Unfortunately, the Banksian vision of the future requires two things we haven’t achieved: eternal benevolent dictatorship, and post scarcity. Furthermore, he also posits that for something like the Culture to emerge, civilizations need to be mobile (ships) in order to be unconquerable.
The closest we could do with current tech is some sort of Waterworld type thing in international waters with flotillas that are inherently sovereign. But the earth is small and it wouldn’t last. Plus, nukes.
Unfortunately, the Banksian vision of the future requires two things we haven’t achieved: eternal benevolent dictatorship, and post scarcity. Furthermore, he also posits that for something like the Culture to emerge, civilizations need to be mobile (ships) in order to be unconquerable.
The closest we could do with current tech is some sort of Waterworld type thing in international waters with flotillas that are inherently sovereign. But the earth is small and it wouldn’t last. Plus, nukes.
We’re already post scarcity, we’re just stuck on artificial scarcity for profit.
Giant spaceship dwelling benevolent machine overlords? Tricky.
I’m kinda hoping there’s a GCU already in orbit. If there is, and you see this, ship, I’m ready to be uplifted now.