Thursday, September 22, 2011

Don Webb's "Big Ripples Without a Splash" (short story, brain dump, free): Yet another way for humanity to go extinct

One of the illustrations by Rudy Rucker accompanying the original publication in Flurb magazine of short story Big Ripples Without a Splash by Don Webb
While the idea of humanity going extinct because everyone is happier in a brain-dumped digital world is not new, for some reason I liked the version presented here. But this is macabre stuff - so beware.

Story summary.

Let's say Mr X wants to commit suicide for whatever reason other than punishing his loved ones. His death will make the loved ones unhappy. And he has a duty towards providing for some.

So Brian Cornford invented a suicide gadget! It's surgically mated with your body. It eats up your brain after downloading its contents. It then simulates the dead person in his old body in ways that make the simulation undetectable by others!

Notes.

  1. I didn't quite find convincing the ways the invention leads to most people wanting to commit suicide this way.

Fact sheet.

First published: Flurb, #12 (Fall-Winter 2011).
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: A.

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