Thread:Forum:The most righteous people and government to support/ Iain Banks' Culture/reply (3)

I never know what that means if I'm speaking with materialists.

Is "consciousness" supposed to help them to be benevolent? If they feel pleasure or pain it seems it may rather give them needs and interests of their own. Wouldn't they be more concerned with their own pleasure rather than the humans, or would the programmers override this with "altruistic intentions"?