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I've decided to pretend we're still entirely on the original subject Isaac Send a noteboard - 11/07/2013 01:13:15 AM

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View original postBack to the original, yeah I think the general sci-fi plot revolving around little colonies of a few thousand/million work a lot better if the 'planet' is some habitat a million miles from anyone else and only the size of a smallish country. It also justifies the repeat use of scenery and filming location, if some company mass produced the "Montana Hab, perfect for 10,000 settlers interested in cabin in the woods life. It's just like Montana, before we erected thousands of mile high skycrapers there!" There's a lot of fiction options though, you could dump a few thousand in a clump somewhere and have little feudal realms with the aristocrats being the original main shareholders, dukes and barons and so on based on the size of their habitat, etc. I'd love to see more writers tackle such things.


View original postI think there are some writers who do this sort of thing, no? What your description most reminds me of is the wonderful Otherland - sure, the "little realms" are purely virtual there, while the real world background setting is only somewhat futuristic, but the principle is remarkably similar to what you describe.

Some, and I think its growing as we see less classic space western and space opera. Swords and Sorcery in space and science fantasy like to go this route but typically with single planet solar systems. Military sci-fi tends to explore the political backdrop more too, and often goes the aristocrat route I've noticed, it lets them use the warrior tradition route more and avoid the WMD problems, essentially that any culture than can colonize other planets has no problem torching one in mere moments without ever landing troops, making for a boring story.

When we start getting into simulated realities as the daily norm though, that more or less murders any subdivisions beyond top level and individual. Someone is making sure your brain in a vat, whole body, or the hard drive you're stored on is maintained, and someone is making sure the electricity and raw materials and network keep running. The difference is the location of your body isn't really very relevant to who you interact with in terms of normal society, where you can't pick your neighbors. Even a work-from-home person who is a total shut-in isn't nearly as severed from their physical community as that and more to the point wasn't raised a shut in nor exposed to entertainment where that was the norm. You'd have a very, very different culture I'd think after a few generations of people who had basically always been able to instantly leave any environment or interaction they found even vaguely boring or hostile. You're not very likely to have much in the way of classic political or national situations going on there or any real parallel analogy cases.

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.
- Albert Einstein

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This message last edited by Isaac on 11/07/2013 at 01:14:32 AM
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