The Hyperverse of EVERYTHING: Utopian Earth
...and exploring the problematics of "saving the world."
Hello again, readers/subscribers/followers. Welcome, curious cats and taste-test newcomers. [waves to transitory spectators, anonymous voyeurs] Well met, blunderers, knights-errant, subjects of synchronicity, wandering souls.
This is an ongoing exploration/construction/exhibition of my chaotically emergent fictional worldbuilding project currently titled EVERYTHING. You can find all posts, past and present, under the fiction tab on the navigation bar of my Substack.
My content will always be free to read because I believe in a future where coercion via scarcity and exclusivity is dead. Dumb idea? In this “enbusinessification of everything” world, yes. But I believe in other worlds. They become possible by imagining, and then enacting.
This is the way. Always.
I’ve reached a point in my existence where I feel estranged to the ways of the modern world. I do not identify. On good days I’m a stranded alien anthropologist. This world is fucking weird. It’s comically, tragically, dumb. Brimming with astonishing feats and cult-y behaviors. It’s blood-curdling destructive. Spiritually confounding. Intellectually maddening.
Writing is my way to process. This fictional worldbuilding is a way to explain to myself what’s going on. I can express and share what it feels like though the metaphor of Story. And maybe, possibly, hopefully, in some way help this world to steer away from madness.
I dunno. I’m mostly mad too. I write so I don’t become 99.999% solid gold mad. But if my weird dance in the corner speaks to you, could you lend some support?
Share my work with friends and online connections. Introduce my work to collaborative creators, promoters, editors, publishers, producers, and secret agents of the mystic arts. Give feedback. Ask questions. Cheerlead. Morale is powerful.
That’s my humble invocation, my sincere invitation. Regardless, I’m going to keep taking one bite at a time of this dragon of a dream and sharing the process. Because all that matters is enabling the chance for something to happen.
Waywardly,
—C
A Hyper-Earth Recap
In my introduction to the hyperverse of EVERYTHING, I constructed a map based on a flattened octahedron known as a “net.” In the above graphic, I’ve returned the net to its polygonal form to highlight just the hyper-Earths. At each vertex along the Edge of Chaos (in yellow) is a hyper-Earth, manifesting a particular mix of qualities and possibilities of Convergent Earth (CE), which sits at the center of the hyperverse. CE is the confluence of all aspects and faces of the whole. It’s the earthly reality we claim as ours.
In general, think of the hyper-earths as dimensional refractions instead of “parallel universes.” I’m not quite sure what the exact qualities of the overall hyperverse are yet but all earths share the same spacetime. All histories happen simultaneously—bound to the same flow of time.
And each earth is experiencing existential crisis.
This installment focuses on Utopian Earth. Before I get into the details of UE, I want to talk about…
“Utopia.” What is It?
Wikipedia says:
The word utopia was coined in 1516 from Ancient Greek by the Englishman Sir Thomas More for his Latin text Utopia. It literally translates as “no place”, coming from the Greek: οὐ (“not”) and τόπος (“place”), and meant any non-existent society, when ‘described in considerable detail’. However, in standard usage, the word's meaning has shifted and now usually describes a non-existent society that is intended to be viewed as considerably better than contemporary society.
I’m deeply suspicious of the word. My first thought when it’s brought up is well, okay, but whose utopia? My next thoughts are, what are the motivations to imagine and methods needed to achieve such an ideal? Power and control are intoxicating, making the desire to “save the world” highly problematic.
Whose world? The devil dances in the details.
With our humanly state of affairs reduced to a struggle for power, it’s hard to imagine a collective breaking of the cycle. We’re all operating in relation to power and power never cedes. It conquers or is conquered and then the whole damn thing repeats, regardless of intention.
Lost in the frustration birthed by the lack of imagination, the fantasy of the “benevolent monarch” becomes appealing. We dream of superheroes who kick ass, take names, and save the day. Superior power suffers no obstacles. It makes no concessions, seeks no cooperation or communion.
I’ll be a gentle dictator.
“…we must preserve the light of consciousness by becoming a spacefaring civilization & extending life to other planets.”
“I alone can fix this.”
Being a king still sounds too complicated. I fantasize about becoming a benevolent kaiju. No need for loyal subjects or royal police force to administer my vision. Of course as a kaiju, I couldn’t help but wreck things. But a benevolent kaiju destroys…with good intentions!
Which brings me to the “f” word. It’s in fashion again. The dysfunctional failure of modernity is steering countries to try it on for size. Silicon Valley is brazenly flirting with it. There’s lots of talk and handwringing about it. We argue over whether its lingering scent is lower case or capitalized. And thanks to the cognitive toxicity of social media, we accuse each other of it often for idiotically pejorative reasons.
That “f” word being fucking F(f)ascism.
What if I proposed that we are all swimming in a sea of fascism, and have been for millenia? Yeah, academics will argue that Fascism is a very specific thingy from early 20th-century Europe, but let’s take a look at its components:
Authoritarian
Ultranationalist
Dictatorial leader
Centralized autocracy
Militarism
Forcible suppression of opposition
Belief in a natural social hierarchy
Subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation and race
Strong regimentation of society and the economy
Unfortunately its prevalent utterance has turned dangerously cliche, numbing us to its creep into our lives. So let’s set aside the “f” word, because that last component on the bullet list is even more relevant.
Here’s the gist from scholars Stig Förster and Tiziano Peccia, Peccia being the one who built upon the work of Förster:
(again, from Wikipedia)
The four dimensions of total war identified by Förster are:
Total purposes: The aim of continuous growth of the power of the parties involved and hegemonic visions.
Total methods: Similar and common methodologies among countries that intend to increase their spheres of influence.
Total mobilisation: Inclusion in the conflict of parties not traditionally involved, such as women and children or individuals who are not part of the armed bodies.
