# We didn't stop dreaming of a better future - dystopia is for many that better future.
Date: 2025-08-03

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We didn't stop dreaming of a better future - dystopia is for many that better future. For many some form of wild, wild west dystopia is wish fulfillment.

They want that hyper individualistic world shown in *The Walking Dead* or more recently *The Last of Us*. They tired of the interdependence of the modern world and long for a *Hunger Games* where one person can make a real difference.

It's not lack of imagination that killed the better future. Any better future will invariably contain better humans and that's the problem. If you already don't consider yourself intellectual enough for the present how can you imagine yourself in a future with an improved humanity?

Of course plenty of sci-fi captures exactly that point. For instance there is the Star Trek "The Neutral Zone" (Season 1, Episode 26) where three humans from the late 20th century wake up in the 24th century.

Picard says to one of them, "The challenge, Mr. Offenhouse, is to improve yourself. To enrich yourself. Enjoy it." In other words the future belongs to those that enjoy internal rather than external conquest. But there are any number of modern Offenhouse which don't accept that version of the future.