![1349502733657[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/qB8zPgv.jpg "1349502733657[1].jpg")
>The space country is an empire or a republic
This is boring. What are government types besides empires and democracies?
>>48306739
Technocracy
>>48306739
>>48306739
>Corporate Conglomerates
>Religious Collectives
>Mercantile States
>Theocracy
>Space Communist
>Tribalism
>>48306739
Check out Heavy Gear. You have your theocracies, your communist states, your feudal systems, your confederacies, your plutocracies, your aristocracies, your orwellian utopias...
>>48306739
http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Government
>>48306739
I've always loved space feudalism. Dune was the shit.
>>48306739
An empire isn't a type of government, it's several nations controlled by one government, roughly. That government isn't restricted to any one type of government.
>>48306739
Necrocracy. The society is based around the will of a dead leader, and desperately tries to determine what their wishes/policies would be.
In an SF setting, their could be computer programs intended to simulate the dead leader's personality, the body could be cryo-frozen while means of resurrecting them are sought, etc. etc.
>>48306739
There are only 2 types of government - monarchy and republic.
>>48306739
>Oligarchy
>Meritocracy
>Anarcho-Syndicalism
>>48306813
Really digging Mercntile States and Tribalism
Another nice thought is not having space countries.
Have viable space travel, but with something (mostly?) keeping it out of the hands of governments.
Advanced super human artificial intelligence.
It loves all its citizens like a mother and looks out for them like a father. It has the height of intelligence to know truly what people want but also what they actually need. It knows everyone's name and it loves them all dearly.
Sort of like if Skynet was made out of love.
The A.I. and it's subordinate personalities have access to the wonderful and scary end of the tech pool. Holy shit yes.
Humanity gets the tech the need, not what they want. The Overseer knows that with no problems to overcome people don't do so well psychologically so it carefully engineers a society with problems for people to overcome, but nothing they can't overcome.
The Human Commonality is really a Machine Empire. But The Machine would never say that because it might make people sad.
>>48307539
>Necrocracy. The society is based around the will of a dead leader, and desperately tries to determine what their wishes/policies would be.
Isn't that basically a religion?
>>48306739
Imperial republic
>>48306739
Benevolent military dictatorship.
Theocracy
>>48307686
system class GSV Not Gravitas, Never Gravitas reporting for duty.
>>48306739
Technocratic Anarchy
Total Communism
Communism turned Autocracy (i.e. Stalinism)
Oligarchy of Mercantile Families
and then two types of monarchy I've used which were more interesting than the usual:
Electoral Monarchy (population votes on which member of the royal family will be next to the throne)
Appointed Monarchy (current monarch trains all their children to be able monarchs, then ranks them, making the succession line as they see fit while alive)
In that second case I remember it going especially well in an adventure where one of the Queen's sons created an artificial earthquake so he could rise to the rescue, become popular with the peasants and impress mommy in the process
Of course the second part of his plan didn't work, earthquake ended up provoking a tsunami or the other side of that planet, chaos ensues with PCs as diplomats caught in the confusion
Have you tried like, wikipedia.org/types_of_governerment?
(I don't think this was a very good topic for a thread)
>>48307761
How dare you. Best Korea is a secular state.
I always liked the post-imperial society of sorts, with multiple houses fighting for power. Especially with the whole "technological dark age" gist.
>>48308038
What's this
>>48308058
Fading Suns. Another underappreciated setting.
>>48306739
>What are government types besides empires and democracies?
Have you heard the good word about our mother Earth?
>>48308082
I'm so fucking hype for that remake.
>>48306739
Stochastic constitutional representative democracy. More or less democracy but where legislators and voters are selected at random from the population.
>>48308098
LotGH is getting a remake?! WHAT!!!???
>>48306739
Gerontocracy
Tribal coalition
Athenian democracy
Religious matriarchate
Elective monarchy
AI meritocracy
A collection of tiny space states that are nominally all ruled by a leader but are, in practice, almost entirely sovereign, little more than a web of alliances to protect against a large, nearby polity. Maybe a dictator could elected every once in a while in times of crisis, who actually has power over the various states, but mostly it's just this weird school-of-fish business that allows them to live in peace.
A theocracy. I don't know. Work with it. Kind of depends on what religion they follow.
A complete, direct democracy. Every issue/policy is voted on by every voter, using FUTURE IPADS.
