Altered Carbon may not be the cyberpunk show you're looking for

In the world of Altered Carbon, death is cheap. The human mind is digitized in a transferrable chip called a "stack," capable of being moved from body to body as necessary-or, if you've got the cash for it, as desired.

Bodies have become increasingly uncoupled from the consciousnesses that occupy them. Slang now just calls them "sleeves." The future of Altered Carbon, Netflix's new science fiction series, is one the flesh is just another kind of economy.

A world like that has a lot of storytelling opportunities. Early in the first episode, in a drab, low-income facility for resleeving-the process of being resurrected in a new body-two parents are reunited with their murdered seven-year-old daughter. Only one problem: the girl is now in the body of a middle-aged woman. The victim's compensation program that allowed the parents to afford another body for their daughter wasn't discerning in what kind of body she received. We linger for a moment on the horror and outrage of the situation.

6th February 2018