Chapter 16 (p. 317)

I have lived ten thousand years; I am used to it. Lovers dying, civilisations dying…one develops a certain god-like indifference to it all, intellectually.

— Iain Banks

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "I have lived ten thousand years; I am used to it. Lovers dying, civilisations dying…one develops a certain god-like indifference to it all, intellectually." in the context of "Chapter 16 (p. 317)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Iain Banks" (Quotes, Culture series, The Hydrogen Sonata (2013): All page numbers are from the September 2013 first trade paperback edition published by Orbit , first printing All spelling, italics, ellipses, and punctuation as in the book. All bold face as in the book, and represents comments by or conversations among AIs. ) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Iain Banks

About Iain Banks

Iain Menzies Banks (February 16, 1954 – June 9, 2013), officially Iain Banks, was a Scottish writer. As Iain M. Banks he wrote science fiction; as Iain Banks he wrote literary fiction.