Assuming that the Culture is possible at all; I doubt Banks' view of
economics. Still, it may well be -- simply so rich that trade is rare
and money falls out of use. Maybe.
But one thing I like about his universe is his merger of the Big Bang
and continuous creation: imagine the universe not as an expanding
balloon, but as an onion of expanding balloons. The source singularity
is eternal, ever putting out new universes which expand endlessly. (Or
perhaps collapse, with more complex topology, but I've failed with his
doughnut.) Existence is infinite, but chopped up into finite parcels.
-xx- Damien R. Sullivan X-)