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Columnist and Society

Why we shouldn't fill our minds with endless tales of dystopia

Unrealistic fantasies of the apocalypse are everywhere, but focusing on a potentially disastrous future stops us from making solid plans, says Annalee Newitz

By Annalee Newitz

10 May 2023

D4A3HW Billboard in London Bridge advertising the Channel 4 series Black Mirror

Topz/Alamy

IF YOU have ever watched Black Mirror or The Last of Us – or read the comic book 2000AD, where Judge Dredd was born – you have experienced the joy and horror of dystopian science fiction.

Dystopia is a place where there is no mercy, no beauty and no hope. Its skies are black with pollution and warlords rule the weak with violence and frenetic, high-tech propaganda. Like Thomas More’s Utopia, dystopia is a fantasy place. Yet, over the past decade, many world leaders have treated dystopia as a realistic vision of our future, one we should use as an inspiration for …

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