Dystopia
A world that no longer needs us
A civilization may keep functioning even as ordinary people lose economic leverage, political influence and meaningful ways to refuse. An investigation of demography, automation and concentrated power.
When civilization continues without our participation
Human dispensability may be a deeper rupture than the disappearance of any single profession.
Demography and work
What happens to the social contract when populations change and production relies less on human labor?
Permission-based society
Who sets the terms of access to money, infrastructure and ordinary life—and can a refusal be challenged?
Biological inequality
How might unequal access to longevity and new bodily capabilities reshape social hierarchy?
Infrastructure and power
Follow the influence of the owners of computation, networks and automated systems.
Seven dystopian pathways
Different combinations of technologies and institutions produce different forms of dependence. Catastrophe is not treated as inevitable.
The human place
What preserves human significance when economic usefulness no longer secures participation?