Editing The Culture

The Culture is a galactic civilization which serves as the main setting for many Iain M Banks novels and short stories, the first novel in the series being ''Consider Phlebas''. 

It is basically what would have happened if the humans from the [[Golden Age of Technology]] did not have a small problem with genocidal [[Men of Iron]].

The Culture is set in our own timeline, the stories taking place between 1300 AD and 2100 AD, Earth being contacted roughly around 2100 AD. It is the product of six or seven pan-human civilizations that decided to merge together 10,000 years ago and create what is basically a space utopia. The Culture is a post-scarcity society, where basically everything is available for free, time being the only ressource to take into account. It does not have a centralized government, as it is more a society that an real state or nation. Very few written laws exist (and if you feel the need to ask what are these written laws, then ''there is clearly something wrong with you'') and people are basically allowed to do pretty much whatever they want. Now, in the novels, we do not have many details about how the Culture actually works, but, in Banks' words, it's "an ethical and cynical anarchy that tries to be a ''rather good society'', following socialist, libertarian and anarchist principles. 

Well, apparently that works. The Culture is around since ten millenia, and is now considered to be one of the most powerful civilizations of the galaxy. And they aren't, contrary to many [[Tau | utopias]], hiding anything. The Culture is a ''genuine'' utopia and a very good place to live, which is actually quite rare in sci-fi in general, and modern sci-fi in particular. 

Now, where is the trick ? 

Well, you do not attain such a level of power in the galaxy while being space hippies all the time. There is a faction/intelligence service/conspiration in the Culture called ''Contact'', which is dedicated to, well, establish contact with other civilizations. The books focus on the interaction between the Culture and said civilizations, mainly through the eyes of people that belong to ''Special Circumstances'', which is basically the Culture's CIA, mostly trying to...well, influence other civiliations to make sure they will, one day or an other, end up joining the Culture willingly. Said interactions may imply technological transfers, propaganda, up to ''starting revolutions and civil wars''. Space hippies inside, sure, but imperialist outside. The Culture is like a sponge that slowly absorbs other civilizations over the course of millenia. 

Oh, and did I mention they are ''quite advanced'' ? And when I mean advanced, I really mean it. The Culture is ruled...ahem, benevolently oversaw by ''Minds'', that is to say extremely powerful IAs (so powerful that they dedicate only a fraction of their power to such trivial matters and spend the rest bulding virtual worlds with 12 dimensions), and in general IAs are considered as citizens of the Culture, from the biggest sentient ships (because yes, all of their ships are sentient, why did you even ask ?) to the smallest drones. Aside from being sentient, their ships have hulls made of force fields, because metal is for pussies anyway, can reach 230,000 times the speed of light and the biggest ones measure in hundreds of kilometers and can carry entire ecosystems, with billions of people onboard. Oh and the Culture does not live on planets, because that's absolutely ''inelegant'', so they use Orbitals, that are basically Halo-style ringworlds scattered across the galaxy. Did I mention that the average Culturnik may live for 400 centuries, and technically reach immortality even if it is not considered as fun, and thus not really popular ? ''And in one novel, a ship save the life of a beheaded man by simply teleporting the severed head back and creating a new body from scratch''. 

Last but not least, the Culture are ''peaceful'' and not ''pacifist''. Which means that, contrary to [[Ork | certain]] [[Imperium of Man | people]], they won't invade you without a reason, but if you fuck with the Culture, they ''can'' and most certainly ''will'' obliterate you. The base weapon of their military ships is "gridfire", which  basically amounts to[[Awesome | ''using the fabric of space and time as a weapon'']] (That actually says a lot about Banks' universe, considering that the Culture is not, although in the top ten, most advanced race in the setting). Actually, the first novel, ''Consider Phlebas'' features a galactic war between the Culture and an other race called the Idirans, and after a few years of being crsuhed, the Culture who finally started mobilizing simply steamrolls and utterly annihilate its foe, to an extent the Idirans simply do not exist anymore. So fuck with the space hippies at your own risk. 


== Why the hell is that interesting ? ==

Because it's a rather original take on the human galactic society theme ; the socialist/libertarian/anarchist utopia. Banks called the Culture a ''rather good'' society, and it's exactly what it is ; a civilization that tries to be as good and benevolent as it can, both inside and outside of its (very loose) borders. It may actually be the only utopia in recent sci-fi. And it's a realistic utopia, to a certain extent ; the consequences of its imperialism are sometimes quite grimdark (In fact, Banks' fiction overall, is quite grimdark, but never goes into grimderp. Some might say it's not grimdark but simply realism), and the fact that most of the stories starring the Culture take place on its borders or in other civilizations bring different point of view about this society that is, ultimately, the main character of Banks' sci-fi, a character that manages to be both extremely reasonnable and sometimes ''batshit insane'' while remaining realistic and believable.