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Story-Identification: Long story or novelette about the evolution of humanity as they fight a generational war


After a very long-lasting war, human society has evolved into different castes, each with evolved instincts to help them do their jobs well, living inside giant ships.


Kamikaze fighter pilots feel ecstatic when plunging their ship into the enemy, scholars are tasked with preserving knowledge, but have lost understanding of what real free inquiry is, etc. You can see that the system was initially designed to hang together and survive over the long term, but nobody living it could see that anymore. The story itself is about a character in a rare coordinator role, who briefly glimpses what has become of the plans before - but the war is so back and forth that it seems it will never end.


It was definitely written in the 90s or earlier and felt 70s or 80s. Really want to find this! I read it around the same time as the forever war, but it's not that.




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