Mind (The Culture)
Encyclopedia
In Iain M. Banks' Culture
novels most larger starship
s, some inhabited planet
s and all orbitals have their own Minds: sentient, hyperintelligent machines originally built by biological species which have evolved, redesigned themselves, and become many times more intelligent than their original creators.
These Minds have become an indispensable part of the Culture, enabling much of its post-scarcity amenities by planning and automating society (controlling day-to-day administration with mere fractions of their mental power). The main feature of these Minds—in comparison to extremely powerful artificial intelligence
s in other fiction—is that the Minds are (by design and by extension of their rational, but 'humanistic' thought processes) generally a very benevolent presence, and show no wish to supplant or dominate their erstwhile creators.
Banks always capitalizes the term in his novels to distinguish it from the more general meaning of 'mind'.
n anarchy, Minds most closely approach the status of leader
s, and would likely be considered godlike in less rational societies. As independent, thinking beings, each has its own character, and indeed, legally (insofar as the Culture has a 'legal system'), each is a Culture citizen. Some Minds are more aggressive, some more calm; some don't mind mischief, others simply demonstrate intellectual curiosity. But above all they tend to behave rationally and benevolently in their decisions.
As mentioned before, Minds can serve several different purposes, but Culture ships and habitats have one special attribute: the Mind and the ship or habitat are perceived as one entity; in some ways the Mind is the ship, certainly from its passengers' point of view. It seems normal practice to address the ship's Mind as "Ship" (and an Orbital hub as "Hub"). However, a Mind can transfer its 'mind state' into and out of its ship 'body', and even switch roles entirely, becoming (for example) an Orbital Hub from a warship.
More often than not, the Mind's character defines the ship's purpose. Minds do not end up in roles unsuited to them; an antisocial Mind simply would not volunteer to organise the care of thousands of humans, for example.
On occasion groupings of two or three Minds may run a ship. This seems normal practice for larger vehicles such as GSVs, though smaller ships only ever seem to have one Mind.
Banks also hints at a Mind's personality becoming defined at least partially before its creation or 'birth'. Warships, as an example, are designed to revel in controlled destruction; seeing a certain glory in achieving a 'worthwhile' death also seems characteristic. The presence of human crews on board of warships may discourage such recklessness, since in the normal course of things, a Mind would not risk beings other than itself.
With their almost godlike powers of reasoning and action comes a temptation to bend (or break) Cultural norms of ethical behaviour, if deemed necessary for some greater good. In The Player of Games
, a Culture citizen is blackmailed, apparently by Special Circumstances
Minds, into assisting the overthrow of a barbaric empire, while in Excession
, a conspiracy by some Minds to start a war against an oppressive alien race nearly comes to fruition. Yet even in these rare cases, the essentially benevolent intentions of Minds towards other Culture citizens is never in question. More than any other beings in the Culture, Minds are the ones faced with interesting ethical dilemmas.
that every Culture Mind writes its own OS
, thus continually improving itself and, as a side benefit, becoming much less vulnerable to outside takeover by electronic means and viruses, as every Mind's processing functions work differently.
The high computing power of the Mind is apparently enabled by thought processes (and electronics) being constantly in hyperspace (thus circumventing the light speed limit in computation). Minds do have back-up capabilities functioning with light-speed if the hyperspace capabilities fail - however, this reduces their computational powers by several orders of magnitude (though they remain sentient).
The memory storage capability of a typical GSV Mind is described in Consider Phlebas
as 1030 bytes (1 million yottabyte
s). Research at the UC Berkeley School of Information
suggests that 5 exabyte
s of storage space were created in 2002 alone, 92% of it on magnetic media, mostly on hard disk
s. Hence, a GSV Mind has 200 billion times more storage than the total storage created by humans in 2002.
