Prompted by the recent GPT 4o demo and comparisons to the ScarJo voice in the 2013 movie "her".

In the movie Theodore is shocked by the profligacy of Samantha's interactions as she evolves.

Humans have relationships with ship avatars in the Culture books.

Most Culture humans seem untroubled by monogamy and jealousy.

However, in Excession, Dajeil expresses an extreme reaction to Genar-Hofoen's infidelity.

In the Culture universe, are AIs held to different standards in romantic, sexual relations than the biological?

I remember reading Orwell’s essay Shooting an Elephant in middle school and it is ringing loud in my ears reading Player of Games, particularly how entitled the main character is and how it is implied but not directly stated that he looks down on the Azadians. ive heard a lot of the culture series has this civilized vs barbarian theme running through it. I just think Banks is doing a great job of making it a subtle unstated feeling in the book, which is how Those imperialist attitudes manifest in reality too. fascinating stuff.

What would Banks think of the Dark Forest theory and how would've the Dark Forest Theory affected Culture Universe in general?

Post 24 Hour Edit: I asked your opinions out of despair as I have grown up with ET, Abyss, Contact, Star Trek, Star Gate etc. where there might be conflict but not absolute and total annihilation. Even Warhammer 40K universe is not as bleak comparing to Three Body Problem. After reading all your responses, my hope's restored for a "future", I (probably) won't be living.

I can’t remember or repeat the details as to how quickly The Minds can process data and make decisions. But it would seem that human—really any biological—sentience would be infuriatingly slow

I remember a scene from Orson Scott Card’s “Xenocide” where a man turns his terminal off and the AI nearly goes off the deep end from having spent days processing the dismissal that only appeared to be a few minutes or so. I…am asking for a friend who might struggle with their impatience “in the real”.

So what is it in The Minds’ constitution/programming/etc. that keeps them from being furious at the silly little limited biologicals all the time?

The Culture explicitly relies on a moneyless gift economy with only voluntary work and automation. Game theory would seemingly reward the masses for passive consumption, leaving no one to make the art and tech the Culture is famous for.

• I'm sure the Minds realized and subtly acted to prevent that outcome. Knowing them it seems in character for them to randomly shame the hedonists, gamify art/tech as a sort of play, etc. After all, the Culture's own Thunderheads are logistically able to carefully maintain ostensible anarchy.

• People may or may not choose to alter their own neural instincts to become more productive.

• The Culture also seems old enough that evolution would've favored those with strong intrinsic motivations over the hedonists isolating themselves from the gene pool. The endpoint would be eusociality.

Just your opinion, different people, different tastes, whatever. I just finished the book, I am angry and I need to vent. The writing and worlbuilding are superb but the story is so annoying. I want my time back and curse people who have the audacity to recommend the book. I am unable to comprehend how anybody could enjoy it.

All the human characters are insufferable. Ulver Seich is an irksome spoiled brat. If only she got a proper character development during the course of the book. But she does not. Or if only she had any particular skill that would make her useful despite her personality. But she does not (not even her visual similarity to Dajeil matters since her look gets completely altered anyway). Or if only the Minds calculated that she would be perfect to seduce Byr because he has a thing for vain bitches. But no, the only thing necessary to seduce Byr is to be vaguely female. Literally any other random person from Phage Rock would be a better agent. (Also I am not sure why she was recruited at all, I do not get why the anti-conspirators even wanted to stop Byr.)

Dajeil Gelian is a boring, sulking psycho. There are no repercussions for the horrible thing she did. And her 40-year long-lasting self-imposed exile is the most embarrassing thing I have read about since Bella grieving for months after Edward broke up with her in Twilight.

Byr Genar-Hofoen is kinda an asshole womanizer with no redeeming qualities. At least the things he does are quite interesting. But that does not matter, does it? Nothing any of the human characters do has any impact on the story! They are just there to be pawns manipulated by the Minds! (INB4 that is the point of the book.)

