Ideas for dystopian settings. Take them. Please take them.
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- Опубліковано 16 жов 2024
- When the world ends, at least I'll be seen as a prophet.
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3:03 became relevant more quickly than I expected.
Btw. it's not France which doesn't exist. It's Finland and its outpost Bielefeld. Don't believe everything the government tells you!
Oof
Makes it a good concep ffor a dystopia, but uf.
For the banning all sex, watch shimoneta, thats basically 1984, in a japanese highschool, as comedy, with that. An a "trrst" that is a free thinking teenager funny but thhe socialcomntary , very dark. It a good concept but yeah, shimoneta already exists.
What does he mean?
@@michimatsch5862 The part in which he talks about "forcing people to have sex and bear children" has some parallels to the fact that the US Supreme Court is revoking the ruling that made abortion legal in the USA.
"Imagine a world where France exists"
I raise you a world where Australia exists
@@jcarm185 Flat Earth or otherwise? I meant this mostly as a joke.
I counter raise you a world where New Zealand exist on every single map ever created
Or a works where Finland exists.
No, that may be too ridiculous.
How about a world where canada exists
@@damianpenrod2629 or the worst of all...
Great Britian
A really awful dystopia would be where individualism is taken to incredible extremes. Nobody looks out for each other, everybody just wants to be wealthy, and people will drop you the moment you aren’t useful.
Edit: to all the people saying “this already exists”, you clearly don’t get the point of dystopia. The point is to take an aspect of society and highlight it (perhaps also exaggerating it) to show how harmful it truly is.
This already exists! It’s called LA ~
"LA"
Try America.
This is the problem with most of the ideas suggested in this video, they are almost all happening right now. I seriously thought that was going to be the gag of the video up to a certain point. He means to exaggerate them, but most of them can't possibly be more exaggerated than they are in reality. It really emphasizes that we are lviing through a dystopia right now, it can only get worse in that they have not all reached their logical conclusion, but they are all operating at "peak performance"
This interestingly is the canonical bad ending for if the dark one won in wheel of time. Humanity thought it'd be a world ruled by monsters afflicted by apocalypses, but the dark one instead would have created an otherwise normal world in which people have no empathy and don't care for others beyond their selfish wants
That's literally America right now.
Bioshock already exists
Your idea about France really hit me hard. We live in a société.
I have all kinds of ideas for dystopian hellscapes, I'm kind of disappointed to see that many past dystopias have gradually become documentaries so aside from just wanting to protect a handful of good ideas, I'm almost afraid to put them out into the world for fear of giving people ideas about how to reshape the future.
The one idea I had that I'm willing to share because it's just too ridiculous was sort of inspired by some of the more comedic, or lighter episodes of The Twilight Zone. The idea is a bunch of executives for the world's biggest company vote to replace their lower workers with cheaper robots. When this works they vote to replace middle management with robots, then, when sales are suffering someone gets the bright idea "Why don't we get robots to replace the _consumers!"_ At first it's taken as a joke, then seriously considered then acted upon. Later we're shown a world populated by only a handful of very elderly rich humans, primed to die off and leave behind a world that was not taken over by malicious, super-intelligent, super computers. Just an assembly line of idiot robots, mindlessly buying and selling garbage to each other. Because people don't matter, the machine is what matters, the economic machine must churn.
I actually like this, especially the way it ends 🤣 It's like a glimpse in the mirror: we all are kinda like a bunch of mindless drones buying and selling shit to each other
Turn it into a short story. It’s simple and absurd enough that it works. If only that was easy to market short stories nowadays.
It’s funny cause my dad also told me “wouldn’t it be funny to have consumer bots? Like they buy food and throw it away trying to understand human societies?”
When a youtuber has more inspired ideas than multiple million dollar companies.
to be completely fair this video probably didn't cost millions of dollars to produce either
@@BlueBeetle1939 true that, but all it takes is a pen and paper to make good ideas.
@@BlueBeetle1939 to be completely completely fair those companies are the ones pushing those right wing ideas that he listed as dystopian
The Million Dollar companies doesnt want good movies they want profitable ones. Because they are obligated to their shareholders. Its Just Business logic
So when the sky is blue?
I remember a while back I had a brief idea for a dystopia in which the oil industry is on the verge of dying, before they find a way to easily convert living tissue into petrolium. Allowing the rich to literally turn poor people into oil. Never really thought it out or did anything with it, but I really feel like there is some potential in there. Assuming it hasn't been done somewhere that I haven't seen.
A dystopian setting I've been thinking and writing about recently is the idea of a dystopic utopia. Like if Star Trek went to an extreme where technological progress lead to everything being so easy and convenient to the point that civilization becomes completely stagnant. The Foundation series explores this and the driving force is a will to save civilization but my idea is what if civilization isn't saved and just continues to exist without any rhyme or reason.
humans in Wall-E lol
The Antispirals from Gurren Lagann are kind of that
Also the football obsessed world of 17776
@@BlueBeetle1939 I got to the halfway point of Gurren Lagan then the friend I was watching it with moved away and I never finished it. Sad.
