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
The last human generations may regard what succeeds them with pride. That favorable view of succession still leaves a disagreement between valuing an inheritance and wanting humans themselves to continue.
People and artificial persons share political institutions. Cheap copying and unequal speed or scale force arguments about representation, obligations and what counts as one citizen.
Practical authority
Artificial successors ultimately determine their own world.
Shared institutions of biological and artificial citizens; human-only final authority is not guaranteed.
Benefits and costs
A valued legacy can continue through different kinds of beings. Biological human continuity ends; collective approval need not settle individual consent.
Recognition and exit for beings the premise treats as persons. Copying and unequal capacity complicate equal representation.
Practical human governing authorityDifferent or incomplete terms
Humans do not retain practical final authority
Linked source premise. The linked Descendants premise ultimately replaces human society with artificial successors.
Depends on the variant; no single answer
Unresolved. Human final authority depends on the internal constitution; it is not guaranteed throughout this arrangement.
Revisable governing mandates
The scenario leaves this condition unspecified
Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether people can effectively replace governing mandates.
The scenario leaves this condition unspecified
Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether people can effectively replace governing mandates.
A practical right to leaveDifferent or incomplete terms
The scenario leaves this condition unspecified
Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether people have a usable right to leave.
People have a practical exit right
Additional project hypothetical. Exit alongside citizenship is expressly part of the authored premise.
Several self-governing communities
The scenario leaves this condition unspecified
Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether several communities govern themselves.
The scenario leaves this condition unspecified
Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether several communities govern themselves.
A guaranteed material floorDifferent or incomplete terms
The scenario leaves this condition unspecified
Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether everyone receives a guaranteed material floor.
Depends on the variant; no single answer
Unresolved. Provision can vary with the settlement; a universal material floor is not guaranteed.
Private ownership of productive resourcesDifferent or incomplete terms
The scenario leaves this condition unspecified
Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether private ownership organizes productive resources.
Depends on the variant; no single answer
Unresolved. The economic settlement may use private or common productive ownership.
Continuing biological humanityExplicit difference
Biological humanity does not continue
Linked source premise. The linked premise describes replacement of biological humanity, regarded as a worthy inheritance rather than conquest.
Biological humanity continues
Additional project hypothetical. Biological citizens remain alongside artificial persons.
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. Transformation rules depend on the settlement; neither permission nor prohibition is guaranteed.
Standing for artificial personsDifferent or incomplete terms
The scenario leaves this condition unspecified
Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether artificial persons have institutional standing.
Artificial persons have recognized standing
Additional project hypothetical. Standing and representation for hypothetical artificial persons define this project scenario.
Enforced limits on selected capabilities
The scenario leaves this condition unspecified
Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether institutions enforce a ceiling on selected capabilities.
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
The scenario leaves this condition unspecified
Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether people know who exercises governing power.
People know who exercises governing power
Project editorial inference. The project reads shared citizenship and representation as acknowledged institutions; it does not infer public access to every decision.
Practical independence from a technical providerDifferent or incomplete terms
The scenario leaves this condition unspecified
Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether communities can operate without an indispensable technical provider.
Depends on the variant; no single answer
Unresolved. Infrastructure may offer practical alternatives or create an indispensable provider; the settlement does not fix this.
Open questions
Dissent, individual survival options and successor institutions.
Voting rules, resource entitlements and the treatment of divergent copies.
These are authored descriptors. An unresolved feature is not evidence of a guarantee, a conflict or equivalence. Consult Descendants sources or Digital Citizenship sources.