Contact with Earth

[Boyuki]

I am almost up to date with all Culture works (I am about 100 pages into Surface Detail) and am a little confused by something I have just read on the Wikipedia article on the Culture.

It states that Earth is being monitored in the 1970's (during State of the Art), but then it says that Earth was then Contacted in approx 2100... do we have a reference for that in the books somewhere?

Thanks

 

[J-WO]

Nope, don't remember seeing that anywhere. Indeed, I got the sense from the story in which Earth is monitored in the seventies that our planet didn't survive all that long after. Dzizet Sma (the main character) talks about us in the past tense, at least.

 

[clovis-man]

I am almost up to date with all Culture works (I am about 100 pages into Surface Detail) and am a little confused by something I have just read on the Wikipedia article on the Culture.

It states that Earth is being monitored in the 1970's (during State of the Art), but then it says that Earth was then Contacted in approx 2100... do we have a reference for that in the books somewhere?

Keep in mind that Wikipedia is not an unimpeachable source. Any resource which would allow me to make an edit (and I have) is certainly suspect.

 

[Null_Zone]

Wasn't there a Glossary at the back of State of the Art (or a comment at the end of the story) saying when Contact was made?

My copy is somewhere in storage waiting for bookshelves to be made but there is the memory or a Glossary.

 

[J-WO]

There's a dating system based on something called The Khymer Rouge calender somewhere in Phlebas, but whether thats the dating system of a still extant earth or the only dating system for earth the Culture possess is another question entirely.

 

[Dave]

Keep in mind that Wikipedia is not an unimpeachable source. Any resource which would allow me to make an edit (and I have) is certainly suspect.

At my son's school a boy wrote a history essay in which he claimed that Napoleon supported the Arsenal football club. The teacher asked him for a source for his research so he went and edited the Napoleon Wikipedia page. Personally, I would have given him a A grade, but the teacher wasn't very amused.

 

[clovis-man]

At my son's school a boy wrote a history essay in which he claimed that Napoleon supported the Arsenal football club. The teacher asked him for a source for his research so he went and edited the Napoleon Wikipedia page. Personally, I would have given him a A grade, but the teacher wasn't very amused.

I can imagine Napoleon saying: "Voila!"

 

[Rodders]

There's a mention of Chess in the Player of Games, so i always had the impression that the Earth was a part of the Culture. To be honest, i think it's better that the Earth isn't mentioned.

 

[Rodders]

At my son's school a boy wrote a history essay in which he claimed that Napoleon supported the Arsenal football club. The teacher asked him for a source for his research so he went and edited the Napoleon Wikipedia page. Personally, I would have given him a A grade, but the teacher wasn't very amused.

Ha! He has beaten his own Kobayashi Maru test.

 

[williamjm]

I am almost up to date with all Culture works (I am about 100 pages into Surface Detail) and am a little confused by something I have just read on the Wikipedia article on the Culture.

It states that Earth is being monitored in the 1970's (during State of the Art), but then it says that Earth was then Contacted in approx 2100... do we have a reference for that in the books somewhere?

Do you have a link for Wikipedia saying that? I had a quick look, but couldn't see it, maybe I was looking in the wrong place.

There's a mention of Chess in the Player of Games, so i always had the impression that the Earth was a part of the Culture. To be honest, i think it's better that the Earth isn't mentioned.

Earth certainly isn't part of the Culture in the (chronologically) earlier stories, since the Culture ship is observing an uncontacted Earth in the 1970s in The State of the Art. It is possible that Earth has been contacted since then, I think Surface Detail is about 1000 years later, so Earth could have made contact with the Culture by then.

Wasn't there a Glossary at the back of State of the Art (or a comment at the end of the story) saying when Contact was made?

I don't remember that, but it has been a few years since I read it, and it's the one Culture book I don't own (I wasn't too impressed by the story).

 

[Dave]

I do have The State of the Art and there is no such glossary in my copy. Also it is a collection of short stories, only some of which may be set into the 'Culture' universe and some most certainly are not. The actual short story within called The State of the Art is the one set in 1977 which the cover of my paperback says adds definition and scale to the previous works by using the Earth of 1977 as contrast.

The 'Culture' is huge in scale. I expect that the Earth is fairly boring and pedestrian compared with the other places a Special Circumstances operative could be sent to.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

... the Earth is fairly boring and pedestrian compared with the other places a Special Circumstances operative could be sent to.

Not a day goes by when I don't think these very thoughts.

No glossary in my copy of State Of The Art either.

 

[zaltys13]

Hi all,

In the appendix of Consider Phlebes there is a history of the Culture/Idiran war written as part of a information pack on galactic history for Earth. As i dont have the book to hand i cant remember the exact date of this iformation pack but it was around the year 2100.

Hope this helps.

 

[Andrew Short]

I've now read all the culture series including state of the art but only in state of the art do I eveer remember earth being mentioned

 

[ScottM]

Banks ends _Consider Phlebas_ with several addenda, including "Appendices: the Idiran-Culture war", which is prefaced with the following:

"The following three passages have been extracted from _A Short History of the Idiran War_ (English language/Christian calendar version, original text AD 2110, unaltered)"

The preface goes on to say that this work is part of a "Contact-approved Earth Extro-Information Pack"

So, apparently Earth is "Contacted" some time before 2110, and some time after... today? Though I imagine Banks is leading us to believe it's closer to the former than the latter.