An article detailing the cosmology, history and organization of The Culture. Posted to newsgroup rec.arts.sf.written on August 10th, 1994 by Ken MacLeod on behalf of Iain M. Banks. Available from www.vavatch.co.uk as A Few Notes on the Culture or from the (defunct) "culture data repository" as A Few Notes on the Culture (Part 1) A Few Notes on the Culture (Part 2)