[Others]

I appreciate the fact that IMB is trying to present a optimistic view of the future. Not all sci-fi needs to be negative or dystopian, and his remains plausible despite its optimism.

I think if you’d rather read about the downfall of the Culture, then you’ve somewhat profoundly missed the point of Ian’s writing.

[keiferski]

I don't know how the world described in the article is utopian. If anything, it's dystopian, in the vein of Brave New World.

[boxed]

I have an ongoing argument with my wife where I proclaim Brave New World to be a utopia, not a dystopia.

It's a society where the VAST majority of people are happy. Really truly happy. A society that is in ecological balance with nature.

If Brave New World is a dystopia, what does that make the world we live in now? It has to be some kind of super-dystopia, because it's worse in every way you can possibly imagine.

[arethuza]

Not much of a dystopia if you can leave at any point - and in fact be actively supported in leaving if that's your thing. The fact that the Culture seems to be inherently comfortable with people, ships and even chunks of society leaving or joining gives an indicator of how it really is "self consciously rational" as Banks put it.

[varjag]

It really isn't though, if you read the actual novels.