For Bielskyte, a future of techno-solutionism (like that of Smart Cities to Transhumanism) and Dystopia (like Blade Runner or Minority Report) are two sides of the same coin. They either become inspiration for deeply controlling technologies (like Minority Report) or misdirects us with false utopias (like Smart Cities) which showcases amazing technologies “yet the society depicted there remains deeply xenophobic, misogynist, queerphobic and ableist.” 

In an interview with the Copenhagen Institute of Futures Studies, Bielskyte remarks how both sides of these futures images are ultimately anchored in a narrow view of the human experience:

“I am continuously dismayed when I read futures reports that keep centring white, Western, upper-middle-class, heteronormative and abled perspectives, and thereby erase the reality of the majority of the world’s population.”

The Protopia concept has led to the creation of Protopia Futures, a collective which includes Bielskyte and her collaborators. They have developed a Protopia Framework – a framework that packs in a dense, collection of connected ideas around evolution, regeneration, pluralism, and symbiosis.

We are NOT trying to revive Western communitarian socialist frameworks of imposed homogeneity. Rather, we endeavor to learn from the indigeneity-rooted philosophies of interwoven, symbiotic coexistence.