I find it very hard to believe that a civilization with as much utter dominion over physics, chemistry and biology as the Culture would find this a particularly difficult challenge.
The crudest option would be something like wiping memories, or synthesizing drugs that re-induce a sense of wonder or curiosity about the world (similar to MDMA). The Culture is practically obsessed with psychoactive substances, most citizens have internal drug glands.
At the very least, people should be strongly encouraged to have a mind upload put into cold storage, pending ascendance to the Sublime. That has no downsides I can see, since a brain emulation that isn’t actively running is no subjectively different from death. It should be standard practice, not a rarity.
Even if treated purely as a speculation about the “human” psyche, the Culture almost certainly has all the tools required to address the issue, if they even consider it an issue. That is the crux of my dissatisfaction, it’s as insane as a post-scarcity civilization deciding not to treat heart disease or cancer.
A mind upload without strong guarantees potentially carries huge S-risks. You’re placing your own future self in the hands of whoever or whatever happens to have that data in the future. If one thousands year from now for whatever reason someone decides to use that data to run a billion simulations of you forever in atrocious pain, there is nothing you can do about it. And if you think your upload is “yourself” in a meaningful way enough for you to care about having one done, you must think that is also a very horrible fate.
I find it very hard to believe that a civilization with as much utter dominion over physics, chemistry and biology as the Culture would find this a particularly difficult challenge.
The crudest option would be something like wiping memories, or synthesizing drugs that re-induce a sense of wonder or curiosity about the world (similar to MDMA). The Culture is practically obsessed with psychoactive substances, most citizens have internal drug glands.
At the very least, people should be strongly encouraged to have a mind upload put into cold storage, pending ascendance to the Sublime. That has no downsides I can see, since a brain emulation that isn’t actively running is no subjectively different from death. It should be standard practice, not a rarity.
Even if treated purely as a speculation about the “human” psyche, the Culture almost certainly has all the tools required to address the issue, if they even consider it an issue. That is the crux of my dissatisfaction, it’s as insane as a post-scarcity civilization deciding not to treat heart disease or cancer.
A mind upload without strong guarantees potentially carries huge S-risks. You’re placing your own future self in the hands of whoever or whatever happens to have that data in the future. If one thousands year from now for whatever reason someone decides to use that data to run a billion simulations of you forever in atrocious pain, there is nothing you can do about it. And if you think your upload is “yourself” in a meaningful way enough for you to care about having one done, you must think that is also a very horrible fate.