Abstract
We draw on perspectives in the philosophies of technology to consider how the conceptual designs of desired, future social systems evident in utopian fictions might help us to better speculate on how today’s technological developments may shape future societies. Drawing on a sample of late-19th through 21st century utopian fictions, we explore how utopian societies depend on technology to meet their social goals, how they address risk and uncertainty arising from technology developments, and what philosophical assumptions about technology underlie these utopian societies. Each utopia is first read holistically to understand the overall intention and coverage of the author’s societal and technological views and then examined in detail in analytical categories related to technology benefits, risks, outcomes, and societal control mechanisms. Our preliminary findings suggest four possible technological paths, following Feenberg (2003) – instrumentalism, determinism, substantivism, and critical theory. Each path may give rise to utopia, each with its own implications for how human actors could control technology’s influence on their societies. We posit the philosophical contradictions and overlaps between these paths to utopia, providing insights for examining today’s technologies and the dreams and nightmares they inspire. Through this inquiry, we hope to better understand whether and how technological developments might be directed through our institutions and practices for enhanced societies in the future(s).
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Wilf, J., Winter, J.S., Davidson, E. (2023). What Future for Technological Utopianism? Exploring Technology and Control in Utopian Fiction. In: Jones, M.R., Mukherjee, A.S., Thapa, D., Zheng, Y. (eds) After Latour: Globalisation, Inequity and Climate Change. IFIPJWC 2023. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol 696. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-50154-8_27
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