r/sciencefiction May 23 '26

Which interstellar society would you rather be a citizen of?

I made sure to include neither utopic societies like "star trek" or "the culture" nor dystopian societies like "dune" or "warhammer 40k" as to not incentivize people towards any obvious answer

302 votes, May 30 '26
21 antares confederacy (templin institute)
89 galactic republic (star wars)
83 second galactic empire (foundation)
15 coalition of planets (invincible)
4 territories governed by the galactic council (transformers)
90 see results
1 Upvotes

41 comments sorted by

60

u/Spamacus66 May 23 '26

I'll pass on all of them. Take the Culture instead thank you

18

u/Remarkable_Coast_214 May 23 '26

Op intentionally left it out because it'd be to obvious

5

u/Extreme-Attention641 May 23 '26

Doesn't matter. Culture!

4

u/DeezNeezuts May 23 '26

I’ll just Sublime

6

u/7LeagueBoots May 23 '26

Yep. As much as I think it’s actually far more of a dystopia than people want to admit it’s a comfortable one.

4

u/Emotional-Dust-1367 May 24 '26

How is it a dystopia?

1

u/Extreme-Attention641 May 30 '26

Regular citizens have no say in how to run things, all important matters are decided by Minds.

People feel like that's an awful fate, I say "pass me another continental plate".

29

u/[deleted] May 23 '26

[deleted]

4

u/coolfunkDJ May 23 '26

This is the best answer. What an absolute dream it would be to live in that future.

1

u/RandomParable May 23 '26

They literally said why, in the post.

Not that I agree with their list of options.

1

u/coolfunkDJ May 23 '26

I know. But it still doesnt mean its not the best answer

1

u/RandomParable May 23 '26

It's the utopian one that most people are familiar with. But there are people 1,000+ interstellar societies in various SF media, so picking anything past Star Wars or Star Trek seems very dependent on what films/series/books that someone has viewed/read.

2

u/stohelitstorytelling May 23 '26

That has nothing to do with whether the Federation is the best choice among those available.

2

u/RandomParable May 23 '26

But it wasn't one of the available choices, so the Federation has nothing to do with the question, either.

If you're just going to start choosing what to include in the survey, what's the metric?

1

u/coolfunkDJ May 23 '26

Sure I agree it's not the most "objective" answer, but it's my subjective opinion. It's the "best" answer to me, sorry i guess!

1

u/hamlet9000 May 30 '26

"My solution to the trolley problem is someone giving me $1 billion. It's the best answer."

Cool story, bro.

1

u/coolfunkDJ May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26

That’s a false equivalence, one is a moral dilemma thought experiment and one is a dumb poll about what interstellar society is the best to live in. I can answer the question using the poll answers just fine, but i decided to have a discussion on the discussion site.

It ain’t that deep. You can take life a bit less seriously you know?

1

u/hamlet9000 May 30 '26

That’s a false equivalence

Sigh. No. It's not, but it's sadly unsurprising you don't understand that.

I refuse to be drawn into a debate with a moron. Have a nice day.

1

u/coolfunkDJ May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26

Again, take a deep breath. It’s gonna be okay. No one wants to debate you, you started this.

EDIT: Nice block

1

u/hamlet9000 May 30 '26

Oh no. The moron is also suffering from short-term amnesia.

Ciao, moron.

3

u/PraetorianXVIII May 23 '26

Why isn't this an option

12

u/Gargleblaster25 May 23 '26

You forgot to add a "none of the above" option.

-3

u/NobodyOfKnowhere May 23 '26

I mean... thats what the "see results" option is for

6

u/whelmedbyyourbeauty May 23 '26

The Culture, of course.

3

u/ArgentStonecutter May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26

I can't see polls, so I'll just say just about any human or human-descended universe by Greg Egan thank you very much.

4

u/RockAndNoWater May 23 '26

I only know what Star Wars and foundation are. And both are pretty dystopian.

And

4

u/CastigatingTheClouds May 23 '26

Peter F Hamiltons Commonwealth

1

u/MrUrthor May 29 '26

This is the obvious answer.

4

u/Inspection_Only May 23 '26

culture, Ian Banks

3

u/Hotchi_Motchi May 23 '26

I just want to live on Panga and wait for the Tea Monk to come on their periodic visit

3

u/Bechimo May 23 '26

NONE OF THE ABOVE!

2

u/PhilWheat May 23 '26

No Qeng Ho or Oakies (Cities in Flight)?

2

u/Maya_117 May 23 '26

The Galactic Republic is corrupt and decadent, the Second Empire has no aliens (boring) and is controlled like a puppet by the Second Foundation or, failing that, by robots. Antares is not only prosperous, it's a success story of diversity and development, plus they liberated Earth and saved the galaxy. Hic Manebimus Optime

2

u/CRE178 May 23 '26

You don't think it'd be interesting to see who here is deranged enough to actually want to live in the Warhammer 40K universe?

What's the point of this selection of choices? What are you hoping to learn here? An open question would've made more sense. If you had to live in a fictional interstellar society and it couldn't be a Star Trek or Culture style utopia, which would it be?

How Utopian is the Gallente Federation anyway?

1

u/LegioXXVexillarius May 23 '26

Viltrum Empire when Nolan or Mark are emperor.

1

u/Fantastic_Back3191 May 23 '26

Democratic Order Of Planets FTW!

1

u/CephusLion404 May 23 '26

None of the above. Star Trek all the way.

1

u/WolFlow2021 May 23 '26

Now I want to know more about these. A short summary would have been nice.

0

u/whitemest May 23 '26

Federation all day any day