The nobles of Cognarth

[Madmax]

I would think the Imperial view would be to award patents gradually over time as awards for actions that benifit the Empire, or at least benifit Cognarth in a way that indirectly benifits the Empire.
So initially none would be given, but it would be made clear to everyone that the Emperor, in his generosity, as represented by the local Baron, would gladly award patents to individuals who prove their loyalty and worth to the Imperium.
What exactly the qualifications would be I don't know, but this method would allow a significant incentive for Cognarthlings to behave in constructive ways, and make fighting over the patents counterproductive.

 

[PDXWiz]

I would think the Imperial view would be to award patents gradually over time as awards for actions that benifit the Empire, or at least benifit Cognarth in a way that indirectly benifits the Empire.
So initially none would be given, but it would be made clear to everyone that the Emperor, in his generosity, as represented by the local Baron, would gladly award patents to individuals who prove their loyalty and worth to the Imperium.
What exactly the qualifications would be I don't know, but this method would allow a significant incentive for Cognarthlings to behave in constructive ways, and make fighting over the patents counterproductive.

Industrialists who have set up foundations, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, that ostensibly benefit others. The 3I values technology and education, and this foundation is well known for contributing computers to schools to promote education. So I cold see Bill Gates getting one.

Elizabeth might get one as she is a senior titled noble, and Charles would inherit it upon her death. (Senior rank, not age or time on the throne.)

The current Dalai Lama might be considered a recipient due to his worldwide popularity and leadership, while the current Pope might be as well.

Akihito is also a senior titled noble. Elizabeth and Akihito are the two most powerful members of the world's nobility, and have large personal resources.

Active nobility is in place in Saudi Arabia, Spain, the Benelux countries, and in Scandinavia. Stable leadership could generate some Imperial nobility.

Religious leaders such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson or Bishop Desmond Tutu.

Democratically elected leaders would probably not be considered; however, former world leaders might be considered, especially if they have remained active on some stage: Al Gore, Jimmy Carter, Margaret Thatcher.

Dictators would probably be forcibly removed from power, simply because they would be a perceived threat to world stability: North Korea's leader is an example.

A noted person of letters, such as Isaac Asimov, Elie Wiesel, Maya Angelou, J.K. Rowling, Mario Vargas Llosa, Doris Lessing, Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Certain scientists---Sir Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, and Carl Sagan would have been likely recipients---such as Stephen Hawking or Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute, and Robert Ballard, the oceanographer.

Rigoberta Menchu and Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Prize winners.

Entertainment figures such as George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Gene Roddenberry.

Gordon Long

 

[Icosahedron]

I would think the Imperial view would be to award patents gradually over time as awards for actions that benifit the Empire, or at least benifit Cognarth in a way that indirectly benifits the Empire.
<snip>
but this method would allow a significant incentive for Cognarthlings to behave in constructive ways, and make fighting over the patents counterproductive.

Good point. That would go some way to avoiding an otherwise (IMO) inevitable world war.

Incidentally, the point made above about a war being non-nuclear assumes that the nations have already joined, agreed and implemented the conditions. I envisage war taking place before this - probably pretty soon after First Contact - as soon as it becomes evident that jockeying for position could provide national advantage.

 

[abomination]

Brenda? Do you mean Liz?

Ewan

Yeah, it's what Private Eye call her

 

[Peter Schutze]

I can't see the imperium suddenly handing out a bunch of permanent titles at all .... Certainly not a mass induction on welcome to the imperium

maybe create / promote a couple of important figureheads from among the "elder statesmen" diplomats to represent the various continent to the outsiders especially the new count.

lesser fiefs, if granted at all, would be a slow evolving thing on a heavily populated world, especially one where enforcing a monarchy would require enforcement by marine platoons.

most titles would be service to the imperium awards

 

[rancke]

I can't see the imperium suddenly handing out a bunch of permanent titles at all .... Certainly not a mass induction on welcome to the Imperium.

This is like herding cats.

OK, forget the "Cognarth has just joined the Imperium" What If. Try this one:

Cognarth has been in the Imperium for years, decades, centuries, but by an absolutely incredible (and I use the word deliberately) coincidence it resembles Earth anno 2010 almost completely. Only the names have been changed, and I'm not providing any names.

(Yes, I know that one requires just as much suspension of disbelief as "Cognarth has just joined the Imperium", but perhaps people will be able to come up with it with this restatement. And please don't start pointing out how interstellar trade would have changed things. It didn't change things enough to register, OK?)

Question: Who on Earth (sorry, Cognarth) would have Imperial titles and what would they be?


Hans

 

[aramis]

I can see several... Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexi II, Pope Benedict, maybe Pope Shenouda III and/or the ABp of Canterbury. Elizabeth II of England. Tenno Heika Akahito.

