Depending on the extent of my god mode, I’d either reorganize the planet into a planetary transportation government and regional city-states—the planetary transportation government runs an intercontinental rail system that connects every city-state and enforces with overwhelming military might (provided by feudal grants from city states) only one right, that of emigration (not immigration; city states can refuse to permit people to stay within their borders, they’re simply forbidden from preventing people from leaving).
Or, if I’m playing full god mode, I’d dismantle the local planets, turn them into a reorientable Dyson sphere around the sun, and use a combination of solar sails and selective reflection to turn our entire solar system into a fusion-powered galactic spaceship, and cruise the galaxy looking for something more interesting. (By absorbing solar emissions on one hemisphere of the sun, and on the other hemisphere reflecting half back into the sun and letting half escape, the energy of the sun can be used to accelerate it, albeit very slowly. If this still sounds ridiculous, imagine shoving the sun into a rocket; that’s kind of what would be happening, only with ridiculously low thrust.)
Your initial request doesn’t exactly limit the scope of powers in any foreseeable way, except to limit the means.
Or, if I’m playing full god mode, I’d dismantle the local planets, turn them into a reorientable Dyson sphere around the sun, and use a combination of solar sails and selective reflection to turn our entire solar system into a fusion-powered galactic spaceship
I think this would fall under the heading of “transformative technologies.” Anything sufficient to bring about a total post-scarcity society is probably outside the scope of the question.
enforces with overwhelming military might (provided by feudal grants from city states) only one right, that of emigration
Considering that you can not change human nature, do you believe that the central government would continue to limit themselves to this one power? With overwhelming military power, they could increase their power unchecked. Is the feudal grants supposed to limit this in some way, or are there other ideas you had in mind for preventing this?
The feudal grants are intended to prevent the central government from overstepping its boundaries, yes. I expect the most likely failure mode of this government wouldn’t be from the central government, but the regional governments, and either because they decide they want the central government to have more power, or because they decide they want a stronger central government that provides more guarantees.
I’d either reorganize the planet into a planetary transportation government and regional city-states—the planetary transportation government runs an intercontinental rail system that connects every city-state and enforces with overwhelming military might (provided by feudal grants from city states) only one right, that of emigration.
Sounds like the logical extention to libertarianism ideas that accepts the concept of social contract. I think some sort of externality management needs to exist as well.
The planetary transportation government I find really intriguing for some reason. First I have ever heard of anything like it. Is it based off of something?
Not to my knowledge, although it’s possible I owe the idea to something I have since forgotten.
I believe it evolved in political arguments I’ve had, from noticing that restricted emigration is one of the cornerstones of tyrannies, however. The railway was added at some point as a means of ensuring even landlocked nations with no immigration-friendly neighbors would have conduits out.
Greg Egan writes the sort of hard SF where the characters are strictly secondary, and at least half the fun of reading them is trying to figure out the local laws of physics before the characters do. His newer works are generally written better, but they’re all good.
I’d recommend starting with Incandescence, thus. His newest story (the Orthogonal trilogy) is noticeably better, but it’s also only two-thirds done.. so read that next.
Depending on the extent of my god mode, I’d either reorganize the planet into a planetary transportation government and regional city-states—the planetary transportation government runs an intercontinental rail system that connects every city-state and enforces with overwhelming military might (provided by feudal grants from city states) only one right, that of emigration (not immigration; city states can refuse to permit people to stay within their borders, they’re simply forbidden from preventing people from leaving).
Or, if I’m playing full god mode, I’d dismantle the local planets, turn them into a reorientable Dyson sphere around the sun, and use a combination of solar sails and selective reflection to turn our entire solar system into a fusion-powered galactic spaceship, and cruise the galaxy looking for something more interesting. (By absorbing solar emissions on one hemisphere of the sun, and on the other hemisphere reflecting half back into the sun and letting half escape, the energy of the sun can be used to accelerate it, albeit very slowly. If this still sounds ridiculous, imagine shoving the sun into a rocket; that’s kind of what would be happening, only with ridiculously low thrust.)
Your initial request doesn’t exactly limit the scope of powers in any foreseeable way, except to limit the means.
I think this would fall under the heading of “transformative technologies.” Anything sufficient to bring about a total post-scarcity society is probably outside the scope of the question.
Considering that you can not change human nature, do you believe that the central government would continue to limit themselves to this one power? With overwhelming military power, they could increase their power unchecked. Is the feudal grants supposed to limit this in some way, or are there other ideas you had in mind for preventing this?
The feudal grants are intended to prevent the central government from overstepping its boundaries, yes. I expect the most likely failure mode of this government wouldn’t be from the central government, but the regional governments, and either because they decide they want the central government to have more power, or because they decide they want a stronger central government that provides more guarantees.
I think the most obvious failure mode is that the right of emigration will turn out to be impossible to enforce.
Sounds like the logical extention to libertarianism ideas that accepts the concept of social contract. I think some sort of externality management needs to exist as well.
The planetary transportation government I find really intriguing for some reason. First I have ever heard of anything like it. Is it based off of something?
Not to my knowledge, although it’s possible I owe the idea to something I have since forgotten.
I believe it evolved in political arguments I’ve had, from noticing that restricted emigration is one of the cornerstones of tyrannies, however. The railway was added at some point as a means of ensuring even landlocked nations with no immigration-friendly neighbors would have conduits out.
It reminds me of descriptions in Incandescence, by Greg Egan. Have you read it?
Nope. Should I?
Maybe?
Greg Egan writes the sort of hard SF where the characters are strictly secondary, and at least half the fun of reading them is trying to figure out the local laws of physics before the characters do. His newer works are generally written better, but they’re all good.
I’d recommend starting with Incandescence, thus. His newest story (the Orthogonal trilogy) is noticeably better, but it’s also only two-thirds done.. so read that next.
Lots of his stories are online, including some free short stories.