21st century utopias, between excess and emancipation

Our century needs a glittering tomorrow, and the society of spectacle draws heavily on the promises of technology to deliver it. By giving voice to contemporary futurists and commenting on their discourses, this essay seeks to distinguish between technological advances themselves, which continue to make good progress, and discourses full of promise, instruments of power in the service of the transnational corporations that pull technology's strings.