>[!abstract]
>The futurarchic compass (alternatively: critical futures matrix or hope-despair matrix) is my attempt at organizing narratives about our collective future into one [[MECE]] framework consisting of a 2x2 matrix. The two dimensions are: naïve / totalizing to critical / complex (horizontally) and optimistic to pessimistic (vertically).
| | **Naïve / Totalizing** <br>(simplifies, closes) | **Critical / Complex** <br>(questions, opens) |
| --------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Optimistic** | **Bright Naïveté** <br> *[[Classical utopia]], [[Solarpunk]]* <br><br>• *Utopia* – Thomas More (1516) <br>• *Looking Backward* – Edward Bellamy (1888) <br>• *Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk & Eco-Speculation* – eds. Phoebe Wagner & Brontë Christopher Wieland (2017) | **Critical Hope** <br> *[[Critical utopia]], [[Hopepunk]], [[Lunarpunk]]* <br><br>• *The Dispossessed* – Ursula K. Le Guin (1974) <br>• *Woman on the Edge of Time* – Marge Piercy (1976) <br>• *Always Coming Home* – Ursula K. Le Guin (1985) |
| **Pessimistic** | **Shadow Naïveté** <br> *[[Classical dystopia]], [[Grimdark]]* <br><br>• *Nineteen Eighty-Four* – George Orwell (1949) <br>• *Brave New World* – Aldous Huxley (1932) <br>• *A Song of Ice and Fire* series – George R. R. Martin (1996– ) | **Critical Despair** <br> *[[Critical dystopia]], [[Cyberpunk]]* <br><br>• *The Handmaid’s Tale* – Margaret Atwood (1985) <br>• *Parable of the Sower* – Octavia E. Butler (1993) <br>• *Neuromancer* – William Gibson (1984) |
>[!related]
>- **North** (upstream): [[Utopian studies]]
>- **West** (similar): —
>- **East** (different): —
>- **South** (downstream): —