History Main / TechnoDystopia

* Both the third and fourth seasons of ''Series/Westworld'' take place outside the park after the majority of the cast left it.

* ''Film/{{Anon}}'' takes place in world without crime. Minds Eye records everything you do and uploads it to the cloud. Privacy is dead, everyone is monitored constantly, and everyone knows everything about people they just met. The dull expressions on citizens' faces are due to them being smartphone zombies dialed {{up to eleven}}.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': A few episodes have done this. In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E2Smile Smile]]", robots are designed to help humans and the best way they know to cure sadness is to kill the person -- they recognize that human sadness is never gone as long as the person lives. The way they recognize sadness, though, is through outward behavior, so humans are trapped in having to behave like {{Stepford Smiler}}s all the time to avoid being murdered. Eventually, the Doctor disconnects the robots but doesn't find it humane to destroy them, and so tells the new humans to negotiate with them. However, the robots are self-learning, and so it's almost guaranteed that they'll develop the same pattern of "literally destroy sadness" again.
** The show first ran the "sadness is illegal" schtick in the 7th Doctor episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS25E2TheHappinessPatrol The Happiness Patrol,]]" perhaps most memorable for featuring a homicidal robot ''made of candy.''

[[caption-width-right:317:[[HappinessIsMandatory Remember to]] ''[[BrokenSmile smile]]''.]]

[[PoliceState Don't thank the robots and you'll be imprisoned for social rudeness.]] [[FateWorseThanDeath Death is not a way out.]] [[GovernmentConspiracy Nobody knows the truth]], or HappinessIsMandatory.

[[/folder]]

* [[ComicBook/NewGods Apokolips]] is a hellish Greco-Roman style, technologically advanced alien world ruled with an iron fist by the tyrannical GodEmperor ComicBook/{{Darkseid}}, who is a literal GodOfEvil and has placed himself at the centre of a global and compulsory ReligionOfEvil that revolves around the perpetual worship of him, mainly in the form of mass forced labour whose sole task is to endlessly build monuments to him the old fashioned way (ie. by hand, with a few basic tools, with whips to keep you in line). As mentioned the planet is technologically advanced, and this system is thus designed not simply for Darkseid to glorify himself but also to completely break the spirits of the populace. [[TheBadGuyWins It works]], and though he treats them horribly nearly everyone on the planet would give their life for him, even if they hate him. [[UpToEleven To make matters even worse]], Apokolips is locked in a millennia-old UsefulNotes/ColdWar with its sister planet New Genesis, because Darkseid is an imperialistic warmonger with the ultimate ambition of taking over the entire universe and remaking it in his image... and he has the means to do it. His fondest desire is to [[TheEvilsOfFreeWill eradicate free will]] and make every living thing everywhere [[DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans a mindless, miserable automaton]] who will live and die at his command. [[SerialEscalation And this only]] '''begins''' to describe why Apokolips is perhaps the single most horrible place in the entire Franchise/DCUniverse.

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAM'': Robotnik has taken over half of Mobius, and his half of Mobius (called "Robotropolis") is a huge sprawling metropolis of technology that is slowly but surely poisoning and rotting the planet, and where citizens are slaves to Robotnik (and those who refuse to bend to his will get [[UnwillingRoboticisation Roboticised]]). The Freedom Fighters live in Knothole, a place where nature lives free and unchecked, and they fight to overthrow Robotnik.

A twist on the setting is to discover that the humans being oppressed are actually some form of a robot or synthetic life form, beginning a discussion on what makes a human.

* ''Literature/BraveNewWorld'' by Aldous Huxley. The setting takes place in a hyper-advanced society known as the World State, a TotalitarianUtilitarian FalseUtopia bent on maximizing happiness as much as possible. However, by doing so, it forced humanity into genetically-engineered castes, subjected to conditioning, and constantly drugged and entertained so thay they will remain content doing the duties in their respective castes. The humanity of this era also worships Henry Ford, the inventor of the assembly line and thus the indirect founder of the World State's technocratic culture.

* ''WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAM'': Robotnik has taken over half of Mobius, and his half of Mobius (called "Robotropolis") is a huge sprawling metropolis of technology that is slowly but surely poisoning and rotting the planet, and where citizen are slaves to Robotnik (and those who refuse to bend to his will get [[UnwillingRoboticisation Roboticised]]). The Freedom Fighters live in Knothole, a place where nature lives free and unchecked, and they fight to overthrow Robotnik.

