Utopian Confederation is an “alternate future” RPG in which the island of Utopia described in Thomas More’s eponymous book actually existed – and eventually led humanity to fashion a peaceful, joyful, and unified global society that now, in the 22nd century, stands ready to take its first tentative step toward the stars – with the launch of a generation ship on a mission of scientific inquiry, spiritual exploration, and prospective colonization to the planets of the nearest star system, Arcana Centauri.
The Starflume Program’s approach to 22nd-century starvessel architecture is based on modularity, expandability, reconfigurability, and extreme redundancy of critical systems. Such flexibility is essential for a ship whose journey will (hopefully) last for many decades and which is home to a human community whose precise long-term needs are difficult to foresee at the time of a starvessel’s departure.
The circular insignia known as the “Iriodion” is the oldest symbol of the Utopian Confederation. It encapsulates in visual form many of the key elements of hyponoetics (a sort of Utopian version of phenomenology) and other aspects of the Utopian Synergeticist worldview that’s shared by all human beings. In the 22nd century, the Iriodion represents not only the Confederation as a polity but (by extension) the whole of humanity and human civilization as it exists throughout the Solar System – and, now, beyond.
At various points during the 22nd century, this insignia has functioned as a symbol of the Starflume Program, of the broader Starflume Collegium, and (informally) of the Utopian Confederation as a whole; it visually depicts the Earth surrounded by all of those places throughout the Solar System where humankind has made for itself a home. The magenta-colored symbols on the left and right are the first letters of the words “Confederamaan Utopiagol,” as written in modern Utopian script.
Since ancient times, Utopians have enjoyed playing a sort of “moral chess” that simulates the ways in which virtues and temptations battle against one another within a human soul, as they interact with an individual’s memory and imagination and are influenced by persons and objects in the external world. The version played in the 22nd-century Confederation as a tool for spiritual and ethical growth has evolved significantly from the game described by Thomas More in Book II of Utopia.
While the “smooth” version of the Iriodion is used in countless contexts in the 22nd century, the purposefully “pixellated” version of the symbol is employed just as frequently and enjoys the same formal status. This version draws on the ancient Utopian affinity for mosaic artwork and the Utopian Commonwealth’s early adoption of digital formats for the storage and transmission of data, which have influenced all aspects of Utopian aesthetics and industrial design throughout the ages.
The 22nd-century “Utopianized” Earth is a world without war, without crime, without politics, and without money or private property. It’s a society in which all goods belong jointly to everyone – including one’s own thoughts, insofar as advanced neurocybernetic technologies enable any Utopian citizen to access the contents of any other person’s mind. While such psychic communion has in no way diminished the unique personality, interests, experiences, and strengths possessed by each human being, it has facilitated the emergence of a consonant human civilization in which all persons share a single fundamental worldview and eagerly unite in love, hope, and mutual deference, in order to work strategically for the welfare of humankind and the common good of all Creation.
Within such a society each person finds the place in which his singular talents can best be nurtured and applied for the good of all. During the course of his lifetime, each human being acquires a set of mosaic-like glyphs that represent his particular role within the tapestry of Utopian society. Such glyphs reflect not only one’s unique personal origins but also the rank that one has attained within the temporal and spiritual demeynes, the offices that one currently fills, and the collegia to which one is contributing as a valued member.
The inaugural volume in the Utopian Confederation sourcebook series was Utopian Confederation: Conspectus, a brief overview of the game’s premise authored by Matthew E. Gladden and published in February 2020 by Mnemoclave, an imprint of Synthypnion Press. The guide is available in PDF ebook format from DriveThruRPG. A comprehensive sourcebook elaborating on all aspects of life in the Utopian Confederation has been under development since 2019, as is a detailed guide to the Starflume Program, starvessel design, and the mission to Arcana Centauri. As of 2022, over 500 pages of material has been prepared.
The first computer game based on the Starflume Program’s mission to Arcana Centauri is being developed by Cognitive Firewall. The game’s visual design and gameplay experience are both a conscious embrace of the real-world technological constraints of 1980s game programming and a reflection of Utopian culture’s emphasis on digital, grid-based approaches to the storage and conveyance of information (including artistic imagery), as manifested in its ancient tradition of opus regulatum mosaics.
