Mad fantasy-fic idea: what if even death is no escape from the law, and contracts signed in life remain binding after shuffling off this mortal coil?
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@leyrer
Sometimes it's just @foone being a muse: https://wandering.shop/@cstross/116108084351760427
@cstross@towo I saw that
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Mad fantasy-fic idea: what if even death is no escape from the law, and contracts signed in life remain binding after shuffling off this mortal coil?
In this setting, all contract lawyers are necromancers. A zombie is what you get when an undischarged bankrupt dies. And so on.
@cstross may I suggest Katarina Pistor's "The Code of Capital"?
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Mad fantasy-fic idea: what if even death is no escape from the law, and contracts signed in life remain binding after shuffling off this mortal coil?
In this setting, all contract lawyers are necromancers. A zombie is what you get when an undischarged bankrupt dies. And so on.
I think we're just about there IRL.
Someone just needs to pitch it to the VCs and obtainable politicians:
LLM bots that not only mimic your features, voice and writing style, but also can maintain your legal existence, rights, liabilities and specifically copyrights until the heat death of capitalism.
There's money to be made, or rather, kept...
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Mad fantasy-fic idea: what if even death is no escape from the law, and contracts signed in life remain binding after shuffling off this mortal coil?
In this setting, all contract lawyers are necromancers. A zombie is what you get when an undischarged bankrupt dies. And so on.
@cstross
That feels familiar, but not sure why. Maybe a short story from some anthology, or something Deathy from Terry Pratchett or Piers Anthony or what's his name that did Sandman. -
Mad fantasy-fic idea: what if even death is no escape from the law, and contracts signed in life remain binding after shuffling off this mortal coil?
In this setting, all contract lawyers are necromancers. A zombie is what you get when an undischarged bankrupt dies. And so on.
Driven a little bit by personal experience, would these particular Contract Lawyers be Barristers? I had to pay one for specialised legal advice, not for representation in court.
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Mad fantasy-fic idea: what if even death is no escape from the law, and contracts signed in life remain binding after shuffling off this mortal coil?
In this setting, all contract lawyers are necromancers. A zombie is what you get when an undischarged bankrupt dies. And so on.
@cstross If you haven't yet seen the show "Extraordinary", it's a must watch. There's a character in it who can do séance-style summonings of the dead, so of course her job is to work with lawyers untangling wills and titles
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@cstross Tangentially related, what if a practical cure for aging was discovered? There is a novel called The Postmortal which imagines the many dystopian aspects of never dying.
Richard K Morgan's Altered Carbon series imagines immortality via mind uploading and body swapping tech as technologies which demonstrably have lead to the end of alien civilizations but which humans just can't resist.
@Infoseepage Ssh, that might be a spoiler for the novel I just finished …!
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Mad fantasy-fic idea: what if even death is no escape from the law, and contracts signed in life remain binding after shuffling off this mortal coil?
In this setting, all contract lawyers are necromancers. A zombie is what you get when an undischarged bankrupt dies. And so on.
@cstross There was a very funny story on Escape Pod years ago (or it might have been its horror spin-off) with exactly that premise, and the dead were made to work in call centres until their debts were settled.
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Mad fantasy-fic idea: what if even death is no escape from the law, and contracts signed in life remain binding after shuffling off this mortal coil?
In this setting, all contract lawyers are necromancers. A zombie is what you get when an undischarged bankrupt dies. And so on.
@cstross I seem to recall Whedon had a subplot like this in an episode of Buffy spinoff, Angel. One character breaks into the satanic legal agency, fights to the secure contracts and destroys the one that bound a now deceased woman he was close to, even after death. But it just reforms, and her spirit thanks him for trying, but she knew this when she signed, it was "forever"
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@Infoseepage Ssh, that might be a spoiler for the novel I just finished …!
@cstross Immortality as a product/treatment is anything new for SciFi. It's been providing rich fodder for authors for decades upon decades of speculation on the perverse shapes civilizations with access to such technology might take. You've got books like Vance's To Live Forever and Sheckley's Immortality, Inc. going back to the 1950's. Personal favorites growing up are Haldeman's Buying Time and Boat of a Million Years.
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@cstross Immortality as a product/treatment is anything new for SciFi. It's been providing rich fodder for authors for decades upon decades of speculation on the perverse shapes civilizations with access to such technology might take. You've got books like Vance's To Live Forever and Sheckley's Immortality, Inc. going back to the 1950's. Personal favorites growing up are Haldeman's Buying Time and Boat of a Million Years.
@cstross Lately, caught a few episodes of The Beauty, which is about a lab created immortality virus which gets loose, mutates and is sexually transmissible. It radically reshapes individuals for youth, health and beauty, but comes with a ticking time bomb of spontaneous combustion within a few years of infection unless you get an expensive suppressive shot. Sort of the ultimate in "the first one is always free" perpetual rent seeking.
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@cstross Immortality as a product/treatment is anything new for SciFi. It's been providing rich fodder for authors for decades upon decades of speculation on the perverse shapes civilizations with access to such technology might take. You've got books like Vance's To Live Forever and Sheckley's Immortality, Inc. going back to the 1950's. Personal favorites growing up are Haldeman's Buying Time and Boat of a Million Years.
@Infoseepage You haven't read my SF, have you? (Hint: try "Glasshouse".)
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Mad fantasy-fic idea: what if even death is no escape from the law, and contracts signed in life remain binding after shuffling off this mortal coil?
In this setting, all contract lawyers are necromancers. A zombie is what you get when an undischarged bankrupt dies. And so on.
@cstross
Tales from the Black Chamber -
@Infoseepage You haven't read my SF, have you? (Hint: try "Glasshouse".)
@cstross I've read your stuff fairly comprehensively, but somehow missed that one. Tossing it on my list now.
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Mad fantasy-fic idea: what if even death is no escape from the law, and contracts signed in life remain binding after shuffling off this mortal coil?
In this setting, all contract lawyers are necromancers. A zombie is what you get when an undischarged bankrupt dies. And so on.
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Mad fantasy-fic idea: what if even death is no escape from the law, and contracts signed in life remain binding after shuffling off this mortal coil?
In this setting, all contract lawyers are necromancers. A zombie is what you get when an undischarged bankrupt dies. And so on.
@cstross The Orzhov Syndicate would like a word.
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Mad fantasy-fic idea: what if even death is no escape from the law, and contracts signed in life remain binding after shuffling off this mortal coil?
In this setting, all contract lawyers are necromancers. A zombie is what you get when an undischarged bankrupt dies. And so on.
@cstross "The Victorians were onto something with their debtors' prison. So I'd like to introduce you to a little concept we're working on. It's called debtors' Hell …”
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@cstross I've read your stuff fairly comprehensively, but somehow missed that one. Tossing it on my list now.
@Infoseepage A thing i should have made clear in the front matter is that "the glasshouse" is old British army slang for a military prison.
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@cstross 3dfx inspired, right?
@davidgerard @cstross Sounds like a mix of the Laundry's 'residual assets' is it? With Max Gladstone's stuff. Neat!
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@cstross I seem to recall Whedon had a subplot like this in an episode of Buffy spinoff, Angel. One character breaks into the satanic legal agency, fights to the secure contracts and destroys the one that bound a now deceased woman he was close to, even after death. But it just reforms, and her spirit thanks him for trying, but she knew this when she signed, it was "forever"
@LordWoolamaloo @cstross came here to say this.
