Name Your Dystopia
Name Your Dystopia
Results of a whimsical survey
How should results like these be interpreted? There is no practical scientifically meaningful application here. The questions don't measure anything important and the sample size isn't large enough to be representative of anything.
Part of the fun of designing a survey is that you can include whatever you want. Thank you to everyone who answered and gave me something to chuckle about. I so enjoyed your responses!
Here are the results of this season's survey and a comparison to the one people filled out before 2020 changed the world.
Dystopian scenario
43% of respondents chose "Aliens struggling with culture shock" as their preferred choice for future troubles. In second place at 30%, we have "Clones competing with themselves" —my two favorite options, ha ha. Three years ago, Aliens won first with a totalitarian regime coming in second and no one even seemed to notice the poor clones and their angst. No one ever considered the out-of-control cyborgs to be an option either.
Tactics most likely to overcome the problem
50% of responders felt that going "off grid" and living in the wilderness was a good option. 36% saw themselves joining the underground and wearing cool outfits. The remainder saw keeping a good front toward the enemy as a reasonable solution. Three years ago, off-grid and underground had similar results and no one voted for the rest.
I can't help but wonder what the results would look like if I phrased the question differently. "What survival tactics are you most likely to use despite whatever wisdom your common sense proposes?" There might have been a fair number of people pulling the blanket over their head and certainly a lot more assuring the enemy that they support their agenda.
What you would value most
I love how these responses changed over the last three years. Back then, people were roughly divided between extra skills/weapons, close-knit group, and making money on the black market. This time, 50% of respondents said they would value a close-knit group of people the most, and a much smaller amount chose extra skills and weapons.
And a few chose "Being right. You knew this would happen." Thank you for being honest. Lol.
Best skill set
71% percent would want genius tech skills. Yes! I must admit I felt somewhat vindicated. This is a classic sci-fi approach and makes so much sense, ha ha. Three years ago, only ONE person chose that response. Demoralizing. They were thinking more like fantasy readers. 60% of them chose teleportation. This time around there were 21% going for shape shifting, which sounds fun but feels a little less doable to me, and 7% chose teleportation.
As far as teleporting goes, I can't help but picture a device like that in the hands of an enemy which is... unnerving.
Missing the most
64% of respondents were solidly confident that a lack of indoor plumbing and toilet paper would be their main regret, with puppies, kittens, and comfort foods coming in second at 29%. Three years ago these two were tied.
No one seemed to bemoan the loss of social media.
Attitude toward the future
43% consider themselves observers, 21% optimists, 14% cynics, and 21% pessimists. There were no paranoids, presumably because they wouldn't trust the survey to begin with.
There you have it. I'm glad to see we are all so well prepared for the future!