| Johnny1A.2 |
11-30-2010 09:52 PM |
Re: [Space/Spaceships] TL9 nomad fleet - playable?
Quote:
Originally Posted by cccwebs
(Post 1085253)
Actually a space-nomad society would probably be very draconian. Resource controls alone would dictate much of everyday life, including population control (the one child policy of a certain Earth government comes to mind), education (a caste society with rigid training in expected job roles would probably be the result), even death (think "Logan's Run"). At the very least, I wouldn't expect any form of Democracy to survive for long in such a setting. Of course, once you remove the concept of limited resources (like Star Trek), then societal controls would be able to ease up considerably.
|
I could imagine democracy operating, but it would be a very different sort than what Western liberal democracies are used to using. One might end up with a sort of elective dictatorship, but other possibilities exist.
One SFnal source that has some relevance to this thread is James Blish's famous Cities In Flight series. In it, Blish hints at the sort of political and economic system that operates on the flying cities (literal flying cities, New York, Chicago, London, Tokyo, etc, travelling from star to star). The hints are sometimes contradictory, but interesting.
It's implied that the 'Okie' nomad cities are socialist in their internal operation, or corporatist, depending on how you look at it. They don't really have free market economies as such, though there are hints that some such things go on as a side matter. Each citizen has a job, like the crew of a ship, food and other personal needs are provided by the City and hoarding is punishable.
The story focuses on New York City. When the City is flush, after doing a job for a planetary state, or fresh from some other source of money and resources, life is pretty good aboard. Things can get tighter as the supplies get thinner.
NYC elects its captain/mayor, but there are heavy restrictions on who can be chosen. |