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"all those space battles would be pretty boring without humans to run the ships." I seem to remember that in one of the Culture novels they mention that it's a

"all those space battles would be pretty boring without humans to run the ships." I seem to remember that in one of the Culture novels they mention that it's about 10,000 years since anyone had the title "Captain" on one of their ships - and even then it wasn't a serious role. "I am not an animal brain, I am not even some attempt to produce an AI through software running on a computer. I am a Culture Mind. We are close to gods, and on the far side." Letting a human command a Culture warship would be like letting a bacteria command the USS Nimitz.

bpizzi 8y ago
That may be 'Look To Winward', where a war retired Mind is having a lot of philosophical conversations with the local human music composer. Actually this Mind is not actually captaining a moving ship, he's retired into nursing a static orbital and its organic living forms :)
- komali2 8y ago
  Isn't that war retired mind "gray-fucker" or something along those lines, so named for its tendency to us EM to directly watch the thoughts of biological creatures?
  - arethuza 8y ago
    You are thinking of the "psychopathically righteous" GCU Grey Area https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GCU_Grey_Area https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GCU_Grey_Area
philipkglass 8y ago
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Awesome/Excession https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Awesome/Excession During a fight Killing Time destroys two other starships and thinks afterwards "Entire engagement duration: eleven microseconds". I seem to recall that one of the later novels -- maybe Surface Detail or Hydrogen Sonata -- had an even more lopsided victory by one of the Culture's latest warships over a battle fleet crewed by foolish biologicals who wouldn't let their own AIs operate autonomously.
- arethuza 8y ago
  Wasn't that the "very slightly psychotic" Abominator-class Offensive Unit Falling Outside The Normal Moral Constraints from Surface Detail?
  - philipkglass 8y ago
    You're right. Haloes appeared around each of the missiles, like hundreds upon hundreds of tiny necklaces of beaded light. They flashed all at once and when the haloes disappeared there wasn’t even wreckage left behind. The view pulled back a fraction, the green ship shape seemed to hesitate, frozen, as the haloes surrounding it flicked, settled, flared. She felt a sudden urge to look away, but it was only to the next target, snapped out and then back in to watch another ship freeze in the ship’s targeting headlights; then another then another and another, then two at once; that felt like her brain was having its hemispheres ripped apart. ∼Fucking hell, she heard herself say. ∼You enjoying it? the ship asked. ∼My favourite bit’s coming up in a moment. ∼What do you mean, your favourite bit? she asked it as the next hapless ship appeared, transfixed, in the concentric targeting/ weapon-choice circles. ∼Ha! You didn’t think this is happening in real time, did you? The ship sounded amused. ∼This is a recording? she said – nearly wailed – as the tiny green ship blazed and turned to what looked like minutely shredded, wind-blown grass-dust. Instantly the view flicked back before throwing her down again somewhere else, her view wobbling to focus on another petrified target. ∼Slow-motion replay, the ship told her. ∼Pay attention, Led. ... He turned to look at her, nodding once. ∼There you go, he said. ∼You’ve just seen one of the most significant military engagements of modern times, doll; lamentably but fascinatingly one-sided though it turned out to be. Strongly suspect they just weren’t giving their ship Minds full tactical authority. Demeisen shook his head, frowned. ∼Amateurs. He shrugged. ∼Oh well. Hopefully not the start of an actual proper all-out war between the Culture and our over-cute tribute civ – perish that thoughtlet – but they did shoot first, and it was with what they assumed would be full lethal force, so I was entirely within my rights to waste the miserable trigger-happy fuckers to a soul, without mercy. He sighed. ∼Though I am obviously anticipating the inevitable board of inquiry and I do slightly worry about being ticked off for being just a tad over-enthusiastic. He sighed again, sounding happier this time. ∼Still. Abominator class; we have a reputation to protect. Fuck me, the others are going to be so jealous!

bpizzi 8y ago

That may be 'Look To Winward', where a war retired Mind is having a lot of philosophical conversations with the local human music composer. Actually this Mind is not actually captaining a moving ship, he's retired into nursing a static orbital and its organic living forms :)

komali2 8y ago
Isn't that war retired mind "gray-fucker" or something along those lines, so named for its tendency to us EM to directly watch the thoughts of biological creatures?
- arethuza 8y ago
  You are thinking of the "psychopathically righteous" GCU Grey Area https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GCU_Grey_Area https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GCU_Grey_Area

philipkglass 8y ago

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Awesome/Excession https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Awesome/Excession During a fight Killing Time destroys two other starships and thinks afterwards "Entire engagement duration: eleven microseconds". I seem to recall that one of the later novels -- maybe Surface Detail or Hydrogen Sonata -- had an even more lopsided victory by one of the Culture's latest warships over a battle fleet crewed by foolish biologicals who wouldn't let their own AIs operate autonomously.

arethuza 8y ago
Wasn't that the "very slightly psychotic" Abominator-class Offensive Unit Falling Outside The Normal Moral Constraints from Surface Detail?
- philipkglass 8y ago
  You're right. Haloes appeared around each of the missiles, like hundreds upon hundreds of tiny necklaces of beaded light. They flashed all at once and when the haloes disappeared there wasn’t even wreckage left behind. The view pulled back a fraction, the green ship shape seemed to hesitate, frozen, as the haloes surrounding it flicked, settled, flared. She felt a sudden urge to look away, but it was only to the next target, snapped out and then back in to watch another ship freeze in the ship’s targeting headlights; then another then another and another, then two at once; that felt like her brain was having its hemispheres ripped apart. ∼Fucking hell, she heard herself say. ∼You enjoying it? the ship asked. ∼My favourite bit’s coming up in a moment. ∼What do you mean, your favourite bit? she asked it as the next hapless ship appeared, transfixed, in the concentric targeting/ weapon-choice circles. ∼Ha! You didn’t think this is happening in real time, did you? The ship sounded amused. ∼This is a recording? she said – nearly wailed – as the tiny green ship blazed and turned to what looked like minutely shredded, wind-blown grass-dust. Instantly the view flicked back before throwing her down again somewhere else, her view wobbling to focus on another petrified target. ∼Slow-motion replay, the ship told her. ∼Pay attention, Led. ... He turned to look at her, nodding once. ∼There you go, he said. ∼You’ve just seen one of the most significant military engagements of modern times, doll; lamentably but fascinatingly one-sided though it turned out to be. Strongly suspect they just weren’t giving their ship Minds full tactical authority. Demeisen shook his head, frowned. ∼Amateurs. He shrugged. ∼Oh well. Hopefully not the start of an actual proper all-out war between the Culture and our over-cute tribute civ – perish that thoughtlet – but they did shoot first, and it was with what they assumed would be full lethal force, so I was entirely within my rights to waste the miserable trigger-happy fuckers to a soul, without mercy. He sighed. ∼Though I am obviously anticipating the inevitable board of inquiry and I do slightly worry about being ticked off for being just a tad over-enthusiastic. He sighed again, sounding happier this time. ∼Still. Abominator class; we have a reputation to protect. Fuck me, the others are going to be so jealous!