Altered Carbon... or a Sneak Peak into the Frightening Future we all have in store for us?! 😱

in #technology6 years ago (edited)

"Altered Carbon" was the first novel in a trilogy written by author Richard K. Morgan and published in 2002. This month, Netflix just released a new series based on the book. The show is very well done, and Netflix certainly went all out in producing it.

However, when you really think about it, given the exponential nature of technological innovation, the show seems to offer an almost uncanny glimpse into a very plausible dystopian future...

In "Altered Carbon", a person's "essence", their memories, their skills, their "personality", can all be stored digitally into a cortical "stack" and downloaded into new bodies, called "sleeves". If their "sleeve" (or physical body) dies, their "stack" can be stored indefinitely.

Catholics have arranged that they will not be resleeved as they believe that the soul goes to Heaven when they die, and so would not pass on to the new sleeve. This, of course, makes them targets for murder, since killers know their victims cannot be resurrected to testify. As such, one of the plot themes is that of a UN resolution to alter this legal position to allow the UN authorities to temporarily "resleeve" a deceased Catholic to testify at their own murder trial.

Perhaps you're already getting an idea of where we're going with this. However, just to clarify, this series also seems to provide almost a "roadmap" as to where certain "powers that be" are looking to take us. For example, you may have noticed "UN resolution". In this world, the UN appears to be the "One World Government" that is in charge of everything right down to the money supply, in the form of "UN credits". In fact, I came across this interesting little tidbit in another post:

Martha Higareda, who plays police officer Kristin Ortega, believes that paper money or any form of cash currency will be phased out, because it's a trend that's already starting within some businesses in both the U.S. and beyond. Sweden, lead actor Joel Kinnaman pointed out, has made the move to a cashless economy, "and there's barely any cash left," he said. Within the world of Altered Carbon, payment is accepted in the form of UN credits, because the governing force, the Protectorate, encompasses not just many countries, but many worlds. As a result, "we don't have much nationality in our show," Purefoy said. "I suspect in time, nationalism will become a very outmoded form of thinking. No ‘U.S.A., U.S.A., U.S.A.,' because I don't think we're going to be able to afford it, us all competing against each other as nations. We're going to have to think globally."

Link: Altered Carbon Cast Predicts the Future (and says we could live in a simulation)

Interestingly, there is much precedent already that the U.N.'s eventual goal is to become the totalitarian "One World Government" for the whole planet. That would be quite frightening, given that the UN along with the IMF and other similar organizations, are among some of the most corrupt on the planet. For those who may not be aware, representatives of the UN have even outright admitted that the true agenda behind promoting memes such as "man-made climate change" is to accelerate this process towards complete global domination and control:

Why then, with such little evidence, does the UN insist the world spend hundreds of billions of dollars a year on futile climate change policies?

Perhaps Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN’s Framework on Climate Change has the answer?

In Brussels last February she said, “This is the first time in the history of mankind that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time, to change the economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years since the Industrial Revolution.”

In other words, the real agenda is concentrated political authority. Global warming is the hook.

Figueres is on record saying democracy is a poor political system for fighting global warming. Communist China, she says, is the best model. This is not about facts or logic. It’s about a new world order under the control of the UN. It is opposed to capitalism and freedom and has made environmental catastrophism a household topic to achieve its objective.

Figueres says that, unlike the Industrial Revolution, “This is a centralised transformation that is taking place.” She sees the US partisan divide on global warming as “very detrimental”. Of course. In her authoritarian world there will be no room for debate or ­disagreement.

Link: Is Climate Change a Tool to Eliminate Democracy?

In my another recent post of mine, I also wrote this precious little tidbit:

And I must say, especially in an extremely "liberal" state such as New York or California, I can only wonder why in the near future, someone like Larry Nassar, recently convicted for abusing over 150 children, couldn't just claim to be a "9-Year-Old Trapped in a Man’s Body" as an "excuse" for his behavior and simply "get off the hook".

