(no subject)

[ffutures]

James Nicholl pointed out the implausibility of interstellar empires meeting for the first time and having roughly comparable technology, which reminded me that I wrote a "The Culture" (Banks) versus "Civilization" (Smith) wargames article a few years back.

Kimball Kinnison and the Zwilniks of Doom

Not particularly influential at the time, but it eventually spawned a huge "Culture versus Civilization" fanfic and thread on one of the wargaming bulletin boards, which ran to several hundred posts. But I can't now remember where it appeared, and Google gives WAY too many hits on Culture and Civilization, none of them relevant. Anyone able to track it down?

Comments

[vitruvian23.livejournal.com]

The question is, are they doomed to fight, or could Civilization be persuaded to leave the Culture alone so long as they didn't peddle drugs to their planets and weren't (caught) spying or subverting them? After all, the Culture could presumably get around even telepathy not just by using AIs as ambassadors, but by having organic citizens voluntarily alter their own thoughts and memories so there was nothing to mind read that the Lensmen would find objectionable. Even absent such manipulation, citizens of the Culture probably don't *think* of manipulating their own brain chemistry as 'taking drugs', Civilization still allows *some* drugs such as alcohol, tobacco, and IIRC even stimulants such as methamphetamine, and the nature of Culture implants means both that there's no way to sell your stash and that you can't really get addicted to them (since you can simply reprogram your brain chemistry not to have a dependence or withdrawal).

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Well yes, vaguely possible, but that really wouldn't make for a particularly good wargames article, would it?