On Nov 17, 3:36 am, Crown-Horned Snorkack <chornedsnork....TakeThisOut@hush.ai>
wrote:
> The classical SF often features a Galactic Empire or something
> similar. Often based on Roman Empire. Like Asimov´s Foundation Series.
>
> The Empire of Foundation is perceived as a good thing by Hardin, and
> Gaal Dornick. It is decaying, inevitably, but it is better than the
> Four Kingdoms and the disintegration of Periphery. Things look worse
> by the time Hober Mallow and Lathan Devers see the Empire. But it is
> emphasized that the Galactic Empire before decay was yet much better
> than what Seldon saw.
>
> Now, let us compare what we see of the historic Roman Empire at its
> best. Governor Plinius of Bithynia and his correspondence with
> Traianus... Traianus was quite often regarded as the best Roman
> emperor, ever. And Plinius was one of the few most conscientious and
> well-meaning governors - like Cicero was in his time.
>
> Greece was the favourite province of Roman Empire. Especially for Nero
> and Hadrianus, but generally much of the time.
>
> How would a early 21st century Earth, or middle 20th century Earth,
> take it if one day a fleet showed up outside atmosphere, and next they
> know they have a provincial government of a Galactic Empire to deal
> with? Governing in the spirit of Plinius and Traianus?
>
> (Remember the pearls like Traianus explaining the ban on volunteer
> fire squads).
Basic facts about travel between the stars would
have to be covered to be able to speculate
about any real scenarios.
First and foremost would be could the speed
of light be overcome? Conversely, if it could
by them, would time travel be possible by
them as well?
If it could not, then the reality of the basics
of travel between the stars would come into
play.
Most notable would be several facts about
stars in the galaxy.
1. This galactic civilization might have existed
for time scales many orders of magnitude longer
than human lifespans or even human civilization.
A galactic civilization that started only several
hundred million years ago would have had a
long time to develop.
Furthermore, if they found out about Earth only
five or ten million years ago that would be more
than enough time to blanket the earth with Hydrogen
Bombs and kill off any proto-apes they might
find before human civilization ever got started.
2. No star remains at a fixed point in the galaxy
in relation to the other stars.
There is not nearly such a thing as an isolated
backwater solar system in the galaxy like there
would be for say an isolated island in the
remote Pacific.
Many stars orbit the galaxy in orbits of
sometimes a hundred million years or more
depending on the distance of that star from
the center of the galaxy. Throughout that time,
a star will drift past one star, then another,
then another, and so forth.
Barnard's Star, for instance, will become
the closest star to the Sun rather than
Proxima Centauri around the year 11,700 AD,
and over the last several million years many
other star systems have been the closest
to the Sun rather than the other two as
they would drift close to the Sun and then
away from it.
Probably the major factors if one would
think of a galaxy 'geographically' as one
might think of various regions on the Earth
would be.
1. Distance from the center. There tend to
be a greater general density of stars per
volume of space as one goes closer in.
2. Globular clusters. These are aggregates
of thousands or millions of stars much closer
together than stars not in globular clusters.
They almost might be thought of as one
vast solar system of thousands or millions
of stars. They tend to have been formed
during earlier time periods in the universe,
and have low metallicity, however.
3. Metallicity. If a star formed from a nebula
without many heavy metals, then there was
nothing solid within it to generate the dust needed
to form rocky terrestrial planets. The heavy element
nebulas needed to help form rocky planets tended
to be formed later on after the formation of the universe.
The Sun is one of these later generation stars, and
it does have rocky terrestrial planets, like the Earth.
Later generation stars, and high mettalicity nebula,
tend to often form in the periphery of galaxies, and
not necessesarily near the center. Throughout time,
the central regions of some of the larger types of
galaxies have even had their gas and dust driven
away from it, or have been depleted to the point
that there are no longer any nebula present, and
there is no further star formation.
Only ten million years is almost a blink of an eye
when it comes to hundreds of millions or billions
of years when it comes to cosmic time scales,
and if the Earth were discovered by them only
ten million years ago, that would be more than
enough time for them to scratch their pseudo
heads and decide to blanket the Earth with
Hydrogen bombs and cull off any apes they
might find, if they really wanted to.
One notable thing about a Galactic Civilization
without a FTL type drive or time travel, however,
is that each star would be vastly distant from
each other, and the time of travel from each point
to another one would have to be taken into
account. This would only be different in globular
clusters, which might have their own problems,
due to the fact that they usually have low metallicity.
>> Stay informed about: How evil is a classical empire? 
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