Compare two futures

Who governs, who benefits, and which terms remain open?

Compare any two entries. Their differences are editorial descriptions, not distances on a common scale.

Life and institutions

Imagine work, care and invention organized through contracts among beings with very different capabilities. Access to productive resources becomes a central political question.

Public disagreements take place beneath an authority people cannot ultimately overrule. Welfare may be extensive while the terms of good government remain the ruler’s to settle.

Practical authority

Distributed owners and institutions; human final control is not assured.

One acknowledged AI ruler.

Benefits and costs

Many ways of living and producing may coexist. Unequal bargaining power can make formally voluntary contracts hard to refuse.

Coordination and widely liked government under the premise. Benefits do not confer a right to replace the ruler.

Practical human governing authorityDifferent or incomplete terms

Variant-dependent

Depends on the variant; no single answer

Unresolved. Different kinds of owners coexist; the project leaves their relative governing authority open.

Absent

Humans do not retain practical final authority

Linked source premise. The linked Benevolent Dictator premise places final rule with an acknowledged AI dictator.

Revisable governing mandatesDifferent or incomplete terms

Unspecified

The scenario leaves this condition unspecified

Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether people can effectively replace governing mandates.

Absent

Governing mandates cannot be effectively revised

Project editorial inference. The project reads dictatorship as lacking an effective public power to replace the ruler; popularity alone supplies none.

A practical right to leave

Unspecified

The scenario leaves this condition unspecified

Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether people have a usable right to leave.

Unspecified

The scenario leaves this condition unspecified

Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether people have a usable right to leave.

Several self-governing communitiesDifferent or incomplete terms

Unspecified

The scenario leaves this condition unspecified

Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether several communities govern themselves.

Absent

A single authority governs the whole arrangement

Project editorial inference. A single supreme ruler is read as one final governing arrangement, even if local administration varies.

A guaranteed material floor

Unspecified

The scenario leaves this condition unspecified

Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether everyone receives a guaranteed material floor.

Unspecified

The scenario leaves this condition unspecified

Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether everyone receives a guaranteed material floor.

Private ownership of productive resourcesDifferent or incomplete terms

Present

Private ownership organizes production

Linked source premise. The linked Libertarian Utopia premise makes property rights central to coexistence.

Unspecified

The scenario leaves this condition unspecified

Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether private ownership organizes productive resources.

Continuing biological humanity

Present

Biological humanity continues

Linked source premise. The linked premise includes biological humans alongside other beings.

Present

Biological humanity continues

Linked source premise. The linked premise retains humans living under the ruler.

Others’ choice to transform themselves

Unspecified

The scenario leaves this condition unspecified

Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether feasible substantial transformation is legally permitted.

Unspecified

The scenario leaves this condition unspecified

Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether feasible substantial transformation is legally permitted.

Standing for artificial personsDifferent or incomplete terms

Variant-dependent

Depends on the variant; no single answer

Unresolved. Coexistence and property rights do not settle shared political standing for artificial persons.

Unspecified

The scenario leaves this condition unspecified

Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether artificial persons have institutional standing.

Enforced limits on selected capabilities

Unspecified

The scenario leaves this condition unspecified

Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether institutions enforce a ceiling on selected capabilities.

Unspecified

The scenario leaves this condition unspecified

Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether institutions enforce a ceiling on selected capabilities.

Visible exercise of governing powerDifferent or incomplete terms

Unspecified

The scenario leaves this condition unspecified

Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether people know who exercises governing power.

Present

People know who exercises governing power

Linked source premise. The linked premise expressly makes the AI ruler acknowledged.

Practical independence from a technical providerDifferent or incomplete terms

Variant-dependent

Depends on the variant; no single answer

Unresolved. Contractual exchange can sustain independent providers or concentrated dependencies; neither is guaranteed.

Unspecified

The scenario leaves this condition unspecified

Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether communities can operate without an indispensable technical provider.

Open questions

Exit enforcement, equal political standing and remedies for extreme dependency.

Exit rights, succession, ownership and whose conception of welfare prevails.

These are authored descriptors. An unresolved feature is not evidence of a guarantee, a conflict or equivalence. Consult Libertarian Utopia sources or Benevolent Dictator sources.