@@thebajanbots7131 that is sad the second half is the better part in my opinion though it is all really good. I think it's on netflix if you've got that or there's always the jolly roger way
The clout chasing one reminds me of the movie Nightcrawler. Jake Gyllenhaal plays a guy who becomes a freelance news reporter and does increasingly dangerous and illegal things in order to get footage that he can sell to local stations. I think a world where everyone is incentivized to do that sort of thing because it's basically the only way to make money and survive would be really interesting.
They should make a sequel to Legend of Korra where capitalism and climate change fucked up their world but Korra was too blind to see it(because she was in love with THE biggest industralist in the world) now the entire world's gone to shit and the next Avatar is screwed and has to deal with that.
You can always write a fanfiction about that. That’s a quality take right there
@@kathvg lol, literally trying to write a plot synopsis around this concept, with other things including:
- Corporation-led mass brainwashing on citizens.
- Manufactured prosecution of earthbenders to get free and effective labour
- Petrostates collapsing due to depletion of oil reserves.
- Nihilist doomer cults in the Air Nation.
- Urban sprawl and geoengineering causing a mass exodus of spirits, risking an apocalypse triggered by the total separation of the spirit and physical worlds.
To be perfectly fair to Korra and Asami, both were horrified and disgusted by the Earth Empire exploiting the Spirit Swamp for Vine Weapons and energy tech and fought against it. I feel it would be more like Korra who was never trained in diplomacy and politics and is still unpopular and an outsider can't really get into the rooms of power and because she has lost avatar wisdom and has few guides willing or able to consider effective ways of resistance, she had no idea how to stop industrialist from messing up the world and fighting them turned most of the world against her.
But Korra got with Asami not Varrik? Plus after her dad was revealed to be a equalist Asamis company never seemed to be running better than Okay.
"sex is outlawed" there is legitimately an anime about not exactly this concept but a very similar one and its called "Shimoneta: A Boring World Where the Concept of Dirty Jokes Doesn't Exist"
Yes and so meta that the thr are very funny mistaken with the sad . Yes
It's also the beginning of Man Of Steel they're all mad at Jor El because baby superman is the first natural birth in hundreds of years or something
That anime is more horny than some fucking hentai I've seen, the cookie scene still fucks with me.
One idea I'm currently working on is a dystopia where instead of banning certain political and philosophical views, people are bombarded with so much information and opinion pieces that the truth gets drowned out. It is similar to one of your ideas, where the amount of propaganda makes everyone forget what the truth is, but here the difference is that it's not just propaganda but also a lot of noise, like celebrity news and short discussions about everything. In this story this causes people to go into constant whiplash between obsession and apathy, so that they either blame everything on someone, or don't think at all from mental exhaustion. Either way, no-one questions their own actions anymore.
You just describe modern news and media
@@bencox3641 yeah, lol.
This is already happening.
@@bencox3641 yeah, dystopia is about criticism towards current trends after all
That's literally today
......yah has he not watch Conception or children of the sky whales?
The settings where people are forced to have kids have broad potential for what kind of audience it's written for. You could focus on adults being forced to have kids, possibly forced to either take care of kids they can't support or give up the kids they can't support. I'm imagining unwanted kids forced upon people filling up foster care systems, and the story could focus on people who work within the foster care system. Maybe the protagonist wishes they could help every kid but one person literally cannot do that. You could take a children's or YA spin by focusing on a kid protagonist whose parent(s) can't support them or is flung from foster home to foster home while grownups around them get put in the Procreate Now lottery.
Thats good, i mean its sadly very relevant currently, but its a good die to make it a dystopia.
Reminds me of a time I wrote a Martial Arts fiction about a dystopia where people were trying to pass on their altered genes to the next generation (in hopes their future generation could eventually become Gods).
I mean, this is basically a reality that America is heading for if the current situation is anything to ho by.
Conception all ready exists. Also my Wife Princess X! Also check out Younger World too as it has a similar undertone.
You forgot to mention the part where all the main characters are super hot despite living in dystopian hellholes. How am I supposed to care if the main character isn’t a super hot blank slate?
/s
Life in this hellscape is basically the same as life in suburban America, except that instead of your parents telling you to go to bed it's the government telling you to have children, and instead of going to your room you have a rebel base.
What if its a society where pople ar requird to be super attractive to get resources and ther are camps of you hav to be natural so, with a lot hypocacy of black marked cosmetic surgeons. and the beuty tandard can get really weird and absurd.
