Talk:Political ideas in science fiction

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

the 3 Examples here are just a grabbag and need some sort of organization

by author OR by political system? Not sure which would work best. Ideas, anyone? WhiteC 21:57, 3 May 2005 (UTC)

"people associate or cooperate entirely on a voluntary basis for mutual support" is by definition "political structure" just inherently silly and incompetent political structure

just 'cos ideal anarchy has not yet worked in the real world does not mean it cannot be used as a setting in science fiction (or to organize Wikipedia). WhiteC 21:57, 3 May 2005 (UTC)

I have no problem with having fun with libertarianism, anarchy or communism as ideas. Actually being governed according to them is another matter.

--- How does one fix the Coyote - Allen Steele reference?

fixed, use Coyote. Actually link before the '|', then the text you want displayed. Look at it in the editor if you're confused. WhiteC 02:55, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

---

The political regime ruling Oceania in Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four is described in the book as combining communism and fascism. A close reading of the book make it obvious that Orwell's major reference points for the modern authoritarian state included Stalinism, Nazism, Japanese Militarism and British Imperialism. Remember he had seen the first two and the last of those up close, Stalinism and Fascism while in Spain during the Spanish Civil War Homage to Catalonia and British Imperialism while in Burma Burmese Days.

---

[edit] No mention of rule by machine/computer/robot

Wandered here from the AFD discussion on robocracy/robotocracy and I noticed that this article is missing anything resembling a comment on government by machine/robot. I find this to be a glaring omission, but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to cover the idea effectively.
(previous added on 05:49, 18 September 2006 by User:FrozenPurpleCube)

Hrm. That is something to think about. As far as I know, all automatocracies (best term?) are generally fascist. The common good is sacred; all work organically within the whole to secure the goal of the leader. The rights of the individual are meaningless.

In any case, I'll start thinking about formulating a few paragraphs/links. I would like to know if anyone knows of non-fascist automatocracies? I suppose there are also paternalist systems, where the 'bots watch over mankind for our own good, but can't think of anything beyond maybe a few short stories. samwaltz 20:40, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Yes I know of automatocracies that aren't fascist. Isaac Asimov used computer or robot controlled human civilisations several times that weren't fascistic (although he seemed to think that would better if humanity didn't know), and in Catseye, interstellar civilisation is ruled by computers containing copies of human personalities. In Mute by Piers Anthony, a computer system takes the place of the human bureaucracy of government. And of course in recent post-singularity fiction by people like John C. Wright you actually have libertarian civilisations that are made to work by hyper-intelligent benevolent AIs. DavidJohns 17:40, 23 October 2007 (UTC)