Catherine Nemeth
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Other than being raised with a strong moral code and sense of noblesse oblige, it seems that despite the Council of Counts and the Ministers, the only real check of the Emperor’s power is the threat of the Emperor becoming disliked enough to send enough popular support over to a relative to win a coup, hence Yuri’s Massacre and Barrayar’s stated bloody history. Or has there been a balancing act of power shifts?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Again, I don't actually have a 30-volume edition of The Encyclopedia Barrayarica in my garage that would answer this question in the detail it would require. But both the government/s and the legal system/s are more complicated that the books can show, since that's mostly not what they are about; I'm generally more interested in exploring the impacts of novel technologies, since they fall on the just and the unjust alike. That's the sort of thing that really changes worlds, often in subtle or subliminal or unnoticed ways that add up chaotically, in both the mathematical and common senses. Worked example: the entirety of human history on Old Earth. "Technology changes the ambit of the possible," would be my most succinct way of putting it.
I think of technology in the broadest sense, here; agriculture is a technology; armies are a technology, and so on. A combination of social organization and tools, combined to produce novel outcomes.
Ta, L.
Again, I don't actually have a 30-volume edition of The Encyclopedia Barrayarica in my garage that would answer this question in the detail it would require. But both the government/s and the legal system/s are more complicated that the books can show, since that's mostly not what they are about; I'm generally more interested in exploring the impacts of novel technologies, since they fall on the just and the unjust alike. That's the sort of thing that really changes worlds, often in subtle or subliminal or unnoticed ways that add up chaotically, in both the mathematical and common senses. Worked example: the entirety of human history on Old Earth. "Technology changes the ambit of the possible," would be my most succinct way of putting it.
I think of technology in the broadest sense, here; agriculture is a technology; armies are a technology, and so on. A combination of social organization and tools, combined to produce novel outcomes.
Ta, L.
More Answered Questions
Feodore
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
A quick thanks for all the lovely stories, particularly those from the Vorkosigan saga, that've kept me enthralled the last few years. Ran through "Dreamweaver's Dilemna" yesterday and I had to ask: Have you read Asimov's "Dreaming is a Private Thing" by any chance? If so, was that an inspiration, conscious or otherwise? Two stories that go in very different directions, obviously, but the core idea is similar.
Kosigan
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
I recently found myself with no new audio books to listen to, unusually, so I'm listening to Pen & Des again. I always find some details between works that I missed when there was a gap between them. Anyway, my question: are you working on any new story at the moment? I don't need to know what or when; I'd just like to know if I have something to look forward to at some point.
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