Culture Orbital
Version 2 of a Culture Orbital as used by the folks of the ‘Culture’ from Iain M. Banks’ SF novels (Consider Phlebas, Player of Games….) These things are big. Three million km in diameter. Made from individual plates 1000×1,000km in size. There are about 4500 of these plates. This is a scale model and a work in progress. The music is the tune “Pink Floyd” by Peter Kienle.
December 26th, 2010 at 2:33 am
Very difficult to visualise some of banks’s architectures, rearly cool to see someone trying to though! Imagine trying to make a film of one of banks’s books, couldn’t be done surely?
December 26th, 2010 at 2:33 am
Does anybody know if Banks rates Larry Niven?
December 26th, 2010 at 2:33 am
@davekat
Any comments are most welcome. I was going mostly on memory and that document “notes on the Culture” for measurements. I do not remember “Player of Games” that well (except that I highly enjoyed it). In “Phlebas” and “Look to Windward” there are clear references to the size of the plates and that there is a hub in the middle. But, I do not know what I am doing either. I am just fascinated by this stuff and like to learn as much as I can.
December 26th, 2010 at 2:33 am
@peterkienle oops disregard my semi-coherent rambling–I misinterpreted your video entirely–i think it was the planet for comparison that threw me…you do know what you’re doing.
I don’t..:(
December 26th, 2010 at 2:33 am
@peterkienle It first appears in the notes on the war at the end of “Consider Phlebus” –it lists Orbital losses, and Ring losses as seperate.
Also, I’m pretty sure the Orbital in that novel is not a Ring, nor the one in “Player of Games”
Plus, I think I recall an interview with Banks and he explicitly points out that Orbitals are not Rings
December 26th, 2010 at 2:33 am
@davekat
Google “notes on the culture” – youtube doesn’t let me spell out the link.
Scroll down about half way (or search for Orbital) and find what my understanding of Culture Orbitals is based on. I’d like to hear about your source as this stuff intrigues me!
Thanks
December 26th, 2010 at 2:33 am
Culture orbitals are not Ringworlds!
December 26th, 2010 at 2:33 am
Jzadek72
The Wikipedia entry on The Culture clearly says 3 million km diameter and while my last reading of Consider Phlebas is a few years back I think that size is correct.
December 26th, 2010 at 2:33 am
The scale is completely wrong. Culture orbitals are only about 15000 km in length.
December 26th, 2010 at 2:33 am
@PerpetualParakeet Search for “habitat fly-thru” That animation’s pretty cool.
December 26th, 2010 at 2:33 am
aww man, place the details! CREATE IT! MAKE A MOVIE!
December 26th, 2010 at 2:33 am
This is one of my favorite videos on all of youtube. I wish people would do more things like this. 1:35 on is priceless
December 26th, 2010 at 2:33 am
Great vid. Love the perspective and the size of the plates….
December 26th, 2010 at 2:33 am
morthanveld nestworld, anyone?
December 26th, 2010 at 2:33 am
This is a great video and makes me smile seeing an orbital in this way, very good.
December 26th, 2010 at 2:33 am
I think, for the purpose of showing scale, a video’s worth at least a dozen images here. When the viewpoint lifted off the plate, then panned and zoomed across the circumference of the orbital, I felt a bit of the immensity of such a megastructure. Nice touch putting the Earth in the center for comparison, too; no wonder why planets are backwaters in the Culture! Thanks for putting this up.