To me your analyses miss the point a little by targeting technology, when actually the problem is profit, and the thing tying us into perpetual competition with one another for finite dwindling reources, the money-as-debt economy (promises to extract), all sourced from energy by extraction.
I dont see your stories and books aging very well if they miss this fundamental source of the problem, like the establishment itself.
Ironically, virtual world technology was what got me digging into the energy problem, it has the same problem as the real world; it is unsustainable driven by profit. But it is cool that the worst that can happen when a virtual world goes bankrupt, is it just closes down and life carries on. But if the real world which is actually headed for energy bankruptcy given nothing fundamental changes, ceases, then all life ceases.
So I see the probable solution for the energy problems of the real world being something that could be trialled in a virtual world, before risking the real world.
An off-grid solar powered virtual world would have no bills to pass on to users. Further, if the the solar energy feed to that virtual world was substantially ovresized, resulting in excess energy being converted to hydrogen fuel, sold for profit, there would even be free funds to distribute to the users of said virtual world.
This would give the highest Metcalfe utility factor ever seen for any network. Who could resist the offer of endless free money just for signing up?
With that established, we would soon realise we can do exactly the same with the real world.
We might even realise this is why we are currently experiencing inflation, which won't stop until we do just that.
Because already about 10 percent of the energy we put to use is from solar in every developed country, and yet not a penny or cent of money is issued on it.
Because money issued as debt can only represent extracted energy, since promises to pay are promises to do the labor of extraction, not receive by donation, and solar energy is donated, not extracted, there is no labor of extraction associated per Joule with solar energy, hence the reason it generates no pollution, since all pollution is generated by all processes of extraction.
Why shouldn't all people receive free money, for using the free energy of the sun?
We could confirm very quick in a virtual world, I would say.
But not if your stories distract our attention from the real problem too much, or if the profit driven owners can't see beyond their own greed, I think :)