Dragaera

Immortality

Frank Mayhar frank at exit.com
Tue Jun 22 19:43:42 PDT 2004

Howard Brazee wrote:
> Damien Sullivan wrote:
> > People will still die of accidents and suicide and such.  Unless we
> > get backups, in which case lots more things can change.
> In the latest Wil McCarthy book, someone who obviously had backups died
> anyway.   It didn't make any sense.   But he is exploring immortality in an
> interesting way.   Oddly enough Elizabeth Moon's space opera is doing this.
> But her Nebula winner is more interesting in exploring identity with change.

Check out _Altered Carbon_ and _Broken Angels_ by Richard K. Morgan.  These
have a somewhat different angle on effective immortality (although he punts
on the identity/continuity/"self"-ness issue).  In the first book, even a
well-secured backup wasn't secured quite well enough to prevent the permanent
demise of the owner.

> > We don't remember a lot of our lives in detail as it is.  Lots of
> > daily details just aren't important.  Skills and big events events
> > and who to trust are important.
> I am no longer the person I used to be, and I have forgotten much of it.
> What is the sense of living past infanthood if we don't remember most of it?

You get cooler toys.
-- 
Frank Mayhar frank at exit.com	http://www.exit.com/
Exit Consulting                 http://www.gpsclock.com/
                                http://www.exit.com/blog/frank/