** Played straight for the Necrons, however; they lived on a miserable hyper-radioactive planet that conditioned them all to be sociopathic {{OmnicidalManiac}}s, but the Old Gods paid them no mind - until they invented their own gods through mad science, brutal technology, and 'celestial fart-gas'. Said gods promptly ''ate their souls'' and sent them on a warpath that ravaged the entire galaxy, birthed the chaos gods, and eventually lead to grimdark future the series takes place in.

** Played straight for the Necrons, however; they lived on a miserable hyper-radioactive planet that conditioned them all to be sociopathic OmnicidalManiacs, but the Old Gods paid them no mind - until they invented their own gods through mad science, brutal technology, and 'celestial fart-gas'. Said gods promptly ''ate their souls'' and sent them on a warpath that ravaged the entire galaxy, birthed the chaos gods, and eventually lead to grimdark future the series takes place in.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': Subverted. The Dark Age of Technology was by all accounts the high point for humanity as a whole: mankind expanded throughout the stars conquering planet after planet, with technological marvels assisting them every step of the way. Then came the Age of Strife, when the increasing appearance of psykers caused huge daemonic invasions, causing much knowledge and tech to be lost (to the point where the discovery of a schematic for a slightly different combat knife won the discoverers their own planet). The Dark Age actually gets its name from the ruling Ecclesiarchy, because men worshiped technology then instead of the GodEmperor.

[[//folder]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Crackdown}}'s'' setting is unique in that it has three different flavors of dystopia, each just as {{crapsack|World}} as the next. Do you prefer the "Lawless gangland hell, with lots of crumbling infrastructure" flavor? Check out La Mugre (eng. The Dirt). Is the "Bleak communist dictatorship with everything run by [[TheMafiya the mob]]" flavored dystopia more your style? The Den has you covered. Or maybe you're more the "Hi-tech cyberpunk dystopia with everything (and everyone) owned, enforced and manipulated by an absurdly powerful MegaCorp" type? Look no further than The Corridor.

* {{Zigzagged}} in ''Film/MinorityReport'', where Pre-Crime is the ultimate culmination of a world in which BigBrotherIsWatching. Despite that, Pre-Crime's positive benefits aren't glossed over at all, and arguably its flaw lies not in being inherently bad technology, but in one corrupt individual interfering with it for his own purposes. Indeed, apart from a thriving black market, crime and social decay seem pretty negligible in this future. Even so, prisoners are not mentioned as being released, instead seeming to get detained indefinitely, although what happens could be interpreted as a [[{{Brainwashed}} brainwashing]] process toward their eventual release, which is dystopian either way. Plus, it also requires having the pre-cogs held as slaves who have to constantly see images of murders (even if these mostly never happen). If the above were avoided somehow, it might be downright utopian.

* ''Literature/BraveNewWorld'' by Aldous Huxley. The setting takes place in a hyper-advanced society known as the World State, a TotalitarianUtilitarian FalseUtopia bent on maximizing happiness as much as possible. However, by doing so, it forced humanity into genetically-engineered castes, subjected to conditioning, and constantly drugged and entertained so thay they will remain content doing the duties in their respective castes. The humanity of this era also worship Henry Ford, the inventor of the assembly line and thus the indirect founder of the World State's technocratic culture.

** The show first ran the "sadness is illegal" schtick in the 7th Doctor episode "Recap/DoctorWhoS25E2TheHappinessPatrol," perhaps most notable for featuring a homicidal robot ''made of candy.''

* In Pre-Crisis days, [[Comicbook/{{Brainiac}} Brainiac's]] homeward of Colu started out like this. They'd had a RobotWar, and the robots won. The "Computer Tyrants of Colu" built Brainiac as their agent and sent him out into space, but he eventually returned home to find that the organic population had successfully revolted and regained control of their planet, averting this trope. As for Brainiac, this just meant his bosses were dead and he was now free to be a self-directed spacefaring super villain all on his own.

* In ''[[Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob,]]'' [[LivingShip Coney's]] home planet seems to have been in the process of becoming one of these when he left, [[TimeAbyss eons ago.]]

