SF(it)-posting
Riffing on @LexYeen 's trek/also-trek posting last night:
star trek: let's name our ships noble and good things. Enterprise. Voyager. Discovery. Stargazer.
the Culture: All our ships name themselves. So we get: Funny, It Worked Last Time. The Precise Nature Of The Catastophe. Stood Far Back When The Gravitas Was Handed Out. A Momentary Lapse Of Sanity.
SF(it)-posting
star trek: sentient AI is weird and rare and hey look, this one wants to be human, isn't that adorable? Let's adopt him!
the Culture: AI actually pretty much run most things, and it's cool. Some of them are a bit insane, and most of them are completely out of our understanding, but it's cool. We have a good thing going.
SF(it)-posting
star trek: hey, the Prime Directive is don't meddle with uncontacted civilizations, except when we break that for convenience.
the Culture: yeah, we have a division for that, but we also have a division who just infiltrates less-advanced civilization groups and keeps them from destroying themselves if need be. we meddle in pretty much everything.