Special Circumstances

Special Circumstances (also abbreviated SC) is a 'secret service'-type organisation that exists within the fictional anarchist utopian science fiction civilisation known as the Culture (which forms the background of several novels and shorter works of Iain M. Banks).

Special Circumstances is part of a larger Culture organisation called Contact, which coordinates Culture interactions with (and in) other civilisations. SC exists to fulfil this role when circumstances exceed the moral capacity of Contact, or where the situation is highly complex and requires highly specialized skills, such as in The Player of Games. Special Circumstances also does the 'dirty work' of the Culture, a function made especially complicated by the normally very high ethical standards the Culture sets itself.

In the novels, Special Circumstances often provides the main plot link between the Culture and other civilisations being intervened in. The 'Good Works' (for which Special Circumstances does the dirty work) are the wider plot device for allowing interaction between the advanced Culture and the 'barbaric' societies it tries to improve. In the same vein, Banks has noted that the perfect society of the Culture creates well-adjusted, content people - who are (for story purposes) rather boring. Therefore, many of the Culture novels deal with outside agents or mercenaries in the employ of Special Circumstances.

Interventions

Overview

Interventions by SC usually take the form of covert operations (military or otherwise) designed to strengthen or weaken factions within less advanced civilisations. These interventions are not usually carried out by Culture citizens (Jernau Gurgeh in The Player of Games apparently being an exception), but are rather "contracted out" to third party agents or mercenaries (Use of Weapons), or else to advanced nanoform agents (see below).

Typically, the interventions aim to improve the situation of less advanced civilisations, and to get them closer to the Culture ideal. Sometimes interventions may also be intended to nip future challenges to the Culture in the bud (The Player of Games). While the Culture believes that it can statistically prove that most interventions achieve this end, operations are not always successful. Some, as in Look to Windward, may even be disastrous for the intervened civilization.

Terror weapons

Special Circumstances does not always 'play nice' like the rest of the Culture. Their activities have been known to include assassinations, involving for example a 'terror weapon' entity. While only one is described in Look to Windward, there is reference to it being 'a' terror weapon, likely in the sense of 'one of multiple'.

These entities are apparently designed to teach a form of lesson to opponents of the Culture, and to eliminate specific leaders of the enemy. During its mission, the terror weapon sadistically kills several Chelgrian enemy leaders (intentionally in public view, via a video link). This is particularly atypical for Culture behaviour, which usually eschews any cruelty - though the act may have been tailored to the expected reactions of the victims' civilisation.

The weapon (which may or may not be a Culture citizen, but apparently is sentient) is a nanoform entity formed of EDust - 'Everything Dust', originally intended as a construction material. Capable of changing between wildly different shapes, from animal to dust cloud, almost instantly, as well as possessing laser and antimatter capabilities, the terror weapon is a formidable foe. However, it main ability lies within its ability to use powerful forcefield 'effectors' (as weapons, manipulators or defenses) and very advanced remote electronic warfare abilities to enable it to disrupt opposing weapon systems or turn them against each other.

Place in society

In times of war (as seen in Consider Phlebas), the Contact section of the Culture, and in particular Special Circumstances, acts as a military intelligence and special forces service. In general life, SC is rarely seen or heard of, and is one of the few organizations within the Culture which does not provide information about its actions, working largely in secret, apparently controlled and guided only by a number of the more secretive Minds. The special status of Special Circumstances is best explained by Bora Horza Gobuchul in Consider Phlebas:

"Even before the [Idiran-Culture] war, its standing and its image within the Culture had been ambiguous..."

"It had about it too an atmosphere of secrecy (in a society that virtually worshipped openness), which hinted at unpleasant, shaming deeds..."

Contact membership is seen as a high achievement for people of the Culture as even the best of the best still tend to be too many for the limited available places. SC membership, though even more difficult to obtain (and attributed only by invitation), is not seen as such a desirable position, as SC personnel often deals with (and sometimes furthers) what Culture citizens hate the most: barbarity, violence and actions of questionable ethics.

The morally ambiguous role of Special Circumstances is best explained by Diziet Sma in Use of Weapons :

"... in Special Circumstances we deal in the moral equivalent of black holes, where the normal laws - the rules of right and wrong that people imagine apply everywhere else in the universe - break down; beyond those metaphysical event-horizons, there exist ... special circumstances. [...] That's us. That's our territory; our domain."

Similar concepts

The SC idea that an advanced civilisation should covertly help those less advanced is similar to the IDeaS and actions of Progressors in the Noon Universe of Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, as well as the agents of Canopus in the Shikasta novels of Doris Lessing.

The activities of SC are entirely at odds with the Prime Directive in the Star Trek universe. Starfleet explicitly prohibits activity of the kind sanctioned by the Culture, though also for reasons of altruism or enlightened self-interest. See Section 31 for a similar organisation in the Star Trek context.

In the Uglies trilogy by Scott Westerfeld, there is also a Special Circumstances group.

See also

• Contact (The Culture)
• Military Intelligence
• The Culture
• Secret service