An invented world is the perfect blank canvas upon which to conduct thought experiments about how we should live and, alternatively, what might arise if we are not sufficiently wary. 

These possible worlds serve as warnings or aspirations. It should be noted, however, that the word ‘utopia’ puns on ‘no place’ and ‘good place’, with ‘no place’ carrying the sceptical force: Sir Thomas More was implicitly suggesting that such ideal societies were not achievable in an imperfect world. Some of the most celebrated Science Fiction, such as that by Ursula K. Le Guin and Iain M. Banks, negotiates a path between utopian and dystopian conceptions of future civilisations and imagined ways of living.