Culture

My Thoughts

“We do not talk about the chair.”

Anyone who has read Use of Weapons knows why. Anyone who hasn’t should catch up.

For me, the Culture novels are among the best science fiction has produced. And they are more relevant than ever: when Elon Musk describes a future of “amazing abundance”, in which AI and robots abolish scarcity, he is essentially describing the Culture. The names of his landing ships already point to it: “Just Read the Instructions”, “Of Course I Still Love You” and “A Shortfall of Gravitas” are Culture ships.

What makes the Culture special, Damien Walter explains better than I could, in the video below.