In fact, from the SJW perspective, Nassar and Roman are potentially the victims here! They were tempted by these "nasty" little children, not so different than accusing an un-hajib'd woman for "tempting" a group of barbarian horde men to assault her.

Link: We're still HERE after one YEAR, but then again, so are the SJWs! 😱

And in the world of "Altered Carbon", this point is driven home in spades, as children are "resleeved" in the bodies of much older people (possibly even of the opposite sex), since, of course, that may be "all that's available":

Episode 1, around 17 minutes in:

Cindy: Mommy?
Mom: Cindy?
Dad: What have you done to our daughter? Cindy's seven years old!
Officer: You get whatever's in inventory.
Dad: She was murdered in a hit-and-run. The law says she gets a free sleeve.
Officer: That one's free. If you don't like it, pay for an upgrade or put her back in storage.

This motif is taken to all sorts of levels throughout the show. For example, one man's wife is brought back as a man, cuz that was the only sleeve that was available. And in our "brave new world", you don't love a person's "sleeve", you love the person's "stack", which can be inserted into any "sleeve" that tickles one's "fancy"... man, woman, boy, girl. Even animals! However, that's supposed to be "illegal"! lol


(here's mom, dad, and their kick-ass daughter Ava, who's actually in the body of a "synth" here)

And that brings us to some of the other aspects of "Altered Carbon". Stacks can be revived and tortured repeatedly in "virtual reality" over countless lives, or they can play out wild virtual fantasies of pretty much any sort whatsoever. How about "swapping sleeves" with your significant other, just to experience what 🙃 "IT" 🙃 feels like from their perspective! 😲

And the uber-wealthy essentially live as immortals, who can even afford to keep backup copies of their stacks in remote storage which is automatically updated every few hours. This ensures that even if their "stacks" are destroyed, they can easily be resleeved with minimal "data loss". The concept is not so different than the "cloning" concept presented in the movie "The Sixth Day" featuring Arnld Schwarzenegger.

These "Meths", as they're called in the show (a reference to the Biblical figure Methuselah), can more or less do whatever they want. This is especially welcome, as those who can afford to live forever seem to find themselves bored rather quickly. The very rich are also able to keep copies of their minds in remote storage, which they update regularly. This ensures that even if their stacks are destroyed, they can be quickly resleeved.

As such, they entertain themselves with "exciting" activities such as forcing a husband and wife to "fight to sleeve-death" in return for money and fresh new sleeves. And "sex-to-sleeve death" appears to be "business as usual" for these Meths as well.

Finally...

I don't want to give away too much of the plot. However, I will say that it's definitely worth watching (however, be warned, there is quite a bit of nudity throughout), and the production team and cast most certainly captured the more frightening aspects of a potential future that may be fast coming our way.

Renée Elise Goldsberry offers a terrific performance as Quellcrist Falconer, which I specifically mention because I've known Renée since our days at Carnegie Mellon. Her performances were always top notch, and she deserves every bit of the success that's come her way.

I can also only wonder if "Altered Carbon" might one day be looked upon similarly to past episodes of "The Simpsons", which seemed to have a rather uncanny way of predicting a whole bunch of future events that all seemed to eventually unfold... 😱

As always, I appreciate your upvote, your follow and all your comments!

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Man...I just found an old article of yours from 9 months ago about not using SBD to buy SP when the SBD price is higher. You mentioned about using an internal market to buy cheaper STEEM as apposed to directly powering up. I assume that's correct because the Base Feed Pice of STEEM could be higher then the price trading on an exchange. Does the same internal market still function? Thanks for the post! :-)

It's fine to use the internal market. It was the "convert" function you need to avoid, which STEEMIT has actually since removed from the front-end for now.

Addicting show, certainly binge watch worthy! All the gorey “blood lusting” is a bit freaky though...

yeah, definitely has a bit of "blood lustiness" going on there too, and yes...

BIG warning there!

