Category:Introduction

What is Fractopian Fiction?
Fractopian Fiction tells human-condition stories in a near-future world, extrapolating from current trends and technological developments to create realistic images of life in the developed nations just a few generations down the road (see Assumptions).

Its worldview is scientifically conservative, involving neither singularity nor apocalypse. A Fractopia is neither a utopia nor a dystopia but includes aspects of both, depending on one's position in various social strata: it is a projected vision of neo-feudalistic corporate power coalescing under the capitalist realism of neoliberal economics, emboldened by artificial intelligence and covered with a veneer of augmented reality.

The word "Fractopia" - (roughly speaking, a "fractured or uneven place") - refers to both the socio-economic stratification and the polyglot mixture of cultural and virtual realities present in such a world. A Fractopian setting includes a wide range of social classes, subcultures and milieus; it is a multi-layered world in which people move, often side by side, through very different real and virtual realities.

Fractopian Fiction is...


 * Near-Future (within the next 100 years)
 * Fact-Based and predictive, extrapolating from current developments
 * Low-key, not high concept; thoughtful, not flashy
 * Neither CyberPunk nor SolarPunk, but somewhere between
 * Neither Utopian nor Dystopian, but has elements of both
 * MetaModern, striking both ironic and sincere tones

Fractopia and This Community
Though this site draws much of its initial content from the "UbiquiCity" series (see Origins), Fractopian Fiction as a subgenre ranges much wider than that - from novels like Lauren Teffeau's "Implanted" to movies such as "Advantageous" and "Her" - and this entire area of inquiry represents an important contribution science fiction writers might make for today's futurists and tomorrow's increasingly digitally-mediated citizens.

This community welcomes fictional contributions, predictive theories, exemplary art, and modern-day research into the dawning technologies and cultural changes poised to define the world of the next century.

Come join us in the Fractopian Future.