> a world where your Bezoses and your Musks are not just irrelevant, but actively sought out and disempowered by a society comprised of property-less workers and all-caring, mostly-benevolent A.I.s?
Irrelevant maybe, but i dont see how they are disempowered in the Culture books. The culture books are full of busy-bodies trying to change the course of events. I'm sure that would be appealing to CEO types in a post scarcity world.
The difference is that what makes a billionaire CEO special is purposefully de-specialized by Culture. A Culture citizen is effectively richer than most (with exceptions), but does not have any more power than other Culture citizens. They do not have power over others, except for the effective social standings related to various things - from which anyone can effectively leave, even possibly faking one's own death. Any bondage to the social status is self-made, as can be seen in some more eccentric characters, unless one breaks some of the few taboos that Culture has - like non-consensual mind control, murder, etc.
We dont talk about musk just because he's rich - we talk about him because he translated his wealth into nerd cred/social standing by investing in space ships, electric cars and leo satellite internet, which excites the imagination.
Irrelevant maybe, but i dont see how they are disempowered in the Culture books. The culture books are full of busy-bodies trying to change the course of events. I'm sure that would be appealing to CEO types in a post scarcity world.