A protopia is a vision of the future where things are, by and large, better.
This runs counter to the typical Sci-Fi false dichotomy. It’s not a dystopia, where everything’s terrible, nor a utopia, where everything’s perfect. (Perfect to whom?)
It’s my favourite, new (to me) term (and vision for our future).
I won’t be able to do it justice here. (If you want to go deep into what a protopia can be, here’s a framework: Protopia Futures.)
The trouble with making protopian art is that viewing the future in a positive light is often seen as being dismissive of our current problems.
Which is not true.
If anything, it’s the opposite.
Because life imitates art.
So we need more protopian (or utopian) art.
More positivity. More optimism.
As musician, producer, and futurist Grimes puts it in this thought-provoking episode of the Lex Fridman podcast, “If everything is Bladerunner, we’re going to end up with Bladerunner.”
And we don’t want Bladerunner.
A little later, Lex sums up the root problem. “Cynicism is confused for insight and optimism is confused for naïveté.”
So, this is my plea to bring a little more protopian vision into our lives. To ditch the cynicism and allow the non-naive optimism within us shine a little more often.
It’s also my pledge to do the same.
From Oblivion,
James
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