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Science fiction allows us to explore the ramifications of theoretical political systems in a way that is not possible in reality except over very long timescale
by queuebert 2y ago
Science fiction allows us to explore the ramifications of theoretical political systems in a way that is not possible in reality except over very long timescales and with extremely cooperative citizens.
- AlexandrB 2y agoI would argue that this is not really true. You can't really understand the ramifications of theoretical political systems with thought experiments in a book or movie for because political systems are complex and ramifications thereof are harder to predict than the stock market. A lot of sci-fi instead seems to recontextualize common human issues into an environment where existing political pre-conceptions can be avoided. Obvious examples are things like the half black/half white episode[1] of Star Trek TOS or "Measure of a Man"[2] from Star Trek TNG. These are pretty highly regarded episodes and neither really has anything to do with the Federation of Planets or its political system (in fact there are very few episodes that deal with these topics). Instead they're explorations of racism and what it means to be human/sentient. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_That_Be_Your_Last_Battlefield https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_That_Be_Your_Last_Battlefi... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Measure_of_a_Man_(Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Measure_of_a_Man_(Star_Tre...
- queuebert 2y agoYou're right that political systems are far too complex to get perfect in a thought experiment, but I would argue that thinking about it ahead of time can't possibly be worse than blindly forging ahead.