> And perhaps therein lies the aspirational element of the name. Very possible. It mirrors the naming convention of fictional spaceship in the Culture novel se

> And perhaps therein lies the aspirational element of the name. Very possible. It mirrors the naming convention of fictional spaceship in the Culture novel series. A series Musk is a professed admirer of. They even named two of their drone ships after fictional spacecraft from the series. In that series it is a running gag that other aliens find the Culture's naming convention lacking a certain gravitas. When you have one super weapon you might be tempted to call it "Death Star" or something. But when you have millions you let the warship AIs pick their own names and that is how you end up with a mighty warship named "All Through With This Niceness And Negotiation Stuff" or "Falling Outside The Normal Moral Constraints". That is a real flex, I would say. So all in all Musk is familiar with the concept you are talking about here. I can't say for certain if that is going on here or not though. Most likely a Culture spacecraft's AI would roll their eyes over a crude space dingy which can barely reach orbit called "Starship" though. :) So who knows.