I read a humorous short story by Ted Chiang once, about a man whose digital afterlife was rudely interrupted during his "sexual endurance record tryout" by the managing corporation - his investments in real life had collapsed, leaving him unable to finance his further virtual life. He was given an option: Slowing down the processor speed (unacceptable, he would be out of sync with his still-living relatives); accept true death, or get a job as spam filter, the latter of which he accepted.
@nagumi: Sorry, I only remembered that it was in a short story collection, all written by Ted Chiang (who I think is brilliant but underappreciated) I read the one story in the bookstore, so I felt a little guilty and hurried :). Can't remember the title of the book or the title of the story.
Amazon search reveals that he's got only 1 short story collection, so I think it's this one:
Do Richard K. Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs novels count? I mean, nobody really dies unless you destroy their cortical stack, otherwise they just get re-sleeved.
@cljohnston108: Thought about including them, but it seemed like they were more like getting a new body when you die, not uploading per se. Similar to Down And Out In The Magic Kingdom & whatnot.
I consider Williams "Aristoi" to be one of my favorite sci-fi novels. I've liked of a lot of his stuff since reading that one, but nothing else has come close for me.
This books sounds very interesting, if a little depressingly lose to the real world for my tastes. It sounds from the description a little like some of Gibson's more recent hyper-real urban paranoia works. Did you get that impression, CJ, or is my reading of your review not correct there?
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06/07/09
His electronic ambush at the end of the book is all kinds of awesome.
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Amazon search reveals that he's got only 1 short story collection, so I think it's this one:
[www.amazon.com]
But I can't be sure.
PS: if not mistaken, that story is the first one in the collection
06/07/09
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03/31/09
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03/31/09
This books sounds very interesting, if a little depressingly lose to the real world for my tastes. It sounds from the description a little like some of Gibson's more recent hyper-real urban paranoia works. Did you get that impression, CJ, or is my reading of your review not correct there?
03/31/09
11/05/08