#1 Machiavelli and my sci fi universe
Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2008 9:42 pm
In this thread, as I continue my reading of Machiavelli's "The Prince", which I'm discussing in more general terms in this thread, I'll discuss how this might apply to my sci-fi setting (which you readers here at LibArc might not be familiar with, so feel free to ask me if you want any clarification on anything).
You might want to follow the other thread to have some of the context to help you understand what I'm talking about in this thread, but most it should actually be optional; I'll try to write the relevant context in here where needed.
A very brief overview of my sci fi universe for those of you who aren't familiar with it follows, and again, feel free to ask me for anything you want clarified. Then, I'll get into taking what the book talks about and applying it here.
The setting is one of almost hard science fiction (FTL is present, but rare, and not much else breaks physics) with an alien race and a near to mid future Earth.
Earth in this setting isn't actually the main attraction, so isn't developed in full detail (yet), but it is like our own real world with a slightly diverging history (the seemingly immortal aliens show up and make formal first contact in the early 1990's) and it faces many of the same problems we do today: the oil economy coming down, the global mean temperature going up, etc.
I present a fairly optimistic view of the next fifty years: we have some hard times thanks to peak oil, but we get through it without going all to hell and end up stronger than before, but also more fragile; the solutions implemented all depend on a modern infrastructure existing.
Eventually, humanity however makes a big mistake, and it leads to a global thermonuclear war which destroys much of the modern infrastructure the world so heavily depended on. Earth orbit is a complete mess; nothing can survive up there, meaning global communications break down and space launches are temporarily impossible, even if they were affordable. Then the oil shortage is soon a big deal again, as the synthetic sources are gone too now and demand goes back up as people try to rebuild. The global temperature took a temporary dip, but before long, starts climbing again. Agriculture and food distribution both suffer immensely, leading to mass starvation all around the world, which leads to governments destabilizing which just makes the situation worse as anarchy starts to spread.
The world has gone all to hell, and there are doubts that humanity will be able to pull through on their own this time, but luckily, they aren't on their own; those aliens - the A'millians, who have a small, but high tech civilization on another world - told us where they can be found. So some people desperately put what resources they have together and build a big transmitter to ask for help from the stars. (Note: in one of the alternative universe, I point out that humanity actually is able to pick itself back up on their own, but it was a long and very difficult journey.)
Fourteen years later, an alien probe jumps in and starts assessing the situation. After that, a handful of starships arrive carrying scientists, engineers, robots, an alien noblewoman, and soldiers....
Chapters 1-3 (chapter 3 in particular)
This is very interesting because it relates directly to a part of my storyline, where the A'millian Star Empire is virtually formed as they annex parts of Earth in an attempt to bring stability and hope to the post atomic horror, post oil, still global warming horror. Since they lack the manpower nor the logistical capability to do everything they needed to do by themselves, they had to use local material and local people to get stuff done.
They do break one of Machiavelli's rules: they help a local major power (one of the few that remained on Earth) become more powerful, but they do so out of necessity, which is excused by a part of "The Prince" which I didn't quote. So far so good; perhaps not ideal, but good enough.
A few other potential downsides is the A'millian king never settles in the new country himself, nor does he send in big colonies. He does send a trusted representative to live among the new subjects though, which should be able to take the place of the king. Colonization is a harder part - even if there were sufficient A'millians and they breeded fast enough to make it work (their home population and annual birth rate are both small), they still wouldn't do it, since they all simply like staying home anyway (Earth and A'millia are subtly different but different enough that natives to either don't really like being on the other planet, with A'millians hating Earth more than humans hate A'millia.). Instead, they tried to bring their culture to the natives through a slow education plan. Within a generation, a hybrid culture started to exist between A'millian values and local values, which gives some people suitable for further colonization.
With each expansion, the cultures dilute and combine all the more, becoming a new kind of mix, but this can work out for the better; it creates a new identity for these subjects that can bind them all together as one whole, while still having enough in common with His Majesty's government that they can remain together.
Now, what about destroying the minor powers there already? Well, some of them were indeed destroyed as an example to the others, to cause them to fear Starfleet above to keep them in line. Those destroyed were supposed to have had A'millian military governors (dictators) installed to take over for the locals, but if they were already happy, Machiavelli says this would not go well at all. The good thing is the locals probably weren't very happy, given how common starvation and random warlordism was, so they might have went to the new governor willingly. After one state does and the foreign invaders have a foothold, others can also flock to them, using their existing power structure. And if they don't, well, Starfleet will make them an offer they can't refuse.
A problem is they don't want too many little nations flocking to them at once, since they simply wouldn't be able to feed everyone, thus, some of them would end up being still unhappy under the new governor which would end up making things worse. The A'millian force would have to be very careful about not expanding too quickly - take a chunk, solidify power there and make the local people happy, then move on repeating until they can accomplish their strategic goals.
