Talk:Federal Republic of Galaxies/@comment-5135903-20140210155402/@comment-5135903-20140211183815

Doctrine. I like it, but watch out. They could run into problems trying to maintain such an expansive empire under such a comparatively primitive system. This civilisation will be very intrigueing.

It would make sense if they were a nightwatchman state, turning as many aspects of the running of the civilisation over to the markets. The Invisible Hand is the most sophisticated data processing and resource allocation system that humanity currently posesses; even better, markets expand with the size of the civilisation, so there would be no need to hastily expand the government and administrative systems to encompass new territories. The big advantage of using a nightwatchman state for the FRG is that markets are run by people buying and selling products, so no super-advanced administrative computers would be needed to handle the empire.

The one qualm I have is how the FRG government prevents itself from being influenced by artificial intelligences with far superior intellects. Maybe they are, and this is a great source of 'court intrigue', as well as being the source of a serious corruption problem. Or perhaps the FRG realised this centuries ago and went on a crusade to destroy (or control) all higher intelligences which could corrupt or influence them (like my now-defunct Free Co-operative Zone).