@@marocat4749 pretty privilege: the series
Ugh, making the main character super hot is so out of style. Better to claim your main character is average but have everyone act like they’re hot anyway.
I've always really enjoyed POST post apocalypse stories like screw a dystopia give me an entirely NEW civilization built of the bones of our own. From The New World and Yokohama Kaidashi Kikō are a couple of my favorite examples. Scott snyders The Wake has some cool ideas in it too like a campier Waterworld.
Oh thats great, i never hated waterworld, And post pot apocalypsis have really potential.
Youd really love the horizon series, it's exactly this
Fallout new vegas
"They're just constantly doing stupid shit to try to get attention." Okay, we clearly do not talk enough about "Extras" by Scott Westerfeld because, in that book, the economy is based on two things: merit and reputation. Merit is Doing Good Things For Society, and reputation is getting a fancier house and whatever because you're a bigger influencer and everyone is talking about you. And there's no such thing as bad publicity, so if everyone's talking about how you're the worst and you should commit unalive or whatever, you still rise in reputation because you're relevant. Tbh I don't think it's delved into in that book as much as it could be...
They also brought up a point about how the pretties lived too. Making everything at a whim seriously messed up the environment and that's why they moved to merit based but it didn't really get explored enough either. He did make sequel series though so maybe he explored those ideas there.
Yah he has not read Ready Player 2 yet has he🥵
i love the micro-plastics idea. would love to see some body-horror with that too.
I like the dystopia in the metal gear games
Well at least mgs2, 4, and revengeance
When you strip away the wacky characters and mechas and general Japanese theatrics there's a really solid core about mankind losing control of society as AI algorithms and the almighty dollar make people's lives significantly worse everywhere, but especially in underdeveloped nations that become hotbeds of mercenary vs mercenary violence in meaningless proxy wars to fund defense contractors.
Not that this really changes anything but I think it's supposed to be a metaphor. Pretty sure I read somewhere that a study found corporations behave more like an artificial intelligence algorithm than a thinking person with thoughtfulness and feeling. It's pretty easy to represent anything that can be thought of as "the machine" as a *literal* machine, to make a point in a story. Metal Gear just happens to do it with the war machine.
The thing is, all the nanomachines and AI and stealth nukes didn't change the motives or opportunities for war; and it barely affected the means.
A GEKKO is just another armored box, a cyborg soldier still had to be recruited.
The "pay a fine or die" system existed for centuties. It was called Weregild and was a defining feature of pre-christian Germanic law
Another one i thought of watching your vid was taking the idea of the "Society of Control" from Postscript of the Societies of Control by Gilles Deleuze literally.
To summarize: society does not punish you, not does it regiment your time, it simply closes off future freedom if its ideology is not followed. Example: if you don't study for school, you don't get the requisite grades needed to get a nice job, no matter if you can do the job without being able to get the grades or not. Something like that.
Soo... like being a doctor?
3:40 that's happening right now in the Philippines. The son of a the previous dictator has rewritten history through social media/propaganda to say, 'No, my family, despite the hundreds of videos of excess and luxurious depravity, were humble and poor just like you, my fellow citizens.'
Some of the concepts you’ve mentioned are already written, for example:
- Unwind series by Neil Shusterman
- Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits by David Wong
Sword Art Online....enough said
Blade Runner Another World, Underneath a Steel Sky, Doom, Conception, The Ward, Judge Dread Cyber Run, Cyberika, Ghost in The she'll, Blue Gender..?need more
10:00 Homestuck did some of this: on Alternia, due to how Troll biology works, all reproduction is controlled by their government. They do mandate passionate reproductive relationships, but that reproduction biologically requires certain resources that are state-controlled, and the partners do not even need to meet (the govenment collects samples). The process of complex genetic combination means they don't have simple genetic parentage, and children are hatched and grow up initially in government facilities, never meeting their parents, and eventually being adopted by tame monsters.
Here's an idea for the underpopulation dystopia: the government solves the problem by cloning people or otherwise implementing some form of reproduction that does not depend on people deciding to have children together. The children are then raised in government facilities, which the people support as a way to not be burdened with unwanted children. The children raised in these facilities are actually indoctrinated from birth to be loyal and obedient citizens, allowing the government to rule over a population of brainwashed slaves. While this does have some overlap with the premise of Brave New World, it would be more about the government exploiting people's unwillingness to breed in order to create a brainwashed and obedient population rather than the government controlling people with hedonistic indulgence.
Ok, let's build off this idea. The government creates clones/artificial people to solve the population problem, raising/brainwashing them in government facilities but also assigns/contracts them to specific jobs/industries, where they get raised to do that specific job (basically a form of endentured servitude).
But after a term of service or something, they get replaced by new blood, thrown into the world as a independant and told to figure it out themselves.