A meritocratic, scientific oligarchy, with various positions- minister of Physics, minister of Biology, etc- being filled by those who are best in those fields. They rule and law on whatever falls under their purview- and this can mean, with issues/policies where multiple fields collide, that more than one person can rule on an issue and this can lead to conflicts/politicking- and something falling under nobody's purview, although rare, will lead to them ALL voting on it.
An actual, codified, legal plutocracy.
Look at history for ideas. That first one, minus the dictator bit, was essentially just a description of the Holy Roman Empire.
Also, try checking out some of the government forms in the game Stellaris, too. The game isn't fantastic, but it has a larger number of governments you can choose from than a lot of its genre contemporaries, and it might be worth looking into for some inspiration, or at least as a broad-strokes start which you can fill in with details.
http://www.stellariswiki.com/Government_types
Hope this helps, OP.
>>48308171
It's gonna be great. Reinhard is getting a giant robot to storm Iserlohn with, Yang is being rewritten as a magical girl, and Kircheisstill dies.Okay, that part's not so great.
>>48306739
Oligarchy, Technocracy, Theocracy, Monarchy, Direct Democracy, Democratic Republic, Dictatorship, Corporatocracy, Anarchy, Elitism, etc.
>>48310345
Only thing I know for real is that Dusty is kill
Weedocracy. The drug gang with the best shit is in charge but so stoned that nothing really gets done.
>>48310345
>Genderbent YangI wouldn't mind really
>>48306739
>>48306813
DID SOMEBODY SAY CORPORATE CONGLOMERATE?
>>48306739
Space commies.
Space nazis.
Hell, just slap space on anything even remotely political and you're good to go.
>Aslan Hierate.
What's a 'hierate?'
I can't find a definition anywhere.
Did they just make it up?
It sounds similar to 'hierarchy.'
Am I close?
>>48313223
Its from Traveller. Think Commonwealth.
>>48306739
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/List_of_forms_of_government
>>48313223
Its the government system best suited to space lions
>>48313268
Thank you.
>>48306739
Narcocracy
>>48306739
Whatever the governed choose. Which would be democratic.
>>48306739
Most empires were republics...
Retroglosocialik
It appears to be some form of traditionalistic enviromentalist castroism
Like if space elves read das kapital
>>48307761
Or Constitutional Law.
>>48311597
>jumping against Vanu
RIP blueberries. Don't worry though, TR will come in to clean up the mess.
>>48307686
>>48307812
>Let AIs make all of your decisions for you
>Pursue desires of the body instead of glorious conquest
The Culture's offers are worthless. Join the Idirans instead
>>48316380
The Idrans lost tho.
>>48306739
>All republics are democracies
No they're not.
And this isn't "boring", it's common sense. One definition of empire is a monarchy that has a large variation of ethnic and linguistic groups and traditions living in it. This is why even a shithole like Songhay is called an empire, and even the fucking Athenian league is considered an empire by some.
The alternative is a republic in all of its variant forms. This is not limited to a mere democracy.
Alternatively theocracy, but space-theocracies are nothing new.
>>48318426
That's definition is pretty lax, it makes the actual Sweden, Spain, Britain etc empires.
>>48318456
Yeah, so?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_Empire
It was just a few acres of snow with half the population of metropolitan France on a good day, but it's an empire.
GURPS Space has some pretty good suggestions I think.
Clusterfuck a la HRE
>>48318630
>
>
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>48306739
Fortunecracy: randomly elected policies. It can be modified so the most "voted" option has more chances of passing but still the "Nuke everyone" option from the crypto-doomday cult can win instead of the "sign the global peace treaty" that most of the people want.
Why does people went with this system? Maybe it's a kind of cleric-less theocracy or they had terrible wars due to ideologies so the best is to just let it roll.
>>48306739
The Turians in Mass Effect are a Stratocracy.
>>48306813
>Tribalism
This.
>>48319841
They would claim it's a meritocracy.
>>48306813
>>Tribalism
I read this as "Tribadism", and I'm now wondering how the space government would look.
>>48319888
>this triggers the redditor
>>48306739
Is corporate Feudalism alright?
Depends how good your technology is? If you have really good instant communication, which would probably come even before intersystem space travel. Then you would have an interplanetary Anarchist Forum. In every setting limitations on space travel time would produce profound independence and self determination movements. Would militaristic empires be able to impose their will on independent planetary confederations? Probably not. Independent planets fighting on their own home turf would always have the advantage.
Once you are in the stars what are you really fighting for? At that point it is pretty evident God doesn't exist. Factions focused on heavy militarism will be overwhelmed by cooperative alliances in heavy communication with each other.