The Culture is a society undergoing constant technological improvement, so the stated capacity of Minds is open to change. 600 years after the conclusion of the Idiran War, the capacity of Minds has increased at a near-geometric rate. By the time of the events of the novel Look to Windward
, Minds of the class described within Consider Phlebas are referred to as minds, with a small 'm'. Their capacities allow them to be considered equivalent to what are known as AI Cores, which at this time are the equipment of shuttles, trans-light modules, and Drones. While considered sentient, their powers at this point are considered inferior to a contemporary Mind. That said, there are several Vehicles and Hubs which have had upgrades, improvements and enhancements given to them since construction, allowing them to stay at the forefront of the state of the art.
Using the sensory equipment available to the Culture, Minds can see inside solid objects; in principle they can also read minds by examining the cellular processes inside a living brain, but Culture Minds regard such mindreading as taboo. In Look to Windward
an example is cited of an attempt to destroy a Culture Mind by smuggling a minuscule antimatter
bomb onto a Culture orbital inside the head of a Chelgrian agent. However the bomb ends up being spotted without the taboo being broken.
.
Other equipment available to them spans the whole range of the Culture's technological capabilities and its practically limitless resources. However, this equipment would more correctly be considered emplaced in the ship or orbital that the Mind is controlling, rather than being part of the Mind itself.
However, the character of a Mind evolves as well, and Minds often change over the course of centuries, sometimes changing personality entirely. This is often followed by them becoming eccentric or at least somewhat odd. Others drift from the Culture-accepted ethic norms, and may even start influencing their own society in subtle ways, selfishly furthering their own views of how the Culture should act.
Minds have also been known to commit suicide to escape punishment, or because of grief.
Nonetheless, Minds have their own interests in addition to what their peers expect them to do for the Culture, and may develop fascinations or hobbies like other sentient beings do.
The mental capabilities of Minds are described in Excession to be vast enough to run entire universe-simulations inside their own imaginations, exploring metamathical (a fictional branch of metamathematics
) scenarios, an activity addictive enough to cause some Minds to totally withdraw from caring about our own physical reality into 'Infinite Fun Space', their own, ironic and understated term for this sort of activity.
These ships provide a convenient 'body' for a Mind, which is too large and too important to be contained within smaller, more fragile shells. Following the 'body' analogy, it also provides the Mind with the capability of physical movement. As Minds are living beings with curiosity, emotion and wishes of their own, such mobility is likely very important to most.
Culture Minds (mostly also being ships) usually give themselves whimsical names, though these often hint at their function as well. Even the names of warships retain this humorous approach, though the implications are much darker.
. They range from funny to just plain cryptic. Some examples are:
The Culture
The Culture is a fictional interstellar anarchist, socialist, and utopian society created by the Scottish writer Iain M. Banks which features in a number of science fiction novels and works of short fiction by him, collectively called the Culture series....
novels most larger starship
Starship
A starship or interstellar spacecraft is a theoretical spacecraft designed for traveling between the stars, as opposed to a vehicle designed for orbital spaceflight or interplanetary travel....
s, some inhabited planet
Planet
A planet is a celestial body orbiting a star or stellar remnant that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, is not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion, and has cleared its neighbouring region of planetesimals.The term planet is ancient, with ties to history, science,...
s and all orbitals have their own Minds: sentient, hyperintelligent machines originally built by biological species which have evolved, redesigned themselves, and become many times more intelligent than their original creators.
These Minds have become an indispensable part of the Culture, enabling much of its post-scarcity amenities by planning and automating society (controlling day-to-day administration with mere fractions of their mental power). The main feature of these Minds—in comparison to extremely powerful artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
s in other fiction—is that the Minds are (by design and by extension of their rational, but 'humanistic' thought processes) generally a very benevolent presence, and show no wish to supplant or dominate their erstwhile creators.
Banks always capitalizes the term in his novels to distinguish it from the more general meaning of 'mind'.
Overview
Although the Culture is a type of utopiaUtopia
Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...
n anarchy, Minds most closely approach the status of leader
Leadership
Leadership has been described as the “process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task". Other in-depth definitions of leadership have also emerged.-Theories:...
s, and would likely be considered godlike in less rational societies. As independent, thinking beings, each has its own character, and indeed, legally (insofar as the Culture has a 'legal system'), each is a Culture citizen. Some Minds are more aggressive, some more calm; some don't mind mischief, others simply demonstrate intellectual curiosity. But above all they tend to behave rationally and benevolently in their decisions.
