Anti-gravity and forcefields

The Culture (and other societies) have developed powerful anti-gravity abilities, closely related to their ability to manipulate forces themselves.

In this ability they can create action-at-a-distance – including forces capable of pushing, pulling, cutting, and even fine manipulation, and forcefields for protection, visual display or plain destructive ability. Such applications still retain restrictions on range and power: while forcefields of many cubic kilometres are possible (and in fact, orbitals are held together by forcefields), even in the chronologically later novels, such asLook to Windward, spaceships are still used for long-distance travel and drones for many remote activities.

With the control of a Mind, fields can be manipulated over vast distances. In Use of Weapons, a Culture warship uses its electromagnetic effectors to hack into a computer light years away.