[[folder:Comics]]

[[folder: Film - Live-Action]]

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'': This pops up on occasion. The most notable example of the original series is probably "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E23ATasteOfArmageddon A Taste of Armageddon]]", where a planet tries to make war more civilized by calculating an appropriate number of casualties and having them "voluntarily" step into [[SuicideBooth death chambers]]. Roddenberry's point seems to be that technology ''can'' solve social problems, but not without a fundamentally human touch.

* Zig-zagged in ''Film/MinorityReport'', where Pre-Crime is the ultimate culmination of a world in which BigBrotherIsWatching. Despite that, Pre-Crime's positive benefits aren't glossed over at all, and arguably its flaw lies not in being inherently bad technology, but in one corrupt individual interfering with it for his own purposes. Indeed, apart from a thriving black market, crime and social decay seem pretty negligible in this future. Even so, prisoners are not mentioned as being released, instead seeming to get detained indefinitely, although what happens could be interpreted as a [[{{Brainwashed}} brainwashing]] process toward their eventual release, which is dystopian either way. Plus, it also requires having the pre-cogs held as slaves who have to constantly see images of murders (even if these mostly never happen). If the above were avoided somehow, it might be downright utopian.

* ''Series/BlackMirror'' is anthology series which the main theme of the episodes being the nasty consequences caused by the use of technology, so most of the episodes set in the future would somewhat count.

** "[[Recap/BlackMirrorNosedive Nosedive]]" has what is basically a Facebook dystopia. Be sure to like everyone whose business you appreciate(because if you don't their reputation is at stake, and poor reputation means they can be barred from travel options, lose their job or house, or basically become an outcast)!

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'': Pops up on occasion. The most notable example of the original series is probably "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E23ATasteOfArmageddon A Taste of Armageddon]]", where a planet tries to make war more civilized by calculating an appropriate number of casualties and having them "voluntarily" step into death chambers. Roddenberry's point seems to be that technology ''can'' solve social problems, but not without a fundamentally human touch.
* ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'': Two episodes are [[spoiler:set in the year 2019 after the show's technology had been used to transfer the rich into younger bodies permanently. The situation snowballed until the city is in a state of total anarchy, some people going insane and others getting kidnapped for their bodies. Then it became possible to deploy the technology on a mass scale, and countries started mind-wiping each other's population centers for fear that [[DoUntoOthersBeforeTheyDoUntoUs it would happen to them them first]]. Moral of the story is [[{{Cyberpunk}} advanced technology will be abused by the powerful]]]].

* Zig-zagged in ''Film/MinorityReport'', where Pre-Crime is the ultimate culmination a world where BigBrotherIsWatching. And yet, Pre-Crime's positive benefits aren't glossed over at all, and arguably its flaw lies not in being inherently bad technology, but in one corrupt individual interfering with it for his own purposes. Indeed, apart from a thriving black market, crime and social decay seem pretty negligible in this future, and institutional treatment of prisoners seems fairly humane and rehabilitation-oriented.

A SubTrope to the {{Dystopia}} and a setting version of CyberPunk, a technological dystopia -- that is, a dystopia caused by the introduction of new technology, not just one featuring it -- is a BadFuture setting that isn't particularly {{crapsack|World}}. It looks nice and clean, and normal, and progressive -- maybe even [[CrapsaccharineWorld overly nice and fluffy]]. [[RobotMaid Robot servants]] wait on your every need, death is at an all-time low and everyone looks happy.

Trope Codifier is probably ''Film/TheTerminator''.

Typically features the MegaCorp, [[AIIsACrapshoot AIs that are crapshoots]], [[EverythingIsAnIpodInTheFuture the 'i' aesthetic]], and {{Killer Robot}}s, often TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture.