In the UK, we have partygate, so politicians lying whilst caught on camera is reality
I really want to mess with some (all) of these. They're just so interesting! Right now, I'm trying to create a table-top wargame, but I wanted it to be dark and grimy and gritty and whatnot, and this is just a goldmine for that kind of thing.
Edit: Spelled grimy as grime.
TERRA INVICTA!!! I had some ideas and I'll copy them here, hope they're at least interesting.
After a period of 30 years had ww3, the 2ndACW, 2 United European Civil wars, basically ww4 or the Pan-Pacific War, most of the world needs climate solutions and environmental repair services. The Biggest War Zone is the chaotic remains of former Russian territory, especially Siberia where permafrost melting has revealed new biological lifeforms that are being used to create ways to repair ruined wastelands; Most North American, European, and East Asian Agriculture is fully reliant on a constant supply of these products to stay at the level of productivity they are currently at. Wars are literally fought over Siberian Snow, Sharan Sand, Amazonian Dirt, as well as undersea for potential biological solutions in sea life as well as in the digital and corporate landscapes as well as the laboratories. There are even space stations that have been recommissioned or colonies recontacted that are studying Martian fossils and Venusian Xeno-Microbes for potential new solutions. Also experiments in Integrated Reality technology has made propaganda and disinformation a new physical battlefield where reality is actively altered to fit propaganda, with Digital flames from a fake flamethrower can in fact burn a person and even start a real wildfire that can be concealed until it has spread too far to be easily fought.
@@andrewdiaz3529 How're the ideas looking? I can't believe it's been over a year already!
I think an interesting approach for an underpopulation setting could be the state instituting a system where if you don't intend to reproduce you're required to donate sperm or egg samples that the state has total control over. For one, it gives them a blank check to practice eugenics on the populace. On the other hand, depending how you take it, that means you either have a generation of children raised in some equivalent of the orphan or foster system and severely neglected, or a generation of children raised by the state and blindly nationalist as a product of that.
"Imagine, if you will...."
Just an idea I had while you were taking about AI and the youtube algorithm. What if there was a dystopian society where the government and the legal system was run by an an algorithm that nobody really understood, and the government algorithm kept churning out nonsensical laws that were almost impossible to follow. But nobody understood the algorithm enough to change it. Idk if anyone is going to see this but I just wanted to put this out here.
Omg got a bit scared when he mentioned France. I don't think the world is ready for a france-dystopia yet
France exists?... Wait a minute... It does? Since when? France colonised southern Africa? But I don't speak French!? Wait... When was Southern Africa colonised!!! My ancenstor got slaves from Europe! What am I saying!? Am I alive?
I had an idea awhile back similar to your nationalism to the extreme idea where at a certain age, people have to take a test to see what community they would belong into, based on their beliefs. It would start out with decently sized towns, but as more criteria kept getting added because of all the hot-button issues becoming The Big Thing to have opinions over, the re-testing and re-testing would divide the towns into smaller and smaller sects until humanity lived in boxes all on their own, believing that having opposing opinions was bad and only similarly minded people should coexist. I never went through with writing it because I was just a teenager, but I think about that story idea from time to time. I just don't think I'm skilled enough to write it tactfully.
Starship troopers
Like Divergent but good?
Great. Now I’ll have nightmares about France existing. Thanks a lot for that.
Most dystopian stories, to me knowledge, are set when the dystopia is at the height of it power or during its fall. So, why not have a dystopian story about the being and rise of the dystopia. Let the reader experience the building of the dystopia brick by brick. If one want's to be extra spicy have the 'protagonist' be the strong man charismatic leader creating this new dystopia. And make this 'protagonist' sincerely believe what their doing is noble and even necessary to preserve what is just, whatever that may be. Perhaps, this isn't as original as I currently think, but it would be a nice change of pace.
I really want to read a story like this. Or write one.
This is what a lot of people actually want form some star wars shows - the early days of the empire. The only show so far set in that time period is The bad patch, which, while not bad, it is not that the greatest of star wars shows. .
first half was great food for thought for creative writing, can extrapolate a lot from your own imagination with it, appreciate you.
Your propaganda idea is the whole plot of '1984', I would love to see an updated version of '1984'
shimonneta the anime kinda does.
You can see what's going on in Russia. Really entertaining sequel
Brave New World
That neighborhoods are countries one sounds really cool.
Oh god, imagene france existing, I'm gonna have nightmares tonight.
Dude. I have to wake up in this world every. single. day!
11:01 I have a world I've been working on where the understanding of technology backslid to the point where it was seen as magic, and AI were spirits with enigmatic desires that had to be bargained with by witches to operate properly. It isn't really a dystopia though, unless you call medieval-esque fantasy a kind of dystopia.
