The Departure
A project-authored scenario
A powerful AI leaves a self-governing Earth; adults may accompany it. Return and successor-AI terms remain contested.
Life under this arrangement
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.
- Practical authority
- Human self-government on Earth; authority elsewhere and over successor AI varies with the offer.
- Benefits and ownership
- Shared tools remain, but their maintenance and actual distribution need institutions.
- Human and digital status
- Biological space travel; no upload or transformation is assumed.
- Technical premises
- Treatments, useful technologies and feasible settlements are fictional givens.
- Attractions
- Different paths can coexist without depriving those who decline.
- Costs and objections
- Separation and dependence may make a nominal exit difficult to reverse.
- Not specified
- Enforceable return, settlement government and the successor veto.
All authored features used in comparison
These are editorial descriptors, independent of the historical map. Unspecified and variant-dependent properties remain unresolved when matching preferences.
- Practical human governing authority
- Variant-dependent
Depends on the variant; no single answer
Unresolved. Earth retains human government, while settlement authority and the successor-AI veto depend on the offer.
- Revisable governing mandates
- 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
- Variant-dependent
Depends on the variant; no single answer
Unresolved. Return terms and the practical ability to leave settlements depend on the offer.
- Several self-governing communities
- Present
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.
- A guaranteed material floor
- Variant-dependent
Depends on the variant; no single answer
Unresolved. Shared tools remain, but maintenance and distribution are not uniformly guaranteed.
- Private ownership of productive resources
- Unspecified
The scenario leaves this condition unspecified
Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether private ownership organizes productive resources.
- Continuing biological humanity
- Present
Biological humanity continues
Additional project hypothetical. The project stipulates biological travel and continued human life, without uploading.
- 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.
- Standing for artificial persons
- Unspecified
The scenario leaves this condition unspecified
Unresolved. The scenario does not say whether artificial persons have institutional standing.
- Enforced limits on selected capabilities
- Variant-dependent
Depends on the variant; no single answer
Unresolved. The successor-AI veto changes between offers.
- Visible exercise of governing power
- Present
People know who exercises governing power
Additional project hypothetical. The departure offer and Earth’s human government are publicly acknowledged in the project scenario.
- Practical independence from a technical provider
- Variant-dependent
Depends on the variant; no single answer
Unresolved. Earth and settlements have different dependencies; the provider’s terms remain contested.
Compare the institutional difference
Optional deeper exercise
This exercise concerns decisions inside this scenario. It does not determine your general Futures preferences.
Consider the optional Departure exerciseOrigin and source status
Project-authored hypothetical. These institutional arrangements are declared premises, not observed developments or claims of original invention.
- IR Worldview Inventory: authored scenario premises · The Departure; catalogue futures-catalogue-0.3
Project-authored hypothetical · Checked 2026-09-11
IR Worldview Inventory · AI-assisted editorial draft · futures-catalogue-0.3. Attribution does not imply endorsement. No current-development or community-attribution claim is inferred from this entry.