Elon Musk is naming two of his drone ships using the Iain M. Banks ship naming conventions. They are the “Just Read the Instructions” and the “Of Course I Still Love You.”
I approve, and would like to see this convention spread more widely.
I’m sure my children are also relieved that they were born and named before I became a Banks fan.
And now I’m trying to think of how I should rename the kids. That’s legal, right? They don’t get any say in it?
Good luck with that. My attempt to rename my daughter Cuddlesome Viral Vector foundered on the rocks of her mother’s disapproval.
Mind you, my previous foray into unusual naming strategies might have influenced her somewhat. When Ms. Fishy became pregnant I told her that she was not to die in childbirth because if she did I would name the baby Scrotor, regardless of its sex, and we would go on a cross country crime spree together until one of two things happened: either we were taken out in a hail of police bullets*, or Scrotor became old enough to be tried as an adult.
*I wouldn’t make that joke now, but 8 years ago I was comfy, cosy in my privileged ignorance of extrajudicial killings.
A satisfyingly apt level of gravitas.
Elon Musk could not be more cool. I want to live in a universe where every billionaire is as geeky and forward-thinking as he is. (Actually, I suppose what I really want is to live in the post-scarcity Culture universe, and Musk might be helping to bring it about.)
Now I has a sad all over again about living in a post-Banks universe.
I’m afraid I’m not familiar with Iain M. Banks and on reading the post thought he had invented a ship-naming convention which involved using the first phrase or sentence heard immediately before delivering the final paperwork. I read the link and discovered that no, those are story titles — but it’s a little hard to give up the image of the head design engineer pausing with pen in hand and ears pricked with anticipation as random strangers pass by conversing on their cell phones.
Of course, most ships would probably be named “Uh Huh” and “Yeah Okay” — but it’s kind of a neat idea. Maybe.
I should probably check out Iain M. Banks and leave the ideas to him.
Just remember that a kid’s name would be more like Rasd-Coduresa Diziet Embless Sma da’ Marenhide than Falling Outside The Normal Moral Constraints.
Sastra! These ships are people, not property! They name themselves!
Could have been worse. You could be a Larry Niven fan and have named one of them Lying Bastard.
And the other Hot Needle of Inquiry.
As a huge Banks fan myself, I greatly approve of this.
Having finished his Culture series when his last book came out, I’m now making my way through his other work. I read the Wasp Factory years ago, finished Walking on Glass and The Bridge last month, and soon I’ll pick up Espedair Street.
Why not renaming yourself?
As Moggie points out the important thing is they name themselves! And I seem to remember you had to include the solar system and galaxy?
I think the one who’s trained to use a tank may have some recourse. Stick with the other two.
I find it odd that a capitalist would like post-capitalist (possibly anti-capitalist) fiction. Remember, “Money is a sign of poverty”.
————–
Sastra @7,
Wikipedia has a list of Culture ship names here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spacecraft_in_the_Culture_series At least Musk didn’t use the kind of name warships choose.
————-
madtom1999 @14,
People in the Culture can also choose a name for themselves, which is included in their full name. They can even change this part over the course of their lives. For more details, go to http://www.vavatch.co.uk/books/banks/cultnote.htm and search for the phrase “Culture names act as an address”.
@Eric O – I’m particularly fond of ‘The Business’.
@Daz: Keeper of the Hairy-Eared Dwarf Lemur of Atheism, #4: I see what you did there.
I don’t remember the original source, but on TV Tropes, I read a mention of a spaceship named “It’s One of Ours, Sir.”
I propose the next ship be named Mistake Not My Current State Of Joshing Gentle Peevishness For The Awesome And Terrible Majesty Of The Towering Seas Of Ire That Are Themselves The Milquetoast Shallows Fringing My Vast Oceans Of Wrath.
Bearing in mind that it’s forecast that quite soon, eighty people will own half the world’s wealth, & Mr Musk is likely to be one of the eighty, one would think that he could afford to pay someone to derive names for his toys.
Poul Anderson’s _Trader Team_ stories had the Muddlin’ Through for a ship.
I love the whimsical nature of the names but vessel names are best kept short and something easily recognized as a name for clear communication. Phrases, if not clearly heard might be confused with a normal, non-distress communication and slow response.
