Post #1725295

2026-04-27 19:32 UTC

Yeah I think I linked to another similar take where another Wrong’un was mighty pissed that the Culture was infested with “deathism”. Technically there’s no reason you can’t live forever in the Culture, through a combination of cryosleep and life extension, but it seems that the natural thing is to get pretty bored after 3 centuries or so. And I think that’s perfectly reasonably from what imagine it would be like. Remember that there’s no private property in the Culture, so things that people here obsess over (keeping the family business going, making sure no non-deserving relative gets an inheritance) simply goes away. After a while you’ve played the Game of Life on all challenge modes and it’s time to pack it in. I think that if someone were to be as obssessed with living forever as LW are, it would be seen as a form of mental illness and the Minds would gently try to correct it.

Replies (4)

@gerikson@awful.systems 2026-04-28 08:23

I figured I’d re-read “A few notes on the Culture” theculture.adactio.com, and lo and behold almost everything the in these threads is answered there. Also , look at these ghouls being delighted that the “deathism” author is dying: www.lesswrong.com/…/open-thread-april-1-15-2013?c…, fascist gnome Gwern among them

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@Soyweiser@awful.systems 2026-04-28 15:50

I think that if someone were to be as obssessed with living forever as LW are, it would be seen as a form of mental illness and the Minds would gently try to correct it. Yeah, I don’t think they would care if it was just a few, or a small group, but culture people who start to claim others are deathists and the extreme of whom have all kinds weird violent thoughts on them would be concerning. Doubt it would be a huge concern to the minds however, they prob only really get active when one of them also starts wants to create an empire or something, but it is hard to amass resources for that in the culture, esp if no mind is on your side. Do wonder why we never see culture people who worship the minds as gods.

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@dgerard@awful.systems 2026-04-29 00:39

> Wrong’un dammit why didn't I think of this a decade ago

Open ##1831348
@Amoeba_Girl@awful.systems 2026-04-28 13:51

Isn't it sort of a big point that the Culture is an oddity in that it's thriving on inertia instead of doing like so many other civilisations and transcending out of physical reality?

Open ##1831349