> virtual torture typically drives victims insane.

Is that self evident though? It seems like the difference between pleasure and pain is that pain is a signal that is interpreted as "get out of here, or you may die". And brain is pretty flexible when it comes to reinterpretting the meaning of signals. E.g. with food taste, some tastes that induce revulsion on first try, become peculiar and interesting after a while.

Yes, and that's part of the strategy that Envoys (and presumably, real life counterparts) use in resisting torture. But with virtual torture, the victim can experience thousands of AI-driven sessions with a clock rate that's thousands of times faster than normal. So years of torture in hours.

Haven’t read the novels yet, but have watched half of Altered Carbon series on Netflix. This was the first thing that came to and a resounding ‘hell no.’

I recommend reading the novels! The Netflix series puzzles me. It's like they put everything from the novel in a box, and pulled it out in random order. Some of the changes were arguably necessary so viewers could follow the plot. And some were typical mass-media dumbing down.

But others just seemed pointless. For example, in the novels, the Envoys are not dissidents, but rather enforcers for the Protectorate. Quell was a dissident, and Takeshi did quote her frequently, but she died centuries before he was born. The Quell character in the video is actually Virginia Vidura, who was his trainer in the Envoys. And Reilieen was not his sister.

Also, the virtual torture sequence in the novel is far more extreme than depicted in the video. I doubt that it could be shown, even on Netflix.