Torture is such a slippery slope as soon as you allow a society or any legal system to do that, almost instantly you get a situation where people are being tortured for very trivial reasons.

In so much of politics you're not allowed to disagree with what's been agreed.

Science fiction is trying to find alternative ways of looking at realities.

My point has always been that, ever since the Industrial Revolution, science fiction has been the most important genre there is.

A lot of what the 'Culture' is about is a reaction to all the science fiction I was reading in my very early teens.