* ''Series/BlackMirror'' is anthology series which the main theme of the episodes being the nasty consequences caused by the use of technology, so most of the episodes set in the future would somewhat count, but the most notable example is in the episode ''Fifteen Million Merits'', where people live underground, having to ride exercise bicycles to generate energy, while television literally rules the society.
** "Nosedive" of season three in particular, has basically a Facebook dystopia. Be sure to like everyone whose business you appreciate(because if you don't their reputation is at stake, and poor reputation means they can be barred from travel options, lose their job or house, or basically become an outcast)!
* A few episodes of ''Series/DoctorWho'' have done this, like "Smile", where the robots were designed to help humans and the best way they knew to cure sadness was killing the person -- recognizing that human sadness is never gone. The way it viewed sadness, though, was through outward behavior, so humans were trapped in having to perform like {{Stepford Smiler}}s all of the time to avoid being murdered. Eventually, the Doctor disconnects the robots but doesn't find it humane to destroy them, and so tells the new humans to negotiate with them. However, the robots are self-learning, and so it's almost guaranteed that they'll develop the same pattern of "literally destroy sadness" again.
* Pops up in ''Franchise/StarTrek'' on occasion. The most notable example of the original series is probably "A Taste of Armageddon", where a planet tries to make war more civilized by calculating an appropriate number of casualties and having them "voluntarily" step into death chambers. Roddenberry's point seems to be that technology ''can'' solve social problems, but not without a fundamentally human touch.
* Two episodes of ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'' are [[spoiler:set in the year 2019 after the show's technology had been used to transfer the rich into younger bodies permanently. The situation snowballed until the city is in a state of total anarchy, some people going insane and others getting kidnapped for their bodies. Then it became possible to deploy the technology on a mass scale, and countries started mind-wiping each other's population centers for fear that [[DoUntoOthersBeforeTheyDoUntoUs it would happen to them them first]]. Moral of the story is [[{{Cyberpunk}} advanced technology will be abused by the powerful]]]].
* The first season of ''Series/{{Viper}}'' takes place in a dystopian [[TheFutureIsNoir tech noir]] setting. [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture The day after tomorrow]], society benefits from advanced communication technology and medical achievements such as fully artificial heart transplants. However, this comes at the cost of being constantly terrorized by the organized [[{{Cyberpunk}} techno-mafia]] that closely runs the city behind the scenes. The police are often as corrupt as the criminals they're supposedly trying to stop, forcing the lead character to take the vigilante path in the hope of restoring the city to a brighter state. Throw in the fact the local government [[BigBrotherIsWatching may rob you of your own thoughts and memories if they decide they have a better use for you]], and you start to see how bleak it really is.
* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': In "Stasis", society is divided between the Elites and the considerably larger worker population, who are themselves split into the Alphas and the Betas. Fifty years earlier, the Stasis Initiative was introduced. It involves half of the worker population being placed in stasis for 72 hours at a time in order to conserve resources. Each Alpha has a Beta stasis partner who has the same job and lives in the same accommodation while their counterpart is in stasis. As such, each worker lives only half a life. The Elite, who are exempt from stasis, have developed into an aristocracy who suppress and persecute the workers. About 2% of the Elite are former workers but they are no more than a TokenMinority. Eric Waters, a Beta who is in love with an Alpha named Larissa Whitestone, is horrified when he discovers that the Elite [[HumanResources intend to convert the Alphas into fuel in order to power the City.]]

* Two episodes of ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'' are [[spoiler:set in the year 2019 after the show's technology had been used to transfer the rich into younger bodies permanently. The situation snowballed until the city is in a state of total anarchy, some people going insane and others getting kidnapped for their bodies. Then it became possible to deploy the technology on a mass scale, and countries started mind-wiping each other's population centers for fear that [[DoUntoOthersBeforeTheyDoUntoUs it would happen to them them first]]. Moral of the story is [[{{Cyberpunk}} advanced technology will be abused by the privileged]]]].

* Two episodes of ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'' are [[spoiler:set in the year 2019 after the show's technology had been used to transfer the rich into younger bodies permanently. The situation snowballed until the city is a war zone, some people going insane and others getting kidnapped for their bodies. Moral of the story is [[{{Cyberpunk}} advanced technology will be abused by the privileged]]]].

* ''WesternAnimation/SonicSatAm'': Robotnik has taken over half of Mobius, and his half of Mobius (called "Robotropolis") is a huge sprawling metropolis of technology that is slowly but surely poisoning and rotting the planet, and where citizen are slaves to Robotnik (and those who refuse to bend to his will get [[UnwillingRoboticisation Roboticised]]). The Freedom Fighters live in Knothole, a place where nature lives free and unchecked, and they fight to overthrow Robotnik.