Best government for several star systems and no FTL

[Blue3]

Let's say, in 2800, there's one united government that governs:
-Earth
and colonies on
-the Moon
-Mars
-the upper atmosphere of Venus
-within some asteroids in the belt
-the atmosphere and four main moons of Jupiter (Europa, Callisto, Ganymede, Io)
-the atmosphere and two moons of Saturn (Titan and Enceladus)
-the atmosphere of Uranus (it doesn't have large moons)
-the atmosphere of Neptune and on its moon Triton
-Pluto & Charon
-at least 3 worlds in the Alpha Centauri star system about 4.37 years away (our Sun's closest neighbors)

And there is no FTL (faster-than-light) travel, though we've found a way for starships to come close to light-speed. So it takes years to communicate and decades to travel between the two Solar and Centauri systems, and other systems haven't been visited yet.

Yet there is some form of unified government binding together all places where humanity dwells.



What would be the ideal government for this future scenario?

A federal/confederate government, but the national/federal government's congress only convenes once a century for a few years, so everyone (including federal law enforcers stationed on each world) is on the same page, and most public administration is done by the provincial/state/world governments? "The United Republic of Sol and Centauri"?

A more neo-feudalist and corporatist system, as is common in many sci-fi stories?

Something else?

[Dr. MB]

A very, very loose confederation that only has authority on conflicts, foreign relations, and space travel.

[OSR stands with Israel]

A very, very loose confederation that only has authority on conflicts, foreign relations, and space travel.

[politicallefty]

I think the worlds and colonies in our own star system could be governed under one system. Any farther outlying colonies would ideally have a set charter or constitution, but would otherwise govern itself so long as we don't have FTL ability. I suppose a current analogy could be the current UK and some of it's far territories. The far territories could approximate far away colonies. They are subject the laws and rules of the larger government, but get wide latitude to enact and enforce said laws and rules. And, of course, all laws are subject to periodic review by the larger government.

[Karpatsky]

A very, very loose confederation that only has authority on conflicts, foreign relations, and space travel.

+ possibly human rights, and an emergency centralization provision upon the discovery of sentient life, whether this is for their protection/negotiation/war-making.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Absent FTL, it's difficult to imagine any sort of interstellar human government.

To begin with, what functions could it possibly have?

It certainly could not exercise judicial functions.  Even with light-speed communications, sending off a case for appeal to an interstellar supreme court would take close to a decade just for Alpha Centauri/Sol. Even if for some reason that was thought tolerable for the most important of cases, once you get beyond the immediate neighborhood, it would be impossible for appeals to be heard and the results communicated before all the parties involved were dead.

Similarly, executive functions would be impossible to handle in an interstellar government without FTL.

That leaves the legislative branch.  First off, each star system will effectively be its own independent economy, The same lack of timely communications that make the exercise of judicial and executive functions impossible would also make our modern economic system impossible to work on such distances. There's no good way of tying together the units of account for the various star systems so that once could have any  idea of the relative value of the Alpha Centauri drachma to the Tau Ceti rupee, even in those two systems, let alone other star systems.  Any sort of duties imposed on interstellar shipping would have to be in-kind yet it's hard to see what is likely to be shipped between established systems.

Interstellar intellectual property law would be useless as even if royalties were collected there would be no way to send them back to the rights holder, so no interstellar patents or copyrights. I can't see any sort of physical goods being valuable enuf for interstellar trade at STL speeds.  There might be some trade in novelties, collectables, and curios, but I just don't see that being enuf to sustain interstellar travel let alone interstellar trade at STL apeeds.

To the degree that there will be anything resembling trade in an STL civilization, it will be primarily in colonists seeking to leave the settled star-systems for those as of yet unsettled by man.  So general rules on who gets to colonize which systems and how to deal with potential encounters with other sentient species are something that in theory might be dealt with, but with absolutely no enforcement mechanism I fail to see how any such suggestions on what to do would constitute a "government".

[Blue3]

Absent FTL, it's difficult to imagine any sort of interstellar human government.

To begin with, what functions could it possibly have?

It certainly could not exercise judicial functions.  Even with light-speed communications, sending off a case for appeal to an interstellar supreme court would take close to a decade just for Alpha Centauri/Sol. Even if for some reason that was thought tolerable for the most important of cases, once you get beyond the immediate neighborhood, it would be impossible for appeals to be heard and the results communicated before all the parties involved were dead.

Similarly, executive functions would be impossible to handle in an interstellar government without FTL.

That leaves the legislative branch.  First off, each star system will effectively be its own independent economy, The same lack of timely communications that make the exercise of judicial and executive functions impossible would also make our modern economic system impossible to work on such distances. There's no good way of tying together the units of account for the various star systems so that once could have any  idea of the relative value of the Alpha Centauri drachma to the Tau Ceti rupee, even in those two systems, let alone other star systems.  Any sort of duties imposed on interstellar shipping would have to be in-kind yet it's hard to see what is likely to be shipped between established systems.

