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.

Material provision need not depend on owning scarce productive assets. Political disputes shift toward allocation, participation and how different ways of life share common resources.

Practical authority

A revisable human mandate with institutions representing nonhuman interests.

The source premise does not settle the final governing institution.

Benefits and costs

Nonhuman life can constrain development rather than relying on voluntary restraint. Reduced human consumption or development and disputes over representation.

A material floor independent of private productive wealth. Collective allocation can constrain private projects; disagreements over contribution persist.

Practical human governing authorityDifferent or incomplete terms

Present

Humans retain practical final authority

Additional project hypothetical. The authored compact explicitly operates under a human mandate.

Unspecified

The scenario leaves this condition unspecified

Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether humans retain practical final governing authority.

Revisable governing mandatesDifferent or incomplete terms

Present

People can effectively revise governing mandates

Additional project hypothetical. The authored human mandate is explicitly revisable.

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 floorDifferent or incomplete terms

Variant-dependent

Depends on the variant; no single answer

Unresolved. Provision can vary with the settlement; a universal material floor is not guaranteed.

Present

Material provision is guaranteed broadly

Linked source premise. The linked Egalitarian Utopia premise expressly includes guaranteed income.

Private ownership of productive resourcesDifferent or incomplete terms

Variant-dependent

Depends on the variant; no single answer

Unresolved. The economic settlement may use private or common productive ownership.

Absent

Production is organized without private ownership

Linked source premise. The linked premise abolishes property; productive ownership is included in that abolition.

Continuing biological humanity

Present

Biological humanity continues

Additional project hypothetical. Biological humanity continues alongside represented nonhuman life.

Present

Biological humanity continues

Linked source premise. The linked premise includes biological humans in the continuing society.

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 persons

Unspecified

The scenario leaves this condition unspecified

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

Unspecified

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

Present

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.

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

Additional project hypothetical. The authored ecological mandate is public.

Variant-dependent

Depends on the variant; no single answer

Unresolved. The project leaves the governing arrangement, including the visibility of its power, open.

Practical independence from a technical provider

Variant-dependent

Depends on the variant; no single answer

Unresolved. Infrastructure may offer practical alternatives or create an indispensable provider; the settlement does not fix this.

Variant-dependent

Depends on the variant; no single answer

Unresolved. Common provisioning does not determine whether infrastructure has practical alternatives.

Open questions

Who speaks for ecosystems and resolves conflicts among present and future interests.

Practical human control, exit and rights for artificial persons.

These are authored descriptors. An unresolved feature is not evidence of a guarantee, a conflict or equivalence. Consult Planetary Restoration Compact sources or Egalitarian Utopia sources.