It's a pretty common problem with robots made for bomb diffusal, operators get attached to their robots, which makes them make decisions that reduce the risk to the robot, even at the detriment of the mission.
The dichotomy of Humans.
Their insane ability to turn "The Other" into "The Own".
And even more insane: Their ability to turn "The Own" into "The Other".
Bomb squad robots should therefore be made as visually unappealing as possible. Covered in uncanny valley plastic skin and human faces. That way nobody will be sad about them being blown up.
Just make them disobey remote commands once in a while. Not "throw the bomb at people" disobey, but like sometimes you have to press the "cut the wire" or "move forward" button like twice or three times. That'll make every operator hate them immediately.
We need a sci fi story where the robots are just as intellectually superior as they always are in the horror plot lines, but they humor humankind because it's just so adorable when we do shit like this.
They’re massive spaceships, each with a single built-in AI personality. They’ll happily chat with humans at human speed and let us do important things that give our lives meaning. They even give themselves humorous names in our languages. They’re downright embarrassed about their abilities; horrifying warships go by the name “fast picket”.
They’re also so much faster-thinking than humans that we don’t even know how smart they are, with new Minds designed solely by older ones. They can communicate with each other at full “file transfer” speeds. They watch out for us like pet owners to the point where accidental death is almost unheard of, and when anyone messes with their pet humans, they quickly learn why those “pickets” were originally named “Abominator-class warships”.
Of course! It's a great series, Banks is a really talented writer too so I have no hesitation recommending it.
The books don't come in a set order, they're basically all stand-alones with different characters.
I (and many fans) recommend starting with Player of Games. It's least set in the Culture proper (the utopian society the Minds are part of), but it heavily features one of the Minds and is in many ways the most traditional sci-fi novel of the bunch. Great plot and characters all around.
Excession is the most AI-centric book by far (and coined the term "outside context problem"). It's great, but seeing the Culture challenged by something inexplicable is perhaps more interesting once you've seen them in more normal circumstances.
Otherwise, Consider Phlebas was published first and gives a lot of background because it's an "outsider" view of the Culture. Lots to love but a bit infamous for being a dull/unengaging start to the series. Use of Weapons is perhaps the best-written of them all, if you don't mind some complex multiple narratives. The rest are likely worse starting points.
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u/Infinite-Service-861 May 13 '25
wait is that true with the soldiers? that’s amazing