Interesting, have to read some of it some time. I liked Vernor Vinge's Fire Upon the Deep and Charles Stross' Singularity Sky. In those, there is a spectrum o

Interesting, have to read some of it some time. I liked Vernor Vinge's Fire Upon the Deep and Charles Stross' Singularity Sky. In those, there is a spectrum of of societal levels from Beyond/Escaton to "Zombies"/Unthinking Depths, allowing comparison between levels.