iirc, 'Surface Detail' explored this in depth from one society's use of a 'virtual hell' afterlife to instill behavioral control in 'the real'. My favorite Culture character's view on the subject was expressed in 'Matter', the previous novel in the series, by ex SC agent Xide Hyrlis. In Hyrlis's view, the characters were experiencing the base level of reality based on an a moral argument because "... only reality produced ultimately by matter in the raw can be so unthinkingly cruel." and that to be otherwise "... god or programmer, the charge would be the same - that of near infinite sadistic cruelty."
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