Protopia, Dystopia, And Change At the End Of the World

Figure 1 - Governor David Nix, the antagonist of Tomorrowland (2015), delivers his speech to the protagonists, describing the problems with the world as he sees them.

“The entire word wholeheartedly embraced the apocalypse and sprinted towards it with gleeful abandon… You dwell on this terrible future, and you resign yourselves to it. For one reason - because that future doesn’t ask anything of you today.”

This speech from Tomorrowland (Bird, 2015) is regarded among fans as a great moment in a mediocre movie. The underlying message of the film is that an apocalyptic end to the world is a self-fulfilling prophecy, and that by consistently bombarding people with a message of hopelessness, most of the population is lulled into a sense of learned helplessness where they believe that there is no way to avoid the seemingly inevitable apocalypse. David Nix, the movie’s villain and the man delivering the speech above, intentionally misinterprets this helplessness as apathy and claims to believe that the people accepting the impending end of the world are completely and genuinely complicit in its destruction, as an inevitable apocalypse tomorrow requires nothing of them today.

The hypocrisy of this scene is that, in this movie, a machine exists that gives people on earth visions of the potential future. This machine has only ever transmitted apocalyptic ideas of the end of the world, even though the film reveals that it is capable of showing uplifting visions of a potential utopian future. In the context of the film, Nix has a lot to gain from humanity being destroyed, but discussions around the film broadly miss this point, and claim that Nix’s speech is a golden nugget of truth in a film that makes the “ridiculous” choice to have an optimistic ending. Regardless of its misinterpreted message, the film as it stands actually holds an interesting belief - showing people an optimistic future to strive towards is the most effective way of achieving one.

Figure 2 - Digital painting of a looming, destroyed robot from Simon Stålenhag's The Electric State.

I would like to evaluate this stance in the context of a few other interpretations of the end of the world, guided by Daniel Barber’s recontextualisation of the apocalypse as a “clear indication that the future will not be like the present” (Costa, 2024). I find this definition of an apocalypse very interesting, as it refrains from giving the concept a value judgement, or necessarily associating apocalypse with destruction, devastation, or even an ending. Barber’s apocalypse is a change, neither good nor bad, just different. Perhaps associating “the apocalypse” with the idea of things being different (rather than things being over) is the shift we as a society need to internalise in order to gain the courage to strive for a better future. Change is inevitable, the outcome is alterable.

One fascinating vision of the apocalypse is the work of Simon Stålenhag, whose retro-futuristic books focus on an alternate version of Sweden in the 1990s, where a series of new technologies begin to cause widespread problems for people. Stålenhag’s works are widely considered to be dystopias - in his book The Electric State (Stålenhag, 2018), the catalyst for the plot is the highly addictive VR-headsets called neurocasters which begin to kill people who try to take them off. Most of the plot occurs in a place where dead and dying people exist in empty landscapes, unable to eat or drink without removing the headset, and unable to remove the headset without dying. The gigantic, decaying robots that litter the landscape and loom over the human figures around them often seem secondary to the more insidious horror that is creeping its way surreptitiously through the narrative.

Figure 3 - Digital painting from Simon Stålenhag's The Electric State. Another neurocaster victim stands abandoned and unaware in an isolated landscape littered with towering, inconceivable robots.

Stålenhag uses these visuals to create a truly bleak view of the future, but in keeping with Tomorrowland’s philosophy, he doesn’t make the impending doom the point of the work. The Electric State’s story follows a girl called Michelle travelling an incredible distance across the US to help prevent her younger brother Skip from becoming part of the growing neurocaster hive mind. The humanity and empathy of the story are the central focus, and the robots are typically placed as background features in a story that aims to highlight, above all else, the difficult journey that Michelle is making to help her brother.

This focus on empathy and humanity is clear across all of Stålenhag’s work. His first book, Tales from the Loop (Stålenhag, 2014), is emblematic of this, as the story is framed around recollections of a childhood spent growing up around an experimental particle accelerator called The Loop. While strange robots, machines, real dinosaurs, and unusual beasts all populate the landscape, the compositions are rarely threatening or foreboding, and always highlight the humans in the scenes.

Figure 4 - Two children explore a strange new mechanical object created by The Loop.

These humans are nearly always children, depicted exploring the towering robots that now fill their hometown and learning to adapt to this new, strange present. The focus on children playing in this strange new world feels emblematic of Barber’s assertion that an apocalypse marks a different future, as opposed to a bad one. The lack of conflict in Tales from the Loop, points to a vision of co-existence, a child-like curiosity, and a desire to learn and adapt. By highlighting this perspective in his works, Stålenhag brings a kind of optimism to his dystopias, one that is frequently missing from stories covering similar themes of science gone wrong or governmental interference. While other authors see these themes as a jumping off point to discover the inescapable end of the world, Stålenhag uses these opportunities to explore what happens next, and how humanity grows and changes as a result.

A much more obvious place to search for optimism at the end of the world is in protopian futures. I use the word protopian rather than utopian, because utopia is derived “from the Greek word ou-topos meaning “nowhere”” (Acuna & Bleasdell), and was satirically meant to describe a world that was unattainably and statically perfect. Meanwhile, protopia is a term coined by Kevin Kelly which describes a society that is constantly improving and working together towards a better future (Freinacht, 2022). It is optimistic, but in a way that reveals the real changes that are happening to maintain this positivity. Since Barber’s definition of an apocalypse is based on what will happen in this world, and not a fictional one, it seems more fitting to use the one that emphasises realism where possible.

