We need to escape the Gernsback Continuum
We need to escape the Gernsback Continuum
www.programmablemutter.com We need to escape the Gernsback Continuum
Outdated science fiction is hobbling our dreams.
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Some dweeb:
I would recommend “Consider Phlebas” by Iain Banks, which is part of the Culture series of novels. Very formative for me, and I read that while I was writing Theme Park. And I still think it’s the best depiction of a post-A.G.I. future, an optimistic post-A.G.I. future, where we’re traveling the stars and humanity reached its full flourishing.
The protagonist of Consider Phlebas is working for the Culture's enemies, a theocratic empire that has slaves literally bred for loyalty, and the conflict they're engaged in ultimately kills billions of sentient beings. Most of the thoughts about the Culture are his, and he basically decries them as the ultimate wokesters. No wonder HN nerds prefer The Player of Games in which a smart nerd like themselves get recruited as an agent to bring down an empire a bit like our own by being really really good at games.
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The Player of Games in which a smart nerd like themselves get recruited as an agent to bring down an empire a bit like our own by being really really good at games.
I'm sorry, I have no idea what this book is, but calling it "The Player of Games" is so funny to me.
adjust fedora I am not a gamer, I am A Player of Games
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@V0ldek I mean it was specifically an extremely complicated and long-winded board game. Like space Agricola.
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Yeah that got me as well. We barely hear anything in the book about how the Culture actually functions. Fucker's not read it and just grabbed the first name off the list.
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Much the same mistake I (and many others) made trying to get into the series! Although I have to say that I'm still one of the philistines that gerikson brings up who's read Phlebas and Player of Games and not much else.
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Everyone is entitled to their own readership of Banks. I'm not saying mine is the one and only. But the Culture is supposed to be a background character, even if Banks spends a lot of time in the later novels "explaining" it. But if the reader only focusses on the lore, they'll miss the quite good characters and psychology that Banks was good at too.
My personal favorite is Use of Weapons, where the focus is on the people doing the Culture's dirty work. In one scene, Zakalwe
In Look to Windward
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More on Banks and Elon's terrible reading of his books
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2025/07/apes-do-read-banks-elon-they-just-dont-understand-him
edit from the comments I see the meme that The Player of Games is the Culture book to start with is prevalent there too. Oh well.
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@gerikson @sneerclub I knew Iain and he absolutely despised Musk. (Yes, even back before 2011 Musk was on his radar.) Iain was a socialist with zero patience for capitalist exploiters.
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27 comments