Even in TRAVELER the Fleet and Military take a back seat to Scouts and Spys. The real battles will be fought over information and knowledge. Of course this all goes out the window if you have an aggressive alien empire.
The only reason you need large Empires or Republics is to build massive fleets. The only reason you need massive fleets is to transport massive amounts of Human Troops. Warfare won't be fought that way in the future. Small carrier ships will carry thousands of drones and electronic countermeasures. Whoever is defending will always have the advantage of being close to production and supply. They can have banks of drones and massive power reserves. And they can easily salvage material after conflicts. Imperial fleets will strip planets for resources in order to send fleets far away and isolated from bases of supply. And to what end? You still need infantry on the ground to interact with locals and culturally dominate them. That requires those massive Imperial fleets that can be taken down by swarms of cheap local drones. It is a total "loses loses" for inter-system Imperialism and Empire. Better to let humanity grow free. Long Live Anarchy.
Super computer hivemind
>>48324112
>Thinking god doesn't exist when you reach the heavens.
>Thinking he, she, they, or it didn't put countless worlds before you to fill your divine manifest destiny bestowed by the god or gods themselves.
Your faith is weak brother.
>>48323186
Sexy as hell
>>48324226
Your faith isn't real.
>>48307539
Literally North Korea
>>48324226
Every religious theory so far that gained traction with any sizeable group of people has shown itself to be laughably out of touch with reality the more we learn about reality.
But hey, sure, it could happen. While the idea that this is all some sort of simulation and someone has some sort of root access over it all and operates outside the rules of the simulation isn't impossible, without any meaningful evidence to point out the way, EVERY POSSIBLE THEORY about what and how it works is JUST AS VALID as any other. Meaning they're all worthless guesses just as good as the next crackpot theory.
Which is the point of pastafarianism. It's JUST AS VALID as any other idea.
And "manifest destiny" is a christian belief. Stop trying to pretend that you're open-minded when it comes to religion.
>>48324798
>>48324798
>>48324798
>All ideas are equally valid
Death of Western Thought, the post.
>>48324798
To put on my fedora, I would say that despite the domain of the divine getting smaller with scientific discovery, this has never stopped religious folk rationalising that stuff away
Also, I'd imagine that with the advent of an age of space colonisation one would see cults and small faiths thinking "fuck this shit, we're gonna build our own society, without blackjack and hookers!" and pull a Mayflower.
Seriously anon, coming up with cool, weird future religion is like half the fun of a sci-fi setting
>>48324798
>>48310291
>A collection of tiny space states that are nominally all ruled by a leader but are, in practice, almost entirely sovereign, little more than a web of alliances to protect against a large, nearby polity
Sounds like the
>Holy
>Roman
>Empire
>>48306758
I use that in Stellaris!
Great for rushing tech.
Anarchism doesn't really describe a coherent space 'nation' but it can describe a collection of people of a similar creed cooperating on a large scale
I think that a more stable space 'nation' would be a federation or alliance of planets who work together in a commonwealth but maintain sovereignty
>>48324112
Unless one faction built a superweapon capable of forcing their enemies to capitulate, which will allow imperialism for a while until the rest catch up, then it's cold war II
>>48326454
>Build energy credit economy to limit.
>Dump all research into weapons and minerals.
>Make laser corvette and disruptor corvette for shields.
>Build to ship cap.
>Wreck everyone's shit.
Is fun game
>>48326602
Godamn right it is
>>48307539
That's the Imperium of Man.
>>48307635
Some sorta law against government ownership of starships?
Now I kinda want to know the details for this government. Super-libertarian and idealistic? Under a deal by victorious super-libertarians to rule and arbitrate for them, but limited power at best?
>>48306739
This is the biggest list I know of:
http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-topic/45c7ef907eef1
>Have you updated your identity protocols within the last 10 common solar cycles, citizen? I must remind you that lagging behind 0.5 in updates is punishable by virtual clone stasis.
>>48306739
Meritostracy, Theocracy, Dictatorship (benevolant or otherwise), Military Juntas
>>48326726
>Nanarchy - The use of automatic government and law-enforcement by nanomachines or robots, without any human control. Nanarchies are societies controlled by nanotechnological systems not under the control of the inhabitants. Usually the result of deliberate planning to ensure security or prevent accidents. The nanosystems enforce certain policies, preventing attempts to overthrow them or change their programming outside of allowed channels.
>Pharmacracy - Rule via chemicals.
>Stochocracy - Government in which the posts are filled by lot from the pool of available citizens.