Say the phrase, repeating three time:
Mayday, mayday, mayday this is the “Of Course I Still Love You” – “Of Course I Still Love You” – “Of Course I Still Love You” ST 101 – mayday this is “Of Course I Still Love You”.
I assume, sailors, and presumably, astronauts being practical folks, they would shorten the name pronounced to something like ” Still Love”. Try it with that variation and it works.
Thanks for the Iain M. banks recommendation. Oh, goody … I get to go out and buy me a book …
Never much liked Musk. He takes too much credit for the work of other people in my opinion.
Always good to see a Culture reference, especially when it comes to ship names. They’re such a refreshing change from the normal, overly stodgy sci fi naming schemes. Though I have to say a nod to the running “gravitas” gag would’ve been nice.
I will admit to still liking some of the Schlock Mercenary ship names. ‘Serial Peacemaker’ is a deliberately disturbing name for a mercenary warship. And all of the big ships with high-end gravitic weapons systems are named after meteorite impacts: Chicxulub, Sudbury, Tunguska, Vredefort, Popigai, Morokweng…
Is it really naming “conventions” or is it naming “style”. I mean, culture ships abiding by convention? That would probably require a Sudden Outbreak of Gravitas.
PZ: the article you linked to claimed that Musk had his two ships “christened”. According to which Christian tradition in particular I wonder?
I Blame The Parents would be an appropriate name for one of them in this case.
More like demigods, I’d say. Although their moral and intellectual fallibility is foregrounded in Excession.
Musk had his two ships “christened”. According to which Christian tradition in particular I wonder?
Do you see a foreskin on those rockets?
We should have a “rename PZ” contest.
Mistake Not My Current State Of Joshing Gentle Peevishness For The Awesome And Terrible Majesty Of The Towering Seas Of Ire That Are Themselves The Milquetoast Shallows Fringing My Vast Oceans Of Wrath
…. but you can call me “Tim.”
I was at a Kinetic Contraption race once, where one craft had a long name. It was something like “Three days and three nights at beautiful The Lodge Who Sponsored Us on lovely Lake Mudge for only X amount of money.” They could rattle it off well, and the annoncers gave it a good try, but by the time they won, it was just “The Lodge”. Or even “Three Days”.
“But while these spaceships, and other great ones that come to mind, such as the Galactic Fleet Battleships – the GSS Daring, the GSS Audacity, and the GSS Suicidal Insanity – are all spoken of with awe, pride, enthusiasm, affection, admiration, regret, jealousy, resentment, in fact most of the better known emotions, the one that commands the most actual astonishment is Krikkit One the first spaceship ever built by the people of Krikkit.”
@Ariaflame I’ll keep that one in mind. I think after Espedair Street, I’ll have run out of unread Banks novels in my unfortunately large collection of unread books (I have relatives who like to pass their books on to me, and combined with my inability to leave a bookstore empty-handed, I collect books faster than I can read them). At least I know that any Banks novels that I buy will probably be near the top of my pile.
Just to be picky, he didn’t adopt the naming conventions, he named them after two actual vessels. But if any of you haven’t read any Iain M Banks, you totally should. His non-SF work (written as Iain Banks) is also excellent. Unfortunately, we won’t be having any more Culture tales.
All my computers for the last 20 years have been named thusly. Current computers include “Mistake not…” and “Hence the fortress”, and my (literal) hackbox is called “troublemaker”, which is a Rapid Offensive Unit (ROU). I do security for a living, and it pleases me when the IR team recognise trouble when they see it.
“Moon Unit” has already been used for his daughter by Frank Zappa, but you can still use it. Other possibilities, among others, in the information are “Login” or “404 Error”. If you prefer older names, there is the venerable “Fubar”.
My next computer is going to be named User Error.
I’m going to add Mr. Banks’ novels to my Amazon list. Should I just read them in the order they were released? (It may be a while, mind….I’m just finally getting started on Pratchett!)
Ordering isn’t particularly important. There are a couple of minor call-backs to earlier books in some of the later ones, but nothing significant. Most people seem to recommend starting with “Player of Games”, as it’s generally regarded as a better and more accessible introduction to the Culture than “Consider Phlebas”.
Moggie @6. Me too.