The most advanced culture on Ivanhoe is an ancient civilization with:
a samurai-like warrior class;
peasants;
artisans;
traders;
Consecrates, combining the roles of priest, scribe, poet, artist, engineer and scientist.
A warrior will be flayed if he contravenes Consecrate dogma. Too much power in the hands of a single class. A top-heavy civilization ready to be toppled by new ideas soon to be imported by Master Polesotechnician Martin Schuster. I do not think that the Polesotechnic League has a Prime Directive against interference? In fact, the League is one interstellar outfit that has almost the opposite Directive: "All the traffic will bear."
2 comments:
Note that civilization is not in contact with any others, only with proliferate barbarians. That tends to lead to stasis and to ever-increasing elaboration of hierarchies. Japan was often self-isolated, possible because it was a set of islands and too far from the mainland for easy passage. Periods of introversion contrast with episodes of outside contact and rapid innovation.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Pharaohnic Egypt has sometimes been thought of like that. Because of how the Egyptians preserved their basic social and political norms for millennia. But Egyptian culture, at least after the Old Kingdom era, was never truly isolated from other cultures and civilized powers.
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment