The Involved

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The Involved are a subset of galactic societies that exist in the Culture novels of Iain M. Banks.

[edit] Overview

An Involved society is a highly advanced culture or society (one that has achieved interstellar or galaxy-wide interests) which remains actively engaged with other cultures in the galaxy. The Involved are contrasted with the Sublimed - societies whose technological or biological advancement has made them either incapable of interacting with, or totally uninterested in, the material universe.

It should be noted that the Involved are also contrasted with hegemonising swarms (a term used in several Banks' Culture novels), which are (usually) newly-arrived members of the galactic community whose primary goal is conquest, a goal which both the Culture and the author (in his Notes On the Culture) find both quixotic and amusing.