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In my story, there is FTL Travel. However, many intergalactic travel times are still rather long. On a "cruise" from Betelgeuse to Triangulum that will take approximately four years, there are about 40 million residents aboard the ship, with no real majority species. All of them though, are humanoid. How would society be structured on this colony ship, if efficiency of the economy and low crime was a major priority? Species and their societies are as follows:

  • The Humans, the vast majority of which are of Russian and Chinese descent.

  • The Citrs, a blue-skinned race previously described in this question, most of the Tullusian kind, and their culture is very similar to modern American culture.

  • The Amethyans, and Orange-skinned race with four arms, large blue eyes, and very loud voices.

  • Many other races with less distinctly different features from Human, like Martians, which are just tall, hairless Humans.

Most people inhabiting the ship know the local standard language, an advanced version of modern Russian

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    $\begingroup$ This is a hugely broad question. Given that we can’t even answer this for a purely human ship (or even a purely human society). You might want to consider describing some more about your setting and pick some aspect of society to try and focus the question a bit more. How the social structures of your component races (you’ll have to describe those to give us a fighting chance) might affect recycling practices, for example. $\endgroup$
    – Joe Bloggs
    Commented Feb 12, 2020 at 16:14
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    $\begingroup$ More story than answer - I like the idea of the engineers laying out a very rational structure which breaks down within the first few months of the trip as the passengers sort themselves out according to their own rules, sidestepping / breaking the efficiencies built into the ship. $\endgroup$
    – Willk
    Commented Feb 12, 2020 at 16:18
  • $\begingroup$ "Efficiency is a mjor priority": efficiency of what? $\endgroup$
    – AlexP
    Commented Feb 12, 2020 at 16:23
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    $\begingroup$ A narrower rephrasing of this question might be "Do the jobs/roles on modern spaceships scale up linearly with population?" Or "Could the structure of a spacefaring cruise ship model a capitalist or communist society?" I think adding aliens as a factor complicates things a lot, but flattening their cultures into something homogeneous, you can narrow in an economic / logistical direction. $\endgroup$
    – Zxyrra
    Commented Feb 12, 2020 at 16:50
  • $\begingroup$ This seems obvious: The Amethyans will rule brutally and malevolently, openly using the other intelligent species for their food and toying with them for entertainment. See? Without a way to judge answers, a valid answer could be anything. $\endgroup$
    – user535733
    Commented Feb 12, 2020 at 17:07

2 Answers 2

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Like a Nation

You've got 40 million intelligent beings from varying different groups in one location? That sounds like a modern day country. You can have the ships crew stand in for the armed forces use any governing system from the history of the world as a base, modifying it as needed.

As for which governing system is most effective at running the ship, reducing crime, or helping the different species not feel marginalized? That's a subjective issue, but a governing system will likely be around as effective as it's real world counterpart.

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I would look at the sources of crime in cities. The indicators for crime are somewhat theoretical but there is a lot of statistical data on it. Some indicators, off the top of my head:

  • Income/resource inequality
  • Illicit trade (usually drugs)
  • Different cultures mixed together (applies to race, ethnicity, and religion especially)

So the answer largely boils down to: to what lengths is your management willing to go in order to minimize risk of crime? The farther they go, the more dystopian your society gets.

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