Elves and Orcs

There's two visions of the future presented in science fiction. The Star Trek vision is one where human beings have access to virtually limitless energy provided by something like a fusion reactor which enables technology like matter transporters and replicators. Another one is the dystopia, where the systems required to create the Star Trek future go dark, let's call that the Bladerunner future.

There's a sort of similar duality in Lord of the Rings. The elves have techniques and technology and morals that's are in harmony with nature. The orcs are perversions of nature--artificial beings that are almost purely destructive. Presumably the other races in Tolkien's world are somewhere between those two poles.

The Star Trek future is really the City on the Hill model for civilization, where humanity, organized and empowered through technology spreads empire and fights for control and establishing its order in the universe. The Elves are more like the Garden of Eden model, where nature establishes the boundaries and its our task to discover them and live within them.

I see the Star Trek vision as a total fantasy. It ends up in Bladerunner world, or in a world inhabited by Orcs. This fantasy vision is epitomized by the idea of colonizing Mars, which is really basically a project to fabricate an Earth on a different, hostile planet.