Description
The Year 3000, first published in 1897 by the Italian neurologist, physiologist, and anthropologist Paolo Mantegazza, and defined by him as a dream, instead of a novel, was considered by many to be the forerunner of many science fiction books. It describes the human society of the year 3000, which is associated with the United States of the world, and which has long forgotten wars. The "dream" that begins as an application of the philosophical principles of equality, social law, and meritocratic progress, unfolds with a dreamlike trend, passing from detailed descriptions of small things to the philosophy of maximum systems, or to the commentary on religion of the year 3000, when the author, not hiding the autobiographical references in the book, expresses his agnostic beliefs. Unfortunately, however, the "dream" also takes on a nightmare tone, when, starting from the aforementioned principles of evolution, it comes to the recommended suppression of fragile newborns and therefore "unfit for life" or "predisposed to crime." Science, when it has the presumption of replacing God, leads to the delirium of omnipotence, and to a severe conflict between reason and heart: significant that only years after the publication of this book.