The culture

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The culture , in the English original The Culture , is a fictional, anarchist- based social utopia without any shortage of money or goods ( post-scarcity , post-scarcity ), which the Scottish author Iain Banks came up with. It forms the narrative space in which several of his novels and short stories are set, which are summarized under the keyword culture cycle .

According to the author, culture exists parallel to our history on earth and, viewed in this way, does not represent a vision of the future. The approximate time frame for Banks' cultural novels ranges from around AD 1300 to AD 2800.

statistics

  • Population: more than 18 trillion people, including synthetic intelligences.
  • Organizational form: anarchist, grassroots democracy, egalitarian.
  • Forms of settlement: orbitals, habitats, spaceships.
  • Area of ​​influence: about 1% of the galactic space volume.

The inhabitants of the culture

Culture regards every intelligent, sentient being as a personality with its own identity , regardless of whether that being came into the world biologically or synthetically .

Biological life forms

The culture describes itself as a "panhuman" society. The overwhelming and original part of the cultural citizens is human-like, but in the course of time a large number of definitely non-human species have integrated into the culture. If you look closely, culture is therefore not a species, but the organizational form of a certain way of life and thinking.

Genetics and medicine are so advanced that the body - detached from its natural limits - can change shape and gender at will. This results in a great phenotypic diversity among cultural beings. Skin color, height, hair growth, facial features, figure, number of limbs or joints, and other physical characteristics can vary widely. Ultimately, the highly developed Med technology allows the citizens of culture to completely detach themselves from the original shape and, for example, to take on the appearance of a fish or a kitchen table ( a gift from culture ).

Artificial life forms

Artificial intelligences often take on the role of protagonists , they even put the majority of the characters in excession .

The artificial intelligences of culture can be roughly divided into two categories or "species": drones and brains .

Drones are largely comparable to the biological members of culture in terms of intelligence and behavior. The physical size varies from a few centimeters to several meters. Their intelligence is slightly above average compared to that of humans. Although they are produced synthetically, drones are independent individuals with their own personality and the associated preferences, quirks and quirks. Usually, for their protection, they have force fields that also enable them to manipulate objects. In addition, drones wrap themselves in so-called auras , colored fields with which they express their emotions.

Brains are incomparably more powerful than any other cultural citizen. Originally created by humans, these hyper-intelligent, conscious machines have long since left their creators behind in their intellectual abilities. Although culture is, by its very nature, an anarchist society, the brains take on the role of coordinators and leaders. If religion were to play a role in culture, one could almost ascribe the role of gods to them because of their apparent omnipotence.

The brains typically inhabit and control large cultural infrastructures and form a functional unit with them. The majority of them live in spaceships (only called "ships" in the German translation), as well as in orbitals or habitats . They communicate with their passengers or residents either via a terminal or using highly individually designed avatars . The most advanced technology, however, is the so-called neural border , a communication and storage unit implanted in the brain that is also used for personality backups. Brains can easily conduct millions of conversations in parallel, at the same time maintain all functions of the ship and meanwhile pursue their true inclinations in the space of the Infinit Jest (a mathematically defined simulation dimension, see Excession).

Every brain has a unique personality with different preferences and character traits that are by no means always nice and lovable.

Biotechnical level of development

The advanced biotechnology of culture has completely freed its biological members from disease and suffering. A destroyed body can grow back or be completely rebuilt, muscles and bones automatically adapt to other gravity and air pressure conditions within a few days , all unconscious processes in the organism (e.g. breathing or circulation) can be made conscious and manipulated.

Cultural beings have the opportunity to influence their metabolism using genetically modified glands. These can release over 200 endogenous synthesized drugs or drug combinations in order to deliberately influence the state of consciousness, mood or the state of mind. In the novels, substances are described in more detail that improve the ability to abstract ("super blue"), calm ("rest"), wake you up ("snack") or drastically accelerate all bodily functions in relation to the environment ("quicken").

Cultural citizens are free to create “ backups ” of their personality at any time so that if they die they can be resurrected in a new body. This enables a kind of immortality and leads to a laconic attitude towards death. The relationship of the cultural citizens to this technology is ambivalent: While most of them make use of the backup copies, there are also many who consciously forego it and prefer to live and die without the possibility of returning.