That’s such a cool idea! If I saw a book being sold with this plot I’d absolutely buy it immediately. Best of look with your work! :)
Its litraly the mechanicum from 40k lmao
My perfect dystopian novel would be a government run by religious extremists, seeing as that's one of my most hated ideologies, with sapphic main characters, seeing as they would be specifically targeted by the government
I'm here again to take your ideas to fuel my tabletop hobby
My demographic crisis dystopia: A society that’s divided between non-breeders (zero kids) and breeders (10 kids) and they average out to 2-3 children per person. Breeders might be a profession or a religious alignment.
"They just pray, look for a sign, and that's how they decide what they're gonna do." So Warrior Cats but for humans. /hj
I fear the day a sitting president might claim the US is Thunderclan
dystopia idea: a world where raising caines no longer exists and i can no longer get a cainiac combo #cainiac4life
is this propaganda?
10:00 this is Dr. Kellogg's wet... Or rather extremely dry dream
I really love the underpopulation/baby lottery idea. I'll be jotting that down in my notes to play with in the future. I'll make sure to give you an acknowledgement if it's ever written 😉
The one about under population is already a book called the Handmaids tale
one setting I always thought would be cool would be demographic collapse
either by disease, rapid tech development, economic depression, or electronic escapism humans can't or won't have offspring leading to a massive shrinkage in the global population with the characters forced to contend with a world where humanity may soon be gone forever.
Personne:
La France : est-ce que je suis une blague pour toi?
I'll probably use that religion one.
So the antivaxdystopia kinda was done in Future man season 1, with a twist though....
The sexless/test tube baby only dystopia is kinda done in brave new world sure the drugged up clones do like orgies, but genetically randomized children made naturally is gross and wierd and something only done by those outside of society, living in old timey reservations
Not to mention the sexless test tube babies are mass produced for work. May I remind you of the Epsilons, masses of identical people deliberately designed to have low mental capacity so they won't be suited to do anything more complex than grunt work.
@@fairycat23 that was actually my biggest problem with the live action adaptation, they totally skipped one of the most interesting worldbuilding aspects of the whole story. Also one thinks that beeing able to use fewer actors really would get the juices flowing amongst the producers
I noticed that when it come to dystopian novel there is no attempt to combine sexuality into it, like a dystopian world where all sexual expression and adult material is illegal, that includes sex ed. It would be interesting to see someone write a world like that and how a erotica resistance group would fight against that type of government,
In case you haven't, you should check out the dystopian world of Half-Life 2. The Combine seems like a really realistic version of alien oppressors, at least to me.
Wake up babe new James Tullos video
*wakes up.* okay but don't call me babe ever again.
@@cameoshadowness7757 mb bae
@@scottmoore7539 better, thankies.
I had an idea for a dystopia and it's a problem that I feel needs to be addressed.
So I had an idea for a setup, it's a bit generic as it takes place in a post-apocalyptic U.S. and takes place in Philadelphia City. I'm a Philly boy and I feel Denver has had enough attention for big cities. As it's surrounded by a massive wall protecting it as there are Vampiric like creatures outside these walls.
But now we get to the interesting part and where it starts sounding less like a million other titles. The main government of the City is like any dictatorship and has a heavy focus on the military. Most of society spends their days on computers as machines perform all the farming and manufacturing much like real industry. This sorta closed system internet is filled with propaganda and highlights how America was corrupt and terrible and the new government is better. And people treat the government like Gods as merely thinking their wrong is a crime. There are cameras everywhere watching people for what is called S.P.S (Social Points System) which measures how much of a good and loyal civilian they are. People are less like people and more like numbers to be insisted into the military by the Government as everyone needs to join it once their 16. Groups such as Religious groups and LGBTQ are discriminated against. And once you're found out you are not loyal to the government it's like cancel culture with an added execution.
The main character is someone who is loyal and is considered a good example of a loyal civilian who insisted on the military as they think that it will be like the video games they play that are filled with subliminal propaganda. But once they are deployed they find that they have been lied to and fighting the Vampiric monsters isn't as glorious as they were led to believe as many of their friends die during the first wave as they end up being captured. It's then they find out that these creatures are actually intelligent and we're once humans who were mutated after a failed government program to improve human genes as they quickly began spreading causing humanity to collapse. They live in a quiet peaceful society and aren't trying to kill people they are defending themselves after the Government tried killing them unprovoked as they stayed away from any major human settlements to not cause conflict. So the story then goes this person teams up with these creatures acting like an insider for them and helping them gain information all the while trying to not get the Governments attention. As there is conflict as exposure to these creatures slowly starts turning him into one making it harder for him and he is eventually found out and almost executed before being saved. And that's where the story ends, the protagonist now lives with the Vampiric creatures as the government isn't overthrown and still commits its crimes as they know no matter what they do they are insects fighting a giant boot. The only way to win is to run.
A good thought experiment is a dystopia of dystopias.
