Utopia, a poll (with other completely unconnected question)

[andrewducker]

"The Culture" in this case refers to the space-faring civilisation in Iain Banks' awesome series of novels.

[Poll #1792224]

Comments

[andrewducker]

No pain, no hunger, no pollution, awesome toys.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

I never really saw the awesome toys.

It just seemed a big culture of nothing really, for the people anyway.

[andrewducker]

Most of the stories are set in the periphery, but we know of game playing of all sorts, from boards to military exercises, via simulated worlds. We know that there is art, sport, tourism, academia, etc. I don't really see what's missing.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

It didn't seem like a utopia to me. The whole pets of AIs thing mentioned elsewhere doesn't help.

Also, I find it hard to view entirely hedonistic societies as utopian. There's also very strong social conventions and structures which make it feel, to me, like a kind of fake freedom.