dreamrider wrote:Hmmm.
There are several Core worlds mentioned in the Star Kingdom series which are:
1) Old, established, well-rounded societies, and
2) Have universities (research establishments) that are prominent enough for galactic reputation
We should keep a look-out to see if we hear from any of them again.
Maybe I'll start a Core Worlds note/list.
dreamrider
I know this is a terrible analogy in some ways, but I suspect that the same underlying principle pertains.
Let's look at the United States today. Her military industrial complex is not distributed equally among the 50 states, right? The same is true for her military R&D establishment. And for military BASES, for that matter. Some states have more bases than others, some have a heavier concentration of military hardware contractors than others, and I would think that even her military R&D projects are more 'clumped' than dispersed.
Now, should the US suddenly disintegrate into her fifty component parts, I think it's fair to argue that only a handful of her former states would have the capacity, resources and manpower to not only support their own military industrial complexes, but also to simultaneously pursue vigorous R&D programmes of their own, by themselves.
I'm not saying the others won't be able to do so, just that they won't have the capacity and resources to do so quite as aggressively as the stronger states with their much more robust economies.
Just as an example, would Wyoming be able to match Texas with regards to industrial capacity and intellectual resources?
I strongly suspect that the same will be true of the League's successor states.