Re: Generation Ships
 

Of course. But I thought we were trying to set up a society most likely to best survive small population isolation over extremely long times. For that, we need the most harmonious type possible. One bloody revolution or severe act of terrorism attack could kill them all.

Re: Generation Ships
 

Nah, we just need a society that good enough. Trying for an extreme set-up is not necessary. In fact it's proabbly a way tos tir up trouble.

Specifically we need a socity where people on the losing end of normal disputes don't think they need to start bloody revolutions of commit acts of terrorism.

If you stepped up mental health screenings to catch actually insane people like......let's say the Arizona shooter who attacked Congreswoman Giffords the current type of government seen in the US would probably do this pretty well.

The Engineering dept might need to be run under near-military levels of discipline but it will need to subordinate to a representative civilian council who will in tuirn be properly respectful of the Engineering Dept's technical expertise and the true necessities of the ship's ongoing survival. You want balance and rationality and you don't want to make anyone who loses in the political process truly desperate.

So, no Prohibition, no Sexual Jihads, no permanant Comitteess of the Emergency. These might be ideas with interest for roleplaying purposes but that's because they will cause people to live in "interesting times" as defined in the Chinese curse.

It's not because they would make sense. They'd start more trouble than they would ever prevent.

Re: Generation Ships
 

Only if they are forbiden to have sex or form romantic ties. Heck, if A marries B, and B is unable to reproduce, they can get gametes from elsewhere amoung the populace and use a surogate. Just like gay couples and fertility challenged hetero couples today!

More like, restrict marriage. Restricting divorce leads to murder.

As we get more cosmopolitan the sexual rules keep morphing. A generation starship would want serious comitment to caring for children and a free and easy view of sex. The latter being like keeping gunpowder cool and dry, and the former being the lifesblood of the project.

Re: Generation Ships
 

Jeff, there are sealed terrariums from the Regency period (1810-1820) which are still healthy. The plants in these sealed systems are still alive and healthy inspite of being sealed up in a glass jar since before Queen Victoria was born.

Re: Generation Ships
 

Yeah a maximally stable society is desired. However societies did manage to survive while forcing their members to be one thing so it's not immediately lethal to a society and so if it has advantages that outweigh it's disadvantages it's worth going for. That said I think the disadvantages outweigh the dubious advantages significantly.

Making things extreme just to make them extreme is liable to cause trouble but I don't see what the problem is with a set up that happens to be extreme. The thing is that "good enough" isn't really good enough. Quite small risks have the possibility of negating all the effort and resources that went into the generation ship. It's much cheaper to design the best society you can for generation ships than to send more generation ships. Prohibition is probably a bad idea but I think a teetotaler society might be more advantageous. A Committee of The Emergency has disadvantages but also substantial advantages. Neither of these are senseless trouble making societal features that people are only suggesting to make the setting interesting.

Yes this makes sense. I wonder who would be involved in the raising of children.

Wow that's cool.

Re: Generation Ships
 

Yes, there are, and living macroscopic animals are to be found in how many of them?

Re: Generation Ships
 

Again, where is this sublime confidence supported? If you want to invoke JURRASIC PARK biology, that's your call for your game, but the WHO and the CDC put in long hours on this sort of stuff and yet disease remains with us.

Re: Generation Ships
 

In the example you gave there is the obvious answer of not drinking milk.

Again I am not implying that my opinions are derived from specific sources and it is thus inappropriate to demand them.

Fighting disease in an uncontrolled environment is substantially different from fighting it in a controlled one.

I'm not sure what the end result will be disease wise. Speculation is welcome.

Re: Generation Ships
 

I have no faith in people's ability to "design" societies. I know of no truly successful examples. Particularly examples that won't be able to export unhappy people when adapted to generation ships.

Re: Generation Ships
 

"Not having sex" is the obvious answer to overpopulation, and "not having disagreement" is the obvious answer to the unstable government.

That's really not how we roll here. If you are free to assert X, I am free to assert Y, even if Y -> X must be supported to be believed. Even some general hint of why you think X would help, we have several top-notch googlers here and generally one or two will rise to the occasion and find something more specific for the general edification of parties to the thread.