As mentioned before, Minds can serve several different purposes, but Culture ships and habitats have one special attribute: the Mind and the ship or habitat are perceived as one entity; in some ways the Mind is the ship, certainly from its passengers' point of view. It seems normal practice to address the ship's Mind as "Ship" (and an Orbital hub as "Hub"). However, a Mind can transfer its 'mind state' into and out of its ship 'body', and even switch roles entirely, becoming (for example) an Orbital Hub from a warship.
More often than not, the Mind's character defines the ship's purpose. Minds do not end up in roles unsuited to them; an antisocial Mind simply would not volunteer to organise the care of thousands of humans, for example.
On occasion groupings of two or three Minds may run a ship. This seems normal practice for larger vehicles such as GSVs, though smaller ships only ever seem to have one Mind.
Banks also hints at a Mind's personality becoming defined at least partially before its creation or 'birth'. Warships, as an example, are designed to revel in controlled destruction; seeing a certain glory in achieving a 'worthwhile' death also seems characteristic. The presence of human crews on board of warships may discourage such recklessness, since in the normal course of things, a Mind would not risk beings other than itself.
With their almost godlike powers of reasoning and action comes a temptation to bend (or break) Cultural norms of ethical behaviour, if deemed necessary for some greater good. In The Player of Games
The Player of Games
The Player of Games is a science fiction novel by Scottish writer Iain M. Banks, first published in 1988. It was the second published Culture novel...
, a Culture citizen is blackmailed, apparently by Special Circumstances
Special Circumstances
Special Circumstances, abbreviated SC, is a 'secret service'-type organisation that exists within the fictional anarchist utopian science fiction civilisation known as the Culture. It forms a background and plot device in several novels and shorter works of Iain M...
Minds, into assisting the overthrow of a barbaric empire, while in Excession
Excession
Excession, first published in 1996, is Scottish writer Iain M. Banks's fourth science fiction novel to feature the Culture. It concerns the response of the Culture and other interstellar societies to an unprecedented alien artifact, the Excession of the title.The book is largely about the response...
, a conspiracy by some Minds to start a war against an oppressive alien race nearly comes to fruition. Yet even in these rare cases, the essentially benevolent intentions of Minds towards other Culture citizens is never in question. More than any other beings in the Culture, Minds are the ones faced with interesting ethical dilemmas.
Mental power
While Minds would likely have different capabilities, especially seeing their widely differing ages (and thus technological sophistication), this is not a theme of the books. It might be speculated that the older Minds are upgraded to keep in step with the advances in technology, thus making this point moot. It is also noted in MatterMatter (novel)
Matter is a science fiction novel from Iain Banks, under the name Iain M. Banks in his Culture series. It was published on 25 January 2008.Matter was a finalist for the 2009 Prometheus Award.- Creation :...
that every Culture Mind writes its own OS
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
, thus continually improving itself and, as a side benefit, becoming much less vulnerable to outside takeover by electronic means and viruses, as every Mind's processing functions work differently.
The high computing power of the Mind is apparently enabled by thought processes (and electronics) being constantly in hyperspace (thus circumventing the light speed limit in computation). Minds do have back-up capabilities functioning with light-speed if the hyperspace capabilities fail - however, this reduces their computational powers by several orders of magnitude (though they remain sentient).
