A high-tech life, a low-tech heart and a no-tech natural world, that's what utopias are made from.
High tech had the ability to reduce inequity or accelerate it, thus the key was not the science but a philosophy of the heart embedded into our culture.
High tech had accelerated the world to the brink of catastrophe, albeit in war or the movement of goods for sale, the depletion of the environment for the glory of consumeristic lifestyles. Yet, perhaps counterintuitively, it was also the solution. We needed to think globally and act globally to make things workable at the local level. We needed to think about the places on Earth that, with the aid of the best technology, could produce an abundance of nutritious foods. After that it was all about the best storage systems, transport and equitable distribution. Once we took money out of the equation high tech could solve the problems of Earth with almost laughable ease. Our only real obstacle is the human ability to conquer the primitive self and put the higher self in command - to conquer greed and fear of need and to act as part of a global community fully committed to the betterment of all.
High tech was a new way of living, a way that made the era my folks grew up in look like the dark ages. We can pretty much cure anything - except being an asshole - that is still very much an "inner work" deal. Between the nanobots and the new agri-tech and water production systems, we've got an existence previous generations could only have dreamt of. There is still much to do with community and environmental restoration projects, but even with all that we have a lot of time for fun. The thing about this heaven-on-earth of ours though, is that we still feel the need to work the brain of course, and so science and art have gone through something of a new enlightenment process. Plus, now humanity is destined to roam the stars, or at least those who want to. I think solving the problems on Earth, the real problems, ending suffering, living as a real world community, was the real key to space exploration.