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by seph-reed 2213 days ago
It really warms my heart that the landing pad is called "OF COURSE I STILL LOVE YOU DRONE SHIP"

In a consumer era where almost all naming is done by marketing and void of any soul, it really, really makes me happy to see a little bit growing through the cracks in the concrete.
2 comments
tialaramex 2213 days ago
The name is just "Of course I still love you". They're named after vessels from Iain M Banks' "Culture" SF setting.

Culture spaceships have AI "minds" and the mind of a large ship-constructing ship will name its offspring. They tend to have an odd sense of humour, there are plenty of sites with lists of Culture ship names, and Banks wrote footnotes excusing the obvious references to 20th century human culture as matters of translation (e.g. there is an Offensive Unit named "I said I have a big stick" which is a reference to Theodore Roosevelt's "Speak softly and carry a big stick").

https://theculture.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_spacecraft_in_the...

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shkkmo 2213 days ago
I believe that the ships pick their own name rather than having it picked for them by the ship that built them.
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Reelin 2213 days ago
It's actually a drone ship (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_spaceport_drone_shi...) named "Of Course I Still Love You" after the fictional ship of the same name from Bank's novel "The Player of Games" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Player_of_Games).

- Your friendly neighborhood pedant.

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