Suspended between reality and fiction, the emancipatory and the fatal, two conflicting meanings have clung to the word utopia for centuries.

Hope paired with purposeful action enables humans to imagine alternative futures and work their way through tough times.

Most futurists prefer the exploration of scenarios over determinate paths. Some will say prediction is impossible – but is this necessarily true?

The idea of progress as an inevitable historical force was born in the Western world – now it may be drawing its last breath there, too.