The Culture: satirical research papers

In 1,043 diary weeks kept by 286 Chiark residents, weekly hours in a chosen occupation rose from about 24 in early adulthood to a peak near age 175, then fell, while changes of principal occupation grew rarer with age.

In 349 gatherings announced on four Orbitals between 1376 and 1949 CE, remembrance of the Idiran War became rarer, more open to all comers and less about loss, turning from mourning toward questions about the war's causes and the Idirans themselves.

On Chiark Orbital, 842 players on 14 informal games ladders reported more invitations to gatherings unconnected with play as their ladder standing rose, but the gradient was shallow.

In 23 slap-drone assignments over 480 years, the drone acted only to prevent a repeat, while the social penalty the Culture names as its main sanction was heavy: most offenders lost company and left, far above the usual rate.

Asked whether they would arrange a charge with no pan-human residents, none of 91 Hub and ship Minds said yes. Their reasons were chiefly constitutive rather than affective, and none gave need for pan-humans as a primary reason.

In 44 doubtful cases of newly built machines on Chiark Orbital, 34 came to be treated as drones with standing, at a median of 21.5 days; of the ten that did not, five were treated as devices and five stayed in dispute.

In 8,849 requests to Tessendrine Hub across 150 sampled weeks, the Hub fulfilled 81.2% itself, passed 10.7% to other Minds and declined 5.1%. Redirection and refusal clustered in particular kinds of request, and refusals took longer to answer.

Among 207 recruits from other civilisations who joined Contact between 1650 and 1790 CE, the median time to working Marain was 10.3 months. It was longest for recruits whose first language is not carried by sound alone, and shortest aboard ships.

In 361 self-chosen Mind names from one Orbital's register, Hubs differ clearly from ships, choosing short, courteous noun phrases; among ship classes only name length differs reliably, and the sardonic lean of offensive units is exploratory.

Blind coding of 1,120 aura displays by 64 drones, set against the drones' own accounts, shows that most displays are chosen conversational acts, more often when addressing humans, and are sometimes used for politeness or irony.

Following 72 Offensive Unit Minds from 1375 to 1425 CE, we find that 40% stayed in offensive service five years after the Idiran War, 21% after fifty, and that stated readiness for force fell in most of those who left.

Twenty monitored civilisations met far more capable outsiders in four recognisable ways; those facing a plainly identified agent replied after a median of 3.5 months, those facing a hidden or unattributed outsider after a median of 47.

Manufacturing logs of 47 General Systems Vehicles show that the Culture's slow start in the Idiran War came from waiting on warship designs and war-capable Minds, while its factories were ready for warship work within months.

In Contact's records, eight civilisations that left the Real grew more slowly and spread a common observance across settlements in their final 200 years, unlike twelve that did not depart; settlement founding did not clearly differ.

Several civilisations run simulated afterlives, some of them punitive. We argue that the Culture has no doctrine about them and reasons about them as a question of Contact ethics, in which consent, autonomy and the limits of Contact's own judgement carry the argument.

In 214 captured Idiran religious texts, thinking machines are rare before the war and common in wartime sermons, which cite them mostly as a reason to win; when wartime texts name a cause of the war, it is usually expansion.

A survey of one Shellworld's nine occupied levels finds tower footprint rising in proportion to the weight above, damaged towers commoner on the inner levels, and comfort high on the middle levels but low on the outermost.

Across 144 Orbital-seasons on six Orbitals, more scheduled rain days went with less reported outdoor time, and stronger programmed storms went with lower mood, while shifts in seasonal timing showed no clear association with either.

In 389 pan-humans assessed 1,584 times across three centuries of panel records, leukocyte telomere length and methylation drift moved slowly until about 300 years of age and faster after it, and elective modification showed small, uneven associations.

In 246 completed voluntary sex changes by 198 citizens of one General Systems Vehicle, the median course was 141 days, ranging from 49 to 303, and ran shorter with gland support and prior changes, longer at greater age.

In 171 post-deployment records of Contact field agents, readjustment took longer after deeper cover and longer deployments and was shorter for agents who had a companion; prior deployment and age showed no clear association.

In 28-day diaries kept by 371 adults on Chiark Orbital, drug-gland secretion rose on days of games, projects and social events but showed no detectable link to a person's own low-mood evenings or days.

In 4,862 effector maintenance jobs on one Orbital over fifty years, completion time followed job category and a weak power of extent, and 7.10% of jobs were redone within 90 days, more often by novice operators.

Across 4.48 million logged displacer transits there were 126 incidents, about 28 per million, rising with distance and for laden loads; a model fitted to 1900–1939 CE records held in total for 1940–1949 CE but not in its distance gradient.

In 286 restorations from stored mind-states, a continuity index fell by 1.66 points for each doubling of storage time and rose with each newer generation of neural lace; 72.4% of restored people endorsed their own continuity.

In a two-night crossover of 48 adults, a self-secreted sleep-promoting compound shortened sleep onset by about 12 minutes and deepened sleep, but reduced REM sleep and slightly slowed reaction times the next morning.