For the underpopulated idea, one idea I had in mind is having government start just making babies in vats, without going full brave new world about it. But a setting like that could explore either these government babies being treated either lower class citizen doing all the shit jobs since the government need people for these jobs so the education of those kids would all be toward them doing these shit jobs, or go with the opposite where these kids all grow up to be government officials since they were in the system from the get go and trough nepotism of all of them being in the same 'family' all officials are now vats babies and start viewing natural born humans as foreign and treat them as second class citizens.
This video actually makes me want to write dystopian novel even tho i suck at writing lol
My dislike for most dystopias has been related to how dystopian the real world has gotten lately. Authoritarianism stories just hits too close to home now
USA becomes Republican one party state. That's significant portion of your suggestions all at once...
K, here's an idea for a justice system type one I'm using. When someone of a certain age commits a crime, they have two options. Die, or compete in a game called the criminals gauntlet (basically survivor but people die) and it's ANY crime, so petty theives and vandals are sharing a bunk with serial killers. The last 5 people remaining get to go free, and the whole thing is televised to get people to root for the killing of teenagers and provide good entertainment. The setting would almost be built around it, with levels as a quick telling of class to stir tensions which would blow over in some fresh competitors.
This would also encourage people lying and getting others committed to! You wouldn't want your favorite TV show to stop now would you?
So another Squad Game or Hunger Games lol
@@cameoshadowness7757 damn I'm like 80% through and never thought of this oof
@@yogurtmandaz4857 it's okay. Depending who your focus is, they wouldn't stumble apon people like that or if they do, there is no guarantee to have them talk about it. They are trying to survive after all.
@@cameoshadowness7757 yeah that's fair. The story starts with a guy essentially getting thrown in and instantly labeled a criminal, and there aren't any glimpses of the outside world until past the halfway point
Here is a play on the depopulation dystopia. Governments concerned about preserving certain cultural practices at risk of being lost due to increasing migration force people from their cultural group into certain cultural and craft professions. They are not only being forced into doing jobs they don’t want, but they are often forced to do them in traditional, often economically unviable ways resulting in a grind of poverty.
For a real-life example, this is basically the national holder of intangible cultural heritage program that Korea and Japan has, but dialed to 11.
3:35
I'm sure someone else has mentioned this in the comments, but Orwell's 1984. Ministry of Truth does this and the narrator even comments on the fact that they all KNOW its bullshit but can't speak out against it... or at least, he hopes everyone knows its bullshit, he knows it is because he wrote an article about their current steadfast allies being their mortal enemies only a week ago.
Along with the destruction of spoken language came the destruction of how humans think. The language was dumbed down to prevent proper communication of criticism, you can't say WHY something is bad, only "it double-plus-ungood!" but you could not form your own beliefs on things because those beliefs were constantly contradicting what was "truth" in the eyes of the state. Even without destroying language, you could not form a coherent and rational argument against something because any evidence supporting it would cease to exist before you even opened your mouth. The only disapproval allowed was against things the state disapproved of, and the only means of showing disapproval was through the Two Minutes Hate.
I know people rag on 1984 because its the go-to "this novel was a warning not a guide" by anti authoritarian types these days... but it does a fantastic job of showing how easily and effectively our ability to think for ourselves can be taken away from us, and its all to do with propaganda.
The tiny nations one near the end sounds really cool. You could do it in a kind of goofy satirical way where say sports teams are also the main legislative body and the heads of state are all actors and radio talk show conspiracy theorist types. Or in a more dramatic grounded way where maybe an Illuminati-type force prevents people from forming larger nations (and maybe there turns out to be an understandable reason for it, like mass globalization nearly destroyed the planet hundreds of years ago), maybe they literally change the biology of people from nation to nation so they cannot breed with each other.
The book Snow Crash deals with a similar concept if you're interested. The setting is a borderline anarcho-capitalist system full of burbclaves (suburban enclaves) which are almost like a sort of hotel franchise neighborhood with total self governance inside its boundaries. It's hard to gauge how serious the setting is about its ideas, but for the most part the tone is comical. An Italian mafia has cornered the market on delivery pizza, quadrillion dollar bills are common currency, etc.
A lot of these ideas are present in dystopian media already.
I actively want to make a dystopian setting so I may use one or more of these
The first one sounds like "The Sheep Look Up" by John Brenner
Oh Yes, this video!
Worse detopia idea a world where both the UK and France exists
nope, classic audience alienating premise, you can't have a story where both the UK and France exist because it's so depressing that any potential reader would give up before you could develop any plotlines
I already was writing a story on religion/ nationalism extremism but on a different note. Ash you make me want to write so much!!! I hate you- but I love you!!!
If you want climate change-related dystopias, I recommend _Memory of Water_ and _The City of Woven Streets_ by Emmi Itäranta.
