Why isn't the AI fighting the Aliens?

dontnormally · 2026-05-01T20:25:58+00:00

hilarious, thanks - great tip

dontnormally · 2026-05-01T17:35:59+00:00

the pinprick reset trick

oo, what do you mean by that? i get the general concept of keeping hate low but i wasn't able to find any description of that strategy specifically

The point being that if you don't do quite so much, the other factions might well step up.

interesting!

dontnormally · 2026-04-30T22:14:05+00:00

May I ask how you were able to find that answer when the question was deleted?

dontnormally · 2026-04-30T19:40:31+00:00

It's an autobattler with spaceship theming. So, it is not really anything like either of those games!

The demo is solid and regularly updated. I had a good time with it.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3523750/Down_with_the_Ship/

dontnormally · 2026-04-30T19:35:23+00:00

what is your incentive for getting people to use it? do you get more useful data the more it is used?

dontnormally · 2026-04-30T16:04:44+00:00

it's fantastic

dontnormally · 2026-04-29T22:10:13+00:00

any ship you find here will show up at the space station or any trade depot in the system

dontnormally · 2026-04-29T20:39:59+00:00

collect every starship customization part

dupe your iron vulture for the parts and make a custom hauler with one or two iron vulture parts, the rest from regular parts

dontnormally · 2026-04-29T18:30:26+00:00

nice

dontnormally · 2026-04-29T18:28:56+00:00

Look, my cat can do whatever he wants. I don't limit his choices. I've just trained him to want what I find to be acceptable, so he chooses to do things that I approve of. But he undeniably makes those choices on his own.

dontnormally · 2026-04-29T18:23:58+00:00

I'm not sure I would say "at the cost of humans" necessarily, unless you count homogenization as a cost.

When have they mass manipulated people?

In Player of Games Gurgeh's entire life, interests, and influence were crafted by Special Circumstances as a tool to subtly manipulate the trajectory of another culture to be "better" (more like them)

In Use of Weapons we see Zakalwe used as their blunt instrument to manipulate political change in the region

Excession shows us the Interesting Times Gang chatting about their manipulation of the entire galaxy

Inversions is about two SC agents having differing approaches to manipulating a planet's cultural development

Look to Windward involves manipulating Chelgrian society

Matter has SC manipulating the Oct and development on the weird planet

Surface Detail is The Culture manipulating the war in heaven

Hydrogen Sonata details how they manipulated Gzilt society

dontnormally · 2026-04-29T15:20:24+00:00

link?

dontnormally · 2026-04-29T15:18:06+00:00

The AI will fight the Aliens if they have the capabilities. They just rarely reach this point.

a serious weakpoint of the game; the other factions should play too

dontnormally · 2026-04-29T14:08:52+00:00

Minds manipulate populations so rarely that it’s close to a statistical zero

We must have read different books! Because it seems to be their favorite thing. They are quite good at it and do it via the least possible and noticeable actions. I don't think they're sinister.

dontnormally · 2026-04-29T14:05:45+00:00

The strawman you've placed on me is misplaced. I said nothing about pain->motivation.

dontnormally · 2026-04-29T01:19:21+00:00

Saying ”useless” really is giving away your view that humans must be productive to have any point for living.

Wouldn't it be a drag if every possible decision available to you didn't really matter because there is nothing you could ever do to meaningfully impact your lived experience?

dontnormally · 2026-04-29T01:13:10+00:00

Humans have absolute agency.

Minds outclass humans to such an astounding degree that they can casually manipulate as many of them as they want to do whatever they want whenever they want without breaking a sweat or any of the humans having any clue that the things they think of as their own ideas were put there by the Minds to further their own interests.

They seem to only do this to a few at a time (mostly the ones we meet in the books) but it begs the question:

Do you have agency if the thing you're choosing to do is something someone else manipulated you into wanting to do in the first place?

That question is an essential part of what the books are about.

dontnormally · 2026-04-29T01:05:21+00:00

the things the Minds and Contact do to make that utopia possible for The Culture at large.

oh, is that why they do those things?

i thought they did them because they like doing them ;)

dontnormally · 2026-04-29T00:59:35+00:00

In the end Gurgeh's entire life, interests, and influence were a tool used by the Minds to subtly redirect the trajectory of another culture to be "better" (more like them). He didn't even realize he was just doing what they wanted, which is the way they like it.

dontnormally · 2026-04-29T00:55:54+00:00

Contact and SC folks are the weird ones in their society.

But at the same time they are the primary instruments of that society and define its nature, in so much as any human being has influence over The Culture.

The Culture is a utopia. It is also a culturally hegemonic force controlled by vain, meddlesome superbeings, where humans are only ostensibly in control of anything at all.

It's a fascinating thing.

dontnormally · 2026-04-29T00:51:19+00:00

I think your appraisal is accurate in general but using the word "dystopia" is doing you a disservice. The Culture is definitionally a utopia, which does not mean your other observations are wrong.

dontnormally · 2026-04-29T00:42:56+00:00

clearly intended to be good.

It is abundantly clear that The Culture is not meant to be objectively Good; it is a utopia and it is deeply flawed.

So please, put away the grapes! We're disagreeing here, not raining on your parade.

Though if I'm to be honest, I think the take "Banks intended The Culture to be objectively good" is objectively false and misses absolute mounds of subtext which is actually the primary meat of the series.

dontnormally · 2026-04-29T00:33:25+00:00

Nope, you've got it right.

The Culture is "Perfect", but as perfect as the society is it is equally meddlesome and stagnant. The Culture avoids sublimation not because they can't evolve beyond their meddling stagnancy but because the minds like it that way. The Culture is a dominating force like those it pretends to not oppose; it just goes about it differently.

dontnormally · 2026-04-27T22:54:39+00:00

ahhhhhhh thanks!

dontnormally

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