Right, but scientific research or any other work is predicated on the idea that a human can make a meaningful contribution. The premise in the Culture is that AIs are vastly superior to human intellect, and so it’s not really possible for a human to do something that an AI can’t do better and faster. I suppose it could be a like a hobby where you try to understand concepts for your own personal interest. It would be akin to people making artisanal crafts for things that can be produced industrially.
One way to address the problem would be transhumanism where people become uplifted to the same intellectual level as machines. However, that creates the obvious problem of writing a story about characters who are no longer human or relatable to us. In fact, my one big criticism of the series would be that the Minds that are supposed to be intellectually superior to humans behave no different from humans. There is also the same problem with all the aliens effectively having human style intellect.
I also agree with the war being a choice, although unlike US, the Culture is not the instigator of the war. Yet, it does have the whole USian superiority vibe and the way Culture sees itself is very much the way US does today. I also prefer the types of societies envisioned in Strugacky’s novels.
And I definitely don’t mind criticizing the series. I thought it had some good ideas, but it’s got plenty of flaws as well.
Another couple of series dealing with similar themes that I thought was better done are the Nanotech Succession and the Inverted Frontier. Both take place in the same universe and explore a post scarcity transhumanist society. I’d say the vision there is much closer to the old Soviet sci-fi.
Sure, but the context is that the protagonist lives in a post scarcity society where AIs can do anything a human can do better. Self actualization is an interesting problem in that scenario. Soviet sci-fi did a great job exploring post scarcity societies to be sure, but I don’t recall this particular problem’s been addressed there. Generally, humans were the drivers of things and any robots were envisioned at best equals as opposed to superiors.
China played US masterfully here. US is now forced to admit that they don’t actually want the war to end, and are struggling to put a palatable spin on their position. Most of the world wants to see the war end, and even Europe is starting to have doubts about it.
China demonstrated that they are going to back Russia dashing any hopes for the war ending soon because Russia is going to run out of resources, and they put out a peace plan that can end the war. The only logical thing to do is to accept the proposal because the west has no path to victory. The longer this goes the worse things get for the west.
US admin refuses to accept this fact, but will they be able to keep Europe in line is the question.
The aspect of Phlebas that I really liked was the futility of the protagonist. Meanwhile, Player was interesting in the perspective of how life can lose meaning if there is no actual challenge in it. There are definitely lib aspects to Banks work with him being a product of western culture, but I tend to look past that.
The terms are going to be that Ukraine is not going to be a threat to Russia. There is no chance that China will let Russia collapse economically because that would turn Russia into Ukraine for China. Meanwhile, the western financial system is already looking like it’s in early stages of a collapse.
I find it’s a bit of a hit and miss. I really enjoyed a few books like Consider Phlebas and The Player of Games, but some other didn’t really work for me. I really enjoy the idea behind Culture, and the world building that Banks does in the series. I also really enjoyed this write up Banks did on the background for the series, and how he basically believes in a communist society with central planning http://www.vavatch.co.uk/books/banks/cultnote.htm
Yeah, my big hope is that now that Russia is firmly in Chinese orbit there will be a lot of impetus to create a similar system. As you point out, people still remember USSR. Lots of people in Russia have direct memories, and majority of people who got to live in USSR remember it in a positive light. There isn’t the same stigma against communism that there is in the west. Seeing China going from strength to strength makes a lot of people realize that this could’ve been Russia if they didn’t let USSR collapse.
Watched The Last of Us recently, and really enjoyed it. Probably the first genuinely good series based on a video game. Also love that the communists are the one successful community in the show.
Currently watching Three Body Problem https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HJVhC80vIE It sticks pretty closely to the book so far.
Really looking forward to seeing Wandering Earth 2. Haven’t check if there are any shows coming out though.
And I’ve got Netflix for a streaming service.
It’s the right approach. The reality is that vast majority of people in the west are in the liberal/conservative mainstream. The key task is to deprogram these people and to provide them with a sound ideology. That necessarily means having to present things in a way that doesn’t make them immediately shut down, and putting up with the tropes they inevitably regurgitate. Education is a difficult and thankless task, but it’s the most important one at the moment.
I really don’t see any reason China would bail US out at this point. US has basically openly declared that it wants to keep China down by any means necessary. I think that China’s been looking at what’s been going on with Russia since the start of the war and quietly preparing. The fact that China’s getting very assertive all of a sudden suggests to me that China now feels it’s sufficiently decoupled from the western system that it will be able to handle whatever sanctions US throws at it and by extension any crash that western system may experience in the near future.
If western financial system crashes, and we may already be in early stages of a crash right now, and China rides the crash out then US becomes discredited over night. The world will no longer look to the west as any sort of a model.
Been learning Chinese for the past year, it’s hard but definitely doable. I can highly recommend this app.
indeed