Forcefields
Force at a distance: the fields that shield, build and arm the Culture.
Forcefields are one of the basic technologies of the Culture in Iain M. Banks's novels, closely related to its anti-gravity abilities and its capacity to manipulate forces directly. The Culture can create action at a distance, including forces capable of pushing, pulling, cutting and fine manipulation, and forcefields for protection, visual display or plain destructive ability; forcefields many cubic kilometres across are possible, and orbitals are held together by them. Drones project fields both to manipulate objects and as visible coloured auras that express emotion, and Contact and Special Circumstances drones carry armaments that are usually forcefield- and effector-based, all powered by antimatter. With the control of a Mind, fields can be manipulated over vast distances, and ships use engine fields that reach down to the energy grid for power and traction.
Quick Facts
- Uses
- Protection
- visual display
- destruction
- manipulation
- Scale
- Fields of many cubic kilometres; orbitals held together by forcefields
- Users
- Minds
- ships
- drones
- Related
- Anti-gravity
- effectors
- the energy grid
Facts from the source article.
Did You Know?
- The gelfield protective suit in Excession is a piece of utility equipment with its own sentience.
- Even in the later novels such as Look to Windward, range and power limits mean spaceships are still used for long-distance travel.
More in Tech & Artifacts
Elsewhere in The Culture
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