Hans Holbein
Thomas More, the author of Utopia (1516)
The word "utopia" is made up of two Greek words, together meaning "no place." The word suggests that no place on Earth could possibly be perfectly egalitarian, free of conflict, and sustainable.
That didn't stop people from trying, however. The Puritans believed in creating a utopia while escaping the Protestants in the 1600s. In the 1960s, as hippie subculture was at its apex, people again strove to form utopian settlements.
Today, the tech elite are putting new kinds of utopian projects forward, promising total sustainability, the end of cooking, and other modern communal living concepts that people in previous centuries could only dream of.
Since dreaming of utopia is not a new phenomenon, it's important to look back and learn about the attempts people have already made to build perfect societies.
Here are brief histories of a few utopian settlements, and where they are today - if they're still around.