{"id":2339,"slug":"culture-series","name":"Culture series","type":"media","created_at":"2026-08-08T04:46:51.742966+00:00","hidden":0,"aliases":["Culture","Culture novels"],"episodes":[{"id":"f3edae0e-7ae0-468e-89d9-ef4228709a44","slug":"se20e05-ai-models-the-all-souls-exam-melvynn","subject":"se20e05: AI Models; The All Souls Exam; Melvynn Bragg as an Oxford Don; Grounding; Being Human; Worry About The Same Things","title":"se20e05: AI Models; The All Souls Exam; Melvynn Bragg as an Oxford Don; Grounding; Being Human; Worry About The Same Things","publish_date":"2025-08-19T17:19:28+00:00","year":2025,"month":8,"season":20,"episode":5,"episode_label":"s20e05","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/se20e05-ai-models-the-all-souls-exam-melvynn/","is_premium":0,"word_count":2970,"context":" … and GPT-5 Thinking\n\nTo write “water” is to trace a braid of physics, ecology, technology, <mark>culture</mark>, and power. This essay follows that braid.\n\nI mean, yuck,\n\n(But … ","reading_minutes":15},{"id":"0f403938-db93-4e49-a3a0-4cb3e5d8ab3e","slug":"s17e11-context-is-king-explicit-people","subject":"s17e11: Context is King; Explicit People Personality Preferences; OS Licensing, but Different","title":"Context is King; Explicit People Personality Preferences; OS Licensing, but Different","publish_date":"2024-02-14T23:32:27.147055+00:00","year":2024,"month":2,"season":17,"episode":11,"episode_label":"s17e11","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s17e11-context-is-king-explicit-people/","is_premium":0,"word_count":2828,"context":" … Banks’ <mark>Culture series</mark>, where a bunch of machine intelligences display colors/textures to indicate interior states like emotion, or to better/include more dynamic range and metadata (ugh … ","reading_minutes":14},{"id":"e54f153e-4984-4b7c-898a-5fed97f926b1","slug":"s12e32-we-choose-not-to-do-the-harder-thing","subject":"s12e32: We choose not to do the harder thing","title":"We choose not to do the harder thing","publish_date":"2022-07-01T16:45:29.497984+00:00","year":2022,"month":7,"season":12,"episode":32,"episode_label":"s12e32","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s12e32-we-choose-not-to-do-the-harder-thing/","is_premium":0,"word_count":1964,"context":" … Banks’ <mark>Culture series</mark>. Anyway. Fashion. You get a hint of this in Picard with a bunch of non-Starfleet combadges, which are essentially what phones are now, but … ","reading_minutes":10},{"id":"6c9a5379-5803-4bef-85f4-31494d16c3f8","slug":"s11e21-words-and-how-to-use-them-to-achieve-and","subject":"s11e21: Words and how to use them to achieve and convey your intended effect and meaning?","title":"Words and how to use them to achieve and convey your intended effect and meaning?","publish_date":"2022-03-22T16:15:00.988885+00:00","year":2022,"month":3,"season":11,"episode":21,"episode_label":"s11e21","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s11e21-words-and-how-to-use-them-to-achieve-and/","is_premium":0,"word_count":1033,"context":" … Banks' use of language in his <mark>Culture</mark> novels.\n\nIt started pretty dumb, with Terry Matalas, the showrunner for Star Trek: Picard season 2 pointing out that shuttles still … ","reading_minutes":5},{"id":"20b542cd-2cb0-48b3-972a-889a659dd2d2","slug":"s5e07-acquisition-and-ingest-mode-dial-for-a-wide","subject":"s5e07: Acquisition and ingest mode, dial for a wide spread","title":"Acquisition and ingest mode, dial for a wide spread","publish_date":"2018-03-20T00:00:00+00:00","year":2018,"month":3,"season":5,"episode":7,"episode_label":"s05e07","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s5e07-acquisition-and-ingest-mode-dial-for-a-wide/","is_premium":0,"word_count":2103,"context":" … Banks' <mark>Culture</mark>\nthat has been doing the rounds on how the <mark>Culture</mark> can't be defeated - because it's designed to spread itself. Good co\nntra arguments on … ","reading_minutes":11},{"id":"220174cd-6d2a-4dca-81a6-8ad355cbc5d1","slug":"s4e12-end-of-process","subject":"s4e12: End of Process","title":"End of Process","publish_date":"2017-04-14T00:00:00+00:00","year":2017,"month":4,"season":4,"episode":12,"episode_label":"s04e12","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s4e12-end-of-process/","is_premium":0,"word_count":2033,"context":" … universe where humans still have an important job to do because they're <mark>Culture</mark>[3] Special Circumstance[4] agents.\n\n\n\nSo. Jeff Bezos writes a letter to shareholders and … ","reading_minutes":10},{"id":"59ce4218-d428-4671-baa2-d4ad5202fe38","slug":"s2e16-battlesuits-simulations-and-puppyslugs","subject":"s2e16: Battlesuits; Simulations and Puppyslugs; Scratchpad","title":"Battlesuits; Simulations and Puppyslugs; Scratchpad","publish_date":"2015-08-11T00:00:00+00:00","year":2015,"month":8,"season":2,"episode":16,"episode_label":"s02e16","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s2e16-battlesuits-simulations-and-puppyslugs/","is_premium":0,"word_count":2388,"context":" … Similarly in the <mark>Culture series</mark>, people just do art because they feel like doing art. There's a slight argument, I suppose, that some people live in a … ","reading_minutes":12},{"id":"914847dc-c0aa-44da-b2fd-fd06db00c4e6","slug":"episode-one-hundred-and-ninety-five","subject":"Episode One Hundred and Ninety Five:","title":"Episode One Hundred and Ninety Five:","publish_date":"2015-02-20T00:00:00+00:00","year":2015,"month":2,"season":null,"episode":195,"episode_label":"episode 195","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/episode-one-hundred-and-ninety-five/","is_premium":0,"word_count":2954,"context":" … Banks' <mark>culture</mark> novels where essentially you have a piece of jewelry that's a network connected node to a stupendously powerful set of computing resources and Minds. One … ","reading_minutes":15},{"id":"2e7a4b07-741c-45e4-b8c1-17e38ccda5db","slug":"episode-40-ip-and-the-federation-a-thousand","subject":"Episode 40: IP and the Federation; A Thousand Digital Hubs In Your Pocket; Your Server Recommends","title":"IP and the Federation; A Thousand Digital Hubs In Your Pocket; Your Server Recommends","publish_date":"2014-03-19T00:00:00+00:00","year":2014,"month":3,"season":null,"episode":40,"episode_label":"episode 40","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/episode-40-ip-and-the-federation-a-thousand/","is_premium":0,"word_count":1663,"context":" … Banks' <mark>Culture</mark> universe: that sentient beings minds are inviolable, but whatever escapes into the physical universe and off the substrate of pure thought is fair game. Your ideas … ","reading_minutes":8},{"id":"840c972b-cd5b-4a4b-9d02-b07c94671e60","slug":"episode-seven-rate-all-the-things","subject":"Episode Seven: Rate All The Things","title":"Rate All The Things","publish_date":"2014-01-31T00:00:00+00:00","year":2014,"month":1,"season":null,"episode":7,"episode_label":"episode 7","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/episode-seven-rate-all-the-things/","is_premium":0,"word_count":1581,"context":" … Banks' wonderful post-scarcity <mark>Culture</mark>, along with Star Trek, and on the other hand we have Elysium, Moon, Total Recall, Robocop, and Fifth Element.\n\nInstead of dropping products … ","reading_minutes":8}]}