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

Public institutions can still make laws, but access to work and essential services runs through a handful of providers. Switching vendor may leave the underlying dependency intact.

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

Practical authority

Formal human institutions coexist with concentrated private technical power.

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

Benefits and costs

Large providers can coordinate complex infrastructure and investment. Exclusion, weak exit options and private influence over public decisions.

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

Practical human governing authority

Variant-dependent

Depends on the variant; no single answer

Unresolved. Human final authority depends on the internal constitution; it is not guaranteed throughout this arrangement.

Variant-dependent

Depends on the variant; no single answer

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

Revisable governing mandatesDifferent or incomplete terms

Variant-dependent

Depends on the variant; no single answer

Unresolved. The power to replace governing mandates depends on the institutional settlement; it is not guaranteed.

Unspecified

The scenario leaves this condition unspecified

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

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 communities

Unspecified

The scenario leaves this condition unspecified

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

Unspecified

The scenario leaves this condition unspecified

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

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 resources

Present

Private ownership organizes production

Additional project hypothetical. The authored infrastructure is controlled by private firms or alliances.

Present

Private ownership organizes production

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

Continuing biological humanity

Present

Biological humanity continues

Additional project hypothetical. The authored world retains biological humans using its services.

Present

Biological humanity continues

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

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

Unspecified

The scenario leaves this condition unspecified

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

Variant-dependent

Depends on the variant; no single answer

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

Enforced limits on selected capabilitiesDifferent or incomplete terms

Variant-dependent

Depends on the variant; no single answer

Unresolved. Capability restrictions depend on the governing settlement; no uniform ceiling or absence of a ceiling is guaranteed.

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

Present

People know who exercises governing power

Project editorial inference. The project describes identifiable firms and human institutions exercising power, without claiming that all influence is disclosed.

Unspecified

The scenario leaves this condition unspecified

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

Practical independence from a technical providerDifferent or incomplete terms

Absent

Life depends on an indispensable technical provider

Project editorial inference. The authored infrastructure is indispensable, and changing vendors leaves the dependency intact; there is no practical provider-independent operation.

Variant-dependent

Depends on the variant; no single answer

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

Open questions

How much formal government can actually compel the providers to do.

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

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