the culture?

master_yoda · Post by **master_yoda** » 2002-08-25 05:04am

what is the culture? I've heard many things that they are extremely powerful or godlike.Can anyone provide information for them or give me a website for it I can go to? Thanks in advance.

Rathark · Post by **Rathark** » 2002-08-25 05:28am

The Culture is a super-advanced union of (mostly humanoid) spacefaring races in Iain M. Banks's novels. Superintelligent artificial "Minds" generally run everything, while the flesh-and-blood citizens lead a life of near-utopian anarchy where only common-sense laws prevail. They mostly live on ships the size of small states that are entirely navigated and regulated by the Minds. Their military and industrial capacity is immense - greate than the SW Galactic Empire from what I've heard (I've only read Use of Weapons so far). They have been intervening in the affairs of less advanced races in order to search for suitible candidates for membership into the Culture (at least that's what I remember from reading UoW 3 years ago).

The Culture novels are:

Consider Phlebas
The Player of Games
Use of Weapons
The State of the Art
Excession
Look to Windward

I may have left something out, but I'm sure someone who has read far more of Banks's work can fill in.

Raxmei · Post by **Raxmei** » 2002-08-25 07:20am

You left out Inversions. That one's easy to miss.

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2002-08-25 07:26am

Don't forgot every ship has both Star and Planet killing abilits built in and the Minds(AIs basicly) are what most would call the ultimate evolution of AI's,
The classic example is what they do for fun
They Simulate Unverises if a rule or two was changed
Entire Unvierses with tens of millions of specisis and can pretty relibly guess what happens

Cpt_Frank · Post by **Cpt_Frank** » 2002-08-25 11:10am

With the SW universe being at the middle of the power scale and Trek and B5 forming the lower end, the Culture is no doubt at the top end of that scale.

Raxmei · Post by **Raxmei** » 2002-08-25 11:15am

Some here seem to miss the point of the Culture. The Culture is powerful, but it is really about everyone having fun. In the case of Minds, that is infinite fun. Humans must make do with large but finite amounts of fun.

Singular Quartet · Post by **Singular Quartet** » 2002-08-25 11:25am

Rathark wrote:I may have left something out, but I'm sure someone who has read far more of Banks's work can fill in.

Feersum Endjinn (sic)

Cpt_Frank wrote:With the SW universe being at the middle of the power scale and Trek and B5 forming the lower end, the Culture is no doubt at the top end of that scale.

Actually there is a lot of stuff that can beat the Culture. There was a thread in the vs. debates forum at SB that was "Who can fuck with the Culture"

I'll post the thread if I can find it....

"What is the Culture?"

A common question. I know that Banks wrote a website on what the Culture was... but I have forgotten the URL. Search through the Archives over at spacebattles (Use the search engine, and type out the above question) and you'll find a few threads containing everything you need.

XaLEv · Post by **XaLEv** » 2002-08-25 11:30am

A Few Notes on The Culture

Singular Quartet · Post by **Singular Quartet** » 2002-08-25 11:34am

XaLEv wrote:A Few Notes on The Culture

Thank you.

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2002-08-25 12:17pm

Ahh please post that link besides Galaticus I'm wonder who could be the Culture

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2002-08-25 12:28pm

Inversions, Against a Dark Background and Feersum Endjinn aren't Culture novels, but are Banks' other sci-fi though Feersum Endjinn is supposed to be based in the Cultureverse.

Raxmei · Post by **Raxmei** » 2002-08-25 12:46pm

Inversions is a Culture novel. It just doesn't take place inside the Culture. It's about a Contact agent. Contact can be very stealthy, so it's easy to miss their involvement in the novel.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2002-08-25 12:57pm

Raxmei wrote:Inversions is a Culture novel. It just doesn't take place inside the Culture. It's about a Contact agent. Contact can be very stealthy, so it's easy to miss their involvement in the novel.

Yeah, think of them as agents from SC who left of their own accord but still had the tech e.g. Dr. Vossil's knife being a knife missile.

Rathark · Post by **Rathark** » 2002-08-26 01:40am

If the Culture itself is 9000 years old, then for how long had the founding races possessed space travel at the time of formation? If the culture is only 10,000 years ahead of us, then that would make them very young by cosmic standards.

Then again, if computing speed continues at the present rate, Culture-style Minds are a distinct possibility within a few centuries.

septesix · Post by **septesix** » 2002-08-26 04:26am

Mr Bean wrote:Ahh please post that link besides Galaticus I'm wonder who could be the Culture

http://kier.3dfrontier.com/forums/showt ... adid=34284

This topic is been done to death, although I still have to read it through every time it pops up just to make sure I'm up-to-date on the upper specturm of Sci-Fi powers.[/url]

Eleas · Post by **Eleas** » 2002-08-26 10:34am

septesix wrote:
Mr Bean wrote:Ahh please post that link besides Galaticus I'm wonder who could be the Culture
http://kier.3dfrontier.com/forums/showt ... adid=34284

This topic is been done to death, although I still have to read it through every time it pops up just to make sure I'm up-to-date on the upper specturm of Sci-Fi powers.

I see that online spelling capability has hit a new low...

septesix · Post by **septesix** » 2002-08-27 01:18am

Eleas wrote:
septesix wrote:
Mr Bean wrote:Ahh please post that link besides Galaticus I'm wonder who could be the Culture
http://kier.3dfrontier.com/forums/showt ... adid=34284

This topic is been done to death, although I still have to read it through every time it pops up just to make sure I'm up-to-date on the upper specturm of Sci-Fi powers.
I see that online spelling capability has hit a new low...

OK...next! Anyone actaully find the info useful?