The way a society chooses to control itself is reflective of a number of factors. One of my interests is considering how an alien society would structure itself both politically and socially. What would happen if instead of having hereditary monarchy or chosen government members, the people in power were chosen randomly?
Let’s take the cliché of an alien world with one government. There are 13 members, each member is appointed for one year and starts their term on the decimal birthday. The first is ten years old; the second is twenty years old etc. The last is 130 years old because that is the age at which most of these aliens lose their cognitive functions. I chose 13 because it’s an odd number and also has negative connotations with the western world.
Each member would be anonymous thereby ensuring little ego gets in the way. Any member who is discovered is immediately removed. As mentioned earlier members are chosen randomly and possibly continue with their daily lives.
Instead of 13 members it could consist of 13 groups, each group contains 13 members and are all the same age as the other members, this time they come from different regions of the planet. Possibly even different situations, either financially or culturally.
Of course there’s no reason why 13 and the decimal system should be used because the aliens may use a completely different system.
13th November 2004
