Kerbal Government and Hierachy

[helaeon]

They do not require food or water and it appears Kerbin also has infinite rocket fuel and building materials for the moment. Kerbals are also immortal (but still killable, but are reborn). With a lack of need to compete for resources and infinite lifespans, there is no need for organizing governments or really competition of any kind to distribute or regulate finite resources or mediate conflicts over them, nor is safety a real concern as give it some time and the Kerbal is resurrected. Nearly everything people use governments for are not an issue on Kerbin. It also shows why the Kerbals are so failure tolerant as well, there seems to be little to no cost to failure on Kerbin. It also explains why there is no other life on Kerbin, the Kerbals are all life on Kerbin. In a situation where there is infinite resources the best lifeform begins to dominate all others until it is the only one left. Only in systems with limited resources and niches to exploit those resources do you see diversity in life.

The only reason we have finite resources in our rockets is due to the rocket equation which is the only tyranny the Kerbals know. And that one tyranny is also the one thing they have organized against via the Space Program.

No need to wage war, as there is no point. You can't kill off your enemy if you don't like their ideas and there's no point burning up your resources hoping to get more of theirs out of the deal as you both have infinity resources as it is.

I think Kerbals have no governments and no hierarchy outside of the Space Program (again an organization to fight the only tyranny they know). In this they get to enjoy peace and freedom because they don't have to worry about things like we do such as, where is their food going to come from, or the permanence of death.

[Skyler4856]

I don't think Kerbals have to deal with any of those things because I don't think they're particularly violent towards each other.

Kerbals are either sadistic, or simply morons.

They launch their fellow man into solar orbit, never to be retrieved. The build ships which explode, without firing the engines.

[tychochallenge]

I like to think that Kerbals were a by-product of humanity: Future humans from planet Earth will gain interstellar travel and explore the galaxy. They colonized many worlds and brought life to worlds that were sterile. But they soon awoke the mighty Krakens: highly intelligent beings made of pure energy that could appear in any shape or form (in kerbals case... a giant space squid). One by one, the human worlds fell to the krakens, even the human's enormous military might was no match for a corporal being. The last remnants of humanity fled to the very edge of the galaxy and there, they created monoliths: black rectangular supercomputers designed to locate and breed intelligent life to continue the war against the krakens. They sent the monoliths throughout the galaxy, and a couple of them found themselves in the kerbal system. One came straight down to Kerbin, another on the Mun, another in low Minmus orbit and a final one in low Jool orbit(not in game...yet) like stepping stones for intelligent beings towards interstellar travel. The lone monolith on Kerbin waited patiently for intelligent life to find it... That is how I believe the Kerbals came to be: a by-product of the late-humanity's attempt to breed intelligent life throughout the galaxy.

Anyways, I like to view Kerbin as made up of two dominant countries (one capitalist and the other some form of kommunism): analogues for U.S. and USSR and minor nations without a space program, but with eager kerbals who would join either side to get into space. However, armed with enormous rockets, there would be little military since both super-nations wield rockets with the power of nuclear weapons so I think of the konflict as a sort of 'cold war'.

[TotalNewb]

-snip- Kasia -snip-

Hah, Kasia is a Polish name

[North]

My idea similar to those of tychochallenge i think that there's to main powers on kerbal like on earth there was 2 the soviet union and the united states. And on kerbal both of this two nations are fighting to stay ahead of each other. In this case space. So it would make perfect sense if there was 2 superpowers. In the game we would have to compete in some sort of story mode . You could be on ether the soviets or united states. And see who goes to the mun first and then beyond.

[ravensoul6@hotmail.com]

I don't think Kerbals are subject to the sort of collectivist state worship humans are, and hence have no government and are not subject to tribalism or nationalism.

All the different space agencies are simply hobby clubs, sort of how humans have motorcycle clubs...kerbals have space clubs.

[Zamolxes77]

Kerbals are many, kerbals are one. There are no nations on Kerbin, the whole planet is partitioned into provinces or counties. Each county has its own "government body", that concerns itself with everything occurring within their borders. All kerbals who reside in that province vote on every issue, once per month, in a great Assembly, for that province. Those who live in it have the right to manage they place they live as they see fit, no outside interference. This has produced a wide variety in culture and way of living from province to province, but kerbals seem to enjoy it. The color of their skin is the same, culture varies.

There are few elected members, like The First Speaker, Master of Funds and Keeper of Records, but they don't rule over the Assembly, only guide it. Anyone can become elected, every year, none of the kerbals in position of power can stay for more than a year. If a kerbal moves to another province, it ceases to be part of old assembly and automatically becomes member of the new one.

Each province has its own flag and great competitions take place, every month, varying from sports and crafts to science, rocketry and maths. Kerbals don't seem to be sore losers, even in defeat they stay positive and kind towards the others. Great prestige can be earned from winning such a competition and the flag of the province is displayed at national universities and colleges, as a sign of respect. Many kerbals are galvanized by this and study harder to bring honor to their province.

