Culture Series
* Book: The Culture Series, by Iain Banks.
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encounters between post-scarcity societies with scarcity-based civilizations
Review
Alberto Cottica, EconSF:
"These novels are set in the far future. The economy they depict is one of post-scarcity 1, sustained by technologies of inconceivable power (“handwavium”). The Culture is a galactic polity whose citizens are both biological and non-biological sophonts. Humans predominate among biologicals. AIs, many of which embodied in ships, are vastly smarter and more powerful, and do most of the societal heavy lifting. The most important economic concept deployed is that a post-scarcity society which is leisure-oriented. Culture people (and AIs) focus on “serious fun” elaborated games, art forms, extreme sports, re-enactments of past events, and so on. In this sense, Banks is following up on the Keynes’ famous 1930 essay, Economic possibilities for our grandchildren 2. His contribution consists in giving an “architect’s rendering” of what it would feel like to live in a post-scarcity world. He agrees with Keynes’ strategy of boosting the arts as a way to keep people engaged and happy in a world without work."