Abstract
When we look to the projected future of potential ecological crisis, what do we see? Is it a planet parched and devoid of life? A planet resonating with the misery and degradation of humankind’s survivors? Or a planet transformed? The universe of “cold equations” recognised by Tom Godwin is not some apocalyptic beast waiting for opportunity to rein down upon humankind, but rather, it is a landscape in which the proving ground of the dystopic can be sought and engaged.Through examination of selected fiction by Philip K. Dick, Robert Heinlein, Frank Herbert and H.P. Lovecraft, this paper will examine the possibility that rather than seeking the green and fertile landscape of utopia, it is the active engagement of the individual with the dust of a new wilderness that refines and strengthens a sense of what it is to be alive and conscious in the universe.