While I have offered personal beliefs about where our remaining and quickly diminishing resources should likely be directed, I have not anywhere provided an outline of what I think would be a 'utopian' future for humanity. I do believe that there may be ways to mitigate ever so slightly the consequences of our ecological overshoot but for the most part have merely suggested local communities attempt to become as self-sufficient as possible given the decline we are likely to experience (some argue we are already experiencing this).
The future is both unknowable and unpredictable so I have no firm vision what it may or may not look like.
One of the most likely scenarios for our future may be what archaeologist Joseph Tainter outlines in his text The Collapse of Complex Societies:
-a lower degree of stratification and social differentiation;
-less economic and occupational specialization, of individuals, groups, and territories;
-less centralized control; that is, less regulation and integration of diverse economic and political groups by elites;
-less behavioural control and regimentation;
-less investment in the epiphenomena of complexity, those elements that define the concept of ‘civilization’: monumental architecture, artistic and literary achievements, and the like;
-less flow of information between individuals, between political and economic groups, and between a centre and its periphery;
-less sharing, trading, and redistribution of resources;
-less overall coordination and organization of individuals and groups;
-a smaller territory within a single political unit.
Whether such a future is 'utopian' in nature depends entirely upon subjective criteria applied by each person. Some of Tainter's observations of what occurs when a society passes peak complexity and simplifies its living does sound much better than the current power/wealth/organisational structures that have given rise to many (most? all?) of our social problems. Some sounds problematic in the extreme given the loss of skills/knowledge of the vast majority of humans (especially in 'advanced' economies).
Given that our predicament is ecological overshoot and not diminishing returns on investments of sociopolitical complexity as Tainter argues, our endgame is likely to be different; especially if the decline is much quicker than the generational one outlined by Tainter.
Nature will set our path and it cares not one iota whether our future is utopian or dystopian. It will do what it will do in bringing our species back into balance with our natural carrying capacity. Given what I know of how Nature tends to do this for other species, we probably are not going to enjoy the path ahead at all. Especially if we continue to pursue things that put us even further into overshoot rather than confront the looming wall that is a finite planet--particularly complex technologies that further degrade our environment and destroy ecological systems.
PS
I have to add that I am a retired, suburban-raised guy who fell into the rabbit's hole of our energy dilemma and overshoot predicament by accident about 10 years ago (although much of it aligns with my university education, particularly population biology and archaeology). I am struggling to learn the skills and knowledge (particularly food production) I believe we all need to have for the years ahead. In no way do I view the future of decline/collapse as 'utopian'. I hope that the evidence I am seeing is wrong...but it is increasingly looking unlikely.
PPS
Came across this piece (https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2022/12/finite-feeding-frenzy/) this morning by Dr. Tom Murphy that makes some related points to our discussion and why the future is likely to be much more simple in nature than a technology-based one, and how overshoot has come about...