042. Light discussion of ethics in scifi, and also death, in general.

I started and DNF'd A Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I Lin. Twice. Once via audiobook and again as ebook, because at first I thought it was the audio format that was making it hard to get into. I couldn't tell you why I didn't get hooked, but I'm disappointed. There was a lot of hype over this book, especially following Xiran Jay Zhao's success with Iron Widow. The cover is absolutely gorgeous though. The sequel cover even more so.

I did find a few good speculative/scifi short stories that I think are worth sharing. Funnily enough, both are about some form of uploaded consciousness.

Lena is written in the form of an article/how-to guide on working with copies of a particular consciousness. It's also horror, but it's that kind of subtle horror one feels when they contemplate ethics, and realize some people absolutely suck because they'll do anything that's allowed within the bounds of the law regardless of morality.

The Woman Who Wanted to Be Trees, by Cat Rambo, is more direct. It's a story about society building a generation ship to leave earth. It's a bit dark because some people are selfish, but ends with a solution that benefits humanity as a whole. I'll admit I had to read it twice to fully understand it, but I think it's worth it. TW for implied suicide at the end. I straight up missed it on my first read.

There's also a rebuttal article about the viability of digital memorials attached to Trees, that I also think is worth a look. The author of the article has also written books about death. I'm particularly interested in her second book, but it's not out yet.

(The article calls it Death Glitch: How Techno-Solutionism Fails Us in This Life and Beyond, but her website calls it Death Glitch: What Social Networks Leave Behind. I don't know what the proper title is yet, but I still want to read it.)

Not entirely unrelated, I'm working on a short story about the ethics of cloning. Something similar to the body replacement tech available in Altered Carbon. Although I'm currently very stuck because I don't know how to write passable legalese, even if it might just be for a few lines.

For this particular story, I have to research the law regarding the division of assets in a divorce. Then somehow write up a case worthy of setting a precedent about composite clones, and what percentage of a single person's DNA a clone can have before that person gets a say in the clone's use or existence.

I have a few ideas for stories using clones come to think of it. Although, given my personal worldview, they're all pretty dark.

Also, I think I want to learn Korean? I saw some charts on twitter that showed me I might actually have a decent chance of learning the written language, along with the spoken. I've always liked the written language. My brain sees it as more orderly than Chinese or Japanese.

( Korean chart, saving for later. )