What is a Feudal Technocracy?
Starting in May 1994, there was a thread on the TML regarding the definition of a Feudal Technocracy (Government Type 5) in Traveller. It originated as a spin-off from a discussion between David Johnson and Hans Rancke about the Sword Worlds. It became clear that different people had very different ideas about what was and was not a Feudal Technocracy. Hans favoured emphasising the feudal aspect while David emphasised the technocratic aspect, using the term ‘practise of technology’. He approximately defined this as requiring industrial activity in all possible areas for a certain TL, producing sufficient surplus resources to support research, development, production and operation and support the expansion of the economy and stated that he regarded this as the prime requirement of a technocracy. However, Bill White has calculated that the average FT in the Imperium has a population in the 100,000’s, insufficient to support the broad spread of industry David requires by the above definit
Starting in May 1994, there was a thread on the TML regarding the definition of a Feudal Technocracy (Government Type 5) in Traveller. It originated as a spin-off from a discussion between David Johnson and Hans Rancke about the Sword Worlds. It became clear that different people had very different ideas about what was and was not a Feudal Technocracy. Hans favoured emphasising the feudal aspect while David emphasised the technocratic aspect, using the term ‘practise of technology’. He approximately defined this as requiring industrial activity in all possible areas for a certain TL, producing sufficient surplus resources to support research, development, production and operation and support the expansion of the economy and stated that he regarded this as the prime requirement of a technocracy. However, Bill White has calculated that the average FT in the Imperium has a population in the 100,000’s, insufficient to support the broad spread of industry David requires by the above definit
