Small communities, mostly physically isolated from each other, but informationally connected and centrally administered. Basically meritocratic in structure - pass enough of the tests and you can work for the gubmint.
Reminds me of old China...
Virtually all sophisticated equipment is communally owned and equipped with government-designed protocols.
That naturally makes me curious about how they got there. How does a government, even though unelected, go about impounding or destroying all privately owned modern technology? What enforcement powers have they got?
Of course there could be any number of uninteresting answers, like 'they've got a singleton' or 'they're ruled by an AI that moved all of humanity into a simulation world it built from scratch'.
And once there, with absolute control over all communications and technology, it's conceivable to run a long-term society with all change (incl. scientific or technological progress) being centrally controlled and vetoed. Still, humans have got a strong economical competition drive, and science & technology translate into competitive power. Historically, eliminating private economic enterprise takes enormous effort - the big Communist regimes in USSR, and I expect in China as well, never got anywhere near success on that front. What do these contended pain-free people actually do with their time?
How does a government, even though unelected, go about impounding or destroying all privately owned modern technology? What enforcement powers have they got?
It was never there in the first place. The first inhabitants of these communities (which don't include the whole planet; I imagine there are a double handful of them on most continents - the neuros and the genderless kids are more or less universal, though) were volunteers who, prior to joining under the auspices of a rich eccentric individual, were very poor and didn't have their own personal elec...
ITT we talk about whatever.