203
votes
Accepted
How can a banker successfully (and safely) lend money to an autocrat?
So nice to have interesting questions to which real history provides a ready made and exemplary answer which is also a great tale to be told.
Consider the Fuggers
The beginnings:
It all begins with ...
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144
votes
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What is the least "world changing" reason why the government would pay for you to keep a llama during your 44th year of life?
There are a few reasons the government might want you to own a llama for a day:
IT could be a religious rite of some sort. If llamas are held in high esteem by priests and government, and they want ...
- 1,609
140
votes
Accepted
What would be the possible issues with an IQ based voting system
The most obvious issue applies to all weighted voting systems, whoever gets to define the tests has power to influence the vote.
Say everyone on the IQ evaluation board is of a particular political ...
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109
votes
Can Communism become a stable economic strategy? How?
You need perfect information, uncorruptable leaders, and an enforcement mechanism.
Why does communism sort of work at a small scale (small groups < 15) but hit tons of problems at large scale?
...
- 7,780
106
votes
What is the least "world changing" reason why the government would pay for you to keep a llama during your 44th year of life?
It's a computer error. The original constitution of the country mandated that all people aged 43 should consume more foodstuffs containing umami, to improve public health. However the spell-checker ...
- 2,541
106
votes
Accepted
Why does the Conjoined Alliance of Space Travellers keep producing red uniforms?
The red suits are optional, worn by crew members who find a post-scarcity life too boring and risk-free for their liking. As a group they see themselves as the elite, willing to sacrifice themselves ...
- 3,739
91
votes
What would be the possible issues with an IQ based voting system
The problem is what IQ actually measures. My father was a collector of IQ tests, and I (and my sisters) took well over a dozen before graduating high school. And we reviewed them, and learned the '...
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91
votes
What event would cause a huge, dominant nation to adopt the language of a smaller, inferior one?
When the Roman conquered Greece, they were so fascinated from their civilization that they put a straw in that land and started avidly sucking their culture.
It was common practice for students to ...
- 301k
90
votes
Accepted
Why is there only one wizard's guild?
This Ain’t a Law Firm, it’s a God Damn Bar Association
—Fall Out Boy
You are correct in that there are many law firms, but for the entire state of New York, there is only one Bar Association:
The ...
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89
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What is the least "world changing" reason why the government would pay for you to keep a llama during your 44th year of life?
A reclusive multi-billionaire wanted to show how ridiculous government intervention can be. So in his will he left a bequest in perpetuity - two dollars to the government, no strings attached, for ...
- 929
84
votes
Feasiblity of this "slave king" political system
This way madness lies.
I'm working on a hypothetical political system similar to a monarchy except that the (conscripted) king in question is essentially a slave to the nation,
The word "democracy"...
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84
votes
Can there be a theocracy that also practices religious tolerance?
First, as already covered in this answer, a theocracy can be more concerned with people following its rules than with people following its god. Historically some Muslim rulers were like that, such as ...
- 19.6k
83
votes
Accepted
Is conquering your neighbors to fight a greater enemy a valid strategy?
"So, I have a group of 6 small kingdoms (in a medieval low fantasy world) that share a lot of their culture, since they were just one country in the past. In my story, a powerful nation (let's call it ...
- 97.8k
83
votes
Politics and Zombies: Designing a balanced zombie plague that could realistically destroy civilization due to poor decision-making
Zombification as a Cure for Death:
Scientists make a breakthrough, a biological treatment for aging. It is so effective, that government agencies can't resist the pressure to approve it, OR the ...
- 64.4k
76
votes
Accepted
Are there any rules or guidelines about designing a flag?
From the excellent article titled The 5 Basic Principles of Flag Design:
While not rules, there are 5 basic principles.
Keep it Simple: A flag, they say, should be so simple that a child
can draw it ...
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75
votes
Accepted
Selling the right to kill one's convicted abuser: how could an NGO make this profitable?
Live-Streaming
Have you ever heard of Twitch? The streaming platform that allows you to let other people watch you play a game and give you donations if they like to watch you play? Where hundred or ...
- 17.8k
74
votes
Can Communism become a stable economic strategy? How?
No system with humans is ever truly stable. They just have different instabilities to deal with. If you think about it, the stable state for humans is "dead." To remain alive, we need a constant ...
- 133k
69
votes
Accepted
Why combat machines in this world are colorful
It is Urban Camouflage
The International Style of Architecture, well known for is hundreds of different shades of greys, off-white, near-black, and beige was popular throughout most of the 20th ...
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66
votes
Accepted
How do I have a Dictatorship keep its dictator out of international headlines?
There a few "no-nos" for a dictator. As long as he's following those rules, everything is Ok.
Don't anger western nations. Better off, put a good friendly face. Don't harbor terrorists or drug lords. ...
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65
votes
What would be the possible issues with an IQ based voting system
If you're giving everyone exactly as many votes as their IQ - the effect on the actual vote doesn't appear to be very much at all. See the below table for a population of 100 million to illustrate - ...
- 1,715
65
votes
Why is there only one wizard's guild?
Because:
Once upon a time the plural of 'wizard' was 'war'. (Pratchett)
and this left large sections of the planet uninhabitable.
Over time the more excitable wizards killed each other off and ...
- 118k
65
votes
How to make this "friendly war" plausible?
The Kingdom that founded Siege has collapsed so it can't officially declare an armistice. Siege don't want to publicly admit this.
There is no King to declare an end to hostilities anymore. The ...
- 3,375
65
votes
Why combat machines in this world are colorful
Fighting enemies who see differently
These days deer hunters tend to wear vests that are highly visible to other hunters (in order to reduce the chance of being shot accidentally) but are effective ...
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64
votes
Lying is illegal. How to make joking not an offence?
It will be a crime for civil servants to misrepresent or present false
information with the deliberate intention of deceiving fellow
government officials or members of the public while acting out ...
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61
votes
Accepted
Would a National Army of mercenaries be a feasible idea?
This practice was done all the time in Medieval Europe, the most famous being the Swiss Guard which was formed in the late 15th century and were stationed as guards in foreign courts until 1847 ...
- 10.9k
59
votes
Are there any rules or guidelines about designing a flag?
There are no hard and fast rules …
There will always be outliers. The national Flag of Nepal is rather unique:
In fact, to construct it accurately requires 24 complex steps. Here's a video with ...
- 7,265
59
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What would be the possible issues with an IQ based voting system
This has been attempted in the US as a form of voter surpression by proxy. Actual examples of the test are available online (one example from Louisiana is here). As you can see from the sample below, ...
- 9,437
59
votes
Why does the Conjoined Alliance of Space Travellers keep producing red uniforms?
They want people to strive for a better position and sort the weaklings out
By making the lower ranks wear red they incentivise people to get better. After all everyone knows that Redshirts die more ...
- 17.8k
57
votes
Why does the Conjoined Alliance of Space Travellers keep producing red uniforms?
This is a matter of perception bias from an outside observer.
While it appears to us that wearing red causes people to die, it's quite the opposite that's true.
The Conjoined Alliance of Space ...
- 118k
54
votes
How do I have a Dictatorship keep its dictator out of international headlines?
It doesn't matter, nobody cares about you.
All you have to do is not invade your neighbours, that's the only thing that garners international military attention if you don't have oil and don't have ...
- 118k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible