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
Those who stay keep the shared tools. Elsewhere, settlers face questions about dependence and return. The arrangement can divide lives without settling who has final power.
Everyday institutions may persist, but research ambitions encounter an authority able to say that a capability must never exist. That boundary shapes what people can build.
Practical authority
Human self-government on Earth; authority elsewhere and over successor AI varies with the offer.
The gatekeeper has final power over successor intelligence; humans govern other matters within that constraint.
Benefits and costs
Different paths can coexist without depriving those who decline. Separation and dependence may make a nominal exit difficult to reverse.
An attempt to limit dangerous successor systems with a restricted mission. A permanent veto constrains future generations and technological possibilities.
Practical human governing authorityDifferent or incomplete terms
Depends on the variant; no single answer
Unresolved. Earth retains human government, while settlement authority and the successor-AI veto depend on the offer.
Humans do not retain practical final authority
Project editorial inference. The gatekeeper has an overriding veto over successor intelligence, so human authority is not final in that domain.
Revisable governing mandatesDifferent or incomplete terms
The scenario leaves this condition unspecified
Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether people can effectively replace governing mandates.
Governing mandates cannot be effectively revised
Project editorial inference. The project reads the permanent gatekeeping mission as a veto future humans cannot revoke.
A practical right to leaveDifferent or incomplete terms
Depends on the variant; no single answer
Unresolved. Return terms and the practical ability to leave settlements depend on the offer.
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
Several communities exercise their own rule
Additional project hypothetical. Earth governs itself while settlers pursue another path; more than one community is an explicit project premise.
The scenario leaves this condition unspecified
Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether several communities govern themselves.
A guaranteed material floorDifferent or incomplete terms
Depends on the variant; no single answer
Unresolved. Shared tools remain, but maintenance and distribution are not uniformly guaranteed.
The scenario leaves this condition unspecified
Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether everyone receives a guaranteed material floor.
Private ownership of productive resources
The scenario leaves this condition unspecified
Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether private ownership organizes productive resources.
The scenario leaves this condition unspecified
Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether private ownership organizes productive resources.
Continuing biological humanity
Biological humanity continues
Additional project hypothetical. The project stipulates biological travel and continued human life, without uploading.
Biological humanity continues
Linked source premise. The linked Gatekeeper premise retains humans with useful subordinate technologies.
Others’ choice to transform themselvesDifferent or incomplete terms
The scenario leaves this condition unspecified
Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether feasible substantial transformation is legally permitted.
Depends on the variant; no single answer
Unresolved. Some augmentation exists; the terms do not settle freedom to choose substantial transformation.
Standing for artificial persons
The scenario leaves this condition unspecified
Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether artificial persons have institutional standing.
The scenario leaves this condition unspecified
Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether artificial persons have institutional standing.
Enforced limits on selected capabilitiesDifferent or incomplete terms
Depends on the variant; no single answer
Unresolved. The successor-AI veto changes between offers.
Selected capabilities face enforced limits
Linked source premise. The linked premise uses a superintelligence to prevent another superintelligence from being created.
Visible exercise of governing powerDifferent or incomplete terms
People know who exercises governing power
Additional project hypothetical. The departure offer and Earth’s human government are publicly acknowledged in the project scenario.
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
Depends on the variant; no single answer
Unresolved. Earth and settlements have different dependencies; the provider’s terms remain contested.
The scenario leaves this condition unspecified
Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether communities can operate without an indispensable technical provider.
Open questions
Enforceable return, settlement government and the successor veto.
Monitoring scope, practical exit and how the mandate could be contested.
These are authored descriptors. An unresolved feature is not evidence of a guarantee, a conflict or equivalence. Consult The Departure sources or Gatekeeper sources.