It is a fact universally acknowledged that all trends continue without limit, whether the top speed of vehicles, the growth of the human population of Earth, or the acceptance that all trends grow without limit. Therefore, it’s reasonable to conclude from the increasing concentration of wealth in fewer hands that there will come a day when one person owns the whole of the Earth.
Luckily for SF readers unsure what such a situation would mean for them, SF authors have long pondered how such a situation might arise and what the consequences might be. Consider these five works.
Norstrilia by Cordwainer Smith (19751)
Rod McBan faces two existential threats. First, he cannot pass his native Norstrilia’s adulthood test, which means that Rod will eventually be euthanized. Second, Rod might not live long enough to fail the test. Honorable Secretary Houghton Syme is determined to usher Rod into the grave through fair means or foul.
With the help of his faithful computer, Rod is able to parley his already vast wealth into an even vaster fortune. This in turn allows him to purchase the Earth. Thus, Rod can flee Norstrilia’s adulthood test and Syme’s kill-birds for the safety of distant Earth. Or at least comparative safety—Earth is an old and complicated world, and by purchasing it, Rod has entangled himself in a struggle about which he knows nothing.
There are some parallels between Norstrilia and Dune: both are arid, both are the sole source of an immortality drug. There is one very important difference: Norstrilia is a sovereign world and the austere life imposed on them by the planet’s draconian import duties and eugenic laws are the result of a conscious choice by the Norstrilians themselves to avoid the corrupting effects of luxury.
“Call Him Lord” by Gordon R. Dickson (1966)
(Originally published in Analog, collected in The Man From Earth and other collections.) Earth is but one of the hundred worlds the Prince will own… once he is of age. Even Emperors-to-be are bound by the law. Thus, the young heir is required, just as his predecessors were, to return to the mother world. That the Prince would prefer not to go is of no consequence.
Kyle Arnam has the unhappy duty of escorting the Prince. Kyle discovers that the future emperor is a boy who believes he is a man, a spoiled aristocrat who cannot conceive that his every whim will not be indulged, a crown prince who is in no way suited for the throne to which he is entitled, and most importantly, a fool who cannot understand that he is being tested… or comprehend the consequences of failure.
Language can be ambiguous. For example, Kyle twice assures the Prince that “your life is in my hands, Lord.” The Prince assumes this means that Kyle is his bodyguard. As it turns out, the Prince is an idiot who has seriously misunderstood Kyle’s role.
Michaelmas by Algis Budrys (1977)
Laurent Michaelmas is a journalist without compare. This is because Laurent secretly possesses the nigh-omnipotent AI called Domino. Domino has infiltrated every electronic system on Earth. There are no secrets that Laurent cannot uncover; no inconvenient truths Laurent cannot order edited to better suit his goals. Laurent effectively controls reality and in a very real sense, owns the Earth.
Except, somehow, Laurent does not. It becomes increasingly clear that someone or something is working against Laurent’s grand plan. Whoever it is, they are utterly invisible to Domino and Laurent. Is Laurent the planetary puppet master he believed himself to be, or is he simply blind to his own strings?
It’s amazing what one can accomplish given only a single, unique nigh-omnipotent AI (see also Norstrilia). I don’t know why more people don’t use them.2
Knight Moves by Walter Jon Williams (1985)
Eight hundred years ago, Doran Falkner solved Earth’s material problems, from energy supply to relativistic star travel to extended lifespan. There was a price: anyone seeking immortality had to surrender their terrestrial wealth and emigrate to one of the many newly discovered habitable exoplanets. Almost everyone agreed, with the result that Doran is now effectively Earth’s owner.
Eight centuries of immortality and isolation equal stagnation and worse. The discovery of an alien lifeform that can teleport at superluminal velocities offers hope of ending the isolation, if the trick can be duplicated. What genius is better suited to the task than Doran Falkner, the man who saved the Earth? Or rather, Doran Falkner, the man who took credit for saving the Earth and has been lying about it for almost a millennium…
The novel makes it clear that the real problem isn’t the isolation, but the fact that people can become quite peculiar after centuries of carefree indulgence. The reason that the characters fixate on the superluminal travel challenge is the same reason that a drunk person looks for lost keys under a streetlight, rather than in the dark where the keys were dropped: it’s a physics problem, which, unlike social issues, is solvable.
Jupiter Ascending, written and directed by the Wachowskis (2015)
Jupiter Jones cleans Chicago homes for a living. This humble occupation keeps her off ICE’s radar and safe from deportation (at least for the moment). There is nothing remarkable about an impoverished housekeeper. Why, then, do alien assassins keep trying to kill or kidnap Jupiter?
Earth is a farm and humans are its product. Thanks to a quirk of galactic law, Jupiter now owns the Earth. Academic, unless Jupiter is somehow apprised of her legal rights and how to use them. That development would inconvenience powerful oligarchs. No great concern for the off-worlders. After all, how hard could it be to kill one cleaning woman?
While not a perfect movie, Jupiter Ascending is perhaps the finest two-hundred-million-dollar film featuring a hunky, brooding wolf-man flying around on anti-gravity roller skates. After watching it, I had just two complaints3: why, given the amount of time Jupiter spends falling off high structures, was she not given her own set of anti-gravity boots? And how could someone cast that particular actor (you know the one) in a supporting role and not kill their character? Isn’t that illegal?
It is striking how many stories about People Who Own the Earth are really about the corrupting effects of wealth and status, a subject I am sure will have absolutely no relevance in the days to come. Still, it makes me wonder if there are any stories about people who own Earth that are not about the toxic effect of unchecked privilege. Any examples come to mind?
