4 ms·
A picky correction: the Culture has both Orbitals and Rings, and defines them differently, but you're treating them as one. Quoting myself from a year ago [1]:
by mkl 6y ago
A picky correction: the Culture has both Orbitals and Rings, and defines them differently, but you're treating them as one. Quoting myself from a year ago [1]:
> Orbitals, while enormous (greater surface area than earth), are much smaller. The Culture novels do have Ringworld-sized rings as well, though. E.g. from Consider Phlebas, flying under the orbital Vavatch: "It was like flying upside-down over a planet made of metal; and of all the sights the galaxy held which were the result of conscious effort, it was one bested for what the Culture would call gawp value only by a big Ring, or a Sphere."
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22144228 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22144228
- QuesnayJr 6y agoI thought Orbitals were Dyson spheres. What are they?
- wiml 6y agoBanks' "Orbitals" are smaller rings, perhaps planet-diameter, orbiting at a distance from their star; "Rings" are Niven-Ringworld-style structures with a star in the middle. Spheres are mentioned here and there, I think, just called "spheres".
- mkl 6y agoThey are Rings but smaller. Culture Rings are like Niven's Ringworld, and go all the way around a star, spinning around the star to simulate gravity. Culture orbitals are also ring-shaped and spinning to simulate gravity, but they're nowhere near as big (relatively speaking; still more surface area than Earth), and generally orbit a star more like a planet does. Culture Spheres are Dyson spheres.
- simonh 6y agoI don't think the Culture builds rings or spheres themselves, but they exist and they are aware of them. There are civilizations in the galaxy considerably more advanced than the Culture.
- dodobirdlord 6y agoI believe the Culture is credited as having creating the ring in Consider Phlebas.
- mkl 6y agoDo you mean Vavatch, that was scheduled for destruction? That was Culture, but an Orbital.
- arethuza 6y agoThe size of an Orbital is dictated by day length and surface "gravity" - they are arguably more elegant than Niven style Rings which need a lot of extra stuff to generate day/night cycles (shadow squares?).
- mkl 6y agoYes. One book (The Player of Games?) gave enough numbers for me to do the calculations, and it matched about 24h and 1g.
- kurtschiller 6y agoGood catch, thank you!