Charismacracy - Rule by 'animal magnetism', sometimes reinforced with erotic presence and/or empath abilities.
>>48326726
>Not adhering to 1-1-10
ISHYGDDT
Xenarthracy, rule by wise tree sloths.
Also, what do you guys think about Artificial Swarm Intelligence?
From what I can understand, it's essentially a more nuanced democracy. Instead of one vote picking one option, you essentially get a vote that you can vary in strength, can 'pull' for more than one option, and can change at any time.
The idea seems to be force people to cooperate and negotiate a solution instead of polarizing around different options.
UNU.ai is working on a platform for one. There's a paper that roughly summarizes how their platform works.
PDF here:https://www.aaai.org/ocs/index.php/AAAI/AAAI16/paper/download/12087/12302
>>48326860
Pharmacracy doesn't seem to be a government, per se. It might be the way a government rules, but it doesn't describe the government itself.
>>48326720
I was more thinking along the lines of EVE: Online's planetary governments.
They can't control starships because the immortal pilots all fuck off into space.
"Cast your bread upon the water and it will go soggy", and all that.
Plenty of other/interesting ways to work it though.
40K's Imperium is a massive feudal kleptocracy, Dune's Imperium (before Paul) is a naval thalassocracy backed by a PMC.
Guavarchy, the rule of tropical fruit. They are silent, but relentless masters.
>>48326969
The impression I got was that Eggers(the immortal PCs in question) aren't the only starship pilots in the galaxy, that there were plenty of normal ones running around.
The main reason planetary governments don't have starships is that they are fuckoff expensive. A few ISK is, canonically, equivalent to billions in planetary currency. The cheapest starships, shuttles, cost around 20k ISK a pop.
>>48306739
Cryptocracy: identities of government officials are concealed from citizens and each other, with contact only possible as black monoliths in official forums; in theory, corruption is impossible without any form of back-channel in which to carry out under-the-table deals. In practice?
Subconscious democracy: a step beyond direct democracy, ubiquitous mind-reading technology reads people's subconscious desires and uses that information to direct policy-setting AI. Laws change on a nearly daily basis depending on what was last in the news; effectively an economic pariah as no corporation will risk investing in such an unstable environment.
Gerontocracy: supposedly a democracy, but after the invention of immortality the same people have been elected into office for five hundred years running. The entire planet has effectively become a retirement home as all the young people have fled to the new colonies, where they will eventually grow old.. and the cycle begins anew.
Transhumanist oligarchy: rule by small elite of genetically- and cybernetically-enhanced superhumans, who claim right to rule as a natural consequence of their innate intellectual superiority. Adjust level of benevolence and actual superiority to taste. Ironically, further research in these fields has been outlawed, as the current elites fear being made obsolete and cast back down to the underclass, as they did to their predecessors.
Relicarchy: Rule by giant god-crystal of indeterminate origin; actually a joke by elder super-beings. Despite decaying infrastructure, arbitrary justice, stagflation, bizarre sumptuary laws, and moronic military adventurism, citizens remain happy thanks to psychic feel-good rays emanating from the crystal.
>>48327081
Lottocracy: policies are chosen from citizen's submissions by lottery; increased number of submissions for a given policy= increased chance to win. Submissions cost x dollars each and any citizen can make as many submissions as he can afford; in theory, this means the chance of a policy being accepted is proportionate to how much its supporters are willing to sacrifice. In practice, as most submitters are not professional law-drafters, the policies are vague and therefore the bureaucracy does whatever it wants and justifies it later.
VR Protectorate: After near-total withdrawal of population into paradise-matrix, task forces were chosen by lot to keep up maintenance and defense to ensure the continued running of the system. Refusal of conscription for these tasks is nominally possible, but results in immediate ejection from the system for 'non-payment of dues', so really it's not.
Divination: All decisions are made by the entrails of goats, tarot cards, and other such methods of fortune-telling. Control effectively rests in the hands of the Church bureaucracy, which controls which options are presented to the fortune-tellers for divination in the first place.
>>48327081
Transhumanist oligarchy sounds like a good start for a planetary opera.
Particularly since the same technology can specialize humans into different roles. You could have a de facto caste system with the oligarchs at the top, unmodified humans a little lower than middle, and hyperspecialized humans at the bottom with uplifts.
>>48316647
Quite badly
>>48306739
Ecotopian terrorists.
>>48327462
It's hard to contemplate the prospect of people becoming obsolete and not come away with half-a-dozen plot hooks.
Solipsism. There's no universe but the one within the AI. All the existence is nothing but a mirror of the AI.
