The last few days, I’ve been thinking about one of the Culture books that I read 7 or 8 years ago. (I think the book was “Player of Games,” but that might be wrong.) A member of a far-future society is explaining to an outsider that there is no police or prison system in their domain. When asked about violent crimes like rape & murder, they say that you might not get sent to prison or executed but “you wouldn’t get invited to parties” (which, in this society, means that no one is talking to you at all).

I keep comparing this to the present, where if you commit rape, murder, or treason, the mostly likely scenario is that 1/3 of society will attempt to shun you, 1/3 will praise you and said you are the victim of injustice and actually deserve praise and power, and 1/3 won’t notice.

How is it that the least believable part of a book set in a post-scarcity far-future utopia with sapient drones is that society might move past partisanship to a set of shared values?