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For the main article on culture, see culture.
The Culture is a fictional anarchic, socialistic and utopian society invented by the Scottish writer Iain M. Banks and described by him in several of his novels and shorter fictions. Banks's second Culture novel, The Player of Games is widely considered to be the best introduction to the Culture.
Culture "humans"
The Culture is a Transhumanist society, which originally came about when seven or eight roughly humanoid space-faring races coalesced into a rough collective -- a "group-civilisation" -- and ultimately consists of approximately thirty trillion sentient beings. Little uniformity exists within the Culture. Its citizens are such by choice, they are free to join, leave, and rejoin or indeed declare themselves to be, say, 80% Culture. Techniques in genetics are advanced to the point where human bodies are freed from built-in limitations: a severed limb grows back, bodies can be gender reassigned according to whim, automatic reflexes such as breathing can be switched to conscious control, bones and muscles adapt quickly to changes in gravity without the need to exercise them.
Hormonal levels and other chemical secretions can also be consciously monitored and controlled. Furthermore, the humans of the Culture are equipped with drug glands in the base of their skull which secrete on command any of a large selection of chemicals, from the merely relaxing to the mind-altering: "Snap!" is described in Use of Weapons and The Player of Games as "The Culture's favourite breakfast drug," and presumably resembles caffeine. "Quicken," mentioned in Excession, puts experiences in slow motion. Other effects include "Calm", "Gain", "Charge", "Diffuse", "Somnabsolute", "Focus" and "Crystal Fugue State".
For all these genetic perfections, the Culture is by no means eugenically uniform. Human members vary in size, colour and shape as much as ourselves, and there are further differences: in the novella The State of the Art, it is mentioned that a character "looks like a Yeti," and that there is variance among the Culture in minor details such as the number of toes or of joints on each finger. It is mentioned in Excession that "the tenor of the time had generally turned against... outlandishness and people had mostly returned to looking more like people over the last millennium", previously "as the fashions of the intervening times had ordained - people... had resembled birds, fish, dirigible balloons, snakes, small clouds of cohesive smoke and animated bushes."
Other citizens
As well as humans, Minds - sentient artificial intelligences - are also members of society. Each ship or space-based habitat contains at least one Mind which is usually identified with and known by the same name as the physical object it runs and inhabits. A Mind is tremendously powerful: capable of holding millions of conversations simultaneously with any of the humans that live on board, while running all the functions of the ship or habitat. The fact that Minds are accepted as citizens of the Culture was a major factor in the Idiran-Culture War, which is explored in Consider Phlebas.
"Drones" are usually more comparable to humans in terms of intelligence, although the Culture creates machines of widely varying intellectual capacity.
Both drones and humans generally have lengthy names, often with seven or more words. Some of these words specify the citizen's origin (place of birth or manufacture), some his occupation, and some (chosen later in life by the citizen themself) denote specific philosophical or political alignments, or make other similarly personal statements. See article on Diziet Sma for a good example of human or drone names in The Culture.
As far as Minds are concerned (and particularly ship minds), they are known by the type of their ship (GCU, GSV, etc.) and by a (generally rather whimsical) name chosen by the mind itself. For ships intended for mostly peaceable purposes, these tend toward the comic:
- Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The
- Just Testing
- Of Course I Still Love You
- Unfortunate Conflict Of Evidence
but for the more militant craft (particularly those built in time of war) the names retain The Culture's sense of humour, but add a tinge of menace:
- Frank Exchange Of Views
- Killing Time
- Irregular Apocalyse
It is likely that these names reflect the Culture's profound distaste of war and resultant refusal to offer euphemisms over the true purpose of military craft. Since the Mind concerned chooses its name this may even indicate a degree of self hatred over its purpose for existence.
For more information on Culture's ships and Minds in general see: Mind (The Culture). You will also find a more complete Minds' list there.
The culture of the Culture
The Culture is a symbiotic society of AI’s (Minds, Drones) and humanoids, who all share equal status. All essential work is performed by non-sentient devices, freeing sentients to do only things they enjoy.
It is also a post-economic society, where technological advances mean no one wants for any material goods.
The Culture has a shared language in Marain. The Culture believes (or perhaps has proved) the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis that language affects society, and Marain was designed to exploit this effect. A related comment is made by the narrator in The Player of Games regarding gender-specific pronouns in English. Marain is also regarded as an aesthetically pleasing language.
Whilst the Culture is normally pacifist, a faction within the Culture exists to deal with special circumstances.
There are no laws in the Culture. Social norms are enforced by convention, and the all-seeing eye of your nearest Mind. While in theory this could lead to a Big Brother style surveillance society, in practice social convention among the Minds prohibits them from watching, or interfering, in people's lives unless there is severe risk to them.
Most of the Culture's population lives in huge space ships such as GSV ("General Systems Vehicles") that can hold millions, or Culture Orbitals that can hold hundreds of billions or more.
It has been argued that the role of humans in the Culture is nothing more than that of pets, or parasites on Culture Minds, and that they can have nothing genuinely useful to contribute to a society where every scientific truth has been discovered, every ailment cured, and where every thought can be read.
On the other hand, The Culture can be seen as fundamentally hedonistic – one of the main objectives for any being is to have fun. Minds are constructed, by convention, to care for and value human beings. While a General Contact Unit (GCU) does not strictly need a crew (and could construct artificial avatars when it did), a real human crew adds richness to its existence, and offers some (very) light distraction during otherwise dull periods.
Of course, the massive freedoms enjoyed by humans in the Culture are only available because Minds choose to make them so. Nevertheless, social convention within the community of Minds makes it impossible, as well as abhorrent, that these freedoms should be curtailed.
Novels
The Culture novels are comprised of (in publishing, and mostly chronological, order):
- Consider Phlebas
- The first Culture novel, where the protagonist is working against the Culture! A rich, although basically linear story.
- The Player of Games
- A brilliant, though decadent games player from the Culture is blackmailed by Special Circumstances to work as their agent in the brutal Empire of Azad. Their society and government is entirely based on an elaborate board game.
- Use of Weapons
- A non-linear story, about a Culture mercenary called Zakalwe. Chapters describing his adventures for Special Circumstances are intercut with stories from his past, where the reader slowly discovers why this man is so troubled.
- The State of the Art
- Short story collection, including details of when the Culture discover Earth.
- Excession
- Culture Minds discover an Outside Context Problem: something so strange it could shake the foundations of their civilization.
- Inversions
- Allegedly, a Special Circumstances mission seen from the other side - on a planet development of which is equivalent to 13th Century Europe.
- Look to Windward
- Sequel of sorts to Consider Phlebas. The Culture has interfered in the development of the Chel with disastrous consequences. Now, in the light of a star that exploded 800 years previously during the Idirian War, plans for revenge are being hatched.
External links
By Iain M. Banks:
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