Consider Phlebas

You must know how many species, how many civilizations, how many systems, how many individuals have been either destroyed or… throttled by the Idirans and their crazy goddamned religion. What the hell has the Culture ever done compared to that?” One hand was on her knee, the other was displayed in front of Horza, clawed into a strangling grip. He w

In the darkness of the cabin, on a small bed full of strange scents and new textures, they performed the same old act, theirs—they both knew—an almost inevitably barren cross-matching of species and cultures thousands of light-years apart. Then they slept.

aura fields which colored according to their mood—their

“It might,” the drone said, rising from the table to the level of Horza’s eyes, “seem amusing to you, but it matters to me. I am not just a computer, I am a drone. I am conscious and I have an individual identity. Therefore I have a name.”

the general consensus of opinion among the more clued-up Minds

the Culture agent Balveda,

“Bora Horza Gobuchul,”

Jase, which deep down was a hopeless romantic, thought her laughter sounded like the tinkling of mountain streams, and always recorded her laughs for itself, even when they were snorts or guffaws, even when she was being rude and it was a dirty laugh.

They were so intelligent that no human was capable of understanding just how smart they were (and the machines themselves were incapable of describing it to such a limited form of life).