Hierarchial societies in sci-fi

[Peregrin Toker]

Something I occassionally wonder about is that most sci-fi universes depict strictly hierarchial societies in the futures - and in some cases (such as Star Wars, the Klingons of ST and most notably Warhammer 40K) they even depict quasi-feudal societies....

This leads me to ask the question:

Why have so few sci-fi writers toyed with the idea of a totally nonhierarchial society??

As a foot note, I once made background information for the Klatoa, an obscure alien species for Warhammer 40K, whose society was totally non-hierarchial.... it can be read somewhere on the forums of Portent.Net.[/url]

[septesix]

well, without a hierachy, you lost arguably the easiest way to create conflict and plotline for the story.

Plus, its easier to get reader to involved in a society with a certin hierachy.

[NecronLord]

Never heard of them. It should also be noted that there is no real non-heirachical society othere than Idealised communism

[Peregrin Toker]

Never heard of them. It should also be noted that there is no real non-heirachical society othere than Idealised communism

There are other non-hierarchial socities than communist utopia fantasies.

For example, the farming communities of early Neolithic Europe (I'm talking 7000-6000 B.C. were, according to historians, relatively decentralized. Later in the neolithic, perhaps in the wake of the first Indo-European immigration waves, society became more hierarchial.

[Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi]

Well, without a hierachy, it's harder to get a conflict for the plot, and when you think about it, just about everything is heirarchial. Unless you're in an utopia, there's at least one disadvantaged person.

[Smiling Bandit]

Those farming communities would, however, have a heirarchy. It might not have been a super-formal one, but there it was. The best farmers would recieve more respect and make more food.