Technological development status

The culture is one of the ten most advanced civilizations in the Milky Way. The Idirans have a similarly highly developed weapon technology, but are inferior, for example, in the field of field technology. The Homomda, on the other hand, are technologically slightly superior to the culture and, because they are older, also somewhat more mature. The use of weapons is the principle pacifist oriented culture avoided if possible, but what they did not prevent the war Idiranischen ( Consider Phlebas ) these weapons inexorably to use. Since then, however, gun violence has only been approved in the context of special circumstances missions (the secret service is), and even there only with the greatest concern.

Cultural brains have the ability to read the thoughts of biological living beings. The use of this possibility is subject to a strict taboo . Anyone who, for whatever purpose, violates this prohibition without consent, is ostracized (see: AKE gray area in excession ).

Society

The culture as a whole is pacifist, nomadic and homogeneous . For example, military actions are only legitimate as long as they are used for self-defense. The culture is nomadic in the sense that its system ships roam the entire Milky Way, even if the actual sphere of influence of the culture only covers a small part of the Milky Way. The culture is homogeneous in that there are no planetary, political, social or industrial centers. All centers of life in culture (orbitals, planets, rocks, system ships) have almost the same potential . The culture was, historically, from about 20 homeworlds forth. This planetary origin is largely suppressed - as a tribute to the ideal of homogeneity.

The nomadic trend of culture means that mobile units such as orbitals, habitats or the so-called ASF (General System Vehicles) are preferred as places of residence. The orbitals are similar from the Ringworld by Larry Niven , but have a smaller radius. In this way they are more closely related to the halos , but larger than them. The benefit of orbitals lies in their ease of manufacture (all the necessary materials are already available in the systems) and their perfect controllability. Climate, resource distribution, day and night cycles can be controlled with little effort.

philosophy

The symbiosis between the panhumanoid population and the synthetic intelligences - especially the brains - forms an essential basis of culture . The other elementary commonality is the need to feel useful. This gives rise to the urge to do good deeds, which culminates in the secular proselytizing of the contact section. The main aim of their actions is to make foreign societies - often based on violence and inequality - aware of the benefits of general human rights . From the clandestine or public intervention in the development of backward civilizations and the attempt to improve life in these civilizations, a moral right to exist grows - in the eyes of the cultural citizens - and provides an, at least partial, justification for the hedonism prevailing in culture .

There is an ingrained gratitude of the synthetic intelligences to their original creators, which is expressed in sympathy and interest in the affairs of the biological. This basic attitude creates the balance that creates a productive togetherness, despite the enormous imbalance between people and brains in terms of intelligence, possibilities and responsibility.

In a society where almost every scientific truth has been discovered, every philosophical thought thought through, and every ailment healed, people seem to have nothing really useful or new to contribute, which leads to the view of culture as a fundamentally hedonistic society. This is also due to the fact that in this society the brains were specially constructed to protect people, to take care of them, to value them and to keep their lives free from existential needs. Under these conditions, people then engaged in games, sports, art, sex, philosophy and whatever they enjoy. "Having fun" would be the leitmotif of culture and the most important, if not the only, goal in the life of the culture dwellers.

In fact, a not inconsiderable part of the cultural population lives according to precisely this motto. Opponents of culture therefore reduce the right of cultural citizens to exist to their function as pets or toys of the brain. In the cultural reality, however, the relationship between the two types of consciousness is thoroughly mutual. This can be seen, for example, in the presence of a crew on almost every culture ship: human residents bring some life, diversity and distraction into the otherwise monotonous existence of the brain and, in the form of responsibility for a humanoid crew, provide a necessary corrective to the brains in the here and there Now to anchor. Without them, the risk of the brains getting lost in the universe of infinite fun ( Infinit Jest ) would grow immeasurably.

Dominance and ownership relationships

For a technologically advanced culture, the basic elements of energy and matter are practically unlimited in the universe. This fact shapes the culture in which neither money nor merchandise management exist. A principle that is often quoted in the books is: “Money is a sign of poverty .” As a so-called post-scarcity civilization, its residents have free access to all resources. The only private property of a cultural citizen are their thoughts and memories. Everything else is public and common.

