Futurology of Utopia:

From Surveillance Culture of Cyberspace Utopia to Fairness

Abstract

From the sixteenth century to the mid-twentieth century, utopian literature consistently located both the site of utopia’s existence and that of its formation in the city or the state. After the end of the Cold War and against the backdrop of globalization and neoliberal economics, science, particularly computer-centered science-technology has developed, and in accordance with this, utopias in utopian literature shift from territorial to virtual space. Through an analysis of the novel The Circle, this paper aims to elucidate that the dissemination of their outcomes in the form of IT and social networking services have generated new configurations of utopia, namely the utopia situated in cyberspace, in which science and technology play an important role. A change of setting, i.e. the shift in the locus of utopia from nation-state to cyberspace inevitably leads us to reconsider the relationship between utopian literature, literature in general, and science. Specifically, it reconsiders the significance of H. G. Well’s critique of the inefficacy of literary art; it also investigates how this science-oriented stance is incorporated into literature in the contemporary context. Through such an approach, this paper demonstrates that there exists a problem of mutual surveillance among participants in virtual space and further elucidates the social situation in which a culture of mutual surveillance has been accepted. This study also points out the lack of fairness and democratic arrangements within the communities of social networking services and concludes by suggesting the possibility of establishing fairness and democratic forms of social organization in the utopia of cyberspace. By connecting a form subjectivity that differs from traditional notions of agency with the democratization of science, the utopia of cyberspace can also be democratized, enabling literature to contribute to solving the problems of contemporary society.