Interplanetary Polities
Interplanetary Polities — Terra Invicta technology. The speed of light's limitations on our communications require granting a measure of independence to o…
About Interplanetary Polities
Interplanetary Polities is a Terra Invicta technology in SocialScience with a research cost of 50,000.
The speed of light's limitations on our communications require granting a measure of independence to our off-Earth colonies.
If there is one lesson to be learned from the history of human society's colonization of distant lands, it is that remote rule proves only sustainable under absolute tyranny, and all the bloodshed that entails. A growing desire for independence from a far-off homeland is inevitable, and conflict in the pursuit of it a given. This will be just as true for our off-world colonies as it was for America and Africa centuries ago. If we do not establish a workable solution now, Earth-bound humanity and space-based humanity may well become locked in a cold war spanning light years. The need, then, is to establish policies, laws, and systems by which our colonies are beholden to their homeworld (particularly in terms of sharing off-world resources with it), yet free to make their own day-to-day decisions, choose their own leaders and defend their own borders. No matter the breakthroughs we might make in the speed of data transfer, it seems unlikely that we will cross the light barrier within the near future. For governance to depend upon waiting for answers that take hours, days, or weeks to arrive would be a slow suicide for both sides. If we are to remain one humanity, even as we slowly spread across the cosmos, we must ensure our colonies are self-sufficient, content, and therefore, loyal now, not later.