The Culture is a utopia made of unobtainium. It has FTL travel and communications, strong AI, teleportation, molecular nanotechnology, advanced biological engin

The Culture is a utopia made of unobtainium. It has FTL travel and communications, strong AI, teleportation, molecular nanotechnology, advanced biological engineering, immortality, replicators, and effectively unlimited access to energy, materials, and living space. This places it well off into science fantasy territory, but I enjoy contemplating just how much of its liberation from want could be realized within the constraints of known physics. I love to compare the Culture to Star Trek because Star Trek's Federation has almost identical fictional technologies available to it. The first Culture novel, Consider Phlebas, was published in 1987 -- the same year that Star Trek: The Next Generation premiered. The Federation just gets a lot less utility out of its imaginary technologies. In-universe this is somewhat explained by the Federation being incredibly conservative about technologies like genetic engineering due to historical scars. The deeper explanation is that Banks wrote for a print audience but Star Trek writers had to write for broadcast TV. If the TNG writers used their imagined technologies as well as Banks did, the Federation too would be full of immortal transhuman pets gently nudged around by their AI minders, enjoying lots of parties and occasional adventures. Almost every Culture conflict is an ethical problem at its core, because they have systematically eliminated problems of material deprivation and conflict over property. But that would be harder to sell as a TV series, especially in the 1980s.