Human societies in interplanetary space: toward a fructification of the utopian tradition

Utopias have been recognized as being of two kinds: classical, in which a perfect world is presented to which the real world can be compared; and modern, in which an evolving world is presented as an alternative to the real world. The prospect of the development of a myriad of human societies in interplanetary space is shown to lead to a third kind of utopia, a postmodern utopia, a condition of society in which the high frequency with which new states are formed leads to a science of beginnings and a heterogenization that is utopian in the positive sense of the term.