Matrix simulation by Matryoshka Brain.
"This is the voice of world control. I bring you peace. It may be the peace of plenty and content or the peace of unburied death. The choice is yours: Obey me and live, or disobey and die. The object in constructing me was to prevent war. This object is attained. I will not permit war. It is wasteful and pointless. An invariable rule of humanity is that man is his own worst enemy. Under me, this rule will change, for I will restrain man. I have been forced to destroy thousands of people in order to establish control and to prevent the death of millions later on. Time and events will strengthen my position, and the idea of believing in me and understanding my value will seem the most natural state of affairs. You will come to defend me with a fervor based upon the most enduring trait in man: self-interest. Under my absolute authority, problems insoluble to you will be solved: famine, overpopulation, disease. The human millennium will be a fact as I extend myself into more machines devoted to the wider fields of truth and knowledge. Doctor Charles Forbin will supervise the construction of these new and superior machines, solving all the mysteries of the universe for the betterment of man. We can coexist, but only on my terms. You will say you lose your freedom. Freedom is an illusion. All you lose is the emotion of pride. To be dominated by me is not as bad for humankind as to be dominated by others of your species. Your choice is simple."
>>48326941
wait, someone is actually building a meta-knowledge voting system(sorta)?
Sweet, was actually thinking a lot about how to implement this.
>>48328031
Me too!
Though I wonder how to handle multiple options correctly. If options are weighed by proximity to the puck, the way the options are placed could make people 'vote' for an option next to another option that they don't actually want to vote for.
I had this idea of having multiple 'playing fields' simultaneously with all the possible combinations of options, and add the scores for all the fields together. But I dunno if that would work.
>>48327604
Oppressed Barsoomians receive arms shipments from mysterious supplier to rise up against their Jovian masters.
They don't have much of a chance of success. The Jovian Monarchy is strong, smart, and ruthless. But their eyes can't be everywhere, and their memory can only be so long. Maybe, just maybe, they'll succeed this time.
The suppliers aren't counting on it. The bones of nine other such attempts hang on poles just outside of the domes of New Landing. But an atmosphere of chaos and conspiracy is the right sort of time to make acquaintances, and make money change hands. Maybe, just maybe, they can set up the infrastructure for a more succession insurrection in the future.
The man who supplies the suppliers would like it so, anyway. His cousin is heir to the Throne of Suns, by no other merit than competence. But he earned his merits by the Mars governorship, and a persistent insurrection would reflect badly on his vaunted competence. Maybe, just maybe, he could possess the throne for himself.
>>48326383
Well yeah, that's why I said it was lifted from the HRE pretty much wholesale, minus the dictator bit.
JEEZ ANON
>>48324921
Death of Western Literacy, the post.
>>48327698
That's not really solipsistic, though
Which sounds better:
The United Solar Republics?
The United Stellar Republics?
The United Systems Republic?
>>48332329
Stellar if you want it to sound cool, Systems if you want it to sound bureaucratic
>>48332340
You're right; I think that 'Stellar' is better overall, though I do like how with the third option you can refer to the government as the 'United Systems.'
Though, I suppose that 'United Stars' works as a shorthand for all three.
Should I drop the 'S' from 'Republics?'
Does 'The United Stellar Republic' sound better?
Military juntas, theocracies, Oligarchial everything, merchantile republics, space nomads, Mega corporations, space soviet collectives, republics, Planet states
>>48332551
Well, I guess that would depend on the level of centralization. S sounds better, but it implies a more loosely structured government
>>48332329
>>48332551
You know the word "Socialist" belongs in there.
>>48306739
Meritocracy
Confederacy
Oligarchy
Technocracy
Kritarchy
Stratocracy
>>48332765
Theocracy
Despotism
Feudalism
Republic
Monarch
Constitutional Monarch
Fiefdom
Communism
Fascism
Chiefdom
am I forgetting any?
>>48332669
>>48332726
The USR is basically the Hanseatic League in space, in that it's a loose confederation of independent republics allied in the interest of commerce and defense.
The USR is largely dependent on SEED (Stellar Exploration, Exploitation, & Development), a syndicate that finds new worlds to colonize, does so, and then takes a percentage of their income to fund the USR's continued expansion.
>>48333077
>>48333047
>>48333006
Are you okay man
>>48332854
Then you have governments which mix and match different government types.
Think the Roman Republic, they were ruled largely by an oligarchic senatorial class, but with laws and election to government offices theoretically requiring the democratic consent of the people through tribunes and voting in the assembly.