During the group chat of the Interesting Times Gang, it is not easy to distinguish one Mind from another, especially since their personalities range from juvenile and quirky to quirky and juvenile. They have open contempt for humans (meat is the worst slur they are able to come up with) and are making decisions without giving a single fuck about them. A selfish ship is perfectly willing to let Byr die just because it feels bad about a single wrong decision it made 40 years ago. (Never mind recklessly risking the lives of other people, AI and another ship on fools errant, because even though it had 40 fucking years, the best time for couples counseling is literally seconds before facing destruction - or possibly something even worse.) (And not like the trickery was even necessary, Sleeper Service could just fly through an Affronter system and displace Byr aboard with exactly the same result at any point during the last 40 years. ) Seemingly confirming Horza was right about the true nature of the Culture after all.

The ending is a huge letdown. Affronters are described as cartoonishly evil and cruel and they remain cartoonishly evil and cruel. They suffer no consequences for their actions (or at least no significant ones are shown in the book). Azad Empire was seemingly punished worse for lesser crimes. Moreover, they are so inferior to the Culture that they never feel like a serious threat.

Excession is exactly what the Minds speculate it is without any twist. And then it follows the unsatisfying cliché the mysterious thing serves as a catalyst for the story but then it is lost without the heroes finding what it actually was, maintaining the status quo of the setting.

The Conspirators just kinda decide to die when they realize they are the bad guys. (Regardless of the fact they are actually the good guys and are actually trying to do something with the Affront while the rest of Minds are too busy jerking off in Irreal over infinite simulated universes or are making creepy art installations.)

Finally, Sleeper Service out of nowhere controlling bazzilion warships immediatelly kills any suspension Banks managed to build and the promise the Culture might for once face an actual challenge.

https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article/doi/10.1093/mnras/stae1186/7665761 scientists may have found Dyson spheres.

Or maybe not, t it's an interesting read

Been reading some of the Cormac/Jain books due to an obsession with the character Orlandine. I enjoy comparing the Polity with the Culture. Polity hasn't reached post-scarcity or utopian stages, but I like to think they're on the right track, broadly speaking. Any other fans?

Mine personally would be LSV - Peanuts are actually Beans.

I'm starting to read Consider Phlebas because I'm getting started with The culture and want to know if there's a specific order to read the saga. Hope to join you soon.

https://www.foliosociety.com/row/the-player-of-games.html

So I'm a bored Sublimed and want to do something interesting for once. So I suddenly one day strip The Culture of their Minds for a year. What would happen? Could they survive without them? And what about maintenance of their post scarcity system? Would they immediately loose their superpower status?

So, I had the idea of putting a small scouting fleet in my traveller game that could be found when the party misjumped. I have the Idirans stated out and the Medjel as a simple stat block akin to animals, but I want some insight on how to run it.

• How many ships should be in the fleet?

• Hyperdrives are a minimum of tech level 17, which is just a little more advanced than what’s in the traveller setting, so should I keep them at that level?

• they are immortal, so during the “interview” they’ll probably move at normal speed since they have all the time in the world to gain intel before going into charted space, but what would be their procedure for meeting new alien life

• if the Idirans exist, should I also introduce the culture? They are insanely high tech to the point of godhood so I feel it would both be interesting and be detrimental if paradise was on the other side of the galaxy.

I first had this thought reading Use of Weapons. Zakalwe describes a device that sounds a hell of a lot like a smart phone as a terminal.

I just started reading and realized my local library is missing Use of Weapons. I was going to buy it and donate it but it’s not clear they will accept the donation.

I've been scrolling the reddit reading other ppls opinions about Use of Weapons. I'm relatively new to the Culture novels and Player of Games was my introduction, and I loved it.

I hated UoW so much, it was a confusing and unsatisfying read, I felt knocked around constantly by the narration and alternating chapters, felt zero attachment to the characters (apart from Baychae?? Who actually seemed normal) and the ending/twist was confusing and not particularly exciting.

While I can appreciate that its not everyone's cup of tea but there is still some value in it, my overwhelming feeling was that it was poorly written and far too unedited. Not to mention the culture exposition was a bit clumsy (imo), and the chair foreshadowing was shoved in the readers face constantly and clumsily.

I compare it to PoG where the ending was so beautifully built, the main character had such a strong growth and the story had such a beautiful and intricate purpose and drive.

I will say, I gravitate towards more linear narratives and that's just me. But then again, I also enjoy strong character development and subtle foreshadowing, neither of which UoW had.

My reading experience was sloggish and infuriating, which is why I use the word Hate.

Anyone else feel similar? Any thoughts on the points I've made?

