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For what it's worth i remember a drone thinking something was "As impossible as traveling through time." it one of the books, either Matter or Use of Weapons i think. Edit: I also wish there was more culture art. I have trouble picturing what the aliens look like sometimes. I had to find a picture of an affronter on google. And what are the Oct supposed to look like? I'm reading through Matter and can't find where they are described. Also a question about storing your mindstate...if you are stored and die "you" still die right? You don't take a plasma round to the face and then wake up in a new body it's just a stored copy of you? My friend said that took the danger out of the books for the backed up people but for me it doesn't at all. It's almost creepier than death, you still go to oblivion but now there's another you with your memories running around alive, gah! Fragmented fucked around with this message at 16:53 on Mar 22, 2012 |
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Mar 22, 2012 15:24
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What about the loner guy in Excession that the Affront kills? The traitor mind says it captured his mind state before he was killed and the guy ends up being brought back to life. The mind even uses it as an excuse when trying to convince itself it was right(after the Killing Time effectors it hehe) What's the difference between that and death though? If it's just a copy the first guy is still gone right? What then is the point of backing up? (I can understand in the case of SC agents because SC owns your rear end) Fragmented fucked around with this message at 01:53 on Mar 24, 2012 |
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Mar 24, 2012 01:50
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The Dark One posted:If a recent copy of your mindtsate isn't a good enough match to be you, then you aren't the person who fell asleep in your bed, either. This is where this discussion usually ends up i know. I'm more wondering about the universe of the the culture. Like in Excession when the first ship to encounter it is destroyed you find out at the end that the mind states of every human/AI are saved by it. If it is truly the death of consciousness with a copy left in it's place then isn't the excession just as bad as if it just killed them without saving a copy?
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Mar 24, 2012 03:39
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I don't know if that's ever answered, but if you think about it bipedal species have their hands freed to learn to use tools and then their brains slowly get bigger and they use more tools and boom you have The Culture. It makes sense that evolution would follow a similar path on other earth like planets some of the time. But then sometimes the dinosaurs get their poo poo together and you get the Idirans so there's that. Please don't die Iain  gently caress cancer forever.
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May 21, 2013 14:37
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If it's not Banks it's not the Culture. His stories are more than the worlds and tech he thought up, it's the way you tell stories that matters not the world building. If anyone is good enough to take over for him when he dies(in 40+ years because gently caress cancer) they should just make up their own stories. Dune is the best example in the ways that a great series can be ruined by another author, but honestly i don't think anyone could have taken over for Frank Herbert. You can't take over a dead persons brain.
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May 25, 2013 19:46
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big scary monsters posted:"The final interview" in the Guardian. It's pretty good, made me rather sad though. Thanks for posting this. His death is hitting me pretty hard. My dad died some years back at 62 and had a very similar attitude to Banks. Witty, had counter-cultural beliefs, and was just a funny old dude. I hope i can have half of the attitude banks has in that article if i have to face my own death like that. He even wanted to give us one more Culture novel before he went out if he had time
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Jun 20, 2013 02:08
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Is that true? Because if so holy poo poo. I want come crab nebulae Vodka.
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Jul 16, 2013 21:39
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Thanks. The movie is a little slow but its a Sunday edible day so its perfect. -edit Those were baby minds at best. And the fuckers sublime right away. Still an ok movie. Fragmented fucked around with this message at 01:10 on Feb 17, 2014 |
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Feb 17, 2014 00:44
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I wonder what the biggest battle in the Idiran War would have been like. We only saw skirmishes in Consider Phlebas. The numbers on Wikipedia are insane. I'm thinking a hundred thousand warships on each side. Gridfire popping everywhere. How long would the fight take? Four seconds? Five? War loving sucks.
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Mar 6, 2014 07:58
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Yeah but that's still just a skirmish. Banks wrote some awesome battle scenes. I wish we got one giant one. I know he would say that's not the point but what can I say...it wouuld have been awesome. Edit: The time of gridfire would make it the perfect mine weapon. Gridfire behind them and even if they go out of 3D space they are still dead. The Culture would make the best RTS game ever I swear. Homeworld on LSD Fragmented fucked around with this message at 08:31 on Mar 6, 2014 |
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Mar 6, 2014 08:24
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Casualties Total casualties amounted to 851.4 ± 25.5 (3%) billion sentient creatures, including Medjel (slaves of the Idirans), sentient machines and non-combatants, and wiped out various smaller species, including the Changers. The war resulted in the destruction of 91,215,660 (±200) starships above interplanetary, 14,334 orbitals, 53 planets and major moons, 1 ring and 3 spheres, as well as the significant mass-loss or sequence-position alteration of 6 stars. Granted the war lasted about 50 years but 91,215,660 ships...there had to have been at least one huge gently caress off fight.