Interstellar intellectual property law would be useless as even if royalties were collected there would be no way to send them back to the rights holder, so no interstellar patents or copyrights. I can't see any sort of physical goods being valuable enuf for interstellar trade at STL speeds.  There might be some trade in novelties, collectables, and curios, but I just don't see that being enuf to sustain interstellar travel let alone interstellar trade at STL apeeds.

To the degree that there will be anything resembling trade in an STL civilization, it will be primarily in colonists seeking to leave the settled star-systems for those as of yet unsettled by man.  So general rules on who gets to colonize which systems and how to deal with potential encounters with other sentient species are something that in theory might be dealt with, but with absolutely no enforcement mechanism I fail to see how any such suggestions on what to do would constitute a "government".

What about respect for Human/Sentient Rights?

The federal executive/judiciary functions in each system operate independently, but according to the federal law, which is made by a Congress which meets only a few years once every century. So there's a Supreme Court of Sol and a Supreme Court of Centauri, who are mostly viewed as final and both based on the same federal law (technically those decisions can be appealed, but the Ultra-Supreme Court only takes cases of significant worth, and only meets to rule on them once every 100 years)

(Btw, it's not necessary, but I'm assuming significant life extension that allows people to live indefinitely)

[Kingpoleon]

Feudalistic, capitalistic, democratic societies. Each area separated by a travel distance of more than two weeks is under its own "Royal Governors" elected in 6-year terms, with a Local Parliament of 21, 31, 41, or 51 Deputies being elected in a maximum of four year terms by List PR. Every twelve years, the Royal Governors elect an Imperial Sovereign by casting a light for the right color. The Imperial Sovereign appoints Princes over each separate settlement.

[America Needs R'hllor]

What about "internet"? I mean, I live 12 hours or much more flight time from most of you, and yet am able to instantly communicate through the global system of internet, so with this logic, would there be a similar invention for communication between systems? With this, we could communicate via holograms and even bypass most of what True Federalist rightly pointed out- the "Supreme Court" would be able to hold hearings with said "internet", and the legislative branch would be able to convene. It would require internet somehow bypassing, well, void, though.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

While FTL communications would make interstellar government possible, that's not the premise given in the original post.

As for possible life extension, all we've been able to do so far is make more people live closer to the apparent human maximum of 120. Going beyond that is almost certainly going to involve expanding the definition of "human" intelligence beyond a dependence upon the wetware of Homo sapiens.

[Blue3]

What about "internet"? I mean, I live 12 hours or much more flight time from most of you, and yet am able to instantly communicate through the global system of internet, so with this logic, would there be a similar invention for communication between systems? With this, we could communicate via holograms and even bypass most of what True Federalist rightly pointed out- the "Supreme Court" would be able to hold hearings with said "internet", and the legislative branch would be able to convene. It would require internet somehow bypassing, well, void, though.

You can't really go faster than the speed of light. Centauri is light years away from Sol. Meaning it would take years for an email travelling at the speed of light to send.

While FTL communications would make interstellar government possible, that's not the premise given in the original post.

As for possible life extension, all we've been able to do so far is make more people live closer to the apparent human maximum of 120. Going beyond that is almost certainly going to involve expanding the definition of "human" intelligence beyond a dependence upon the wetware of Homo sapiens.

Not necessarily, just eliminate the causes of cellular senescence, which could be done by nanobots in the bloodstream to repair damage and eliminate junk that accumulates, regulate DNA (including for mitochondria) from going haywire, stem cells,  tissue engineeing, telomere regulation, stuff like that. The causes have been diagnosed. You don't have to become some kind of "transhuman/posthuman" as a cyborg or greatly genetically altered or mind-uploaded.

http://www.sens.org/research/introduction-to-sens-research

[Frodo]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Federation_of_Planets

[Blue3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Federation_of_Planets

No FTL.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Blue, we're more than just cells and in any case I doubt that even if we could eliminate natural death that it would be a good thing for humanity. It's extremely unlikely we'll ever have interstellar flight cheap enuf to use that to expel the natural increase. So either we'd have to severely limit procreation or come up with other means of death to replace natural death.

[Blue3]

Blue, we're more than just cells and in any case I doubt that even if we could eliminate natural death that it would be a good thing for humanity. It's extremely unlikely we'll ever have interstellar flight cheap enuf to use that to expel the natural increase. So either we'd have to severely limit procreation or come up with other means of death to replace natural death.

That's it's own discussion, though of course I agree that we're more than just cells.