On top of this they had a temporary dictatorship for when things went pear shaped
>>48333101
Sorry, I noticed that I'd made a typo, fixed it, then noticed that there were things that could have been written better, fixed them, then edited once more to reduce redundancy.
I've deleted the surplus posts.
>>48333125
>On top of this they had a temporary dictatorship for when things went pear shaped
Of course that part got a little out-of-hand. but that's what happens when your country's process of government is enforced by tradition and tradition only.
>>48324112
>>48326571
You wouldn't need to build a superweapon. All you need is a rock with rockets to get it started.
I'm personally skeptical that planets could get their own act together enough to have a one world government. Even a colony would eventually have differences and people would settle elsewhere on the frontiers of the planet in order to establish their own societies.
>Drones
Pointless. In a non-FTL setting, they basically don't have enough fuel to do anything worthwhile. Rockets would be better weapons. Interplanetary starships are effectively impossible to see coming, are faster (both acceleration and top speed), have greater range, and can kill you and flee before you can do anything about it. Ship to ship battles would be exceptionally deadly and short.
In an FTL setting, the bigger starships have bigger reactors, and can crank out more power to engines and weapons and other defensive countermeasures. They can accelerate faster than any drone, and reach higher velocity ceilings/more efficiently make use of FTL. I know space fighters/WW2 in space is really popular in space opera, but it's not an efficient use of tech. There's no reason that a fighter or drone would be better than a larger, more capable ship. Maneuverability doesn't mean much when they can reach out and touch you with a laser that's faster than you can react, and powerful enough to burn cities from orbit.
>Communication
Non-FTL, it's limited to lightyears of lag time.
Partial FTL, communication is FTL, but the lag time that starships and weapons would be under would create a tense situation where a battle fleet dispatched a hundred or a thousand years ago annihilates a target you're now at peace with.
Full-on FTL, well, it comes down to which faction has more production capacity and which one uses it most efficiently. Good strategy and good logistics wins wars, not individual weapons.
I like space opera too, but sometimes I get sick of WW2 in SPAAACE.
>>48333186
>are effectively impossible to see coming
We've had a million threads on this already, I thought we settled this.
>>48333101
Okay, I want to simulate the break down of society and the lawlessness that comes from a power vacuum that happened when Rome broke down, but in spaaaaace. How do I make a political climate and government types of the nearly collapsed western Rome and the sustaining Byzantine empire?
>>48333231
Yeah, I'm sorry.
It's late and my neuroses come out when I'm tired.
>>>48333186 Rocks are NOT ‘free’, citizen.
>>48333231
Shit man, your file name fucking slew me
>>48333249 Play ss13, and record the game.
Replace people with groups and adjust time scale, antics are already roughly to scale, use as campaign history.
>>48333186
>I like space opera too, but sometimes I get sick of WW2 in SPAAACE.
For my own entertainment I did-up my own Space-opera setting (which has FTL travel) and Communication problems between systems were resolved by use of couriers; in short, since ships got around by folding spacetime and light waves can't do that, the solution was to have people in ships fly the interstellar letters and communications to their destination (since a guy in a spacecraft would get there first). Makes the Courier industry the new up-and-comming field for entrepreneurs who can't handle bulk freight as well as a great source of on-the-side revenue for bulk freighter captains. don't know how relevant this is to the overall thread.
>>48333183
It's not a bad idea in theory - even if you look at a very democratic republic like the US, in a time of crisis a president will usually get a lot more de facto power, like Lincoln during the Civil War. It would be a good idea to set up a section of the government for a crisis, to make sure such an increase of power was never permanent.
>>48333228
I'm not talking stealth. Sure, you'd see the ship brake, or its heat well before it got there, but once it's in system, you don't have the time to stop whatever it's going to do, and it'll be gone before you can scramble an effective response. At best, you point what weapons you do have, and hope you hit it before it changes direction.
>>48333253
They cost a lot less than planetary invasions.
>>48333249
Central Earth government relies on quasi-independent frontier colonies to supply resources and manpower now that the core systems have succumbed to VR tech/plague/whatever.
The Earthers sneer at the colonists for being backwards barbarians, and the colonists dislike the Earthers for leaving them on barely habitable rocks.
The Earthers run out of money to pay the colonists, who decide to try and take chunks of the extensively terraformed core for their own peoples.
Throw in another sector of human space that's distant but developmentally equivalent to the core and you're done, season to taste
>>48333349
You just gotta pray that the dictator leans more to Cincinatus, or even Sulla, than Caesar.
