Re: Empire Building

>Maybe part of the issue with using the past/present when creating your
own
>future histories is the same as the problems with creating future
>technology/weapons and even aliens, you feel safest bulding from what
you
>know.
(snip)
>. Comfort-zone-wise things in ships is just closer to what
>I can accept (easily), though I'm not advocating a zillion species
which
>are humanoid with bumpy noses (I'd love to see more "hortas" or little
>critters that go round in swarms of single man ships, or some kind of
alien
>that isn't inherently bad/good but just thinks so differently its
>incompatible with our reference systems etc etc etc).

I suspect people design empires the way they do for two main reasons:
a) wish fulfillment.  I'd love to be able to move to a place as
laissez-faire as the Alarishi Empire.  Designing the political systems
gives
me a chance to think about the way I think things ought to be done, and
the
ramifications.
b) insufficient imagination.  I would not, on my own, come up with a lot
of
the things which human societies have: practicing ritual cannibalism;
signing up to be a royal guard when you know you'll be beheaded and
buried
with the king when he dies; self-castration due to religious frenzy;
fasting; the Ghost Dance societies of the Plains Indians; and many more.
 I
think about all most of us can do is take elements we know and combine
them,
hoping for an occasional flash of inspiration to strike.  Most of
creative
writing is not inspiration, it's working out the details and
implications.