This recurrent theme is no accident: most cultures have, as a basis for their creation mythos, a utopian view of either the pre-human world or the post-human world. Sociological, this is a functionalist approach that serves to validate what it means to be a good citizen in society and move towards all citizens being good, and therefore a utopian culture arises. The word "utopia" is derived from the combination of two Greek words, Eutopia and Outopia. Eutopia is a positive place, meaning perfect but not fictional; while Outopia means 'nothing' or 'no matter what.' It thus seems that the Ancient's idea of Utopia, particularly in Plato's Republic, is less of an Eden as we see it and more of a template of the manner in which things should be connected in order to provide the best possible society. For Plato, this...
If the city produces enough good citizens, it will be a good city, and evolve into a good state in which will continually produce citizens with all the requisite virtues necessary to thrive and continue to evolve. Certainly, this places great demands on individuals because they must strive to be better -- to be able to move away from base desires into a better place, but this is the ideal and the goal -- a group of evolved citizens living in an evolved state equals the utopia.
The best representation of this is a short animated version that can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69F7GhASOdM
