What is a Feudal Technocracy

[RedBeardSean]

To be honest, I've always assumed that starship crews and military organisations are feudal technocracies. "Relationships are based on the performance of technical activities which are mutually beneficial" - what is that if not a description of a crew hierarchy? The person who's best at navigation is the Navigator, the person who's best at looking after the engines is the Engineer, and the person who's best at leading is the Captain; and they all have to do their jobs if the ship is going to get anywhere.

The best isn't always the leader, though, in military (and even civilian) heirarchies. Sometimes, it's the person who kisses up the most, or the ones the unions won't let you fire, so you promote him out of harm's way... The way they should work is a fuedal technocracy, though, I agree.

 

[hdan]

"Feudal Technocracy" sounds to me like Rule by Guild.

 

[Woas]

Based on the input here I think I'll be okay now. :lol: I don't think you guys realized how annoying it was when I first saw the term was and not being able to wrap my head around it. It was like that feeling you get when someone asks you a question and the answer is on the tip of your tongue but you can't say it and it bugs the heck out of you.

The founding of a Feudal Technocracy goes something like this in my head:

A new colony/government is formed and some sort of charter/constitution/code of law is agreed on which selects someone as the king* based on any number of factors including they seem most appropriate to the job through whatever means - they are the richest, the leader of the expedition who got the colonist together in the first place, the one with the most university degrees, the eldest... whatever seems appropriate.

The king then hands out land, but not necessarily physical terra ferma but more like an important task: so a vassal may receive the right to live on/in the kings space-dome colony (aka manor) if they keep the life-support/electronics in tip-top shape. This Earl of Engineering would in suit hire Knights of Alternating Current... and the Knights would in turn employ another tier of citizen and so on down the feudal 'food chain' to the lowly peasants who do the real hard labor. Another vassal would be in charge of the hydroponic pod and making sure everyone gets fed. This Baron of Broccoli would again get Knights of Vegetables and so on...

These cells would all be interdependent on one another, and be headed by whomever was deemed the most 'skilled' at the job. The lowly 'peasantry' of course is filled with mostly unskilled laborers, or at the least very low skilled laborers and aspire after working in their department to learn the system inside and out and one day become the Baron of Broccoli.
Now whether or not this is a perfect government without corruption who can say so I'm sure there will be instances where the head guy of a department isn't really the most skilled but that can be left for a juicy adventure for the characters to figure out


* I use the term king only in a general, placeholder sense. The actual term could be anything: Governor, President, Uber-Pioneer or whatever seems appropriate.

 

[waylandson]

Guys,

May I suggest you the Serrano Series of books by Elizabeth Moon, if there is any series of books that can illustrate how a Feudal Technocracy can works, it's this series.

For further details follow this link:

http://www.baen.com/author_catalog.asp?author=emoon

As well as the Honor Harrington 'Verse, this would make a great Traveller campaign seeting in my opnion.

 

[GypsyComet]

Based on the input here I think I'll be okay now. :lol: I don't think you guys realized how annoying it was when I first saw the term was and not being able to wrap my head around it. It was like that feeling you get when someone asks you a question and the answer is on the tip of your tongue but you can't say it and it bugs the heck out of you.

Many of the older players know exactly how annoying this term is. It's one of the few "don't bring this up" topics on the TML that people actually avoid bringing up. Having seen the original "discussions" and knowing where that membership is weakest, this isn't too surprising.

 

[cbrunish]

Do you notice that they gave examples of every other type of government but not one for Feudal Technocracy. Must have been one of Marc's pet ideas.

 

[Baron Sidur Haski]

Here's how I made the one for my landgrab benign:

Sidur Haski has a native pop of 20,000 technocrats. They are direct descendants from Vilani lanthanum* miners and colonists. The system is not exactly a garden world. The first colonists had to use every scrap of available tech in order to survive the conditions.

Over time, the remaining colonists ended up a tl14 society that focused primarily on development of technology and training of specialists for employment in the Imperium.

The workers, scholars and trainees, all come from the Laeth subsector. From any of the worlds. The Haskians send diplomats to these worlds to make the offer to those interested, in cooperation with local governments.

Participation, is voluntary. And at the will of the participant. Offworlders work in the many industries and serve in local defense forces, and take part in operating facilities that maintain a high quality of life for all residents of the system. Some choose to stay insystem, or go on with high recommendations onto a wider career elsewhere.

The 'feudal' part comes from a more direct Imperial structure to System governance, with nobles taking a more active role in guidance and administration of system activities. The technocrat citizens of the system are esteemed advisors and teachers, rather than opressive landlords or overseers. Key to making the government system is the sense of purpose and contribution that all of its members get out of the efforts of the system.