Make sure you set enough time aside to watch the whole series, cuz you'll undoubtedly end up trying to binge-watch the whole way through! lol

More like blood sacrifice... : /

I don't own TV and I don't watch anything besides good alternative media on YouTube and other channels, but I do say the thing of "soul transfer" is scary and also very seriously worked on underground by Deep State (that's at least what my research came up with)...and I would not be surprised at all they are trying to pull this one off. The reason is obvious for someone who understands the reincarnation cycle which always comes with karma redeeming/purification (totally immoral process btw, nothing to do with religion), which some very nasty people try to avoid. I realize this sounds crazy to most people but then- most people sound crazy to me, especially the ones who see themselves as awakened and are brainwashed as f..k. Great post @alexpmorris! Totally following you :D

especially the ones who see themselves as awakened and are brainwashed as f..k.

thanks for the kind words, @jankasparec, and right on with the above statement! lol

Thanks Alex mate!

Very interesting and well written post. I attended CES and there was an Altered Carbon display. Quite spooky. Two "people" stood at the front of the display and acted robotically. They handed out packages that contained a special skin gel. If you walked through it, they had what you described as a sleeve inside a giant bag and it was quite jolting to witness. I met a guy who told me that he was walking down the strip and there was staged picketing warning about Altered Carbon. The lengths they went through were as far as the UN is pushing their one world crap.

By the way, you'll love this favorite graph I saw on CB insights last year on climate change:

image001.png

Do you think climate changes?

Great chart you found... But, you know back then, we can just blame Zeus and Ra's intergalactic starships for creating all the "climate change"! Also, very interesting stuff regarding the "Altered Carbon" display.

I am curious though as to what exactly was being "protested" in this case, because many of those protesters seem to be hired by people connected to the U.N. (ie. Soros). Of course, in this case, perhaps the show sheds just a bit too much light on their potential future agenda... 😱 lol

Thanks for this wonderful article! :)

Regarding your statement that the "movie could offer a glimpse into a frightening future", yes you are absolutely right. All fantasy or science-fiction work is depicting a "past or future reality taking place at some point in the Universe" yet for our understanding dimmed down to an Earth-friendly version:)
If you are open for it, I suggest you read my article on my Steemit profile called "Artists as telepathic Soul readers". This offers you an explanation as to where certain ideas, interests or work stem from.

thanks for the kind words @alexaventuria. I suppose that can certainly be part of it, though to say that "all fantasy or science-fiction" work depicts an actual reality at some point. While some most certainly would seem to fit into that category, you're also basically saying that all creativity is just an illusion.

And perhaps much of it is, to some degree. However, take some of these horror movies, for example. Now, perhaps some are "dimmed down" (or dumbed down?) for our understanding, but I'd have to assume some creativity went into all the horrifying monsters and themes people come up with!


(granted, this is just a hilarious breakdown of some of the potential "issues" with the movie "Cabin in the Woods")

But then again, perhaps this really is someone's reality (or virtual reality)... somewhere! 😱

Great that you elaborated on my reply so thoroughly! :)

Yes, you get it right. Your point that I insinuate "all creativity is an illusion" is correct in that actually All is Light energy which is never stagnant but always flowing and morphing. My definition of "real" is that it is unchangeable. But in fact everything is constantly changing on some level, so it can ultimately not be "real". As such, we have literally creative Freedom beyond any limitations of the word but with no lasting consequences.
And yes, Artists or authors might receive pieces of information incorrectly and/or mix them with our reality. So regarding the horror movies, no, they are not necessarily depicting a reality taking place elsewhere but the author probably connects to a place in the Universe where such entities live and then mixes them with our reality. So yes, everything has its source. We are living in a Time-Space continuum and we are constantly connecting to it whether consciously or unconsciously :)

Altered carbon is by far the best sci-fi series I’ve ever seen! There’s literally nothing I don’t like about this show, I’m hooked! Can’t wait for a second season!!!

didn't know how quite to fit this into the post, but if you haven't seen it yet, check out Season 4 of "Black Mirror" too, especially "USS Callister". In a way, it's actually a bit more far-fetched (ie. I don't think you could recover memories from someone's DNA!), but the premise is still sound, and right along the lines of "Altered Carbon" as well...

