Five SF Visions of Society Free From Rules, Regulations, or Effective Government

[james_davis_nicoll]

Five SF Visions of Society Free From Rules, Regulations, or Effective Government

We're not using the L-word.

Comments

[james_davis_nicoll]

Is commenting working on tor?

[bunsen_h]

I don't have anything useful to comment there at present, but the Captcha appears to be normal instead of the error message that it has been displaying recently. The green blob in the lower left corner is still obscuring your footnotes. EDIT: The design on the green blob makes me think of an artist's palette, but I'm guessing that it's supposed to represent a cookie with a bite taken out of it. A cookie crafted by an OCD baker who carefully positions the chocolate chips or raisins for symmetry.

[(Anonymous)]

There's "The Probability Broach" by L. Neil Smith. It's set in an alternate North America where the Declaration of Independence contains the phrase "...with the *unanimous* consent of the governed...", which is difficult to come by.

And "Circus World" by Barry Longyear, set on the world of Momus, which is peopled by the descendants of a wrecked circus ship. Their only law is how to make laws, and it's so convoluted and difficult that no one's been able to make a second law.

-Awesome Aud

[roseembolism]

I would think in that case, the vast majority of North America would be French, Spanish and English.

[(Anonymous)]

It's quite an amusing read. I recall one part where the protagonist is going through a list of former presidents, which includes a Jean-Baptiste Huang! There were also natives and women on the list.

Smith's earlier books were fun, but as he went on he got crankier and more dogmatic.😑

-Awesome Aud

[(Anonymous)]

There was also, as I recall, at least one entry for "None of the Above" (not a name; the direct equivalent of "No Award" in the Hugo votes).

But the point of all of those diverse presidents was that in that timeline, the presidency was a weak, perhaps only ceremonial, office.

[dragoness_e]

Someone suggested over on Tor.com that the Culture is a lawless nanny state. IMHO, the Culture is end-state communism--the state withers away because it is unnecessary, and the workers own the means of production. Also they keep humans as very pampered pets.

[james_davis_nicoll]

tor dot com article 442, 2023 article 89.

58 articles to go to article 500.

[scott_sanford]

I was just happy to see New Hong Kong mentioned, the setting of Phil Foglio's Buck Godot stories.

"There are no Laws here, so watch it."

[scott_sanford]

Presumably, one factor in the seastead community’s longevity is that 220 nautical miles is too far for a bear to swim.

Possibly intentionally, 220 miles is exactly how far one bear was observed to swim. (Just how far can a polar bear swim?) They will routinely swim 30 miles or more as a commute, if there's something desirable at the other end.

National Geographic holds the record bear swim to be 426 miles over nine days but that was under exceptional circumstances. Luckily for seasteaders that's not routine behavior.