I read Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot and it got me thinking about the perfect society again. What if there were robots looking out for our best interests? It would seem that over time, society would be perfect, if there were no way for humans to thwart the robots.

A perfect society, by my definition, must keep people perpetually happy. That means forever. If the society ends, it cannot be perfect. In the end times, people would not be happy. Since the materials the universe is made of are not eternal (eventually protons will decay), the society within the universe cannot be eternal.

Any model people make of a perfect society will eventually succumb to time. Eventually, the people can no longer survive. Eventually, the society will die. It will not be perfect.

Some models of a perfect society don’t take into account putting a cap on population. These are not true perfect societies because the unchecked growth of the population will eventually outpace the supply of resources. A greater number of people fighting for the same resources creates competition. The weak will lose. The weak will be unhappy. This is not a perfect society anymore.

My original statement still stands. It’s still impossible to create a perfect society. A perfect society, by its definition, makes itself impossible.