Kerbals don't have cities - at least not on the surface of the planet. Being green and able to subsist long voyages without much nourishment leads me to believe they might be partially plants. Each kerbal instinctively wants to preserve the environment around him, so they live in small enclaves or villages, too small to register on a scanner. The few dwellings that could be considered cities are deep underground, carved out of marvelous grotto's and contain the centers of learning and manufacturing for kerbal kind. (Like Ix from Dune novels). Nothing mars the pristine surface of the planet !

The only large, surface structure that has been allowed to exist, is the planetary project taking place at KSC. For one historic event, all Assemblies on the face of Kerbin have voted on this very specific issue and passed with a resounding YES.

Kerbals have no titles, or ranks. Except for the elected officials that lead the Assemblies, but those are the names of the position itself, not the person who occupies it this year. They seem to be socially ranked by two attributes: bravery and skill. I suspect that each kerbal has a name, given at birth by his parents, then as a surname he takes the name of the province he resides in, so over the course of their life, the last name of a kerbal changes many, many times. The surname Kerman, is reserved for everyone involved with the planetary project at KSC - a province in itself - has nothing to do with blood relations. In fact, on Kerbin two blood siblings could end up with different names from each other AND different names from their parents as well.

[Elowiny]

4 hours ago, Zamolxes77 said:

-snip-

You just posted on a 2 years old thread. But this is the KSP forum, and we're nice, nobody's gonna warn you or anything. Ignoring that fact, very interesting post, would make a good headcanon.

 

Edited July 31, 2016 by Elowiny

[KSK]

Nice world building! I enjoyed reading that.

And speaking personally - who cares about the necropost in this case. It's not like this thread was particularly contentious or that it's gone out of date with new game versions.

[Elowiny]

Just now, KSK said:

Nice world building! I enjoyed reading that.

And speaking personally - who cares about the necropost in this case. It's not like this thread was particularly contentious or that it's gone out of date with new game versions.

I agree with you, I just find it a bit comedic that this guy posted on a two years old thread. Really shows how nice this forum's community is. On any other forum that guy would have gotten warning points or something like that.

[Zamolxes77]

24 minutes ago, Elowiny said:

I agree with you, I just find it a bit comedic that this guy posted on a two years old thread. Really shows how nice this forum's community is. On any other forum that guy would have gotten warning points or something like that.

I found the thread while looking for mining designs, I got it straight from google search and replied, didn't bother to look at the date. I never do, I don't care if its 1 minute old, or 100 thousand years old. Its irrelevant, its a thread on a forum. If people have a problem with posting to old threads, well that's on you ! If it was such a big problem, they could archive, or deactivate threads after certain time.

[Elowiny]

Just now, Zamolxes77 said:

I found the thread while looking for mining designs, I got it straight from google search and replied, didn't bother to look at the date. I never do, I don't care if its 1 minute old, or 100 thousand years old. Its irrelevant, its a thread on a forum. If people have a problem with posting to old threads, well that's on you ! If it was such a big problem, they could archive, or deactivate threads after certain time.

I believe that's what some forums do. However, as I said, the KSP forum is surprisingly friendly.

[Snark]

4 hours ago, Zamolxes77 said:

I got it straight from google search and replied, didn't bother to look at the date. I never do, I don't care if its 1 minute old, or 100 thousand years old. Its irrelevant, its a thread on a forum. If people have a problem with posting to old threads, well that's on you ! If it was such a big problem, they could archive, or deactivate threads after certain time.

And sometimes we do deactivate such threads; it depends on circumstances.

I invite everyone to review the forum guidelines, specifically section 2.5 concerning necroposting and necromoaning:

• Reopening really old threads is potentially inappropriate, so please consider carefully before doing so.
• The inappropriate cases are generally where gameplay mechanics are discussed, since these change with KSP revisions and old content becomes irrelevant.  (In this particular case, it's fine, since the thread's discussing imaginary aspects of kerbal society rather than the game itself, and therefore aren't any more or less relevant than it ever was; which is why this thread hasn't been locked.)
• If you see someone reopening an old thread and believe it was done so inappropriately, please don't scold them or complain about it in the thread; instead, just report the post and let the moderator team address the issue.

We now return you to the lively hypothetical discussion of kerbal society already in progress.  Everyone is welcome to continue the discussion if they like, but please try to keep it on-topic, i.e. about kerbal society and such, rather than about the forum rules per se.

Thank you for your understanding.

[pandaman]

I can't say I've given Kerbal 'society' much thought, it can't be that great though as they are all queueing up to fly away.

 But @Zamolxes77 thoughts were an interesting read. 

[wumpus]

The only real evidence for kerbal  government we have are a limited number of kerbals.  Gene is the only one who interacts with the player (if you can call his responses to accepting contracts "interacting").  There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of authority there.

The big question is when Jeb invariably grabs the best seat on the rocket, is he pulling rank or is he the only one to jump into *any* parked rocket (even ones dedicated to rescuing single kerbals and need to be empty) and then the rest of the seats are filled as needed.  I suspect that if he continues to do this after another kerbal (say Valentina) is recruited with the "badass" flag set, then we can conclude that he is pulling rank (and wonder why Valentina wasn't given a rank high enough to stop this).