Also: If I wanted to microchip my population, I wouldn't use vaccines---I would use bread. Just put the mind control stuff in bread.
And I would spread misinformation that it is in the vaccines.
Have you ever thought about reviewing some dystopian comics? Perhaps the pictures may portray some ideas better than words can
If I wanted to write a dystopia, it would be somewhere between Elysium and Mad Max: Fury Road.
One of my nonsense ideas literally is FURRY road; Fury Road mixed with some furry story tropes and maybe a bit of Pokemon/Flintstones "so many everyday appliances are alive and tortured forever" energy.
@@andrewdiaz3529 Lol. Well, go for it! :D
A story set in either europe or america after the congo river was dammed and central africa became a pan-african superstate
Just saw the ending and I'm so glad you know the joys of a reality without France. A video I'm currently working on ends with me demanding the viewers comment reasons they think Reality J-34 would be better off if that country between Spain and Germany just sunk beneath the waves and took all the "people" inhabiting out of existence with it.
This was like 20% of him giving ideas and 80% of him saying what he thinks about certain politics ;-;
This one hits so close to home I feel like this isn't even about d&d anymore lol
My stomach hurts rn too
Normally I hate YA dystopia's, but I had a neat idea for one that I've been working on for a few months. It's basically a gothic cyberpunk superhero story that takes place on a distant human colony.
I have one where a cyberpunk superpower is in a Cold War with a solarpunk nation. Where one is our current order, atleast in the US and Europe, pushed past the point of hellscape, and the other is proof to the world that it doesn’t have to be that way. But the people lucky enough to live in the solar nation are terrified of an invasion or coup, since they’ve maintained the environment and so many other things, it makes them a prime target for exploitation and that they’ll be forced to go back to the kind of existence they prided themselves for creating an escape from.
For the poor can't use tech, have you ever heard of Incarceron? Same premise, paired with the fact that there's a prison complex that a lot of people were deported to, their children now forced to live in the decaying super high tech prison that is starting to become self aware and actively malevolent
For the "all crimes are fines, or death penalty", consider this.
You either pay it off, or you get made to pay it off. IE, the poor get debt slavery, trying to meet ever increasing quoras. The "free" population, tries to avoid ever increaskng amounts of arbritrary crimes to keep up economic growth to "fight the war" or whatever.
All while the rich can literally do whatever they want, whenever they want. As long as they pay fines. Leaving some cults of rich people to argue they are doing their patriotic duty, by paying a share of the burden... after they murdered a homeless camp. Ergo, the government is literally financially kept afloat, by debt slavery, and rich psycho crime cults, "donating" to the coffers. Meaning they encurrage it.
Social darwinism, solidified into state doctrine, economics, and culture.
Yes!! As someone who wants to major in Environmental Studies and worries deeply about our climate crisis, I've been toying with the first idea. I mean, I could never write a best selling book but it makes for an interesting story and I would like to give it a shot even if just for fun.
I am working on a dystopia where the United States never left the 1980’s and everything is still in the 80’s.because the leaders who are old people didn’t want chance and want things to stay the same. and two young people are trying to bring in the modern world after finding out about the modern world
12:30 Actually want to see a Clout chaser dystopia, ironically sounds fun to see and could really address some serious topics.
Left wing has plenty of anti-vaxxers in the homeopathy vein. They're just not as politically pushy about it.
the underpopulation one reminds of when the birth rate in denmark somewhat increased because of some ads by a travel agency (from what i can remember) called "do it for denmark"
The neighbourhood dystopia sounds a lot like the Italian Contrade (town subdivisions, where groups of neighbouring quarters are part of the same group). The rivalries can get especially intense, particularly during the palio (competition between the contrade of a city, the most famous is the palio of Siena, still going on to this day).
Environmental degradation -> ai was the plot of Horizon:Zero Dawn
7:25 If I can make one small change/elaboration to this. Perhaps instead of just execution, indentured servitude?
I've recently become interested in the overpopulation/underpopulation dystopian idea. Especially after listening to a podcast about the Tan Children Murders (rest in peace sweet angels) of 1979 in Singapore.
The hosts of the podcast discussed the population crisis in Singapore at the time. How there was a movement called "stop at 2" that discouraged people from having more than two children. The current political party in power at the time, The People's Action party, believed that only wealthy and educated people should have children to support the countries developement.
To ensure this, women in the lower class were offered a week of paid leave as well as 10,000 Singapore dollars (15,000 USD in present) in order to get sterilized. Also female workers were no longer offered maternity leave after two children. The prive of giving birth at a hospital also increased with each additional birth.
In addition, there was countless propaganda promoting nuclear families and how smaller families garnered simplicity.