The most obvious form of protopian futures are typically found in the subgenre of solarpunk art or literature. These are fictions that imagine a world in which humans utilise technology to create a sustainable society that lives in harmony with the natural world, often emphasising that this way of living provides benefit to both the people and the earth. It is important to note that while some solarpunk fictions consider this is a new concept, it reflects a way of living that has been practiced among many indigenous communities for generations. For example, the Maori people of Aotearoa New Zealand have lived alongside the natural world and taken on a role of “active guardianship and management of natural organisms and their environments” (Paul-Burke & Rameka, 2015) for generations, a principle that is known as kaitiakitanga. Many works of solarpunk fiction embrace this principle, and while the technology that is used to uphold the belief is often new or futuristic, it’s useful to remember that the principle itself isn’t.

Figure 5 - "Dear Alice" depicts a beautiful solarpunk world, where the community live in harmony with nature for the benefit of both.

A well-known example of a protopian future is depicted the Chobani advert “Dear Alice” - the vision of a sunny, high-tech future in which people live in harmony with their surroundings and give back to the natural environment is a clear example of solarpunk. The use of renewable energy sources (such as wind turbines and solar panels), helps to make the more fantastic flying buses and weather controllers seem more palatable and possible, and ultimately, the uplifting scenes of people working together to maintain the farm highlight the real work that would make a future like this possible. The details in this protopian vision help to ground some elements of it in reality, making the society it depicts seem not just aspirational, but potentially achievable. The voice over that accompanies the video also highlights both the reciprocal relationship that the people in this future have with the earth, and the desire to create a sustainable society that will exist for future generations, and not just the current one. This focus on creating something that lasts and sustains itself is a key part of solarpunk and protopian futures, and by phrasing it positively, it shows an incredibly optimistic vision of the future, in which people enjoy their better relationship with the planet for reasons that are both self-serving and altruistic.

To reiterate Barber’s point, “Dear Alice” is a vision of the apocalypse. It is as much an apocalypse as Stålenhag’s creatures from The Loop. These are both futures that are not like our present, and while one is certainly preferable to the other, contrasting them highlights the importance of “change” as a component of the apocalypse, as opposed to “ending”. Both Stålenhag and the creators of “Dear Alice” make the choice to show the future as being full of humanity and empathy, and regardless of whether this empathy is set against great odds, or part of a wider societal belief, the similarities are clear - people working towards a better future creates a bigger impact than doing nothing.

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Figure 6 - The album cover for NOW (2021) by RENT STRIKE.

This post's thumbnail was inspired by RENT STRIKE's NOW (2021) album cover. The album spends many of its songs capturing the malaise and dissatisfaction with modern life. However, the song Redline (Dérive) contrasts the suffocating atmosphere of busy highways and artificial streetlights with the observation that "in more and more of the vacant lots // There've been growing more and more // Little garden plots", suggesting a moment of hope and a potential optimistic way forward, just like these explorations of the future aim to do.

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Sources:

Acuna, C., & Bleasdell, R. Thomas More: Utopia. PressBooks. https://pressbooks.pub/earlybritishlit/chapter/sir-thomas-more-utopia/

Bird, B. (Director). (2015). Tomorrowland [Film]. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

Costa, N. R. (2024, May 7). Buildings Born Ruins: Philosophy and Architecture After the Apocalypse. Failed Architecture. https://failedarchitecture.com/buildings-born-ruins-philosophy-and-architecture-after-the-apocalypse/

Freinacht, H. (2022, February 6). What's The Difference between Utopia, Eutopia and Protopia? Metamoderna. https://metamoderna.org/whats-the-difference-between-utopia-eutopia-and-protopia/

Paul-Burke, K., & Rameka, L. (2015). Kaitiakitanga - Active Guardianship, Responsibilities, and Relationships with the World: Towards a Bio-cultural Future in Early Childhood Education. In M. Peters (Ed.) Encyclopedia of Educational Philosophy and Theory. Springer. https://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/server/api/core/bitstreams/098683f7-4523-441c-8546-66abdb28e35f/content

Stålenhag, S. (2014). Tales From the Loop. Simon & Schuster

Stålenhag, S. (2018). The Electric State. Simon & Schuster.

Figures:

Figure 1 - Cannon, GG. (2015, September 28). Governor Nix's Speech - Tomorrowland [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sZnphH7L80

Figure 2 - Stålenhag, S. (2018). The Electric State. The Steel Meadow. https://www.simonstalenhag.se/es.html

Figure 3 - Stålenhag, S. (2018). The Electric State. The Steel Meadow. https://www.simonstalenhag.se/es.html

Figure 4 - Stålenhag, S. (2014). Tales From the Loop. The Steel Meadow. https://www.simonstalenhag.se/tftl.html

Figure 5 - THE LINE. (2021, July 13). Dear Alice [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-Ng5ZvrDm4

Figure 6 - RENT STRIKE. (2021). NOW [Album]. First Contact.