QUEZON City, Philippines (Eagle News Service, June 24) – Imagine a civilization without scarcity, without inequality, without want or need. Where people can do everything they want without fear or limits, a place where there is no crime.
Such civilization is the focus of Scottish sci-fi writer Iain M. Banks’ “Culture” series. The eponymous Culture is a meta-civilization, at first composed of eight humanoid species but have managed to assimilate many others. The Culture was able to solve all societal problems like poverty, shortage, inequality and the like through the use of advanced technology.
The Culture is not content with having achieved utopia for themselves and desires to share this with the rest of the galaxy, actively interfering with lesser civilization to influence their development. This is the center of the moral dilemma of the Culture – on one hand, they espoused total freedom and equality for all, and on the other, they imposed their ideals on other civilizations, removing said civilizations’ freedom to choose their own path.
Banks may be on to something when he placed the power of government at the metaphorical hands of the Minds – powerful artificial intelligence. Banks believed that to achieve the utopian society that he envisions in the Culture, that the powers of the government should be removed from the hand of corruptible humans and placed in the hands of the incorruptible machines.
Unfortunately, Iain M. Banks have already passed away and as such there will be no more addition to the Culture series.
The Culture series is composed of 9 novels, a short story and a novella. It is a delight to read since it diverges from the usual sci-fi fare while tackling with current societal issues.
(ENS, written by Jay Paul Carlos additional research by Vince Alvin Villarin, images from Google Books)
