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> They stubbornly insist on dying and stubbornly refuse to sublime. As a whole, yes. But individual Culture Minds have sublimed, and individual humans can cho
by filoeleven 6y ago
> They stubbornly insist on dying and stubbornly refuse to sublime.
As a whole, yes. But individual Culture Minds have sublimed, and individual humans can choose to be stored until the Culture chooses to sublime as a whole. (I don’t think Banks ever explored a Culture human choosing to defect into a different society which was going to sublime; that could have been a neat sub-plot for The Hydrogen Sonata.)
That’s also what makes the Culture a place for storytelling, though. Lots of other civs have sublimed, the Culture seems to be the highest-level one that explicitly chooses to stay in the Real. I don’t think it’s so much Luddite as...a necessary function to make these stories possible and interesting.
- p_l 6y agoThere are mentions of small subgroups of Culture deciding to Sublime (mostly linked group minds).
- vidarh 6y agoWell, I mean they can be both luddite and necessary much for the same reason as why the stories are mostly told from where the Culture interacts with others - anything else would be too utterly alien.
- gpderetta 6y agoMany individuals can also chose to become drones or be become part of a Mind as well instead of dying. A minority also choose to be effectively immortal, although most get bored at some point.