The Ambiguous Utopia of Iain M. Banks (2009)
&gt; CNN: Would you like to live in the Culture?<p>&gt; Iain M. Banks: Good grief yes, heck, yeah, oh it’s my secular heaven….Yes, I would, absolutely.<p>Iain Banks&#x27;s The Culture is my Utopia too.<p>Of all the worlds and societies of science fiction that I&#x27;ve read or seen on the screen, The Culture is the one I&#x27;d most like to live inside as an ordinary citizen. A society that has eliminated material scarcity. Life is centuries long, health and disease are solved problems. The lives of most of its inhabitants are largely devoted to self-actualization, the pursuit of happiness and meaning.<p>And... that sounds pretty good to me. Go climb in the mountains all day and come back and philosophize with friends around a camp fire. Learn architecture and design your home; make art; seek out new kinds of music. Spend 10 years mastering a new branch of mathematics, just for the sheer joy of learning. Travel between the stars, go to parties, fall in love, cultivate friendships - and when you want to be alone, go to your ranch in a desert for a month and just look at the stars. Explore what it means to be yourself under a hundred different suns, on a hundred different worlds, in a universe of boundless wonder.<p>Good grief yes, heck, yeah - sure as anything I want to live in that world.<p>Footnote: of course, the irony of the Culture books is that this kind of Utopian life isn&#x27;t terribly interesting for the plot of a novel, so you only see it in fragments. The books are mostly set around the edges of the Culture, where it comes into conflict with societies or individuals that don&#x27;t share its values. And they&#x27;re damn fun to read (I particular recommend _The Player of Games_ for those starting out.)