Creating a Perfect Society

Criteria B i, ii- C ii, iii- D ii, v

A utopia is defined as an ideally perfect place. In the novel the government or society was trying to create a way for all to be equal.  If you had to design your “perfect world”, what would it look like? What would life be like for the people who live in your community?

What would be special about your community that would make other people want to join it?

You are going to be designing your own utopian world. Your project will include information about the following areas. Under each category, you must supply enough information to inform others of your community and entice them to join.

Government: Every community needs laws, otherwise there would be chaos.

The government is a democracy and instead of having one person in charge, there are multiple people. The government is consisted of people that are actually passionate about making the world a better place. A lot of times, there are way more people that are more qualified to be in the government than the actual government officials, so those people can be elected into the government without some really fancy campaign. The laws are already set in place, and it’s really hard for someone to take away or add to those laws unless it is agreed by the whole community that it will benefit the community as a whole and makes the community a better/safer place for everyone. The people in the government are there to help make sure that stupid laws aren’t being enforced, and have the right to enforce or evoke rules that were voted on by the community, if the rule is obviously flawed. If someone breaks a law, there will be alternatives to going to prison that will hopefully be able to make the community a better place. Jail has proven to not be very effective in the real world because it doesn’t allow the prisoners to lead any sort of life after they get out which leads inmates to lead the same law-breaking life they had before. People who get out of prison usually end up doing the same thing they were before and going back to jail for it; prisons don’t give criminals a chance to restore their life, and leave them with nothing. Instead, people who’ve been convicted of ‘minor’ crimes like stealing gum from a store have patrols that will follow them around for a while to make sure they don’t repeat their crime again. For major crimes like murder, criminals will be sent to face their biggest fear (brain scan technology) and then depending on if the criminal changes their behavior, they may or may not be sent to solitary confinement. Some rules (not laws because a law implies that it is set in stone and these rules are just to help move the community along) in the community include:

1. Everyone will be treated equally regardless of their race or religion. As long as people are positively contributing to the society and not causing trouble, they are welcome. People should not be treated negatively towards or cast out as different just because of their religion and/or race. Same applies for gender and sexuality.
2. Everyone must contribute the same amount of effort in their jobs in the society. This helps progress the community and makes sure that people are doing their jobs properly.
3. People will be able to have their privacy, however, security cameras must be hung in houses to prevent things like domestic abuse.
4. Acts of treason against the state or intention to harm the state will result in death.
5. People may not be bribed or biased when making decisions that will affect the future of the government.
6. Crime or violence is not permitted in the society. Crime and violence leads to things much worse and we must stop these acts early so that things such as murder and rape do not occur.
7. Freedom must always be provided for the people as long as it’s not affecting other people’s freedom. The freedom to be who you are, and to believe what you want to as long as it doesn't impact on other people's freedoms and rights. The freedom of individuality takes away the pressure to conform and along with it, a whole lot of stress/anger.
8. People should always be given an opportunity to pursue their passions no matter what kind of background they have.
9. People are not permitted to take land from others unless it is agreed to by both parties voluntarily.
10. Police are not allowed to take away the rights of people without proper reason.

Education: School is a way of preparing kids to be successful members of the community.

Kids are required to attend school Monday through Friday throughout the span of a regular school year. However, school is not required five days a week if a family is struggling. School will be an interesting experience and the kids will want to go and learn. Students are allowed to choose their own courses (like in college) which will hopefully help them to spark an interest in school. However, children cannot just choose their favorite subjects over and over again, and are required to choose at least some core subjects like math and science.  Students are encouraged to take courses that they are interested in and will make an effort in. Every question that students have will be thought out loud (new technology) so that they never fall behind, and the teachers are able to help the students before it’s too late. Education will help serve the community because it is informing the next generation and preparing them to take over the community and to take over the society after the adults pass. The schools are different in my society to real life because both parties are genuinely curious to what they’re teaching or learning and it creates a fun and educational environment for both students and teachers.

Family: Think about the families in your utopian community.

The families are neither matriarchal or patriarchal so both the moms and/or dads share joint power in the household. In the society, people feel like sharing power allows the kid to flourish because it teaches them equality from a young age. Also by co-parenting, the parents of the household are able to set a good example of equal distribution of power for their child. In the society, people believe that everyone is equal, so that same idea is translated into holding power in the household. Each family can have as many kids as they want, but they must have it registered that they are trying to have kids beforehand in order to try to prevent overpopulation. Everyone in the family should usually live in the same dwelling unless some event causes one to move out prematurely. The person is allowed to stay  in their new dwelling as long as they are still contributing to the society and are doing fine on their own. Having everyone in the family to live in the same dwelling is to hopefully help them develop relationships with others and to hopefully help them out financially.

Housing: Neighborhoods/Individual family dwellings 

Neighborhoods are pretty very orderly in my neighborhood, and it’s very clear where everything is. The town is divided into sections so that it is easy to find where apartments are, townhouses are, skyscrapers are, etc. All the different types of houses are grouped together in sections around the towns, so the apartments would all be on one side of town, the houses on another side of town, and it makes it very easy for pedestrians to know what part of town they’re in. People are able to choose what part of town/kind of house they want to live in as soon as they move out from their parents’ house or if the parents decide to move. People pay for the houses like they would in real life; if it’s an apartment, they rent it out, if it’s a house, they buy it. There are shelters provided for people that can’t afford to live in one themselves like people that can’t pay the mortgage or homeless people. However, people are expected to be able to pay for somewhere to live because if they are putting effort into their jobs, the government pays them. There are really no one living in the streets in the community because everyone has somewhere to go, and there’s no point in them living in the streets.

