I think that American society makes it very difficult to have friends (television, absence of third places, giant houses with individual yards so you have to drive to see people, stigmatization of men having intimate nonromantic friendships, etc). The vast majority of the change is not doing that. I’d also imagine programs intended to help friendless people meet other friendless people (perhaps a community center with book groups, sports teams, knitting circles, and so on): in many countries there are already such programs aimed at elderly men that are quite successful. You’d probably have friend-matching websites. In the worst case “be a friend to lonely people” is probably a common volunteer opportunity, although of course people who are volunteering to be your friend because they want to help others are not the ideal sort of friend.
“Everyone” is probably not precisely true but I think these policies could easily make the number of friendless people maybe a thousandth of what they currently are, which I would be pretty comfortable calling “everyone has friends”.
Seriously? Out of things like “artificial wombs”, “ableism is no longer a thing,” “people have figured out how to eliminate the need for sleep” (which let me tell you, as somebody who is marginally knowledgeable about psychology and [to a lesser extent] physiology, sounds like one of the most impossible things on this list), “transition involves changing bone structure without incredible risk and discomfort” (implied), “healthy artificial nutrition that can completely replace eating, given through a machine,” “UBI has been implemented,” and “hunger, thirst, homelessness, and disease are gone” (omg), that is your question?
(OTOH this might have been less criticism and more “do you have any ideas, and I doubt you know how to cure aging or implement UBI, so I’ll ask about this more realistic utopian change,” in which case: carry on.)
How does your utopia achieve that?
I think that American society makes it very difficult to have friends (television, absence of third places, giant houses with individual yards so you have to drive to see people, stigmatization of men having intimate nonromantic friendships, etc). The vast majority of the change is not doing that. I’d also imagine programs intended to help friendless people meet other friendless people (perhaps a community center with book groups, sports teams, knitting circles, and so on): in many countries there are already such programs aimed at elderly men that are quite successful. You’d probably have friend-matching websites. In the worst case “be a friend to lonely people” is probably a common volunteer opportunity, although of course people who are volunteering to be your friend because they want to help others are not the ideal sort of friend.
“Everyone” is probably not precisely true but I think these policies could easily make the number of friendless people maybe a thousandth of what they currently are, which I would be pretty comfortable calling “everyone has friends”.
It’s wishful thinking though? I don’t think this is meant to be plausible.
Seriously? Out of things like “artificial wombs”, “ableism is no longer a thing,” “people have figured out how to eliminate the need for sleep” (which let me tell you, as somebody who is marginally knowledgeable about psychology and [to a lesser extent] physiology, sounds like one of the most impossible things on this list), “transition involves changing bone structure without incredible risk and discomfort” (implied), “healthy artificial nutrition that can completely replace eating, given through a machine,” “UBI has been implemented,” and “hunger, thirst, homelessness, and disease are gone” (omg), that is your question?
(OTOH this might have been less criticism and more “do you have any ideas, and I doubt you know how to cure aging or implement UBI, so I’ll ask about this more realistic utopian change,” in which case: carry on.)