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Rhi and Paul join Ralph to talk about Iain M. Banks’ Excession and The Culture. Post-scarcity, intelligent starships, body modification and first contact.
Show Notes
Excession (and other Culture novels) by Iain M. Banks
Rhiannon Lassiter, Paul Mitchener and Ralph Lovegrove
- Overview of The Culture 00:50
- Synopsis of Excession 05:40
- Themes 12:05
- Diverging human cultures
- What do utopians do with their free time?
- Benevolent interference in other civilisations
- The edge of ascension
- Contact and Special Circumstances
- Sex positive
- Transhumanism before it was famous
- Death
- Aside:The Player of Games 32:50
- RPGs 38:30
- Mindjammer by Sarah Newton
- Flotsam (Josh Fox, based on Dream Askew by Avery Alder)
- Microscope and Kingdom by Ben Robbins
- Dramasystem by Robin D. Laws
- First Contact scenarios 48:05
- Event Horizon
- Unto Leviathan by Richard Paul Russo
- Eon by Greg Bear
- 2001 and 2010
- The Fifth Element
Music Credits
“Is That You Or Are You You?” from Reappear by Chris Zabriskie
“But Enough About Me, Bill Paxton” from Direct To Video by Chris Zabriskie
I regret that Paul Mitchener was not always the easiest to understand, but, as usual, you’ve given us a very interesting and thought-provoking episode. Thank you.
May I recommend a narrative RPG called “Sufficiently Advanced” (2ed) by Colin Fredericks? It deals with “post-Singularity” universes cleverly and effectively.
Thanks for the recommendation! Yes, you’re right that Paul’s audio was not up to the usual quality we’d hope for — unfortunately we had a technical problem with the recording his end so I had to process his audio I recorded on our stream. Hopefully we can avoid it next time.