<story><title>The muscular imagination of Iain M. Banks: a future you might want</title><url>https://www.robinsloan.com/moonbound/muscular-imagination/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ethbr1</author><text>Curious question for HN re: Banks&amp;#x2F;culture -- how do Culture-esque civilizations dominate technologically and economically over civilizations with less Culture-like attributes?^&lt;p&gt;That respect of Banks always felt a bit handwavey as to the specifics. (I.e. good&amp;#x2F;freedom triumphs over evil&amp;#x2F;tyranny, because it&amp;#x27;s a superior philosophy)&lt;p&gt;At galactic-scale, across civilization timespans, it&amp;#x27;s not as apparent why that should hold true.&lt;p&gt;Would have hoped that Banks, had he lived longer, would have delved into this in detail.&lt;p&gt;Granted, Vinge takes a similar approach, constructing his big bad from an obviously-not-equivalent antagonist, sidestepping the direct comparison.&lt;p&gt;The closest I got from either of them was that they posited that civilizations that tolerate and encourage diversity and individual autonomy persist for longer, are thus older, and that older counts for a lot at galactic scale.&lt;p&gt;^ Note: I&amp;#x27;m asking more about the Idiran Empire than an OCP.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>YawningAngel</author><text>The fact that the Culture was not only willing to use very powerful general AI but allow it to run the entire civilisation, whereas the Idirans banned it, might have been a factor. No matter how smart Idirans might be presumably Minds would have a significant edge</text></comment>
<story><title>The muscular imagination of Iain M. Banks: a future you might want</title><url>https://www.robinsloan.com/moonbound/muscular-imagination/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ethbr1</author><text>Curious question for HN re: Banks&amp;#x2F;culture -- how do Culture-esque civilizations dominate technologically and economically over civilizations with less Culture-like attributes?^&lt;p&gt;That respect of Banks always felt a bit handwavey as to the specifics. (I.e. good&amp;#x2F;freedom triumphs over evil&amp;#x2F;tyranny, because it&amp;#x27;s a superior philosophy)&lt;p&gt;At galactic-scale, across civilization timespans, it&amp;#x27;s not as apparent why that should hold true.&lt;p&gt;Would have hoped that Banks, had he lived longer, would have delved into this in detail.&lt;p&gt;Granted, Vinge takes a similar approach, constructing his big bad from an obviously-not-equivalent antagonist, sidestepping the direct comparison.&lt;p&gt;The closest I got from either of them was that they posited that civilizations that tolerate and encourage diversity and individual autonomy persist for longer, are thus older, and that older counts for a lot at galactic scale.&lt;p&gt;^ Note: I&amp;#x27;m asking more about the Idiran Empire than an OCP.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>sxp</author><text>Excession deals with this. It involves the Culture and &amp;quot;The Affront&amp;quot; which is a spacefaring but savage civilization that some people in the Culture dislike. Player of Games is a similar story about a civilization that the Culture dislikes.  Those are my two favorite Culture books among my favorite books in general.&lt;p&gt;The Wikipedia articles about the books goes into spoiler-heavy details about the Culture&amp;#x27;s interaction with those civilizations.</text></comment>