Visions of the future often seem to go to one of two extremes. Either the future is a bleak and nightmarish dystopia (eg: Orwell’s 1984), or it is more of a utopia, better in many ways than our own reality (eg: the original Star Trek).
Of course even a utopia can have a dark underbelly. The seeming perfection of a future world, with all of its lovely techno-polish, can mask various sorts of deficiencies.
For example, a world that is perfectly devoid of crime might be the result of some extreme form of law enforcement. Similarly, a world without health problems might be the result of forced eugenics.
This kind of deceptive vision of a more perfect future might be termed a “futopia”. At first glance a futopia looks like a utopia, but that extra letter “f” signifies futility — the futility of trying to achieve perfection when dealing with something as messy and complicated as the human condition.