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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2015 5:17:58 GMT
If you're into sci-fi, I highly recommend The Culture series of books from Iain M. Banks. He's got a dozen or so now. It's not a series in the sense of a continuous story. Each book is a self contained story set in the same universe. The wikipedia entry describes it succinctly:
"The Culture series is a science fiction series written by Scottish author Iain M. Banks. The stories center on the Culture, a utopian society of humanoids, aliens, and very advanced artificial intelligences living in semi-anarchist habitats spread across the post-material-scarcity Milky Way galaxy. The main theme of the novels is the dilemmas that an idealistic hyperpower faces in dealing with civilisations that do not share its ideals, and whose behaviour it sometimes finds repulsive. In some of the stories, action takes place mainly in non-Culture environments, and the leading characters are often on the fringes of, or non-members of, the Culture, sometimes acting as agents of Culture plans to civilise the galaxy."
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Post by friartook on Mar 11, 2015 14:07:30 GMT
Love Ian M. Banks! Never read this series, but I loved Feersum Endjin. Amazingly inventive storyteller.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2015 17:04:09 GMT
Incidentally, that's the only sci-fi book of his I haven't read. The book store simply never had it on hand whenever I went shopping. I'll make that my next buy. The thing I like most about his universe is the Minds (artificial intelligence). So much of sci-fi is filled with A.I. that for some inscrutable reason wants to destroy us. The Minds are a mostly benevolent bunch, and more humane than many of the human characters. I also love the goofy names they choose for themselves. |
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Post by friartook on Mar 11, 2015 17:12:39 GMT
Watch out for Feersum Endjin, its a weird one. Very, very intense speculative fiction. I love really weird science fiction and speculative fiction, and I have a high tolerance for esoteric worlds left unexplained. Even so, FE was a tough read. Rewarding, but tough.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 15, 2015 7:31:06 GMT
Ya, Banks did some pretty bizarre speculating... One of his last books, and one of my favorites, involved the idea of certain societies creating digital hells to ensure their citizens' compliance with moral standards. Most cultures had digital heavens, but those with hells were very controversial. Basically, your "mind state" would be recorded, creating an exact digital replica of you that would be uploaded into a computerized hellscape.
If you believe in a soul that passes onto another place after death, a digital hell is a joke and no punishment at all. However, the replica is a fully sentient AI, and other AIs took serious issue with creating 'people' for the express purpose of torturing them. The Culture is run primarily by AIs, hence the controversy.
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Samuel Wise
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Post by Samuel Wise on Mar 15, 2015 8:27:50 GMT
If you believe in a soul that passes onto another place after death, a digital hell is a joke and no punishment at all. However, the replica is a fully sentient AI, and other AIs took serious issue with creating 'people' for the express purpose of torturing them. The Culture is run primarily by AIs, hence the controversy. That is a really cool idea! I am certainly putting this on my reading list. It would be dreadful irony if someone's soul went to Heaven, but their AI was placed in Hell. Best of both worlds  . Though I would argue against AI ever being sentient! |
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