The Haves and the Have-Nots

So, as I've mentioned multiple times on this forum, I'm working on a novel that's sort of a Space Western and sort of an evolutionary journey to the origin of humanity and the transcendence of that condition.

My characters live in a world full of high-tech, as well as lower-tech alternatives. They're part of a marginalize space-dwelling (non-planet-based) culture that prefers trusted, reliable technology to "prototypes" and "new fangled devices" because of their general belief that "in space, experimenting gets people killed, and sticking to what works keeps you alive." (this is inspired by the actual space program and its use of robust, trusted tech on projects like Voyager, Pioneer, as well as the fact that the 1970's/1980's tech-equipped space shuttles were still being used in the 2010s until only recently; plus, the Russians STILL use the Soyuz Capsule, which has got to be one of the most robust spacecraft ever built. It's like the Russian Space Program's version of an AK-47).

So there are railguns, handguns and assault rifles alongside Electrolaser weapons and ship-mounted heavy lasers and particle beams, plus relativistic missiles. There's virtual reality and direct uploading to the brain through implants, which are cheap and commonly available, and serve as a status symbol like iPods or Smartphones. But stuff like electrolaser weapons, artificial gravity in the form of deck plating and anti-gravity generators in the form of booster units that make vertical take-off easier for newer spacecraft not designed for runway landings and vertical launches are very expensive.

The novel doesn't have any "rich" characters, but there allusions to wealthy, highly developed planets where the super-rich have stuff like flying cars and basically live in Crystal Spires, but with three-piece suits instead of togas.

It's a world of Haves and Have-Nots, and the people who make their living in space often barely scratch by. I wanted to make space a ghetto. This novel is explicitly not supposed to be a "Middle Class White Person's" vision of the future, like Star Trek. In fact, there are hardly any white people left by the time the novel takes place. It's more like Babylon Five without any aliens, just humans.

Does this basis make sense? I try to keep in mind the difference between realism and verisimilitude, and err on the side of the later. I want to make this futuristic world accessible. In fact, it's even mentioned that "Planetsiders" still watch science fiction shows and have plenty of misconceptions about actual space travel. People don't hop on spaceships to visit friends. They drive non-fossil fuel cars a couple of miles between cities. Despite humanity having colonized thousands of planets over thousands of years, most living humans have never been in space, unless it's a lunar vacation or something, and again, that's a matter of wealth whether you vacation on the coast or on your planet's moon.

edited 30th Sep '13 6:28:02 AM by fulltimeD

It would make more sense to have the Haves as planet-dwellers, since it takes very little energy (the universal currency) to land on a planet, and rather a lot to get off...

It's not that simple. The same hierarchy is expressed differently by different, interacting cultures in this setting. A space-dwelling economic Not scenario is nothing like a planetary economic scenario. It's comparing apples and oranges.

Also, in terms of energy... these people use wormholes not just to travel but to extract exotic matter from parallel universes (but only the lifeless parallel universes) to power their technology. If it weren't for capitalism persisting thousands of years in the future, I would say that the setting had virtually unlimited energy. Of course capitalism screws that one up, but still... it makes the Kardashev Scale kind of irrelevant if your raw power source is an infinite number of parallel universes.

I don't have middle-class Planets of Hats and Ghetto Planets of Hats. I didn't mean to imply that, that is NOT the way I write. I have giant gleaming cities surrounded by campesino shanty towns, and inner urban slums as well wealthy urban and suburban areas, and more isolated rural areas. Every location and culture in my setting has its own internal hierarchies and divisions.

As an example: there's a professional rivalry between military combat pilots and the pilots who fly emergency ambulance shuttles... the combat pilots brag about their skill and prowess but the ambulance pilots remind them that at the end of the day, one line of work is about killing and the other about saving people. Do ambulance pilots make as much as money as military combat pilots? Probably not. But their consciences and hands are cleaner (not that being any kind of space pilot isn't stressful). Those are the kinds of social divisions I'm dealing with.

edited 2nd Dec '13 11:56:50 AM by fulltimeD

edited 2nd Dec '13 11:56:33 AM by fulltimeD