Then it worked too well. Singapore is one of the leading countries in business so since they discouraged starting a family and encouraged "progress" more and more women grew career-oriented and didn't have the time nor desire to have children. More and more women were aborting their first pregnancies and getting sterilized before conceiving any children. So now, they can't replace the people who are dying.
Suddenly the "Stop at 2" movement was trashed and replaced with "Have 3 or More" movement.
It was so bad to the point there were practically no children to adopt. Which lead to the said situation of Mrs. Tan and Mr. Tan being unable to try again after the brutal murders of their 4 precious angels. Mrs. Tan had undergone sterilization due to the pressure of the "Stop at 2" movement so all hope was lost that they'd ever have kids again. Luckily an amazing doctor was able to somewhat under the sterilization and Mrs. Tan gave birth to a beautiful baby boy.
However imagine all the stories that ended with "there is no hope I'll ever have kids again". All the people who had 2 or more children, got sterilized due to the pressure of overpopulation only to lose all of their children in the midde of a underpopulation crisis.
I'm sure the Tan Family are just one example of such a misfortune. Something that may make for an interesting plot or protagonist.
Perhaps this could lead to a interesting story about the newer generations being pressured to reproduce because the older generations are practically all sterilized. Perhaps it could follow the newer generations fighting for control as their bombarded with propaganda and penalties for not having children. Or perhaps like you said, a lottery that chooses a few people who are forced to have kids.
It leads to an interesting dynamic I have in mind.
A protagonist who lost all of her children AFTER getting sterilized and is unable to adopt due to underpopulation. She wishes she was born in the time of underpopulation.
On the other side is a protagonist who has just won the "HAVE KIDS NOW" lottery when all they want to do is focus on their career. This person wishes they were born in the time of overpopulation.
So these two end up coming together, despite their differences, to lead some sort of rebellion against the government. To stop all the propaganda and penalties based on people's desires to have children.
An interesting dymamic that could start with the two protagonist having understandable motives but not understanding/liking eachother to them learning to understand eachother and cherish individuality and freedom.
Because while their desires and grievances are opposite, their troubles were directly caused by governmental pressure.
Do you mind if people use your ideas about fantasy that centers on non-human races rather than humans?
My idea for a dystopia: There is no more music, art, movies, or anything creative because everyone is so focused on the bottom line. College only has majors such as engineering and is largely overtaken by trade schools. Architecture and all products gradually become more and more boring. People are miserable from the boredom, but the notion of creativity is so foreign to them that it does not occur to them to remedy the situation.
The idea on propaganda is something I want to explore. Also the fine and Medicine issue.
"People running around in private jets pollutes way way more than your average person"
- citizen of one of the richest and highest polluting countries per capita (2:33)
That one about nationalism actually sounds pretty based.
The only place I've seen France was the Beauty and the Beast. It's an interesting setting idea, for sure.
number 3 is just Boris Johnson
I would love a dystopian novel that's set in Jorge Luis Borges' Library of Babel and explores the lives and inner worlds of the people living in it. I don't know how neatly that would map onto it since it's more of a meditation on infinity than any kind of commentary, but the idea of the world is just so interesting and like, sublime in the literal sense that it could make for a fascinating novel.
He mentions briefly that there's this group of people who go through the books in order to discard the useless ones full of gibberish (the premise is that they live in an infinite library filled with books that collectively hold every combination of letters possible, so every true statement that could ever be written exists *somewhere*, but it's in this infinity of nonsense) that could be an interesting angle. we all agree the internet is just loaded with "junk" that we should probably be rid of, and that could be a cool lens to explore it through, as an organization charged with "cleaning up" the internet. maybe that means getting rid of books that are literally incoherent and those shitty dick pill ads, but maybe a "bad" political theory, rather than being demonized, is just branded incoherent in the same way a book that goes "aaaaaaaa" for 200 pages is, and that theory is just gone now. or a dying language is discarded because because the people who used to speak it were assimilated or wiped out, so what's the point keeping it around anymore? it could be a way of interrogating how we value things and ask "what if someone was allowed to decide something was worthless, and just get rid of it?"
As an aro/ace childfree and anti-natalist, I would just run away into the forest or jump off the bridge if someone tried to make me have kids)
I’m making a big world with multiple factions, races, planets etc and the big problem I’ve had is with this one faction called the Human Union, (HU for short) is that I didn’t know how to make it a good dystopian society and antagonist faction.
It’s based off of the Imperium of Mankind from Warhammer and the Federation from Star Trek
I want to make it as evil as I can but still make it look like a legitimate government and this video is a big help in making them a superpower, dystopia and genuinely evil but fascinating and realistic government…and still a government that nobody would willingly want to live in.
That regional nationalism to the point of absurdity concept sounds like it could be turned into good propaganda for a government like Spain. I don't think that makes sense though as the trend has been more consolidation and suppressing of regional identities as communication capabilities increase as opposed to further ethnogenesis.