Delayed reactionblogging: 'A Confusion of Princes,' by Garth Nix

[brin_bellway]

[cw: death, (mild) amnesia]


What limitations could your upload tech *possibly* have that would restrict you to on-the-fly copying only? Sure, "I'm cut off from the psi-Internet because I have to wear anti-psionic armour to fight these psychic enemies, so this battle is *genuinely* life-and-death" is all very dramatic, but *why* does it have to be genuinely life-and-death? Why can't you just say to the Imperial Mind "hey, I'm about to put on anti-psionic armour, can you please take a backup of me to keep in reserve in case I die in this battle"? Then you're only facing the prospect of a few minutes of memory loss, no worse than falling asleep! (which does suck, but *nowhere near* as much)

(Thing I only just thought of now: ...wait, hang on, is this some sort of soul thing? The psionic AI can only take a backup of you while you're actively dying because it is a *psionic* AI and actually transferring your soul to a new body via the psi-Internet? I did not get the impression that this was a universe that cared about that sort of thing--universes that care about the unique identity of souls don't tend to allow the level of brainwashing the Empire performs, do they? at least not without a lot of risk of the brainwashing later coming undone as the soul fights back against it--but maybe I was supposed to.)

Comments

[brin_bellway]

Edited to clarify phrasing. Originally the lowercase parenthetical at the end of the first paragraph wasn't there and the hyperlink was simply attached to "no worse than falling asleep", but upon further reflection I think the link alone might not convey what I intended to convey with it.