Hell on earth

Scientist renounces technology to create his own Utopia.

Dylan Evans used to think that technology would deliver paradise on Earth: “We’d be in this magical world predicted by H. G. Wells, where robots did the dirty work and people had masses of leisure time.” Which is why he ended up at the University of the West of England building clever robots capable of recognising human emotions.

But the closer he came to crafting this perfect future, the less attractive it seemed. Now he is renouncing his university career — and technology — to fashion his own primitive paradise. Next month, he will head to a secret location in Scotland to prepare the groundwork for the Utopia experiment, in which he and others will imagine themselves to be survivors of an apocalypse. They will grow and kill their own food, shun television, draw water from a nearby stream and ration their use of electricity.

Not too hard--for me, at least--to believe that someone would exchange one notion of paradise on earth for another. The key here isn't Evans' renunciation of technology. It's his belief that man can create an "ideal" community.