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
Decisions about production and land use must account for living systems that do not vote or own property. Some projects attractive to present humans are limited on that basis.
People delegate difficult administrative work while retaining usable ways to change the mandate and run alternatives. Deliberation, review and maintaining those alternatives consume resources.
Practical authority
A revisable human mandate with institutions representing nonhuman interests.
Human public institutions retain practical final authority.
Benefits and costs
Nonhuman life can constrain development rather than relying on voluntary restraint. Reduced human consumption or development and disputes over representation.
Delegation with effective public contestability. Oversight and alternative capacity slow decisions and require effort.
Practical human governing authority
Humans retain practical final authority
Additional project hypothetical. The authored compact explicitly operates under a human mandate.
Humans retain practical final authority
Additional project hypothetical. The authored mandate explicitly retains practical human final authority.
Revisable governing mandates
People can effectively revise governing mandates
Additional project hypothetical. The authored human mandate is explicitly revisable.
People can effectively revise governing mandates
Additional project hypothetical. The authored mandate can genuinely be revised, beyond a paper right.
A practical right to leave
The scenario leaves this condition unspecified
Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether people have a usable right to leave.
The scenario leaves this condition unspecified
Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether people have a usable right to leave.
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 floor
Depends on the variant; no single answer
Unresolved. Provision can vary with the settlement; a universal material floor is not guaranteed.
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 resources
Depends on the variant; no single answer
Unresolved. The economic settlement may use private or common productive ownership.
Depends on the variant; no single answer
Unresolved. The economic settlement may use private or common productive ownership.
Continuing biological humanity
Biological humanity continues
Additional project hypothetical. Biological humanity continues alongside represented nonhuman life.
Biological humanity continues
Additional project hypothetical. The authored society retains humans as citizens and decision-makers.
Others’ choice to transform themselves
The scenario leaves this condition unspecified
Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether feasible substantial transformation is legally permitted.
The scenario leaves this condition unspecified
Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether feasible substantial transformation is legally permitted.
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
Selected capabilities face enforced limits
Project editorial inference. The project treats enforceable ecological constraints on selected technological projects as capability limits. The ecological reason for those limits is not itself elicited by the questionnaire.
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.
Visible exercise of governing power
People know who exercises governing power
Additional project hypothetical. The authored ecological mandate is public.
People know who exercises governing power
Additional project hypothetical. The authored administrative mandate is public.
Practical independence from a technical providerDifferent or incomplete terms
Depends on the variant; no single answer
Unresolved. Infrastructure may offer practical alternatives or create an indispensable provider; the settlement does not fix this.
Communities can operate without one indispensable provider
Additional project hypothetical. The authored society can maintain and operate practical alternatives to its AI administration.
Open questions
Who speaks for ecosystems and resolves conflicts among present and future interests.
Exit rights, distribution and the status of artificial administrators.
These are authored descriptors. An unresolved feature is not evidence of a guarantee, a conflict or equivalence. Consult Planetary Restoration Compact sources or Constitutional Delegation sources.