Originally posted by Malenfant:
One other question. Why would a world even ALLOW its population to grow so high?
Why? Depends on the planetary government, race in the OTU. Or for simple reasons, expansions of its self as a planetary state-power, RL-example, look at Mainland China.
The population of the western world at the moment on Earth is flattening out. The developing world's population is still skyrocketing, largely because of ignorance and poverty.
Would a high-TL world have a high birth rate? If what's happening now is anything to go by, no it wouldn't. Even if you had open trade with outsiders, would people want their world's population to be in the tens or hundreds of billions?
Agreed, population control measures would be in affect. They would plateau somewhere. RL-example, look at mainland Communist China again. Enforced childbearing laws. THAT would be for OUR purposes, a reflection in the UWP's Law Level/ Personal freedoms.
Is it sane - especially given that in the OTU there have been some major collapses of civilisation in the not too distant past - for a world to become entirely or mostly reliant on external sources for food etc?
Sanity of a system's government's policies for non-independence? 'Fraid I don't have a couch for that big a client, Mal. FWIW, even for OTU explanations of the above systems daryen mentioned, I would still have them independent food resource-wise. They have to be. Part of the job of a good GM is being able to explain such things to his/her players.
And no world would have a 100% free immigration policy that just allowed anyone to come and settle there even when the population is already in the billions.
Some worlds with smaller populations might also have stiff immigration laws. Again, isn't this a function of the UWP Law level's interpretation? I don't think these systems just said "ya'll come on down and roost here!” save perhaps the Aslan, who have a thing for such in the OTU-- Ihatei , IIRC...[see the two Aslan Trojan Reaches worlds below]
. Hreahrya B333AH9-D 924
. Irlaiw C336AH5-D 813
Given that most high TL production would probably be automated, why would you even WANT lots of people to be living on a world? It's not to work the fields or man the factories. What would they all DO? Would your entire planet be set aside for service and information industry?
Governments tend to derive power from the people they rule, in the form of taxes, revenues, tolls, etc. The more people = more revenues, thus more power.
Not everything is "automated" at higher tech levels, but there is certainly more and more of it. The repetitive drudgery work yes, done by robots. But even at TL-D & E, they aren't fully autonomous systems, and less than AI level [TL-F+] of tech. And someone human has to fix and repair them. More automation means more leisure time, generally, and higher wages for the workers & benefits that supervise, and manage the overall line of work being done.
SOMEBODY has to be behind all the fixing and repairs of the "automation" from your angle that folks have noting to do.
. System Defense forces-10% of overall, x .005%, employed as a part of the government.
1-Space Forces
2-COACC [Space interceptors, PAD batteries, etc]
3-Wet Navy {the desert world and worlds with 3 Hydrospheres or less may discount this)
4-Ground Forces [Army, paramilitary police, etc]
. System Government apparatus--look at their UWP's. Got a BIG population--ye need a govt. big enough to handle it, and all the government provided services!
. Starport services/ shipyards--It's not all run by robots! Hotels, business firms, yeah, TL-D-F robot valets, and secretaries--BUT Robots Mal dinnae own them, or buy stocks, and make deals. People do!
With the two Aslan worlds, for example, robots would never replace the skilled being's artistic sense of aestheticism, and expertise--even for painting the clan's Trokh slogans on the hulls of their ships, i.e.
There seems to be a huge host of sociological and economic reasons that are being ignored here, that would act to CAP a world's population - even if it did have extra planetary sources to draw on.
True, there might be a huge bunch of issues missing. But in an alphanumeric UWP one liner, even with PPG and stellar data added, it still falls upon the GM's shoulders to explain it in a logical coherent fashion to his/her players.
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Now--let's crack a book open for a change, shall we? THB, Pages 377 & 378, for some UWP look-n-see...
Strend B436AFB-F 802--Extreme Law level, with aTotalitarian Oligarchy Government
Sounds a lot like Communist China! Absolute control of population thru oppression and coercion! Law-B = "Rigid control of civilian movement". Guess they ain't leaving here anytime soon! Not easily.
Lilad A447A7B-F 924--Extreme Law level, Balkanized-Myriad of governments.
Law B again! Guess they ain't leaving the world either! Why? Competing governments need the revenues from the masses maybe. YMMV, of course...
Deneb A537ADD-E 810--Extreme Law level, Religious Dictatorship.
An OTU Religious leader holds "absolute power over the citizenry". And, at Law D = with "paramilitary Law enforcement". Shades of the Imam's of Saudi Arabia trolling for women without veils with their beat-'em sticks!
Folk staying here "to be closer" to the Almighty Wazoo of the Church/Faith/Belief system. Yeah right. I'm not moving there!
Lintl A739AEE-F 604--Extreme Law, Religious Autocracy
Junidy A434AEE-D 410--Extreme Law, Religious Autocracy
Both these worlds have a religious oligarchy of a few "chosen" without regard to the specific needs of the citizenry; both have Law E= a "Full fledged Police State." Makes ya want to go and move there too, uh huh.
Askigaak B549BA8-E 101--High Law level, Charismatic Dictatorship.
One sole sophont rules here, "enjoying the confidence of the citizens". Cult of personality! And only at Law 8 = Long bladed weapons controlled, but daggers are Okay to wear. No guns here! Not for civilians! Sounds like a few places on earth here banning firearms. You do the math! Pick your fav dictator, insert here!
Pikha A738A86-E 712--Moderate Law level, Civil Service Bureaucracy.
Almost earth sized [size 7 vs. Terra’s 8]; Civil service Bureaucracy—Whoo Boy! Talk about Government troughs! Ever seen a small bureaucracy? Me neither! Law level 6 = Most firearms save shotguns prohibited.
Narsil A574A57-D 424--Moderate Law level, Feudal Technocracy
Albe A540A52-F 413--Low Law level, Feudal Technocracy
Narsil, a Sword World, O.T.U.; Albe, an Imperial world.
Feudal technocracy govt., one with a Govt. ruled by
“specific individuals for those who agree to be ruled. Relationships are based on performance of technical activities that are mutually beneficial.”
Narsil takes moderate law 7 to the prohibition of even shotguns. But ALL Blades are okay!
Albe’s low law bans use of energy weapons, but all other personal military weapons are okay.
Albe is the only one I see with some explaining to do, population to tech level wise based on my previous posts.
Certainly water and waste recycling here are governed by their technology—it would have to be! Ice mining of her one asteroid belt is one GM solution, to prevent dependency. Fusion stills for all her waste products, definitely orbital habitats for her food growth and water purification. They have an A-class yard, and TL-F.. they obviously on this
Hi In De world do build starships [planetary or in orbit]. Seems to me no problem outside of the water/food question what this world/system produces.
Oh, btw--those extreme law worlds--you do as a GM get to apply all the previous prohibitions as well, for a nice picture of what a body cannot have or do. Without getting anarchistic, the higher the law, the less freedom you have, the more the world govt has over its population!
High Pop worlds with lotsa control over its citizenry, not hard to imagine.
Anyone else stumped?
Ya’ll have a great Day!