Participation in the culture is voluntary and any individual or group can leave it at any time. Rule in the form of violence, however exercised, does not exist in culture. As a result, its residents have only a very vague idea of ​​hierarchies and the concept of dominance , also on an interpersonal or sexual level, is not only unknown to the citizens of the culture, it is completely incomprehensible. (See: the reactions of Jernau Gurgeh in The Game Azad .) As a result, the culture has neither a government nor clearly defined borders. Instead, decisions are by consensus on a democratic basis for agreement between the involved people and artificial intelligences. This form of creative organization leads to the fact that the influence of culture on the edges of the areas it uses is slowly waning.

The culture knows no laws. Social norms (good manners) are defined and maintained by social conventions. Bad behavior is usually met with tolerance or increased social control. A murder, for example, which is not completely unknown as a crime, but occurs very rarely, is punished by the deployment of a “torture drone”. It accompanies the perpetrator for the rest of his existence and ensures that there are no repeat offenders in the culture .

Since people are under constant observation by their omnipresent brains, a development towards a surveillance society in the sense of Orwell's Big Brother would be conceivable. In practice, however, the brains hardly make use of their power. Any influence on people's lives that is not absolutely necessary is frowned upon. Only in extreme emergency, i. H. Mortal danger for one or more of those involved, the brains intervene. The considerable freedoms that people enjoy in culture are only possible because the brains have decided to allow them. The social conventions and the ethical rules of the brain ensure that a considerable amount of legitimation is required to restrict the freedoms of other cultural beings. Regardless of this, brains are constantly trying to manipulate other brains or the culture as a whole (see: Excession ).

language

The culture maintains a direct relationship between the structures of a language and the manner in which a man's world and his actions is responsible. The linguistics knows this idea as linguistic relativity . The language of culture , the marain , was developed to take advantage of this connection. The drone Flere-Imsaho explains: “ Marain is a synthetic language, developed in the endeavor to create such a degree of phonetic and philosophical expressive possibilities as the panhuman speaking apparatus and the panhuman brain allow.” (See: The game Azad ). From this perspective, the Marain language is an essential, constitutive element for the social formation culture .

The names of the people

Proper names have a high status in the culture , because they say something about the name bearer. However, the full names are quite complex, which is why every cultural citizen also has a given name. The complicated naming of the culture can be explained using the example of Jernau Gurgeh from The Game Azad :

His full name is Chiark-Gevantsa Jernau Morat Gurgeh dam Hassease .

  • Chiark-Gevant names the solar system of its origin (Chiark) and the specific object (in this case the cultural orbital Gevant) on which it was born. The suffix “-sa” roughly corresponds to the German “-er”. According to this convention, we earth people would all bear the name Sun-Earthesa .
  • Jernau is the first name his mother gave him.
  • Morat is the name he gave himself. He means "player", so Gurgeh, one of the best players in the culture, has named himself after his favorite pastime.
  • Gurgeh is his last name, again from his mother.
  • dam Hassease names the place of his origin or his main place of residence. "Dam" corresponds to the German "von".

Iain M. Banks gives his own name after the naming of the culture as Sun-Earther Iain El-Bonko Banks of North Queensferry .

The names of the brains

In contrast to the names of people, which are loaded with many meanings, the self-names of the brains are more of a philosophical, ironic, and sometimes sarcastic nature. That is precisely why they often say something about the character or basic mood of a brain. Significant events occasionally lead to a brain dropping its name and choosing another, such as the ASF Sleeper Service in Excession , which was formerly called ASF Silent Trust .

Examples of ship names:

  • AKE Miraculous Ways Of Fate
  • ASF moral gap
  • ASF without permanent residence
  • ASF anticipation of the arrival of a new lover
  • LFS Tactical Grace

Factions

Since participation in culture is voluntary, there are always individual brains, planets or orbitals that split off from culture. Often certain brains are also declared to belong to a precisely determinable part of the culture or to be loyal (e.g. 80% culture). The social splits often only differ in details from the main culture. They are actually only mentioned because they play an important role in some novels.

  • As otherworldly are signified those who totally out of the culture have emerged. They no longer have any contact, but are neutral to sympathetic towards her. The otherworldly wander through space as loners.
  • The pacifists split from culture in 1326 after the war council that decided to go to war against the Idirans. They reject any lethal use of force (including for self-defense).
  • The alas-forget-it tendencies follow a more extreme type of hedonism than that common in the main culture.
  • The so-called “eccentrics”, who separate themselves from culture by excessively deviating from the mainstream culture , also play an important role .