The memory storage capability of a typical GSV Mind is described in Consider Phlebas
Consider Phlebas
Consider Phlebas, first published in 1987, is a space opera novel by Scottish writer Iain M. Banks. Written after a 1984 draft, it is the first to feature the Culture.-Overview:...
as 1030 bytes (1 million yottabyte
Yottabyte
The yottabyte is a unit of information or computer storage equal to one septillion bytes .The unit symbol for the yottabyte is YB....
s). Research at the UC Berkeley School of Information
UC Berkeley School of Information
The UC Berkeley School of Information or the iSchool is a graduate school offering both a professional master's degree and a research-oriented Ph.D. degree at the University of California, Berkeley. The school was created in 1994 and was known as the School of Information Management and Systems ...
suggests that 5 exabyte
Exabyte
The exabyte is a unit of information or computer storage equal to one quintillion bytes . The unit symbol for the exabyte is EB...
s of storage space were created in 2002 alone, 92% of it on magnetic media, mostly on hard disk
Hard disk
A hard disk drive is a non-volatile, random access digital magnetic data storage device. It features rotating rigid platters on a motor-driven spindle within a protective enclosure. Data is magnetically read from and written to the platter by read/write heads that float on a film of air above the...
s. Hence, a GSV Mind has 200 billion times more storage than the total storage created by humans in 2002.
The Culture is a society undergoing constant technological improvement, so the stated capacity of Minds is open to change. 600 years after the conclusion of the Idiran War, the capacity of Minds has increased at a near-geometric rate. By the time of the events of the novel Look to Windward
Look to Windward
Look to Windward is a science fiction novel by Scottish writer Iain M. Banks, first published in 2000. It is Banks' sixth published novel to feature The Culture.-Plot introduction:...
, Minds of the class described within Consider Phlebas are referred to as minds, with a small 'm'. Their capacities allow them to be considered equivalent to what are known as AI Cores, which at this time are the equipment of shuttles, trans-light modules, and Drones. While considered sentient, their powers at this point are considered inferior to a contemporary Mind. That said, there are several Vehicles and Hubs which have had upgrades, improvements and enhancements given to them since construction, allowing them to stay at the forefront of the state of the art.
Using the sensory equipment available to the Culture, Minds can see inside solid objects; in principle they can also read minds by examining the cellular processes inside a living brain, but Culture Minds regard such mindreading as taboo. In Look to Windward
Look to Windward
Look to Windward is a science fiction novel by Scottish writer Iain M. Banks, first published in 2000. It is Banks' sixth published novel to feature The Culture.-Plot introduction:...
an example is cited of an attempt to destroy a Culture Mind by smuggling a minuscule antimatter
Antimatter
In particle physics, antimatter is the extension of the concept of the antiparticle to matter, where antimatter is composed of antiparticles in the same way that normal matter is composed of particles...
bomb onto a Culture orbital inside the head of a Chelgrian agent. However the bomb ends up being spotted without the taboo being broken.
Structure
In Consider Phlebas, a typical Mind is described as an ellipsoid of several dozen cubic metres, but weighing many thousands of tons, due to the fact that it is made up of hyper-dense matter. It is noted that most of its 'body' only exists in the real world at the outer shell, the inner workings staying constantly within hyperspaceHyperspace (science fiction)
Hyperspace is a plot device sometimes used in science fiction. It is typically described as an alternative region of space co-existing with our own universe which may be entered using an energy field or other device...
.
Capabilities
The Mind in Consider Phlebas is also described as having internal power sources which function as back-up shield generators and space propulsion, and seeing the rational, safety-conscious thinking of Minds, it would be reasonable to assume that all Minds have such features, as well as a complement of drones and other remote sensors as also described.Other equipment available to them spans the whole range of the Culture's technological capabilities and its practically limitless resources. However, this equipment would more correctly be considered emplaced in the ship or orbital that the Mind is controlling, rather than being part of the Mind itself.
Personality
Minds are constructed entities, which have general parameters fixed by their constructors (other Minds) before 'birth', not unlike biological beings. A wide variety of characteristics can be and are manipulated, such as introversion-extroversion, aggressiveness (for warships) or general disposition.However, the character of a Mind evolves as well, and Minds often change over the course of centuries, sometimes changing personality entirely. This is often followed by them becoming eccentric or at least somewhat odd. Others drift from the Culture-accepted ethic norms, and may even start influencing their own society in subtle ways, selfishly furthering their own views of how the Culture should act.
Minds have also been known to commit suicide to escape punishment, or because of grief.
