As I first started thinking about what my ideal utopia might look like, ideas came fast and thick. I came up with a long list of possible elements: community gardens, public art, coming of age ceremonies, resource centers instead of compulsory schools. But as I sat down and tried to pull it all into a coherent paper, I realized that for me, designing utopia comes down to two things: what to get rid of, and what to create.
The first and most important thing I would get rid of in utopia is starvation and other forms of death by poverty. Much of this could be accomplished by efficient and equal forms of resource allocation, but I feel this is so important that technology should be designed to specifically provide food and shelter to anyone, wherever they are, whenever they are. I imagine anyone being able to press a button and get bland but nutritious food. People who wanted better food could grow it or trade with others to get it, but if they couldn't or just didn't want to, they would never die for it. Similarly, technological innovations could provide small shelters that would be easy to put up and down, in addition to community spaces always being available to anyone who needed shelter.
Along with eliminating starvation and death by exposure, I want to eliminate living in a culture of scarcity. Anyone who is afraid that regardless of whether their needs are met today they might not be met tomorrow will never be able to contribute fully to community. This can be partially solved by providing for basic needs like food, shelter, and interaction with others, but only partially solved. Fear is not necessarily rational, and a culture of fear will not disappear on its own but must be supplanted by something else. I will go into this further later.
The other element of modern society I would get rid of is the sprawling asphalt city. I read once in a book on urban planning that communities throughout history have been limited by half hour commute times. When walking was the main form of traveling, the homes furthest from the center were a mile or two away. While cars are the main form of transportation, suburbs can be 30 miles from cultural centers. This structure feeds itself as well: If you live a 30 minute drive from where you need to go, you will never walk there. Utopian communities would have all elements of work, needed resources, and education within walking distance of living space.
I imagine creative use of current city spaces. Plants that are especially good at cleaning the air and breaking up asphalt could be encouraged. Parking garages could become auditoriums. Office buildings with huge windows could become greenhouses. Skyscrapers could be slowly dismantled and recycled. As with creating a culture of plenty rather than scarcity, though, a culture of environmental sustainability will not spring into place with the elimination of cities. Culture shapes environment and environment shapes culture equally.
This is where the creation part of this utopia comes in. I believe it is possible to create a culture where respect for other humans, for yourself, and for your environment is the norm rather than the exception. It would be a slow, piecemeal and unpredictable process. I imagine that in hindsight, members of this utopian culture could look back and see that the ethics of a small community caught on and grew, but from this end it wouldn't be possible to tell which community.
I say a culture of respect rather than a culture of acceptance because I want to make it clear that even differences in what is accepted would be respected. I might not accept that my neighbor has four wives, but I would respect his choice. In the same sense, though, if my neighbor was disrespectful of the wish of one of his wives to be in a monogamous relationship, that would be a community issue.
Obviously the first community structure necessary to handle issues like this is a method of problem solving. In my ideal utopia, the person who has a problem or is uncomfortable with a situation would go to a person they respect and together they would try to figure out a solution that works for the whole community. Framing the goal as working for the community would eliminate violent options. If the two people couldn't figure out a solution, they would go to a person both of them respected, and the chain would continue with the group growing larger until a solution was found. Eventually this would result in a community having a fairly small group of people influencing many decisions, simply because they were respected by the most people. If there was a problem affecting the whole community, this method would gather people together in critical mass very quickly as well.
I can think of so many other elements a utopia could have. I think community property is necessary, as well as working together and eating together in that community space. I am firmly against the idea of compulsory education, and firmly in favor of educational resources being available to anyone, any time, any place. I believe technology could play into making educational resources available as well. I like the idea of polyamory and bisexuality being accepted and perhaps encouraged, but I would prefer diversity of relationship styles being the norm rather than any particular relationship style. Health care should be a priority in forms of every-day health maintenance, emergency care, and long term care. I would want to see children consider many people in their community resources for friendship, education, and bandaging scraped knees, and I would want every child to have a particularly close physical bond with one or two adults. I definitely think children should be treated with equal respect as any adult, both respect for their ideas and decisions and respect for their limitations. Anyone could, say, decide to plan a large piece of public art and they would be respected and encouraged regardless of their age, but no one would be forced to take on work they did not consider themselves ready for.
Utopia is simply the urge to make the world a better place for everyone. History is full of people wanting to make the world a better place, some of whom succeeded and some of whom failed miserably. I do think equality is a necessary component of utopia. Utopia being for everyone, not just one gender, race, class, or locale, is what makes it something other than wish fulfillment. The idea of a personal, individual utopia may be valuable in some situations, but I believe utopia is inherently tied up in ideas of utopian interaction between the individual, other individuals, and their environment.