The researchers Elench form the most relevant splinter group . They are illuminated in more detail in Excession and already separated from culture about 2100 years ago (shortly before the beginning of the Christian era on earth). They are thus one of the oldest splits. While the main culture wants to maintain its current state, the researchers Elench have set constant development and change as their goals. They move through the galaxy in nomadic fleet units, always looking for new experiences and insights that other civilizations have to offer. In contrast to the intervening approach of culture, they use the method of change through adaptation . Therefore parts of the researcher Elench are permanently assimilated by other civilizations. To the same extent, however, new members from various civilizations join the Elench researchers .

Contact and the specific circumstances

The contact represents a relatively small fraction within the culture. Its task is to coordinate the interactions with foreign cultures (and the influence on them) (cf. also the progressors in the midday universe of the Strugatzki brothers ). Kontakt takes on diplomatic functions, research and intelligence-gathering.

Her questionable philosophy of interference is based on Phleba's concern as follows:

"With a kind of apologetic complacency, contact - and therefore culture - showed statistically that this gentle and benevolent use of the" technology of compassion "... worked in the sense that the techniques that contact had developed to promote a civilization improved the quality of life its members significantly improve without harming this society as a whole by being too close to a progressive culture. "

In wartime, contact forms the first line of defense of culture and serves as a temporary military executive. The members of the contact are selected individually by a committee on the basis of their special skills or inclinations.

Special circumstances ( BU for short , sometimes less aptly translated as “special circumstances”) is a sub-organization of the contact and takes over its tasks if special circumstances overstrain the moral and technical abilities of the contact. Becoming an employee in the special circumstances is a difficult endeavor, which makes it particularly desirable for cultural citizens. Belonging to BU is a privilege in a society that has no privileges.

Most of Iain M. Banks' cultural novels deal directly or indirectly with such special circumstances. BU activities usually take the form of secret operations. Usually it is important to strengthen or weaken certain factions within less advanced civilizations that are to be helped (see above). These operations are carried out either by cultural citizens ( Das Spiel Azad ) or by contract agents or mercenaries ( use of weapons ). The BU claims to be able to prove statistically that almost all operations lead to the desired "good" result. Nevertheless, a certain percentage of failures and individual actions ( looking downwind ) end catastrophically.

The morally often dubious role of special circumstances is particularly impressively explained by Diziet Sma in Use of Arms :

“… In Special Circumstances we are dealing with the moral equivalent of black holes, where normal laws - the standards of right or wrong that people believe to be uniform throughout the universe - collapse; beyond this metaphysical horizon of events ... well, there are special circumstances. […] This is us. This is our territory, our domain. "

There is a common saying among the Milky Way's intelligence services, the origin of which is unclear: "No antics with the culture" ( looks windward ) (in the original "Look to Windward" it means "Don't fuck with the culture.") That is a reminder not to mess with the special circumstances . What could be meant by this is made clear by Blickwärts , where an agent of the BU, at the end of the novel, executes those responsible for planning a mass murderous bomb attack in a demonstratively brutal way.

cosmology

General

According to the cosmology in the cultural novels, our universe is embedded in superordinate continua. The culture and the civilizations it knows only have access to ultra space +1 and infrared space -1 . In the novel Excession there is speculation about further continua that allow access to other universes. The energy grid is located “below” and “above” our universe . It can be tapped as an energy source, whereby culture and other equi-technical civilizations can only make contact with the “lower” area of ​​the grid. The excession, on the other hand, uses both possibilities of contact with the grid, which is why it was, among other things, defined as an extra-contextual problem. Targeted openings to the grid can be used as a weapon.

Ultra space +1 and infrared space −1 enable faster movement than light. Banks compares this to a sailboat in the water: While an object that flies in the air with the wind, just like an object in the water, has to use its own energy to move relative to its medium, the boat can use differences via the keel and sail to to move relative to both media without using your own energy.

The sublimity or the sublime

From a certain stage of development of a civilization, there is the possibility for them to enter a higher state of being. The familiar physicality is given up and exchanged for something spiritualized . Civilizations that have taken this step are known as the sublime or the sublime .

Retreating into sublimity is quite common from a certain stage of development. Usually a whole people enter the sublime together. Almost always, however, a small percentage of so-called survivors remains in normal space ( The Hydrogen Sonata ). In culture, only individual ship brains have taken this step so far. For the vast majority of cultural citizens, grandeur is not an issue. As long as there is still so much good to be done and hedonism has not outlived itself as a form of being, it will probably remain the status quo.

