> Why was the wisdom of the Culture’s Minds not sufficient to foresee this mess? No explanation is given. Indeed, the Minds of Special Circumstances are surpris

> Why was the wisdom of the Culture’s Minds not sufficient to foresee this mess? No explanation is given. Indeed, the Minds of Special Circumstances are surprised fairly often in these novels — in The Player of Games they seem to realize from the start that they don’t have the political situation on Azad figured out. There are only two inferences I can make here: either Banks is being careless or he is suggesting that even an intelligence capable of handling the everyday affairs of an Orbital containing thirty billion people is still not smart enough to figure out what sentient beings will do in response to conflict. One hopes the latter is the right inference; but if it is, it suggests that the power of the Minds is largely the power of control: they can predict and deal successfully with the behavior of those who speak their language and use their drugs, but have limited ability to manipulate others. If I remember right, in Player of Games, the Culture simply didn't have enough information to go on. It seems very weird to assume that even an infinitely powerful computer could accurately predict the behavior of a society it doesn't have much visibility into. I think the article also misunderstands the Minds and where their influence comes from. Most of the biological population of the Culture lives on ships or artificial structures, which are themselves almost like living things. A ship is essentially the body of the Mind that controls it, and the people are generally allowed to ride along. The people aren't particularly controlled by the Minds, but the Mind decides where the ship goes. The Minds are powerful in that they control immensely powerful machinery and have access to enormous amounts of information and are able to process it. But at they same time, they're also dependent on biological people when it comes to interaction with non-Culture societies, who tend to be more easily accepted than the machines themselves or their avatars. Minds often disagree with each other on the basis of different degrees of risk tolerance and relative priorities. They're definitely not infallible.