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Mar 6, 2014 20:02
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That was my take too but why wouldn't the drone say what it heard. Maybe she just instantly tried to shoot him and no words had a chance to be spoken? Do I really have to spoiler this?
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Mar 7, 2014 15:29
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I still can't believe he's gone. gently caress. Time to read Look to Windward I guess, it and Inversions(?) are the last Culture books left for me. Reading Hydrogen Sonata after he passed was very sad. What a great last book though. Cheers Iain I hope this is all a simulation and you just woke up first.
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Mar 21, 2014 06:28
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I imagine .1 second battles happening. Then I get sad because no one is ever going to put something like that on a screen. gently caress I wish I had a billion dollars. But that's what books are for, imagination.
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Sep 17, 2014 19:02
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I love you guys. Hey that's a good ship name too! So if any of you become billionaires you better make The Culture on the screen. Any screen. I think TV would be better just for the time but gently caress it make a movie if you want.
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Sep 18, 2014 19:38
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GenVec posted:I've chanced upon this thread and I'm delighted to finally get to ask questions regarding some outstanding plot points that I never quite solved. Look to Windward was all the Chells I think. Matter...it doesn't matter heh. In my understanding when you back up you still die when you die. Its a copy that is you, but isn't.
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Sep 19, 2014 03:53
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Just have GRRM do it. Then I can have two of my favorite series not have another book ever. But seriously Banks death was horrible, Just let it go with him. He embraced death in his books, I say just let it end. After a 6 season HBO show of course.
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Sep 19, 2014 21:56
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Dude start with Consideer Phlebas. Its like a cooler Star Wars. It (and Excession) would be the stories I would love to see on screen.
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Oct 11, 2014 03:18
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ROU Gravitas gently caress that I'm full on Gangster.
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Oct 20, 2014 04:01
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reGravitas Shortfall posted:The most powerful thing about Surface Detail is that it really makes you examine just how hosed up the idea of "hell" is, and immediately throws into suspicion any belief structure that includes the concept of unending torment as punishment. This is a great short post. I don't know anyone who is religious in a religion with hell can read this and still think people should go there. I've read some hosed up poo poo but wow. That book is messed up. And one of my favorites.
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Nov 4, 2014 01:30
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I had this thought the other day. Matter is like a JRRT hobbit adventure with Anaplion as Gandalf.
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Nov 6, 2014 18:32
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Gravitas Shortfall posted:I re-read Surface Detail the other day, and there's a lot of rape in it. Rape is just the domination of a fellow human. The horror of that hell goes beyond rape. Feeling humans in agony made in to statues. Dying over and over and over. Like was said above the concept of a Hell is just wrong. Rape is the least of the lovely things there. I hope the book changed some minds. :Edit ok that kind of sounds wrong. I'm just trying to say the horrors in that book go beyond any of the experiences of rape victims I know. Rape is awful. Hell as imagined by humans just seems way worse. Fragmented fucked around with this message at 17:14 on Dec 11, 2014 |
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Dec 11, 2014 17:09
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Happy Now Horror Later. Not Really That Spicy. Open Round The Clock. Digestion Issues. Unexplained Meat Loss.
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Sep 20, 2015 03:25
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loving ROU's are too easy. Last one: Smell You Sooner.
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Sep 20, 2015 03:36
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Seaside Loafer posted:Its entertainment, and I like a challenging read as much as the next person, sometimes, mostly yes I want it not to be hard. So I haven't read the books (although now I want to) and I might not know what I'm talking about. But what's the difference between everyone being a she and the culture minds having no gender? Some minds have ships that are stronger, built for war, are they males? Do you needs gender descriptions for the ships and hubs? SciFi is best when it makes you examine your own culture from outside perspective.
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Oct 10, 2015 00:52
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