Interests
Minds are constructed with a personality typical of the Culture's interests, i.e. full of curiosity, general benevolence (expressed in the 'good works' actions of the Culture, or in the protectiveness regarding sentient beings) and respect for the Culture's customs.Nonetheless, Minds have their own interests in addition to what their peers expect them to do for the Culture, and may develop fascinations or hobbies like other sentient beings do.
The mental capabilities of Minds are described in Excession to be vast enough to run entire universe-simulations inside their own imaginations, exploring metamathical (a fictional branch of metamathematics
Metamathematics
Metamathematics is the study of mathematics itself using mathematical methods. This study produces metatheories, which are mathematical theories about other mathematical theories...
) scenarios, an activity addictive enough to cause some Minds to totally withdraw from caring about our own physical reality into 'Infinite Fun Space', their own, ironic and understated term for this sort of activity.
Ship Minds
One of the main functions of Minds is the guidance of spaceships from a certain minimum size upwards. A culture spaceship is the Mind and vice versa; there are no different names for the two, and a spaceship without a Mind would be considered damaged or incomplete to the Culture.These ships provide a convenient 'body' for a Mind, which is too large and too important to be contained within smaller, more fragile shells. Following the 'body' analogy, it also provides the Mind with the capability of physical movement. As Minds are living beings with curiosity, emotion and wishes of their own, such mobility is likely very important to most.
Culture Minds (mostly also being ships) usually give themselves whimsical names, though these often hint at their function as well. Even the names of warships retain this humorous approach, though the implications are much darker.
Non-Ship Minds
Some Minds also take on functions which either preclude or discourage movement. These usually administer various types of Culture facilities:- Orbital Hubs - A Culture Orbital is a smaller version of a ringworldRingworldRingworld is a Hugo, Nebula, and Locus award-winning 1970 science fiction novel by Larry Niven, set in his Known Space universe and considered a classic of science fiction literature. It is followed by three sequels, and preceded by four prequels, and ties into numerous other books set in Known Space...
, with large numbers of people living on the inside surface of them, in a planet-like environment. - Rocks - Minds in charge of planetoid-like structures, built/accreted, mostly from the earliest times of the Culture before it moved into space-built orbitals.
- Stores - Minds of a quiet temperament run these asteroids, containing vast hangars, full of mothballed military ships or other equipment. Some 'Rocks' also act as 'Stores'.
- University Sages - Minds that run Culture universities / schools, a very important function as every Culture citizen has an extensive education and further learning is considered one of the most important reasons for life in the Culture.
Atypical Minds
- See also Ship behaviour and relations
- Eccentric - Culture Minds who have become "... a bit odd" (as compared to the very rational standards of other Culture Minds). Existing at the fringe of the Culture, they can be considered (and consider themselves) as somewhat, but not wholly part of the Culture.
- Sabbaticaler - Culture Minds who have decided to abdicate from their peer-pressure based duties in the Culture for a time.
- Ulterior - Minds of the Culture Ulterior, an umbrella term for all the no-longer-quite-Culture factions.
- Converts - Minds (or sentient computers) from other societies who have chosen to join the Culture.
- Absconder - Minds who have completely left the Culture, especially when in doing so having deserted some form of task.
Minds' names
Minds (and, as a consequence, Culture starships) usually bear names that do a little more than just identify them. The Minds themselves choose their own names, and thus they usually express something about a particular Mind's attitude, character or aims in their personal lifePersonal life
Personal life is the course of an individual's life, especially when viewed as the sum of personal choices contributing to one's personal identity. It is a common notion in modern existence—although more so in more prosperous parts of the world such as Western Europe and North America...
. They range from funny to just plain cryptic. Some examples are:
- Sanctioned Parts List - a habitation / factory ship
- So Much For Subtlety - a habitation / factory ship
- All Through With This Niceness And Negotiation Stuff - a warship
- Attitude Adjuster - a warship
- Of Course I Still Love You - an ambassador ship
- Funny, It Worked Last Time... - an ambassador ship