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[The Culture] Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism
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"NO! Bad human! No burning coal!!"
Yeah but you have a silly meat brain, what do you know
Clearly we need more spaceships.
edit: I also think the britain thread title is a pretty good spaceship name.
I'm currently typing on Another Fine Product From the Nonsense Factory, my old MacBook Pro. My new one, Hidden Income (I got it from work) is in the shop. The one I had when I wrote my PhD was It'll Be Over By Christmas and my old 17" was Big Sexy Beast. My external hard drives are Cargo Cult, Not Wanted on Voyage (it's not portable), and Contents May Differ (my backup drive). My home WiFi network is Clear Air Turbulence. My Kindle is Armchair Traveller. My Switch is New Toy, and my Wii was Injury Time.
I forget if it's Excession or Player of Games that shows how trivial changing one's sex is in the Culture. It's part of the standard built-in functionality of the average Culture citizen's body, right in there with the drug glands, 400 year life span, and the multiple orgasms. Tongue some nubbin in your mouth and in a few weeks you'll have transitioned. It's about as notable as dying your hair.
Hydrogen Sonata and (I think) Matter have have the guys who switch species or got poured into spiked balls, which are the sort of bold moves that might fuel a few minutes of gossip at your average Culture cocktail party.
You're also seen as a little strange if you don't change sex at least once in your life, like someone who refuses to ever eat tomatoes or something along those lines.
This is a great ship name
Whereas this is the kind of name a cheeky young Mind would choose and then be mildly embarrassed about after a few centuries.
Super advanced Minds the size of the Galaxy and they happily embrace being petty little shits.
Nod. Get treat. PSN: QuipFilter
Mistake not
Nod. Get treat. PSN: QuipFilter
It does seem like a bit much to tattoo across your knuckles.
"Mistake Not" is much more succinct.
No, That Part Before ? That's The Name
Why Do We Keep Naming Ships In An Obscure Primitive Language ?
I've always liked "Anticipation of a New Lover's Arrival, The"
Totally wasn't expecting the weird cannibal death cult, felt bad for that shuttle AI Horza murdered.
Its not really clear and since its a Mind its probably intentionally so. They're only as understandable as they want to be. Its unlikely it was mocking because the Culture probably isn't big into mocking dead people who aren't around, what's the point?
My guess is that it admired his determination and resourcefulness despite his bad deeds and poor intentions.
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
God we need more spaceships...
Yes, but when is that not true?
I thought it was pretty clear that the Culture is set in the far, far, far future, and that many societies are human or human offshoots, which is why they're... humanoid. There is no contemporary Earth in the setting.
If I'm wrong, if this is meant to be another universe with a bunch of aliens who happen to look and behave exactly like humans, I'm going to be disappointed, tbh
Some of the books take place while we're in our middle ages. The book makes jokes several times abiut english not having words for things in the Culture's language and vice versa. I suspect "human" is one of them. To the culture thats just an intelligent bipedal mammal that can probably breed with anyone else "human".
Actually, Earth was visited in the '70 by Contact in a short story in The State of the Art. It was classified as primitive, but developing nicely, so monitor but don't interfere for now.
There's also some indications in Consider Phlebas and Surface Details that Earth was officially contacted and joined the Culture later on.
PS.
Also, humanoid does not means single species of human. It's a bunch of species with vaguely similar biology, followed by a lot of technology.
Those are a minority of the galaxy. Variants on the "gas bag" body plan are more common.
"The State of the Art" is a ~100 page story where the Culture visit 1970s Earth and after some deliberation decide to treat it as a control group for non-intervention. It's a good read.
Gamertag: PrimusD | Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
The Culture books span centuries. The first book happens during the 12th century or something. It's documented somewhere. The State of the Art takes place in the late 1970s.
And yeah, there's a lot of Star Trek going on. Diziet Sma mentions only needing "minor alterations" to blend in.
Earth as a control group isn't a joke, it's the ending of The State of the Art. A Contact ship rolls in during the 70's, stuff happens, and they decide to leave well enough alone to see what happens and also as part of The Culture's constant worrying that despite their technology and best intentions, they're not actually doing the right thing when they roll up on primitive screwheads and try and bring them into the galactic fold.
If it makes you feel better, they do eventually establish contact with Earth around 2100.