5 ms·

If you like the ship’s name, you should read this sci-fi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spacecraft_in_the_Culture_series https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

If you like the ship’s name, you should read this sci-fi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spacecraft_in_the_Culture_series https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spacecraft_in_the_Cult...

nategri 8y ago
Second this. Also helps you reverse-engineer an Elon Musk somewhat.
- tialaramex 8y ago
  In that it suggests he's thirsty for "just" wars? Or you think that running for-profit companies that produce expensive luxury goods counts as socialism? Or... he's a bit shallow and just enjoys a fun novel? The Culture setting is a sort-of utopian socialist society, its people literally don't have money, and the most obviously valuable "things" made in their society, Ships, are people, not products. Musk doesn't look like any flavour of socialist to me, let alone a Utopian one. The book those two names are from, specifically, is about the Culture using below the belt tactics first on our protagonist (he's blackmailed into doing what they want), and then on an entire alien civilisation, sparking a massive civil war apparently as a means to the end of regime change. It's very easy to be gung-ho about the Culture's intervention here because the alien civilisation in question is clearly both corrupt and bigoted - but the thing about massive civil wars is that even if you like the eventual outcome it sucks for ordinary people caught in the crossfire.
  - jessaustin 8y ago
    Published in '88, but yeesh, that's a bit on-the-nose for recent military-media-industrial-complex adventures...
  - B1FF_PSUVM 8y ago
    > it sucks for ordinary people Hey, that has not stopped anyone since whenever. Especially those hell-bent on installing Paradise on Earth soonest.
greglindahl 8y ago
This particular ship's name (Just Read The Instructions) is deliciously punny, given that "read" might be present or past tense. So is the ship's AI saying that it just finished reading the instructions for the first time and what-could-possibly-go-wrong?
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- solipsism 8y ago
  That's not a pun. That's just an ambiguous word. And it's only ambiguous for a person reading the written form. There's no indication in the book that the name is considered ambiguous by any characters.
mirimir 8y ago
My favorite is "Falling Outside The Normal Moral Constraints" (Abominator class). As I recall, that Mind comes pretty close to saying "Hold my beer, and watch this!" while blowing away an attacking fleet :)
smackfu 8y ago
The ship names are pretty much the least interesting part of the Culture books.

If you like the ship’s name, you should read this sci-fi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spacecraft_in_the_Culture_series https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spacecraft_in_the_Cult...

nategri 8y ago

Second this. Also helps you reverse-engineer an Elon Musk somewhat.

tialaramex 8y ago
In that it suggests he's thirsty for "just" wars? Or you think that running for-profit companies that produce expensive luxury goods counts as socialism? Or... he's a bit shallow and just enjoys a fun novel? The Culture setting is a sort-of utopian socialist society, its people literally don't have money, and the most obviously valuable "things" made in their society, Ships, are people, not products. Musk doesn't look like any flavour of socialist to me, let alone a Utopian one. The book those two names are from, specifically, is about the Culture using below the belt tactics first on our protagonist (he's blackmailed into doing what they want), and then on an entire alien civilisation, sparking a massive civil war apparently as a means to the end of regime change. It's very easy to be gung-ho about the Culture's intervention here because the alien civilisation in question is clearly both corrupt and bigoted - but the thing about massive civil wars is that even if you like the eventual outcome it sucks for ordinary people caught in the crossfire.
- jessaustin 8y ago
  Published in '88, but yeesh, that's a bit on-the-nose for recent military-media-industrial-complex adventures...
- B1FF_PSUVM 8y ago
  > it sucks for ordinary people Hey, that has not stopped anyone since whenever. Especially those hell-bent on installing Paradise on Earth soonest.

greglindahl 8y ago

This particular ship's name (Just Read The Instructions) is deliciously punny, given that "read" might be present or past tense. So is the ship's AI saying that it just finished reading the instructions for the first time and what-could-possibly-go-wrong?

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
solipsism 8y ago
That's not a pun. That's just an ambiguous word. And it's only ambiguous for a person reading the written form. There's no indication in the book that the name is considered ambiguous by any characters.

mirimir 8y ago

My favorite is "Falling Outside The Normal Moral Constraints" (Abominator class). As I recall, that Mind comes pretty close to saying "Hold my beer, and watch this!" while blowing away an attacking fleet :)

smackfu 8y ago

The ship names are pretty much the least interesting part of the Culture books.