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"People ask me how I do research for my science fiction. The answer is, I never do any research. I just enjoy reading the stuff, and some of it sticks in my mind and fits into the stories."
- Frederik Pohl
 |
| Cortical Stack | ||
| Implanted hardware device that contains a backup copy of your mental self. |
It would be a shame to be killed if you could just copy your mental self and then record it somewhere at regular intervals. That way, if you were killed, your mental self could just be downloaded into a new body, and you would be as good as new.
| "You can't kill me just by wiping out my cortical stack." "You've got remote storage. How regular is the update?" Bancroft smiled. "Every 48 hours." He tapped the back of his neck. "Direct needlecast from here into a shielded stack over at the PsychaSec installation at Alcatraz." |
| Technovelgy from Altered Carbon,
by Richard Morgan. Published by Del Rey in 2003 Additional resources -
|
However, the problem is that you would be missing the interval of time that extends from your last backup to the point where you were killed. You might want to know what happened in that interval; Lauren Bancroft certainly does.
Compare to the virtual immortality that Arthur C. Clarke offers in his 1956 novel The City and the Stars.
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Additional
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More Ideas
and Technology from Altered Carbon
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and Technology by Richard Morgan
Tech news articles related to Altered Carbon
Tech news articles related to works by Richard Morgan
Cortical Stack-related
news articles:
- 'Mind Uploading' Issue Now Downloadable
- Neural Implant To Treat Memory Loss
- Will You Upload Your Mind Anytime Soon?
- Save Your Brain's Connectome, Upload Yourself Elsewhere
| ElectionSim: China's 'Ender's Game' Battle Sim, Or Lem's 'Kingdom In A Box'? |
| Muxcard Redditor's DIY Credit Card-Sized Computer |
| Cortex 1 - Today A Warehouse, Tomorrow A Calculator Planet |
| Is Agentic AI The Wrong Kind Of Smartness? |
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'Space-sickness is one of the most unpleasant sensations that a human being can experience. Not all are subject to it...'
'...I saw a nice black heavy-looking cloud sailing by just now, and I can get the electrical machine out in five minutes to draw it down.'
'From a distance it could resolve the cosmic rays reflected from various substances.'
'The answer to the dumb student's prayer.'
'He had travelled the space-lanes of the solar system for the greater part of his life...'
'The dinner was excellent. It was completely vegetarian — grown in specially prepared gardens in this Moon base...'
'Telepaths had their sensitiveness enlarged to an immense range by the pin-sets, which were telepathic amplifiers adapted to the mammal mind.'
'It was a relief to enter one of the comfortable autos, whisper a direction down the tube, and just know that you would be taken to your destination in the quickest, safest, and cheapest manner.'
'But he didn't get very far with it before another noise in his ear radio scattered his thoughts. George winced...'
