I don’t think that most of these writers are arriving at their societies by probabilistic extrapolation.
Granted. Some are, though. Two more counter-examples, besides Bujold:
Asimov’s Foundation, e.g. the planet of Anacreon. Feudalism is portrayed as the result of a security dilemma and the stagnation of science, as reducing the access of ordinary people to effective medicine and nuclear power, and as producing a variety of sham nobles who deserve mockery.
Brave New World. Feudalism is portrayed as a logical outgrowth of an endless drive toward bureaucratic/administrative efficiency in a world where personal freedom has been subordinated to personal pleasure. Regionally-based bureaucrat-lords with concentrically overlapping territories ‘earn’ their authority not by protecting ordinary serfs from the danger of death but from the danger of momentary boredom or discomfort. Huxler doesn’t seem overly fond of this feudalism; the question of whether a romantic would prefer this sort of system is, at worst, left as an exercise for the reader.
Huh. I had not really thought Brave New World as using a feudal system but that really is what it is. It might be more accurate to then make the point that the vast majority of the other cases have systems that aren’t just feudal but are ones in which the positions are inherited.
I agree that some of these writers are extrapolating. Since Asimov is explicitly writing in a world where the running theme is the ability to reliably predict social changes it shouldn’t be that surprising that he’d actually try to do so. (Note also that Asimov also avoids here the standard trap of having protagonists who are nobles).
Granted. Some are, though. Two more counter-examples, besides Bujold:
Asimov’s Foundation, e.g. the planet of Anacreon. Feudalism is portrayed as the result of a security dilemma and the stagnation of science, as reducing the access of ordinary people to effective medicine and nuclear power, and as producing a variety of sham nobles who deserve mockery.
Brave New World. Feudalism is portrayed as a logical outgrowth of an endless drive toward bureaucratic/administrative efficiency in a world where personal freedom has been subordinated to personal pleasure. Regionally-based bureaucrat-lords with concentrically overlapping territories ‘earn’ their authority not by protecting ordinary serfs from the danger of death but from the danger of momentary boredom or discomfort. Huxler doesn’t seem overly fond of this feudalism; the question of whether a romantic would prefer this sort of system is, at worst, left as an exercise for the reader.
Huh. I had not really thought Brave New World as using a feudal system but that really is what it is. It might be more accurate to then make the point that the vast majority of the other cases have systems that aren’t just feudal but are ones in which the positions are inherited.
I agree that some of these writers are extrapolating. Since Asimov is explicitly writing in a world where the running theme is the ability to reliably predict social changes it shouldn’t be that surprising that he’d actually try to do so. (Note also that Asimov also avoids here the standard trap of having protagonists who are nobles).