ABSTRACT
In his extensive analysis of the history of the future, Fred Polak argued that two types of images have repeatedly inspired people to take collective action.2 One, the eschatological, presents the prospect of an eventual paradise that must be patiently awaited. Human attempts to replicate that blessed state are at best futile, at worst heretical. The other category, the utopian, offers at least tangential engagement with the material world. Production of utopian schemes is generally associated with times of socioeconomic or political stress; times when individuals feel a pressing need to search for something better. A utopia is a comprehensive vision of an ideal condition of human affairs radically different from and, it is believed, inherently better than that pertaining at the time.