In game terms, characters come to Sidur Haski to engage in thier career path, or part of it. A system like this, right next to a subsector capital (and a huge industrial world) would be a solid environment for just about any class, though rouges and drifters would have trouble, or be extremely sophisticated in thier operations.

* I also like the raw material Zuchai, because i like the name of it, and that it is used in some aspect of Jump Drives, as far as I can tell. I'm not sure if its "cannonable" or not, but people in vacc suits operating robots mining crystals sounds pretty sci fi to me.

 

[Tipsy]

Based on the input here I think I'll be okay now. :lol: I don't think you guys realized how annoying it was when I first saw the term was and not being able to wrap my head around it. It was like that feeling you get when someone asks you a question and the answer is on the tip of your tongue but you can't say it and it bugs the heck out of you.

The founding of a Feudal Technocracy goes something like this in my head:

A new colony/government is formed and some sort of charter/constitution/code of law is agreed on which selects someone as the king* based on any number of factors including they seem most appropriate to the job through whatever means - they are the richest, the leader of the expedition who got the colonist together in the first place, the one with the most university degrees, the eldest... whatever seems appropriate.

The king then hands out land, but not necessarily physical terra ferma but more like an important task: so a vassal may receive the right to live on/in the kings space-dome colony (aka manor) if they keep the life-support/electronics in tip-top shape. This Earl of Engineering would in suit hire Knights of Alternating Current... and the Knights would in turn employ another tier of citizen and so on down the feudal 'food chain' to the lowly peasants who do the real hard labor. Another vassal would be in charge of the hydroponic pod and making sure everyone gets fed. This Baron of Broccoli would again get Knights of Vegetables and so on...

These cells would all be interdependent on one another, and be headed by whomever was deemed the most 'skilled' at the job. The lowly 'peasantry' of course is filled with mostly unskilled laborers, or at the least very low skilled laborers and aspire after working in their department to learn the system inside and out and one day become the Baron of Broccoli.
Now whether or not this is a perfect government without corruption who can say so I'm sure there will be instances where the head guy of a department isn't really the most skilled but that can be left for a juicy adventure for the characters to figure out


* I use the term king only in a general, placeholder sense. The actual term could be anything: Governor, President, Uber-Pioneer or whatever seems appropriate.

See, this is how I see a Feudal Technocacy being founded. But where it really starts to feel more 'Feudal' than 'Technocractic' is a few generations down the road when the level of education and training one gets or is assumed to get is dictated by heredity.

So the daughter of Baron of Broccoli is, in theory, educated from birth to take over her father's job. Barring a catestrophic failure or a line being wiped out, she's likely to inherit the title and may even be the best qualified for it.

Fast forward a few generations though, and you are likely to get Baron's inheriting titles based on a presumed skill (the application of which has long since been delegated to vassals) while the peasantry are explicitly restricted in their training and mobility (physical and career).

Anyways, I just like to see Feudal Technocracies as emcompassing a wide range of goverments degenerating from straight Technocracy to straight Feudalism.

 

[dayriff]

See, this is how I see a Feudal Technocacy being founded. But where it really starts to feel more 'Feudal' than 'Technocractic' is a few generations down the road when the level of education and training one gets or is assumed to get is dictated by heredity.

See, I look at it the opposite way. "Feudal" doesn't imply "heredity". Feudal is more about a power structure where everyone's strongest loyalty is to their immediate superior and immediate subordinates rather than to some greater state or grouping.

 

[Tipsy]

See, this is how I see a Feudal Technocacy being founded. But where it really starts to feel more 'Feudal' than 'Technocractic' is a few generations down the road when the level of education and training one gets or is assumed to get is dictated by heredity.

See, I look at it the opposite way. "Feudal" doesn't imply "heredity". Feudal is more about a power structure where everyone's strongest loyalty is to their immediate superior and immediate subordinates rather than to some greater state or grouping.

I get that, but I personally feel that that is closer to a meritocracy or high-functioning bureaucracy.

Feudal does have connotations of heredity. Certainly as it is commonly used by lay people. Indeed, I'd say that is also how it tends to be used by most of the space opera authors Traveller was inspired by.

And the fact is that most of the governments the term was invented to describe were such that heredity played a large part in how they functioned.

Using the connotation of heredity strikes me as more compaitble with the use of this term for the corrupt government of Oriflamme in TNE. It also makes their push to reclassify TED governments as Technocratic Fedual states in order to have them join the Reformation Coalition comprehensible.

That said, the government classification codes are relatively few and the potential human situations they describe are much more diverse, so I figure there is room for both.

I'm sure the exact classification of worlds is the subject of constant revision and argument within the ranks of the Scouts.