All bannerets or barons, IF they accept the titles.

 

[Agemegos]

This is like herding cats.

Worse. When your question doesn't really make sense on close examination, no-one will examine it more closely than role-players.

Cognarth has been in the Imperium for years, decades, centuries, but by an absolutely incredible (and I use the word deliberately) coincidence it resembles Earth anno 2010 almost completely.

I'm having particular trouble with the fact that Cognarth has no-one on it who is in any way involved in interstellar trade, shipping, or banking, or who has served with the Imperial Navy. These are the people it is worthwhile ennobling.

Question: Who on Earth (sorry, Cognarth) would have Imperial titles and what would they be?

• A bunch of cognate-astronauts and cognate-cosmonauts, because on Cognarth they would have been in Imperial Service. Giving them flash titles provides an incentive to attract other talented recruits, who and whose descendants will eventually create ties or loyalty and shared tradition between Cognarth and the Imperium. Colonel Sir Yuri Gagarin (IM, retd.), Rear-Adm. Sir Alan Shepard (IN, retd.), Captain Sir Neil Armstrong (IN, retd.) etc.
• A bunch of entrepreneur-magnates who made fortunes in commerce, shipping, and banking, who on Cognarth went into interstellar trade. Baron Aristotle Onassis, for example.
• A small, select group of hereditary monarchs, whose place in local tradition will reconcile the locals to the aristocratic character of Imperial government. Baroness Elizabeth of the United Kingdom and eighteen other realms, Sir Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia (bart.), Sir Beatrix of the Netherlands (bart.), Sir Akihito no Nihon (bart.)
• A selection of descendants of former ruling houses, who when deposed took refuge by joining the Imperial Service, eg. Captain Sir Phillip of Greece and Denmark (IN, retd.)
• Some pro-Imperial writers, poets, and film-makers, maybe, though Rudyard Kipling would have turned the honour down.
• A few diplomats involved in dealings between the UN and the Imperium. Sir Dag Hammarskjöld, for example.
• Some people involved in nuclear disarmament at the government level: Sir Leonid Brezhnev and Sir Gerald Ford, Sir Mikhail Gorbachev and Sir George H.W. Bush.

Basically, I think that no-one on Earth has done anything that the Imperium would be interested in or interested in encouraging. It isn't going to give hereditary titles to anyone who is going to become an non-entity when his term expires, or whose descendants are not going to be able to support the style of an Imperial noble. And certainly there is nobody on Earth who has done enough of Imperial interest that the Imperium would have any interest in giving him or her a title and a grant of wealth to allow him or her to support it. They have a slight interest in welding the local aristocracy onto the bottom of the Imperial aristocracy. Apart from that no-one on Earth has been doing any of the things that get you noticed favourably by the Imperium.

 

[rancke]

I'm having particular trouble with the fact that Cognarth has no-one on it who is in any way involved in interstellar trade, shipping, or banking, or who has served with the Imperial Navy. These are the people it is worthwhile ennobling.

They all got honor titles and emigrated to the Duchy capital. The people who remain behind on Cognarth are all cognates of people who are alive on Earth today. Those of them who get Imperial titles (if any) will get them for being People Like Us, not for any specific deeds. Wil came up with some good suggestions. Elisabeth, Baroness Windsor doesn't have to DO anything to get a title. She IS something. Though I agree with Wil that she's 'only' baroness material.


Hans

 

[Agemegos]

They all got honor titles and emigrated to the Duchy capital. The people who remain behind on Cognarth are all cognates of people who are alive on Earth today. Those of them who get Imperial titles (if any) will get them for being People Like Us, not for any specific deeds.

Well, YMMV and evidently does. But I reckon that the Imperium rules not the planets but the space between the stars. And no-one on Cognarth has anything, not even the slightest little thing, to do with the space between the stars. The Imperium isn't going to reward them for being parochial nobodies, it is going to dangle its double-gilt potatoes as rewards to those who straighten up and fly right.

 

[E.D.Quibell]

I kind of agree with Agemegos.

The Imperium will want people who, uphold the Noble heriditory government style of the Imperium, and people who create interstellar trade. Because that's what the Imperium does. Elizabeth Winsor is the first obvious choice for the first, and there is no obvious choices for the second (cos there is no interstella trade).

So if you were passing out Imperial Titles to people on planet I can't see anyone really past Liz, and they would only go down from there.

Best regards,

Ewan

 

[jatay3]

EDIT - just had a thought, what if the most able governments/institutions of Cognarth are anti-Imperial? And only the small/weak/non-influential wanted membership?

Entirely possible. It is not unknown for a weaker power to seek an alliance with a power outside the neighborhood as with Rhodes/Rome vs Macedon.