[sdenton4]

Yeah, I thought it was clear from the beginning of the book that no humans were even remotely competitive with any AI (including the main character) but that human game players were sort of an aesthetic throwback, like dog-racing in an era of F1 cars.

[7thaccount]

This was my understanding as well, but I might have read into it. The culture minds are in freaking hyperspace to get around lightspeed limitations on computations. He for sure can't beat that, but he could beat someone on another planet at their own game that he literally just learned in the year it took to get there. A game that permeates every aspect of their civilization.

I do assume his drone could beat him as well, but I'm not sure.

[randomswede]

One of the reasons that Contact (and Special Circumstances) have (some) humans[] around is for intuitive leaps. I can't say I recall which Culture book this is mentioned in, but it is, in one of them.

[] let's go with "human" as a general term for Culture biological citizens, it is probably a bit incorrect, but gets the point across.

[thom]

The 'referers' are in Consider Phlebas, a small group of humans among trillions who are able to reliably predict the future better than Minds. This would be one argument in Gurgeh's favour, but Banks later admitted how flimsy the idea was.