Employment: Think about the jobs people must have to help your community function.

People in the community are allowed to choose their own jobs in order to prevent people being forced into jobs they don’t like. Having people who are genuinely interested in their jobs helps insure that they will do the job well because they are curious about their occupation and more motivated to do a good job on it. People aren’t chosen for the jobs, but instead people choose their own jobs once they’re 16-18. Some of the jobs include:

• Nature Protector “Grover”: The purpose of the job is so that people who are interested in helping the environment and making the world eco friendly can do a job that they are both passionate about and can really make a difference in. This also helps the world (physically) at the same time because these are people that are trying to save it from turning into a wasteland and these are people that will put out their best effort to save the planet since they care so much about the wellbeing of the environment. You’re not really trained for the job because in order for the person to feel the need to choose this job, it probably means that they’re naturally curious to learn more about nature, so they technically train themselves by wandering around nature as a child. If it wasn’t obvious before, the type of people that are chosen for this job are the ones that are willing to speak up about the harm that humans are doing to the planet and take action, whether it’s by protesting or making sure others are taking into account the waste they produce. At this job, people basically travel around the world and look for places that have really damaged environments; they try to nurse that place back to health by doing a variety of things like planting trees or prohibiting others from throwing trash there. They also spread awareness about the harm humans are doing in real life and on social media platforms.
• Patrols: There are 2 different kinds of patrols, the first kind is the regular everyday patrol, and they walk around the town, making sure everyone is doing their jobs properly. They’re basically like the police we have right now, but they have more specific tasks to complete, and have a clear plan each day of what to do. The other kind of patrol is the one that is supposed to keep an eye on criminals that perform minor crimes (the ones mentioned above). Most of the time, these patrols are put out in groups to ensure safety and protection. Patrols wear nicely fit black and white uniforms to keep it simple and to be able to get to places more efficiently with their state of the arc lightweight clothing.
• Teacher: Teachers are very much like the teachers we have now. Like most teachers, the ones in this society are very enthusiastic about learning (they are screened by the government to make sure they are actually interested in this profession). The teachers here make sure their students are doing the best they can and try to make them feel as comfortable as possible. Teachers work in clean and innovative facilities that aid them in communicating information. They are also not required to wear their uniforms every day, but it is preferred that they wear the uniform, especially if they don’t know what else to wear.  
• Searcher: A searcher is a similar yet different job to the nature protectors. Their general goal is still the same, protecting wildlife and animals, but searchers focus mainly on rescuing stray animals that are wandering the streets. We have searchers since the default weather is rain and we want to take care of the strays. Also, this helps make the streets more sanitary/clean. The animals are taken off the streets by a searcher and then transported to a high tech house that take care of them before someone adopts them.
• Gov. Officials: The government officials are actually pretty casual people who are doing this because they want to help the world, and not for the higher ranking social classes. Government officials are encouraged to wear more casual clothes and not uptight suits to be able to better relate to the real world. The officials meet every week at the triangle building at the center of town to discuss what would be best for the community and if there are any problems. They also ask for the opinions of regular citizens in order to not be biased. These people genuinely want to make a positive impact, and are very open minded.

Money: Purchasing goods and services, earning an income

Money is used in my society, however, it is not physical, and is only electronic. Everyone has a chip that they carry around with them to scan, if they need to perform a transaction. The chip is like a small casino chip and all their money is stored on there. People cannot hack onto the card because it is not stored onto an electronic database, but the actual chip itself. When people want to buy something, they slot the chip into a scanner thing and it’s like an ATM machine. The very center of the chip can scan the thumbprint of the person as verification, and this helps to prevent frauds in the system. They scan every time before one makes a transaction, and once again, after the chip has been scanned, just to double check.

Transportation: People getting to the places they need.

People in this community are very eco friendly, so although they have cars, they prefer to emit less CO2 and walk or bike around the town. Having less cars also reduces traffic and accidents that are caused vast amounts of cars. There are no buses, but there is a subway that takes people around the town if needed. They can use their chip to scan and get on the subway. There’s also an elevator that takes people up to the 2nd level (clouds) where there’s another community that’s the same, but for elderly people because they deserve the peace and quiet that the clouds can provide.

Environment/Climate: Think about where you would have your community built.

In my community, people can choose to be in different servers like in video games. So one person can be in the same place as another, but they won’t be able to see the other person if they choose to be in another server. This also works if they want to be in a different weather environment then everyone else. They can choose what weather setting they want to have as long as they’re not in the public server (which is always set to rain and also the real society). People are allowed to have pets but there are no strays wandering the streets because they’re all collected in one area. Pets can’t change servers or weather, so they have to live in the default rain weather, which is why they’re all in one building that has artificial sun. The different servers are controlled by a watch that the people can choose to wear.

Recreation: Fun time and exercise.

People mostly like to travel to the clouds and play up there because it’s such a wonderland. The place they play in however, is a separate part of the clouds from where the elderly live. In the clouds, there’s lots of different things they can do; slide down on the cloud playground, play sports, board games, they can even do things like ski on the clouds. The government doesn’t control how people spend their free time, but they can’t be up there for more than 5 hours a day unless given permission to, because they’re afraid that people will waste their time if they’re up there too often or bother the elderly. People can also choose to spend their free time down in the real community though, and it’s basically the same, but on the ground.

Technology: Ancient times, Modern, or Futuristic.

The community has a lot of different and advanced technology from what we have now. Some of the already mentioned technology include things like the money chip and the different servers that control the weather. There’s also technology that helps people understand more about what others are thinking and how they actually feel.