Total control: Multisectoral centralisation of the powers and orchestration of the activities of the countries in a small circle of dictators or oligarchs, with cross-functional control over education and culture, media/propaganda, economic, and political activities.
Peccia's contribution of "total change" adds to this framework by emphasising the long-term effects of total war on society.
Total change: This includes changes in social attitudes, cultural norms, and political structures, as well as economic and technological developments.
In Peccia's view, total war not only transforms the military and political landscape but also has far-reaching and long-time implications for society as a whole.
Huh. Sounds familiar. Disturbingly so.
Big philosophical swing: civilization, as we practice, is totalitarian. We wage Total War as a lifestyle, a mindset. We do not abide, we occupy. Lands, creatures, peoples, minds. Hitler, the Nazis, and the pursued utopia of the Third Reich are but an iteration of a long tradition of humans acting out their darkest potentialities through ideologies of exceptionalism.
“Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
— Genesis 1:26, English Standard Version
AKA, divine exceptionalism: place men above all. Make them the designators, arbiters, and keepers of all things physical and imaginal. Claim a land. Forge a nation. Conveniently imagine a legitimizing god’s dogma. Fortify. Harness. Enslave. Domesticate. Train. Assimilate. Categorize. Valuate. Rule by adjacent divinity, institutional laws, and authoritative decrees.
“In the only cases in which the masses have escaped from the kind of grinding poverty you’re talking about, the only cases in recorded history, are where they have had capitalism and largely free trade. If you want to know where the masses are worse off, worst off, it’s exactly in the kinds of societies that depart from that. So that the record of history is absolutely crystal clear, that there is no alternative way so far discovered of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by the free-enterprise system.”
― Milton Friedman
AKA, neoliberalism: describe and define human behavior to affirm your perception and aspirations. Peddle “Survival of the fittest” and “self-interest” as freedom and liberty. Competition above cooperation. Individual above collective. Profit above all. Seize. Own. Hoard. Conglomerate. Corporatize. Centralize. Optimize. Monopolize. Homogenize. Take it global—because there is only one right way to live, and this is it.
And our agriculture is the most blunt physical example of the manifestation of our engrained totalitarianism: first the environment is stripped of everything but dirt. Then only one plant is allowed to grow. Any encroachment is exterminated. The process is repeated and expanded continuously.
If that’s not the most obvious manifestation of Total War, what is?
Uh, Okay…But What’s it Got to Do With Your Worldbuilding?
Well, everything.
Utopian Earth is a reflection of our modernity taken to the darkest outcome. I’ve currently imagined it as such:
-UTOPIAN EARTH-
Media: Live action, limited color palate (whites, blacks, grays) to emphasize culture. Where bright colors are present, they are weaponized, psychologically reinforcing domination and unity. Settings are visually monolithic, symmetrical, uniform, and minimalist.
Setting: United States (dissolved, now just a territory of the global hegemony known as The Great Reich).
History: American politics lurches from Isolationism to Fascism, joining Germany during WWII.1
The machinations of the dominating industrialists of both countries set in motion political alliances and power grabs that bring the two nations together. The rest of the world’s countries unite against them but are quickly conquered after the Axis scientists develop the atom bomb. In the aftermath, America and Germany merge to become the global hyper-capitalist/Christian government. Over the next two decades all dissenters and identities besides those determined to be “Aryan,” are hunted, gathered, used as slave labor, and ultimately exterminated via the industrial expansion of Nazi Germany’s example of systematic genocide.
Reproduction of Aryans is strictly enforced—a woman’s duty is to repopulate above all other activity—culminating in an economic/social hierarchy of “pure” blood… Tall, thin, fair skin, blond hair, and blue eyes, strong virility/fertility, are the most desirable traits (natural occurring albinism is held holy), all others are considered of “inferior purity” regardless of appearance or ability. Eugenics becomes a cultural construct, determining breeding partners regardless of affection or affiliation. Birth and developmental “abnormalities” are culled upon detection.
The world’s culture, now utterly homogeneous, all power and commerce centralized, has become a dark utopia. Racial/cultural goals are achieved and reinforced through complete servitude and submission:
"I swear by God this holy oath that I shall render unconditional obedience to the Leader of the Great Reich and people one Nation, one God, indivisible with security and service for all."
There is no poverty, no war, no unrest…but also no autonomy. Privacy is non-existent. Information is tightly moderated and sanitized. Education is given back to the church. This brutal unity accelerates the leaps of science and technology…everything presents as clean, efficient, uniform, and compatible. Advanced computing, global internet connectivity, and a permanent settlement on the moon is achieved by the 1980’s.
Scientific study is kept under lock and key—knowledge of environmental destruction and climate disruption is kept compartmentalized and secret. In the 2000’s it’s discovered that the food chain is collapsing. Instead of attempting to reverse the causes, the ruling elite marshal all resources toward artificial intelligence and quantum engineering. Present day sees the civilization on the verge of true artificial consciousness and faster-than-light interstellar travel via the folding of the space-time continuum2 while the biosphere begins to collapse and societal control deteriorates.
That’s all I have for Utopian Earth at this time, besides some character ideas which I will reveal once I’ve described all the earths/realms/aspects of the hyperverse.
Next up: Enchanted Earth
A hat tip and even darker twist to Phillip K. Dick’s novel “The Man in the High Castle” (which I have not read, nor seen the Amazon TV series adaptation).
Yet-to-be-introduced forces consider this development a “VBO” (Very Bad Outcome).
Dig the d8.
Roger Zelazny did an incremental multiverse where the Shadows were reflections of the two opposing poles of Order and Chaos. The first fantasy series that clicked all the tumblers in my comics-trained teen psyche. The RPG was deliberately diceless.