One can only speculate about the grandeur. What is certain is that the sublime have great power and immense knowledge and are no longer interested in the concerns of the lowlands . Some of the sublime create astronomical art objects, but they have little more to say to those who stay behind than: "Look here, we can do something like that!" ( Look windward ). A return from sublimity is quite possible, but very rarely beings actually return. Afterwards, they can only report vague impressions about the sublime.

An exception to the "no-interest-in-worldly rule" are the sublime Chelgrians ( looking downwind ). Since only part of civilization has sublimated, they create a heaven for those who remain behind , as described in the religion of the Chelgrians .

The war against the Idirans

The Idiran War lasted from 1327 to 1375 AD (43 years). In the appendix to Bedenke Phlebas , Banks quotes some excerpts from the Brief History of the Idiran War , which a certain Parharengyisa Listach Ja'andeesih Petrain dam Kotosklo wrote around AD 2110, i.e. 735 years after the end of the war. The Idiran War can be viewed as a religious war : the aggressive insectoid Idirans were already in a jihad against other, for them inferior species, in order to incorporate them into their religious empire or to destroy them. When the Idirans finally penetrated into the sphere of influence of culture , the war began because the culture was unwilling to give in to the attitude of the Idirans.

Initially, the culture only backed away from the aggressors, while massive warships and weapons were produced at the same time. In the end, culture won the war because its mobile concept of life appears to be more appropriate to galactic standards than the Idirans' hegemonic thinking, which is based on territorial property and rule . While the Idirans had to secure every parsec of conquered space with resources, the culture was able to strengthen its military potential. After Idir's surrender, culture was the most powerful force in the galaxy. While immediate and extensive disarmament followed , the respect for and a certain degree of discomfort of other great civilizations for the culture persisted.

In the 43 years between the beginning and the end of the war, culture proved that even a fundamentally pacifist civilization is capable of unscrupulousness, deceit and mercilessness. The casualty rate on both sides is 851 billion. It was a short and a small war, as the galactic commentators noted, but nonetheless the most significant conflict in the past 50,000 years.

Perspective of the books

The "Culture" books illuminate the same society and the same universe from different points of view: In Consider Phlebas and Looking Windward from the point of view of enemies of "Culture", in The Game Azad from that of a "Culture" person and in the use of weapons from one of the mercenaries hired by "Kontakt". In Excession the brains are described in detail in inversions the story is told by a member of a manipulated contact backward society, while in the spheres of several different levels collide culture intelligences directly with representatives of backward peoples. These changing points of view lead from book to book to a more complex and multi-faceted picture, which is particularly interesting because the dark spots in the history and behavior of the morally high-quality - and actually thought of as utopia - culture come to light.

covers

Both Consider Phlebas ( Consider Phlebas ) and looks to windward ( Look to windward ) are on the same quotation from TS Eliot's The Waste Land named:

Gentile or Jew
O you who turn the wheel and look to windward,
Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.

Aerial view of the first Autonomous spaceport drone ship after it was renamed Just Read the Instructions in honor of Iain Banks , which is already painted on the deck

On January 23, 2015, Elon Musk , CEO of the space company SpaceX , named two floating rocket landing platforms, his Autonomous spaceport drone ships Just Read the Instructions and Of Course I Still Love You , in honor of Iain Banks . These are spaceship names that Banks used in his work The Game Azad . Just Read the Instructions is stationed in the Atlantic and is intended to enable the landing of rockets from the Cape Canaveral spaceport . Of Course I Still Love You is to be stationed in the Pacific. For more information, see the main article Autonomous spaceport drone ship .

expenditure

The following books belong to the culture cycle (in German, all published by Heyne Verlag ):

literature

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ An orbital with 9.81 m / s 2 surface acceleration has a circumferential speed of 135 km / s and a radius of 1,855,000 km, which corresponds to the rotation period of an earthly day.
  2. ↑ See Notes on Culture .
  3. ^ Iain Banks : Die Hydrogensonate , Heyne, 2014, ISBN 978-3-641-13142-5 , pp. 89-91.
  4. ↑ Complete quote ( Memento from February 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ Stubby the Rocket: Elon Musk Names SpaceX Drone Ships in Honor of Iain M. Banks, January 23, 2015; Retrieved April 19, 2015