They can be both feared and loved, which I'm sure Machiavelli will discuss in detail soon enough, so I'll leave this here for tonight and pick up with the next three chapters, and continue this analysis, tomorrow, unless I get sidetracked by other real life obligations.
You might want to follow the other thread to have some of the context to help you understand what I'm talking about in this thread, but most it should actually be optional; I'll try to write the relevant context in here where needed.
A very brief overview of my sci fi universe for those of you who aren't familiar with it follows, and again, feel free to ask me for anything you want clarified. Then, I'll get into taking what the book talks about and applying it here.
The setting is one of almost hard science fiction (FTL is present, but rare, and not much else breaks physics) with an alien race and a near to mid future Earth.
Earth in this setting isn't actually the main attraction, so isn't developed in full detail (yet), but it is like our own real world with a slightly diverging history (the seemingly immortal aliens show up and make formal first contact in the early 1990's) and it faces many of the same problems we do today: the oil economy coming down, the global mean temperature going up, etc.
I present a fairly optimistic view of the next fifty years: we have some hard times thanks to peak oil, but we get through it without going all to hell and end up stronger than before, but also more fragile; the solutions implemented all depend on a modern infrastructure existing.
Eventually, humanity however makes a big mistake, and it leads to a global thermonuclear war which destroys much of the modern infrastructure the world so heavily depended on. Earth orbit is a complete mess; nothing can survive up there, meaning global communications break down and space launches are temporarily impossible, even if they were affordable. Then the oil shortage is soon a big deal again, as the synthetic sources are gone too now and demand goes back up as people try to rebuild. The global temperature took a temporary dip, but before long, starts climbing again. Agriculture and food distribution both suffer immensely, leading to mass starvation all around the world, which leads to governments destabilizing which just makes the situation worse as anarchy starts to spread.
The world has gone all to hell, and there are doubts that humanity will be able to pull through on their own this time, but luckily, they aren't on their own; those aliens - the A'millians, who have a small, but high tech civilization on another world - told us where they can be found. So some people desperately put what resources they have together and build a big transmitter to ask for help from the stars. (Note: in one of the alternative universe, I point out that humanity actually is able to pick itself back up on their own, but it was a long and very difficult journey.)
Fourteen years later, an alien probe jumps in and starts assessing the situation. After that, a handful of starships arrive carrying scientists, engineers, robots, an alien noblewoman, and soldiers....
Chapters 1-3 (chapter 3 in particular)
This is very interesting because it relates directly to a part of my storyline, where the A'millian Star Empire is virtually formed as they annex parts of Earth in an attempt to bring stability and hope to the post atomic horror, post oil, still global warming horror. Since they lack the manpower nor the logistical capability to do everything they needed to do by themselves, they had to use local material and local people to get stuff done.
They do break one of Machiavelli's rules: they help a local major power (one of the few that remained on Earth) become more powerful, but they do so out of necessity, which is excused by a part of "The Prince" which I didn't quote. So far so good; perhaps not ideal, but good enough.
A few other potential downsides is the A'millian king never settles in the new country himself, nor does he send in big colonies. He does send a trusted representative to live among the new subjects though, which should be able to take the place of the king. Colonization is a harder part - even if there were sufficient A'millians and they breeded fast enough to make it work (their home population and annual birth rate are both small), they still wouldn't do it, since they all simply like staying home anyway (Earth and A'millia are subtly different but different enough that natives to either don't really like being on the other planet, with A'millians hating Earth more than humans hate A'millia.). Instead, they tried to bring their culture to the natives through a slow education plan. Within a generation, a hybrid culture started to exist between A'millian values and local values, which gives some people suitable for further colonization.
With each expansion, the cultures dilute and combine all the more, becoming a new kind of mix, but this can work out for the better; it creates a new identity for these subjects that can bind them all together as one whole, while still having enough in common with His Majesty's government that they can remain together.
Now, what about destroying the minor powers there already? Well, some of them were indeed destroyed as an example to the others, to cause them to fear Starfleet above to keep them in line. Those destroyed were supposed to have had A'millian military governors (dictators) installed to take over for the locals, but if they were already happy, Machiavelli says this would not go well at all. The good thing is the locals probably weren't very happy, given how common starvation and random warlordism was, so they might have went to the new governor willingly. After one state does and the foreign invaders have a foothold, others can also flock to them, using their existing power structure. And if they don't, well, Starfleet will make them an offer they can't refuse.
A problem is they don't want too many little nations flocking to them at once, since they simply wouldn't be able to feed everyone, thus, some of them would end up being still unhappy under the new governor which would end up making things worse. The A'millian force would have to be very careful about not expanding too quickly - take a chunk, solidify power there and make the local people happy, then move on repeating until they can accomplish their strategic goals.
They can be both feared and loved, which I'm sure Machiavelli will discuss in detail soon enough, so I'll leave this here for tonight and pick up with the next three chapters, and continue this analysis, tomorrow, unless I get sidetracked by other real life obligations.