I'm linking the article below, but I was absolutely blown away by The Player of Games and subsequently sped through Use of Weapons. In honor of this book, I have attached the most Culture thing I could think of to my review: rules to a complicated drinking game.

The link: https://open.substack.com/pub/ideaoverflowbox/p/in-review-the-player-of-games-by?r=rfjcc&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

​

Who are the secret aliens who helped out the chel with their secret plan I was thinking either the giant worm things in the air spheres or Kabes race Maybe even sc

I just finished re-listening to Surface Detail (to my great enjoyment), and just ran across this fan fiction which has elements of a prequel and sequel re one of the great partnerships of the series, Lededje and Demeisen. https://archiveofourown.org/works/2810819

I’ll start: Look To Squidward

For those unfamiliar with the channel they explore science fiction engineering and this week they covered the engineering of the Orbitals. Hope you enjoy it! https://youtu.be/3nxBPHZ2xJM?si=EKVSfT199-ZNeKvv

Now that the protest is over, (we lost) can we return full functionality to this sub? I don’t care if it’s NSFW, I just want it to go back to the way it used to be.

can anyone recommend a good book. I just finished reading the new Alistair Reynolds Dreyfus book. Need something new?? Help!! Please

After reviewing the feedback, it seems that:

• A larger number of people want for the sub to not be marked as NSFW than do.
• The people who do want the sub to remain NSFW have better reasons for keeping it NSFW than those who don't.

###Acquiescing to the majority, I have removed the NSFW status of the sub.

This seems to be the best way forward - the status as a NSFW sub was causing confusion and it seems that support for the movement that originated the change has dwindled.

This does not mean that it is now a free-for all for discussing NSFW topics, and because the sub is now not marked as NSFW, any posts or discussions that include NSFW content and are not marked as such will be removed.

For what it's worth, when using reddits own tools for reviewing the subreddit content policy, the results are that this should be a NSFW sub. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Whys is every post tagged NSFW?

I just read look to windward, thought it was a fantastic book, wanted to see if anyone else can think of a better duo in the culture universe than those two. Also wanting to know what other people’s thoughts on this book are.

So Player of Games is the first Culture book I've read and it didn't quite reach my expectations. However, I'm still interested in giving the series another try. What I liked about Player of Games was the first third of the book, before the protagonists arrives on the new dystopic planet. The reason I liked the first third was because I enjoyed actually learning about the Culture. Seeing the daily life of the inhabitants and the way the society was sustaining itself with the AIs was by far the most fascinating part of the story. In contrast, for the rest of the book we are left to explore this much less interesting planet with a pretty generic totalitarian regime that I didn't find interesting. On top of that, I thought the description of the game sessions got a bit old after a while. Please recommend me other entries in the series that could fit what I liked about Player of Games.

Spoiler from: consider Phlebas

Hi,
just started reading Consider Phlebas as my first Culture Novel and maybe a few others had the same impression and even wrote about it here. But anyway, i am gonna ask: >!Was anybody also reminded of the Megawave Planet - Scene from Interstellar when reading the Megaship Chapter of Consider Phlebas? I am almost sure Christopher Nolan has read this or somebody else told him about it. Sure, it also could be a coincidence, but the scenes had a very similar vibe: A small crew on a seemingly not-so-dangerous mission of retrieving an object, touching down in an area apparently devoid of life - and then the rapid change from tense calm to confusion to utter panic and disorganized retreat when confronted with the unforeseen conditions of the celestial bodies they entered!< Greatly done in both cases. I am definitely hooked and look forward to the rest of the book.

If we take in account all limitations by the physical laws and assuming somehow we manage to get rid of capitalism and fascism. What level of technology and sophistication could we achieve? Could we create the predecessor to true Minds and true postscarcity utopia? What about living in space, there are a lot of people that say that we can't leave Earth, and living on space habitats or terraform other planets will be a mediocre experience at best and a crack pipe dream at worse. Or that automating things with robots will be costly compared to just use people.

Do you think we are near the limits of what technology can do? Or we are still at the start of what we can do?

Anyone else getting a bit fed up with the delays of The Algebraist read by Peter Kenny on Audible? It's now been delayed by a month and a half. Also does anyone have any inside knowledge of why it keeps getting delayed?