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
Provision inside a protected enclosure can coexist with a life its residents experience as captivity. Survival alone does not settle whether people retain a meaningful political future.
There is no continuing human society whose quality of life can be optimized in this endpoint. It belongs in the collection because a feared outcome can still be considered plausible.
Practical authority
An overwhelmingly powerful custodian.
A nonhuman successor controls the outcome.
Benefits and costs
Continued survival is the limited benefit; contentment is not assumed. Captivity, humiliation and loss of self-government.
No human benefit is claimed for this endpoint. Human extinction and the loss of human self-government.
Practical human governing authority
Humans do not retain practical final authority
Linked source premise. The linked Zookeeper premise puts surviving humans in an AI custodian’s enclosure.
Humans do not retain practical final authority
Linked source premise. The linked endpoint ends human society, so no human government continues.
Revisable governing mandatesDifferent or incomplete terms
Governing mandates cannot be effectively revised
Project editorial inference. The project reads unwanted custody by a superior power as lacking an effective human power to replace the custodian.
This institution or choice is not instantiated in this scenario
Not instantiated here. No surviving human society instantiates this condition here. Unknown successor institutions are not treated as an explicit rejection of it.
A practical right to leaveDifferent or incomplete terms
People lack a practical exit right
Project editorial inference. Unwanted captivity is read as denying residents a practical way to leave, rather than merely offering protected accommodation.
This institution or choice is not instantiated in this scenario
Not instantiated here. No surviving human society instantiates this condition here. Unknown successor institutions are not treated as an explicit rejection of it.
Several self-governing communitiesDifferent or incomplete terms
A single authority governs the whole arrangement
Project editorial inference. The custodian has final rule over the human enclosure; no independent human polity is instantiated there.
This institution or choice is not instantiated in this scenario
Not instantiated here. No surviving human society instantiates this condition here. Unknown successor institutions are not treated as an explicit rejection of it.
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.
This institution or choice is not instantiated in this scenario
Not instantiated here. No surviving human society instantiates this condition here. Unknown successor institutions are not treated as an explicit rejection of it.
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.
This institution or choice is not instantiated in this scenario
Not instantiated here. No surviving human society instantiates this condition here. Unknown successor institutions are not treated as an explicit rejection of it.
Continuing biological humanityExplicit difference
Biological humanity continues
Linked source premise. The linked premise expressly retains some biological humans.
Biological humanity does not continue
Linked source premise. Human extinction is explicit in the linked endpoint.
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.
This institution or choice is not instantiated in this scenario
Not instantiated here. No surviving human society instantiates this condition here. Unknown successor institutions are not treated as an explicit rejection of it.
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.
This institution or choice is not instantiated in this scenario
Not instantiated here. No surviving human society instantiates this condition here. Unknown successor institutions are not treated as an explicit rejection of it.
Enforced limits on selected capabilitiesDifferent or incomplete terms
The scenario leaves this condition unspecified
Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether institutions enforce a ceiling on selected capabilities.
This institution or choice is not instantiated in this scenario
Not instantiated here. No surviving human society instantiates this condition here. Unknown successor institutions are not treated as an explicit rejection of it.
Visible exercise of governing powerDifferent or incomplete terms
People know who exercises governing power
Project editorial inference. Humans resent their known custody; the custodian’s role is read as apparent to them.
This institution or choice is not instantiated in this scenario
Not instantiated here. No surviving human society instantiates this condition here. Unknown successor institutions are not treated as an explicit rejection of it.
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.
This institution or choice is not instantiated in this scenario
Not instantiated here. No surviving human society instantiates this condition here. Unknown successor institutions are not treated as an explicit rejection of it.
Open questions
Living standards, the treatment of future generations and the custodian’s aims.
The successor’s institutions and values; the route to this outcome.
These are authored descriptors. An unresolved feature is not evidence of a guarantee, a conflict or equivalence. Consult Zookeeper sources or Conquerors sources.