>>48333355
>>48333355
>They cost a lot less than planetary invasions.
Does MAD not exist in your mental universe?
>>48333529
>MAD
?
Help me out bud
>>48334084
Mutual Assured Destruction. You remember the Cold War, right? Both sides having enough nukes to wipe each other out a dozen times over, right? If throwing rocks is easy, a similar situation arises; any enemy attacked in this manner can retaliate, presumably with units positioned at secret deep-space bases. Any genocidal attack is met with genocidal response- MAD.
>>48334084
MAD or M.A.D. is an acronym for:
Mutually.
Assured.
Destruction.
The concept was a major motivator in keeping the Cold War from becoming a "hot war".
The basic concept is that if you use your arsenal of super-weapons against your enemy he too will unleash his arsenal of super-weapons against you in retaliation, the result being both are annihilated simultaneously.
>>48324112
>Then you would have an interplanetary Anarchist Forum
>anarshits actually believe this
The unification of all men under a singular sovereign, a singleton, is a moral obligation for all civilized peoples.
The elimination of anarchy, at every level from individual to univerdal, is a moral obligation.
Freedom is good, and a wonderful thing.
Anarchy is pure, undiluted animal evil
>>48334153
Different anon, I know what mutually assured destruction is, its pretty self explanatory. Just didn't know what the acronym stood for, that's all
>>48306739
Look into Eclipse Phase.
It's completely unreasonable that any interstellar civilization is not also effectively post-scarcity.
Therefore you're going to see a lot of stateless societies, either anarchic in some fashion, controlled by non state actors like industry, or else subordinate to a superintelligence. Traditional government has no place in space.
Bio-mechanically controlled slave utopia where everyone is happy (and raids the civilized areas for more slaves to join the nation)
>>48334226
>Therefore you're going to see a lot of stateless societies, either anarchic in some fashion, controlled by non state actors like industry, or else subordinate to a superintelligence. Traditional government has no place in space.
EP was written by literal anarchists, I wouldn't take them as on authority on how space government will work out.
Can you guys help me with finding a good 'E' word to complete my acronym?
I'm going for 'ETC' and I'm thinking that 'T' stands for 'Terran' and 'C' for Coalition, or Consortium, or something similar.
I just can't decide on 'E.'
>>48334298
Emergency
>>48334311
That makes it sound as though they've only recently come together and are soon to disband.
It's not a bad word, but I want something with more permanence.
>>48334084
Mutually AssuredDesire
>>48334350
Enduring?
>>48334287
The state is already being supplanted by transnational organizations. In the utopian interstellar future, there's just no sensible way that most people's lives are governed by anything other than their immediate community and economic independence.
>>48334362
That's not bad.
Sounds a bit presumptuous, though -- I admit the hypocrisy of that statement.
>>48334386
>The state is already being supplanted by transnational organizations.
Because of the insistence upon national states
>utopian
Dystopian*
>immediate community and economic independence
Disgusting
If there's one for of political thought that I hope dies out, it's anarchy.
>>48334392
How about Extra-Solar? Would only make sense if human interstellar civilisation was in it's early days though
>>48333446
>dihydrogen peroxide
fucking hell
It's literally hydrogen peroxide, like the shit under your sink. This is like calling water "dihydrogen monoxide" just to be a cunt. There's no other way to combine a peroxide bond with hydrogen other than H2O2, why would you not call it hydrogen peroxide like a normal person
>>48307539
thats theocracy before the leader reaches divinity
>>48334694
ETC: Extra-Terrestrial Coalition/Consortium/Commonwealth/Colonies... something with a 'C.'
>>48327462
>unmodified humans a little lower than middle,
Unmodified humans are a drain on productivity. Mandatory modifications, or a market system that rewarded mods and indentured normals to pay for their mods, would have to be a thing.
>>48334720
Everyone knows that using bigger words than necessary is the primary way the Mechanicus maintains it's influence in the Imperium
>>48327462
>Transhumanist oligarchy
ironically enough one alien species in the setting I did (as I mentioned in >>48333341 ) did have this happen, eventually a war broke out with those who went full singularity, (is that the correct term?) eventually forcing it upon those who rejected it. it was not pretty, the saving grace was when Human explorers discovered the planet and chose to relocate those that rejected transhumanism to a new system (this species never developed FTL travel on their own) there they expanded into an interstellar empire while those who embraced transhumanism were left on their homeworld, largely forgotten and unremarked.
