Scifi Space Piracy... the human factor

[Spacescifi]

 

Having googled the causes of piracy when it was popular during the age of the sail, I thought it interesting to use fictionally.

The causes were both economic and political. Unlike what TV would have us believe, according to wikipedia sailors, merchantmen and soldiers became pirates because the alternative seemed worse with less pay.

Sailing on a merchantship the captain acted as if he were God and paid you snd fed you as less as he could. Often the death ratio of crew to slaves carried was similar during journeys, which is telling.

Pirates captains, amazingly, could not afford to be so dominneering.

This is insightful from wikipedia:

 

Unlike what many people think, captains did not have a dictatorship over the rest of the pirates on their ship. Captains had to be voted in, and there were strict rules for them to follow as well. The captain was not treated better (with more food, better living conditions, etc.) than the other members of the crew, and was to treat the crew with respect. This was because many merchant captains treated their crews terribly. Many pirates had formally served on these merchant ships and knew how horrid some captains could be. Because of this, all ships contained councils. These councils composed of all crew members on a given ship. Some councils were used daily to make decisions while other were used as a court system. Whatever the case, these pirates had as much power as the captain outside of battle. The captain only had full authority in times of battle and could be removed from this position if they showed cowardice in the face of the enemy.^[22] He was also to be bold in battle. The pirates did not want things to end up the same way as on a navy ship.^[23]

So in other words: Not like Captain Hook at all. His own men would have mutinied long ago. Doing this kind of stuff.

 

 

[kerbiloid]

15 minutes ago, Spacescifi said:

Unlike what many people think, captains did not have a dictatorship over the rest of the pirates on their ship. Captains had to be voted in

Certainly, one may oppose Captain Flint...

If his name is John Silver or Billy Bones...

Edited May 27, 2019 by kerbiloid

[Guest]

sTOP

[FleshJeb]

Wow, it's almost like collective bargaining is effective and good, and authoritarianism is bad...

Galaxy_Brain.jpg

[razark]

6 hours ago, Aperture Science said:

sTOP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rblYSKz_VnI

 

[DDE]

Can’t throw the mutineers out the airlock? Threaten to blow up the propellant tank.

There are so many things in the way of space piracy in a credible, physics-compliant setting, it’s not even funny.

[kerbiloid]

A spaceship full of pirate DVD.

[tater]

It's hard to imagine a SF universe where the conditions exist technically to allow for piracy, and combined with any social drivers, it's even less likely. If you have a space opera setting like Star Wars, with cheap ships, etc, I'd expect robotic healthcare, etc, that would make needlessly risking life be a pretty stupid calculus. I think any such setting sort of comes with post-scarcity as part of the bargain.

 

[linuxgurugamer]

11 minutes ago, tater said:

It's hard to imagine a SF universe where the conditions exist technically to allow for piracy, and combined with any social drivers, it's even less likely. If you have a space opera setting like Star Wars, with cheap ships, etc, I'd expect robotic healthcare, etc, that would make needlessly risking life be a pretty stupid calculus. I think any such setting sort of comes with post-scarcity as part of the bargain.

Ummm, I suggest you look at some good sci-fi books for some ideas along this topic.  There are endless reasons why piracy would be profitable, not the least of which is the ability to get somewhere else very fast

[Spacescifi]

1 hour ago, linuxgurugamer said:

Ummm, I suggest you look at some good sci-fi books for some ideas along this topic.  There are endless reasons why piracy would be profitable, not the least of which is the ability to get somewhere else very fast

 

1 hour ago, tater said:

It's hard to imagine a SF universe where the conditions exist technically to allow for piracy, and combined with any social drivers, it's even less likely. If you have a space opera setting like Star Wars, with cheap ships, etc, I'd expect robotic healthcare, etc, that would make needlessly risking life be a pretty stupid calculus. I think any such setting sort of comes with post-scarcity as part of the bargain.

 

 

I think the bigger problem is looting other space vessels. To do so efficiently in a reasonable amount of time you need two things:

FTL, warp, jump, or translocation drive to move space itself while your ship does not. Ideally you could also use it for intrasystem travel to planets and other objects, since even solar systems are vast. Design limiting it so it is not overpowered though is the responsibility of the author.

A constant acceleration drive is also required. With it, adjusting your course when entering new solar systems where orbital trajectories  may be different only becomes a matter of time. Not refueling. By dangerously skimming a gas giant at orbital celocities and increasing the travel time.

Another significant problem is collecting loot from vessels. If they are destroyed, the loot becomed kessler syndrome or like Gravity.

 

I think piracy would be more profitable on planets, and then using the starship to escape.

[steuben]

Suggested reading: "The Reaches Trilogy" By David Drake.

[tater]

8 minutes ago, linuxgurugamer said:

Ummm, I suggest you look at some good sci-fi books for some ideas along this topic.  There are endless reasons why piracy would be profitable, not the least of which is the ability to get somewhere else very fast

I've read literally hundreds of good SF books.

The premise of any with piracy seems unlikely. I'm not sure what sort of magic drives and weapons you need. You need to be able to disable a ship without destroying it, and you need to then just steal the cargo (since you've disabled the ship).

[kerbiloid]

Spoiler

Torrents via satlinks.

 

[DDE]

Piracy died with wooden ships. Mostly because you can’t forage for coal and steel plate.

[kerbiloid]

2 hours ago, DDE said:

Piracy died with wooden ships. Mostly because you can’t forage for coal and steel plate.

They are just not aware of Age of Sales.

Spoiler

 

[KSK]

2 hours ago, DDE said:

Piracy died with wooden ships. Mostly because you can’t forage for coal and steel plate.

To provide but one counterexample, Somalia might dispute that.

As for space piracy - meh. If you want to build a setting that makes it feasible then go for it. It’ll be contrived but there’s no reason why good stories can’t be written in contrived settings.

It’s a pretty dumb idea though. 

[kerbiloid]

Suggestion.

Pirating a cycler with platinoids from the belt.
Predictable trajectory, low maneuverability.

Probably is defended by something short-range orbiting around the cycler, and obviously surface-mounted turrets.
The crew is armed, too..

Edited May 31, 2019 by kerbiloid