The Quest for Biological Immortality

Image: zhihu.com

For eons we have philosophized on the nature of the afterlife. Scholars have debated the existence of spiritual and dimensional realms and where we go after death. But what if you could live forever, the only fall back being you have to trade in your old body for a new one? In Richard K. Morgan’s Altered Carbon, anyone with wealth, power or connections can enter ‘sleeves’ and implant memory-imprinted ‘stacks’ that contain their digitally recorded consciousness. As long as someone has access to these, they could outlive entire civilizations and historical periods of innovation.

But would our collective extended lives prove fruitful grounds of progressive deliberation or become an existential parody? Would living that long really change our understanding of the universe or would it create more doubt?

Full feature available at LLF: Altered Carbon and the Future of the Biological Condition