Sounds like a compelling show. As to the idea of a one world government:

Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority.

The bigger the government (power), the greater the corruption.

It's a shame because a one world government could solve many problems related to nationalism, but I'm pretty sure a greater evil would be created.

the other problem with such large entities, is that they're completely incapable of dealing with the smaller regional issues that arise, since a "one size fits all" approach can rarely solve problems effectively or efficiently.

I have a friend who works for the U.N. and that is one of the themes of his complaints about the organization on a regular basis. They do try, but are completely disconnected from the reality of the local issues.

nice post! I'm glad that you shared this post with us at WhaleShares. Wish I had a higher vote to give you!!

Gonna binge watch this tonight LOL

thanks for the kind words @lifewithdanny, and enjoy the show! :)

We have just watched it. Though I usually prefer to read books first it certainly caught my attention. A tad bit too violent and explicit for me but it would not feel dystopian if not. I confess Death terrifies me :/ I prefer not to think 250 years could corrupt people so much.

I haven't watched a series for quite a while now, I am intrigued by this one, I love sci-fi movies. Another person's essence can be digitally stored or can be transferred to another, that's creepy and at the same time quite interesting.

Nice post. I do agree on a lot of your opinion. How this could well be our near future. I've also just started watching the series. Especially like the epic ai scene in the hotel in one of the first episodes. Full service (5G yeah). I will upvote and follow. Once again nice post keep up the good work.

Great show, I need a new sleeve soon 😂🤣

hey @stackin, thanks for stopping by! I can't count the times I held myself back from tossing in a "stackin' my stack" or "stackin' my new sleeve" joke while writing up this post! lol 😁

I see a potential future for humanity in movies like: Elysium,Ghost in the Shell but I definitely need to check out this one as well.

@alexpmorris istart watching it, im on episode 5, wil raed your post after finis watching it greetings

so just curious does anyone remember going to blockbuster to rent movies for the weekend lol or running to the bathroom during a commercial so you didnt miss part of your favorite show that only came one once a week

It used to be a Friday ritual with me and my sons. The Blockbuster thing I mean...not the bathroom thing. But I remember that too.

Altered Carbon sounds good!!! Or not?

is it a good show? i was going to start watch it.

Resteemit done dear..

i haven' watched any of them but am really looking forward to watching them

WOOW i will to see it for sure,, this kind of series is my favorite.
It seems very interesting and images got me some suspense already

wow! i love it😘

Looking forward to seeing the series. I hope they finish it up, the reason I don't like series is because most of the never have an ending.

From this blog, i am possible to know many information about 'Altered Carbon'This is so technical and logical blog.Thanks a lot for discription

I really like your @alexpmorris strong writing with the references you quote, in writing. However, when you really think about it, given the exponential nature of technological innovation, the show seems to offer a glimpse of a very sensible dystopian future. You may have pay attention to "UN resolutions". In this world, the UN appears to be the "One World Government" responsible for everything until the money supply, in the form of "UN credits".

I also really hope that the PPB should be an idependent actor who can memechkan problems that occur on earth that we are stamped now. many external rhetoric both in terms of ethnicity, religion, politics, economy, war between the struggle of the state and so forth, may the MARPs can take part in this problem, regardless of the factor of religion but must be viewed in terms of factors Law, in confirms in accordance with the law that has been made.

in your public vidio
I also can only wonder whether "Carbon Change" can one day be seen similar to the past episode "The Simpsons", which seems to have a very strange way of predicting some future events that seem to finally unfold.

the development of the era is very influential on technology and information. "the philosophy of science how we are to overcome it.

Take advantage of the challenge to make an opportunity.

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Great post 👍 I just followed you

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I have to admit I fell asleep during e03, so the binge didnt totally catch me as yet! I also found that part of the 7 year old in the old ladies sleeve disturbing yet intruiging and I also have our trouble seeing our main korean blond character all pumped up after being the most skinnest detective Holden in the Killing.

All and all..Im continuing for sure!