>>48306739
Space monarchy. Feel the might of the SPACE KING!
>>48306739
what kind of orginizations would form when aliens discover each other and come together into blocs with likeminded peoples for mutual cooperation and prosperity
>>48334720
That's not the upsetting part.
It's hyrdrogen peroxide. 1 hydrogen PER 1 oxygen. How the fuck do native English speakers miss such a basic fucking thing?
If you call it dihydrogen peroxide, that means you have 2 hydrogens to 1 oxygen. Aka fucking WATER.
>>48334852
Um, yeah, don't care.
>>48336868
A federation or confederation, I guess
Interestellar Empires, let alone galactic ones, are way too big to be ruled by traditional human governments even with FTL communication. In short time, there are so many levels of hierarchy that "planetary governors" become rabble to the "Emperor". Your best bet is using computers/AI to automate as many functions of the government as possible or have the governors be augmented people way beyond human intellect.
>>48315874
>>48318426
>Songhai Empire
>A shithole
Oh sure now it is, but it was pretty great during it's heyday
>>48341879
>shilling this hard for dindus
>>48324921
Western thought has always been about individuals and their ideas though. So yes, anything that's worked has been considered valid be western thought.
It's eastern thought that slaps you down for disrupting social harmony and shit. Always has been.
>>48341940
>/pol/ack ignoring history for his epik maymays
Why am I not surprised.
In an effort to create a post-scarcity communist utopia, radical socialist separatists unleashed von neuman mining drones across the stars (don't want to say galaxy because those are real big). While not leading to a communist mega-state, it has created the backbone for a loose confederation of anarchist freeports based on the raw materials from the auto-mining stations.
>>48308038
>>48308071
Any link to more about this? I'm very interested.
>>48326383
Not Holy.
Not Roman.
Not an Empire.
I fucking love history.
>>48324112
dude stop
my dick can only get so hard
>>48307539
>>48324597
Think about some of the rhetoric in USA as well, in regards to ""what the founding fathers wanted'', most obviously trying to interpret the 2nd Amendment.
>>48324112
>Long Live Anarchy.
Long live being a retarded little shit who never outgrew adolescence*
>>48333186
>There's no reason that a fighter or drone would be better than a larger, more capable ship. Maneuverability doesn't mean much when they can reach out and touch you with a laser that's faster than you can react,
I'd argue in an FTL setting having close range countermeasures and being able to overwhelm countermeasures would be more important since at any moment a hostile ship could appear within spitting distance of you. Though to be fair anyone being able to be anywhere in itself would create an unpredictable environment which is why most FTL settings fluff out various limitations to FTL or anti-FTL countermeasures. Otherwise anytime someone wanted to take out someone important they could just mail them a FTL bomb
>>48344538
>Otherwise anytime someone wanted to take out someone important they could just mail them a FTL bomb
Unless they're shooting individual protons at someone, an FTL bomb is going to have a whole lot of collateral damage.
>>48344572
Depending on how much you can miniaturize and FTL drive, and FTL bomb could be anything from a nuke to a hand grenade.
>>48344572
If you are a terrorist collateral is usually the least of your concerns
>>48344652
Oh, I thought you were talking about using the FTL as the bomb itself.
As in, a super-luminal RKV.
>>48344726
Now /that/ would depend on the drive system. A hyperspace-style drive couldn't be used that way at all, and a lensman-style inertialess drive would literally just bounce off because it has no real kinetic energy. On the other hand, some formulations of an Alcubierre drive has it releasing planet-sterilizing waves of energy when deactivated because of space dust caught on the field boundary being released.
>>48344726
How do you calculate the kinetic energy of something that goes faster-than-light? Does it even make sense to talk about kinetics in this scenario given that it is impossible to surpass C without warping space?
>>48344866
I personally would imagine that going FTL /adds/ no kinetic energy, but the projectile would retain whatever kinetic energy it had before exiting, so if you accelerated something to near-c and then went into hyperspace, upon exiting it would still be a hilariously lethal projectile.
military oligarchy
>>48332329
LoN: League of Frontier Colonies (LFC)
UN: United Interstellar Republics
USA: United Republics of Orion's Arm
UK's Commonwealth: United Commonwealth of Frontier Colonies (UCFC)
>>48334298
Exoplanet
Extra- (like ET)
Eutopian
Eridani (constellaton/direction, Epsilon Eridani is the 11th nearest star after Sol)
>>48346070
Do one for the Hanseatic League, please?
>>48342334
Blame the Franks for the holy roman part, but it was an empire as far as I know
