In KillWare I, the online people's revolution failed to save Harry Osborne, or his brain, but Bob Howard and Mona Grant were rescued from the corp, brains intact - sorta. Thus the birth of PESD, "post-virtual epistemic stress disorder" (broken reality-connectedness mechanism). "i can trust my own mind only as far as i can trust the creator of my mind. as for 'noninvasive' neural implants, the same thing logically holds true: i can trust my implants only as far as i can trust the programmer." -- Linuxus Xianicus In KillWare II: The Wastes the corp reinvents itself, as often happens with fiduciarily compromised companies seeking to "go to the next level" ... or escape prosecution. This time, IntelliGen, aka Sunrise Industries, has rebranded itself IGC, Intelligent Genetics Corporation, and they are taking up residence in the world's largest pirate garbage dump called The Wastes where young brains are plentiful. And Bob and Mo and friends once again get caught up in the machine. "how are computers and homosapients alike: they're always being tested by their creators." -Linuxus Xianicus KillWare III: The Accidental Prisoner. Bob has a son, Scott, whom he never saw growing up because his wife left him for Europe, then died. My wife dead? Bob sat up, glanced over at Mo. Mo: Wife? Bob: She...she left me for Europe. Mo: Better than being left for another man. How can you compete with a whole continent? Bob: I was young then. Long time ago. Before PESD. Before Harry's brain. KillWare III, future present sci-fi where we live and where we die. There's a tension between life-extensionism and assisted dying, between longevity, cryogenics, Transhumanism on the one hand, and dying well and the existential reality of human mortality on the other. It's not just the what, the facts of the matter about this dilemma of the human condition: human vs. biomechanics. (Are we just our memories which might one day be uploaded into something "better" than meat-based reality, or are we that which has memories?) It's also the who, the social-ethical philosophy involved in the future - and present - that classic human drama: who gets to live, who gets to die. "the old saying still goes, 'if you can hack into their system, they can hack back into yours'. in the old days they got into your files, stole your 'stuff'; now they get into 'you', steal your soul." -- Linuxus Xianicus