Joshua Bell wrote:
<snip>
> 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?
>
I don't see why it wouldn't. The Culture interacts with any number of
Involved without theatening their distinct society. Since the Culture would
be the more technologically advanced, and powerful and widespread, they'd
probably be ensuring that they didn't overwhelm the Polis.
If you mean that Polis citizens would want to abandon their own society and
join the Culture, I suggest that they may want to, but they don't really
have the ability. Unless the Culture gave it to them, and they'd run all
their stats on that idea first.
> Would the (effectively) unlimited resources and FTL capabilities of the
> Culture cause the Polis citizens to "revert" to desiring physical forms?
Again, I don't see why this would happen.
> 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?
I doubt it would have much impact on the Culture in general. It might be
the origin of a few fleeting fashions or something.
Claire Bickell
