Tailsteak wrote:
What world do you create?
Eh, what the heck. Here's one, I might dash off a couple more at some point.
When and where is your Utopia set?
2040's, planet Earth. I'm assuming the protagonists/PCs/whatever will visit multiple nations.
What major events in the past helped shape this world?
The first self-improving AI was developed in 2020. It's creator - who remains anonymous to this day - became the most powerful human on Earth more or less instantaneously.
After rapidly growing bored of messing with everyone, he decided to go live in a palace on the Moon while his army of invulnerable nanotech stormtroopers enforce martial law. (And prevent anyone else from developing AI or leaving near-Earth orbit.)
What major technological advances have changed human capabilities?
Firstly, people use Star-Trek-like comm badges and tricorders (they aren't called that, but there are a variety of specialized devices that all boil down to "smartphone + some other thing".) Cyborgs are common enough that you probably won't double-take on seeing one in the street unless they resemble someone you know.
There are various hyper-advanced "magic" artifacts scattered across the globe, mostly in the center of settlements that were built to study and exploit them.
Those that seem relatively innocuous - a hotel with an uncountable number of rooms, a painting that no-one can remember, a cupcake that never runs out, etc - tend to be the most powerful. Ironically, those that seem utterly mind-blowing (like the portal gate or the lamp that grants wishes) are actually fairly useless for the most part.
Also, there are the aforementioned invulnerable nanotech stormtroopers. They can see through walls, and move faster than the human eye can track (faster than the speed of sound, in fact - their armour is designed to cancel out the resulting shockwave.) They punish lawbreakers.
Finally, some of the magic let us look very closely for intelligent life Out There. They were all killed by their own self-improving AI.
What major problems have been solved, and how?
War is impossible - national boundaries remain exactly as they were in 2010 (for some reason - it's definitely
2010, some boundaries that had altered were changed back.) The primary exception is the USA - individual states are regarded as separate countries, although they retain close administrative ties. Current politics consist of simmering cold war covered by a thin veneer of world government.
The stormtroopers will enforce any laws that can be put into sufficiently clear terms for them by the officially-recognized governing body - theft is still possible, but murder is tricky (and extremely dangerous) if you aren't intimately familiar with the laws of wherever you are. Immigration, smuggling, and open warfare are completely impossible.
Poverty is gone - most nations use something roughly equivalent to a universal stipend for convenience, although they call it by different names. Anyone, anywhere who possesses food or medicine will have it forcibly confiscated if they are the nearest to someone dying of starvation or curable disease - regardless of bylaws. Africa is currently going through something of a Renaissance, complete with city-states and rich patrons of the arts.
What aspects of human nature have been changed?
Most of the world lives in an effective post-scarcity situation; previously low-status service industries, such as garbage collection, waiting tables etc. are now extremely well-paid.
Accidents are rarer. Most notably, falling will summon a stormtrooper to catch you, and there are some
exciting ways to travel if you're brave. Most places have stringent safety laws, as well (although not regarding railings.)
After you see the first drunk person lose their hand to a Stormtrooper trying to start a fight with someone, you are much less inclined either to hit people yourself or to vote to legalize recreational drugs of any kind. Many countries flat-out banned all recreational drugs, including cigarettes and alcohol.
Most nations still maintain a small police force, and being convicted of a crime is, itself, a crime that the stormtroopers will punish. There are many, many spies.
What ideas and virtues are you attempting to popularize?
Technology can be a lot more powerful than it is now, and it will be, very soon.
If we actually bothered, we could solve huge amounts of suffering
right now by preventing people dying horribly just because they're poor.
Lateral thinking is, in an odd way, the essence of science.
