Someone voiced concern off-list that I'd been a little too quiet lately. Don't worry - just busy. :) It also doesn't help that due to renovations we don't have hard-line telephone access at home, basically precluding being online except at work.
Anyway, back on topic (gasp!):
Way, way back when we discussed the question, "what SF universe would you prefer to live in?" (with the "as an elite? as a mundane?" as variants). One of the favorites was Banks' Culture. Another which may have been mentioned (and should have been if it wasn't) was Egan's Polis civilization*. They have many similarities and many differences:
- In both, all citizens are effectively immortal - as long as they wish it. Citizens generally choose when to end their lives.
- In both, no distinction is made between those of biological and those of artificial origin. However, there is an extreme bias in the Polis civ in favor of living as a digital sim rather than a biological chunk of meat, regardless of how you started. The Culture doesn't have an apparent bias.
- In both, personal liberty reigns pretty much supreme; silopsist leanings are generally well accepted.
- In both, there appears to be a slight bias in favor of expending one's energies along creative or productive lines, but no bias regarding the specifics.
- In the Culture, FTL is widespread and vital. In the Polis civ, FTL does not exist, and the digital existence of citizens is what permits even v=c travel.
I think it would be fair to call the Culture a superset of the Polis civ, in the sense that the Culture contains all of the required technologies for the Polis civ to exist - organic sentients can be uploaded and exist entirely in digital form, etc. "A Few Notes on the Culture" indicates that it may have been fashionable at certain times for Culture members to adopt VR lives, which is effectively the same thing.
But still, the question occurs: what would happen if the Culture met the Polis civ? Would the Polis civ survive the encounter in any way - that is, is the Polis civ (typically portrayed within 1000 years of now) mature enough to maintain its distinct society in the face of the trillions of "humans", drones and Minds making up the Culture? Would the (effectively) unlimited resources and FTL capabilities of the Culture cause the Polis citizens to "revert" to desiring physical forms? In what other ways would it change? Would the Culture be affected in any way, or is this just another job for Contact? Would Special Circumstances even need to be notified?
Joshua
* Does the "Polis civilization" it have a more formal name? "Diaspora" isn't quite correct - in that novel, everything goes higglety pigglety at the end. In "Permutation City" the alternate "dust"-based realities are the main thrust. I refer specifically to the "baseline" civilization posited in these stories and others, like "The Plank Dive". I've been using "Polis" - the name for a chunk of hardware containing thousands to millions of digital citizens - as the generic term. Any others? Or should I just email the guy?
