future Interplanetary Civilization discussion.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

me and my dad were driving around and i mentioned that given humanity's psychology, any first contact ships we send out should have a lawyer, for the natives.

that got me thinking, we got enough people and enough knowledgable people here to put together a framework for interstellar law. something like this has been done for play-by-committee, i know that much, but that's probably just upper-government stuff and just enough for the game. i'm thinking something that could actually be used as the framework for an interstellar civilization in the future.

or at least a good discussion.

so, what might we need to govern/regulate/tax/police/military in the future and how might we go about that? or should we throw any or all of those out?

[Ed Kolis]

No! We need a frontier for all the outcasts of society to go to... what would you do if the president of the United States ruled the moon and Mars and the third planet from Alpha Centauri as well?!? That's the problem with the world today - there's nowhere for anyone to go and set up a new free society and rebel from the existing societies... only through space travel will we ever find freedom!

[narf poit chez BOOM]

so, obviously you favor, at most, a loose alliance. if you'll note, i made provision for discussion's on how that might be run...or not be run.

but why should the outcasts be relegated to a rough life on the frontier? why can't civilization accomadate them to?

[ January 31, 2004, 03:10: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Taz-in-Space]

How would an Interplanetary Society function?

I guess that would depend upon how long it took for communications to travel about that society.

For example, if there was a lag of hours/days or days/weeks for communications/travel between planets, you would certainly have to have a LOT of local authority. Whereas, in the case of near instantaneous communication/travel, a more centralized authority would be possible.

Also are there hostile elements out there on the fringes? That would tend to favor a centralized authority as well...

[Grandpa Kim]

Originally posted by narf poit chez BOOM:
but why should the outcasts be relegated to a rough life on the frontier? why can't civilization accomadate them to?

Because the outcasts are too smart to give civilization a chance to screw them over.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Also are there hostile elements out there on the fringes? That would tend to favor a centralized authority as well...

actually, that seems like another point for debat.

i think that if there where hostile elements within reasonable space travel, we'd already be conquered.

well, that's kinda vague.

um, no conspiracy theory's on that Last please.

[ January 31, 2004, 04:59: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

what, all these sf buffs and nobody's interested?

[capnq]

IMO, we don't have enough information to make useful predictions. Interplanetary law will evolve organically, based on immediate needs.

Frex, when we have interplanetary colonies, what will happen when one tries to declare independence? Whether they can do it will depend a lot on who founded the colony and what its purpose was.

[Member 4148]

interstellar empire possibilites will depend on two things: communication and travel time

without high ftl communication and travel, no empire is possible
its possible, just barely, to hold an empire together with travel and communication time measured in weeks
more than that, and it simply won't work long term - if it is six weeks between when a colony rebels and you find out about it, and another six weeks to get any forces there to do something, the rebel colony will be pretty much lost to the empire by the time the troops arrive
with delay measured in weeks, a loose confederacy is about the most that is possible

if travel/communications measured in years due to non-ftl travel, no empire possible beyond local star system

if travel/communications measured in days or less, pick a government - any large-scale government that has worked for a time on earth could work for a time in space - with the proviso that people could flee a long long ways

[Renegade 13]

Likely, there would only be pockets of 'civilization' where there are habitable systems. Each group would answer only to themselves and have very little or no contact with the other systems. That is, unless a method of FTL travel and communication is devised. In that case, a traditional empire like association may be possible, still depending on how much faster than light the communication and travel were.