On Wed, 13 Jun 2012, Onno Meyer wrote:
Johannes wrote:
A bit a mixture of Onnos versions would be the ship as basically a mobile
family farm. It's not really a different culture then that of the the
people around it, at least in the view of both the "farmers" and the
surrounding culture. It is a different lifestyle though. Occasionally
someone marries in, occasionally some child leaves the farm/ship to take
up an ordinary job.
Hello Johannes,
you're talking about a social organization, not the actual
farming, right?
The patriarch/matriarch owns the ship, his or her spouse
is by default the XO, the heir is being groomed to take
over in due time, and non-heirs must make up their mind
if they want to stay in a subordinate role or strike out
on their own.
Yes social organisation.
Some positions might be filled with people, for whom freight crew is a
temporary job. Seasonal crew would be one of the primary pools for people,
who marry into the family.
* A starship arrives in a system and visits a number of
worlds/stations. Extra cargo handlers are hired at the
first port, with a contract running to the last port,
unless they sign up for a flight into the deep dark.
* Every couple of years, the ship goes to a station for
a complete overhaul and upgrade. The ship's engineers
are in charge, but they hire both tech consultants
for their current expertise and shipyard workers to
get things done faster. If there is something really
new in the upgrades, they will have to entice an
expert to join the crew permanently.
And you ahve short term replacements for faimily members, who are gone,
left the ship for good for some reason, or are away for a while like for
getting an education. As you have mentioned in the snipped part of your
post below.
If you have actually a distinct space gypsy culture you also need to think
how the number of ships and population growth get correlated.
* 3E has cabins (500 cf for one or two beds) and luxury
cabins (1,000 cf for one or two beds) with the option
to add extra empty space. My flat is quite small, but
well over 4,000 cf for one person.
So say the default is one luxury cabin per person and
another 1,000 cf of empty space. If the population is
growing, they can turn that empty space into cabins,
or divide the luxury cabins into standard cabins, or
have people double up in luxury cabins (either crew
on opposite shifts or couples on the same shift).
From the time a baby is born to the time a kid needs
his or her own room, there is plenty of time for the
necessary modifications.
* You could assign the same volume to each couple, no
matter how many kids they have. That makes them
think twice about another brat.
* Have a strong social expectation of zero population
growth. Everybody is parent to two children. If one
crewmember dies before the expected childbearing
age or has no children by then, the slightly younger
generation is expected to make it up.
* Merchanter's Luck by CJ Cherryh had two family ships,
one dying out with just one family member left and
one getting crowded, with no promotion prospects for
the youngsters. Some kids saw an opportunity, to the
dismay of their cautious elders ...
There also is the matter of how many ships in total exist. That can change
due to ecconomic conditions. A space gypsy culture will most likely mean,
that there will be little reaction to short term market fluctuations. But
it will have to react to long term trends. And if their social model fits
well to a certain trend and the trend changes, things can get interesting.
A central
population control authority, that does long term planing, or ad hoc
decisions by individual families/tribes? Ritually throwing surplus
population out of the airlock (if you are nice, while in port)?
If there was a central authority, population control
wouldn't be the first thing on my mind. If they provide
insurance for ships, they're already in the ship-buying
or shipbuilding business. Again, there would be years,
even decades, of lead time before the new generation
needs their own ship.
Sure a central authority would not be there purely for family planning. A
central authority would be one obvious answer on how the total number of
ships is regulated. If you want to use it actually in a game, you'd have
to additionally answer what they are (council of elders,priesthood), where
they are based, and what powers they actually have.
Shanghaing people
who will not be missed all that much, and if they work hard for a couple
of years, they can get promoted family members? An officers caste and
slaves, whos number is more flexible?
* Even galley slaves were more fiction than fact, with a
few notable exceptions, and rowing was relatively easy
to supervise. Would you really trust a slave watching
the fusion reactor? Ten lashes if it explodes, double
wine ration if not?
There'd be positions better suited for new slaves, where misbehaviour
would be less catastrophic. I suppose the first job of a slave would be to
clean non critical parts of the ship. And the crew learns how the slave
reacts to sticks and carrots and based on that might promote him, or
eventually throw him out of the airlock.
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