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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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.
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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's something of this in Max Gladstone's Craft sequences. -
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 ah, a fantasy version of RoboCop
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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 Just when you thought you were out, iteas for a Laundry Files anthology pull you back in. *chuckles darkly*
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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 Great concept. Maybe after you finish your sequel?
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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 While this idea is quite different, for some reason it reminded me of the Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I. Series by Kevin J. Anderson, which I enjoyed quite a lot & wished there was more of.
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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...
@electropict This is very close to Vernor Vinge's novella "The Cookie Monster" : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cookie_Monster_(novella)
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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 Iain M. Banks had a novel ("Surface Detail") about a planet that enforced post-life hell by digitalizing a person's memories and personality and then installing it in a computer-generated sim of hell.
