseudo-utopia) and the satirical utopia.

Economic

Socialist and communist utopias generally revolve around a more equitable distribution of goods, frequently with the total abolition of money, and citizens only doing work which they enjoy, leaving them with ample time for the cultivation of the arts and sciences.

Political and historical

A global utopia of world peace is often seen as one of the possible inevitable endings of history.

Religious

The Christian and Islamic concept of heaven and the Buddhist concept of Nirvana are utopias. Religious utopias are successful at converting new members and are a reason why religions are such powerful memes.

Scientific and technological

These are set in the far future, when advanced science and technology will allow utopian living standards; for example, the absence of death and suffering; changes in human nature and the human condition. See transhumanism, technological singularity.

Opposing this optimism is the prediction that advanced science and technology will, through deliberate misuse or accident, cause humanity's extinction. These pessimists advocate precautions over embracement.

Examples

Warning: Wikipedia contains spoilers

The City of the Sun (1623) by Tommaso Campanella
The New Atlantis (1627) by Francis Bacon
Oceana (1656) by James Harrington
The section in Gulliver's Travels (1726) by Jonathan Swift depicting the calm, rational society of the Houyhnhms, is certainly utopian, but it is meant to contrast with that of the yahoos, who represent the worst that the human race can do.
Voyage en Icarie (1840) by Etienne Cabet
Erewhon (1872) by Samuel Butler
Looking Backward (1888), by Edward Bellamy
Freiland (1890) by Theodor Hertzka
News from Nowhere (1891), by William Morris; see also the Arts and Crafts Movement founded to put his ideas into practice
A large number of books by H.G. Wells, including A Modern Utopia (1905)
Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932) can be considered an example of pseudo-utopian satire (see also dystopia).
B. F. Skinner's Walden Two (1948)
Atlas Shrugged (1957) by Ayn Rand
Star Trek (1966) science fiction television series by Gene Roddenberry
The Dispossessed (1974), a science fiction novel by Ursula K. Le Guin, is sometimes said to represent one of the few modern revivals of the utopian genre, though it is notable that one of the major themes of the work is the ambiguity of different notions of utopia. Le Guin presents a world in which ditches do need digging, and sewers need unblocking---this drudgery is divided among all adults, and is contrasted, in the language of the utopia, with their everyday, more satisfying work.
Ecotopia (novel) (1975) by Ernest Callenbach
most of the stories in Future Primitive - The New Ecotopias, edited by Kim Stanley Robinson
The Matrix (1999), a film by the Wachowski brothers, describes a virtual reality controlled by artificial intelligence such as Agent Smith. Smith says that the first Matrix was a utopia, but humans disbelieved and rejected it because they "define their reality through misery and suffering." Therefore, the Matrix was redesigned to simulate human civilization with all its suffering.

Note: The article Utopian/Dystopian Fiction is a old placekeeper with notes on various books and should be refactored into the Utopia and Dystopia articles.

External Links

Utopia by Thomas More, Full text available in multiple formats
Utopias - Robert Schenk Utopias from the perspective of economics: "[Utopias] have no room for economics and they do not work in the real world."
Utopia - The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2001
Utopia - Definition and History of the Term - The New Encyclopaedia Britannica
"If you like this, then you'll like that" - Ultimate Science Fiction Web Guide

Utopia is the name of a US progressive rock group, generally fronted by singer/musician/producer Todd Rundgren.