Why does this idea bother humans us so much? It troubles us so much that something could be much smarter than us. That something is stronger than us is barely a consideration these days after we've automated nearly everything, yet we've still not transcended the idea that minds far greater than ours can and will be created.
What bothers me is pretending that the Culture is humanity's. Or that humans are in any way relevant to the whole plotline. It's like if somebody rewrote all the great works of literature from the perspectives of the protagonists' dogs, and then threw away the originals, and pretended that this was somehow a useful perspective. That would bother me.
