I’m reluctant to wish for changes in society given the history. Communism and other utopias were supposed to be improving the society and yet they brought tyranny and genocide.
I wish society to be better, more tolerant, and more sustainable. I want it to have better education and better conditions for children. I know what we currently have comes from thousands of years of human development. Any quick “improvement” may turn out to make things worse. As a result, the things I’d change are mostly small:
- Walkable cities with developed public transport and no cars
- Legalize and regulate most recreational drugs
- Start restricting generative AI
Walkable Cities
The problems with cars are vast. Traffic jams, lack of parking space, air pollution, CO2 emissions, and car accidents. Thousands of people get injured, disabled, or die every year in Bulgaria only because of cars. For years, I believed electric and self-driving cars were the solution to the problem but then I saw the electric scooters and realized something. The solution to the horse cars problem was not replacing horses with internal combustion (ICE) horses – it was cars. The solution to the ICE cars is not electric cars, it’s walking, cycling, and scooters.
Legalize Most Drugs
I would like most recreational drugs to be legalized to reduce their criminal distribution. I see no reason to put people carrying small amounts of weed in jail and would gradually extend that to other stronger substances. Also, vulnerable people consume these, and there’s no quality control, resulting in unnecessary life loss.
AI
I’d also force search engines and generative AI services to link to the source of each individual bit of information they generate. More regulation is needed in that area. It’s some kind of society-altering Wild West.
And of course, we talk about modern society. Most of the planet is anything but modern and may need more basic improvements, like access to education or clean water.
I find it funny writing about Utopias just a few days after completing a book about the person who invented the word. Sir Thomas More wrote about an island called Utopia (from Greek, no-place), and gave it features that were very far from his radical Catholic beliefs. Ironically, he was executed for sticking to one set of his beliefs. The word stayed but the author didn’t.
Veselin.blog 
I 10000% agree with everything you’ve said. I’m glad there’s people like you in this world right now.
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Thanks, that’s very kind.
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Interesting ideas. I can agree to all of them.
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Vote for me for Mayor of Sofia and I’ll get rid of the cars or die trying 😀 The other two require magic.
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Good ideas! I am very interested in reading about the history and experience of people who lived during the communist eras of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. As an American, I always heard about those places, but never thought I’d ever actually visit them. Now, I have actually lived in the former Soviet Union and visited many Eastern European countries, and it’s really opened my eyes and broadened my perspective. One thing I have loved about my experiences is meeting the intelligent and creative people who used to be closed off to the West.
I agree that there should be better resources for communities. That’s one thing I like about Germany, is that the focus is on building communities, rather than enriching individuals and corporations, as it is in the USA.
And I also agree that marijuana should be legal. I don’t know about other recreational drugs. I’ve never had any experiences with them.
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> I am very interested in reading about the history and experience of people who lived during the communist eras of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
I have roughly 11 years of experience from Communist Bulgaria and I lived through the transition period, which adds another 7. Happy to answer any questions 🙂
> And I also agree that marijuana should be legal. I don’t know about other recreational drugs.
I think ultimately most if not all should be purchasable from specialized strictly controlled shops. I’ve never tried any but people should not die because some dealer messed up the mixture.
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I agree with that, too. I have only tried marijuana a handful of times… when I visited Amsterdam. I enjoyed it, but I wouldn’t want to buy it on the street.
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All very good ideas. I would love to see the cars go, but we live a long way from work and i don’t want to live in the city. The sci-fi geek in me is hoping for teleportation. We have legal marijuana here in rural Nevada, also legal prostitution; they were both on the same ballot about four years ago. The new frontier is the AI my wife works in voice-over and it’s causing all sorts of stresses, mostly because businesses don’t want yo pay real people anymore. I feel the worker/employer dynamic is going yo be a large issue going forward.
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