Skip to content
  • Categories
  • Recent
  • Tags
  • Popular
  • World
  • Users
  • Groups
Skins
  • Light
  • Brite
  • Cerulean
  • Cosmo
  • Flatly
  • Journal
  • Litera
  • Lumen
  • Lux
  • Materia
  • Minty
  • Morph
  • Pulse
  • Sandstone
  • Simplex
  • Sketchy
  • Spacelab
  • United
  • Yeti
  • Zephyr
  • Dark
  • Cyborg
  • Darkly
  • Quartz
  • Slate
  • Solar
  • Superhero
  • Vapor

  • Default (Darkly)
  • No Skin
Collapse
Brand Logo
  1. Home
  2. Uncategorized
  3. 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?

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?

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Uncategorized
49 Posts 39 Posters 0 Views
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as topic
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
  • Charlie StrossC Charlie Stross

    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.

    ThePdogT This user is from outside of this forum
    ThePdogT This user is from outside of this forum
    ThePdog
    wrote last edited by
    #41

    @cstross Great concept. Maybe after you finish your sequel?

    1 Reply Last reply
    0
    • Charlie StrossC Charlie Stross

      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.

      Nonya Bidniss :CIAverified: 🇺🇸N This user is from outside of this forum
      Nonya Bidniss :CIAverified: 🇺🇸N This user is from outside of this forum
      Nonya Bidniss :CIAverified: 🇺🇸
      wrote last edited by
      #42

      @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.

      1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • Fucking bitch Martin VermeerM This user is from outside of this forum
        Fucking bitch Martin VermeerM This user is from outside of this forum
        Fucking bitch Martin Vermeer
        wrote last edited by
        #43

        @xChaos @moira @cstross In Dutch even the same word: schuld.

        1 Reply Last reply
        0
        • ElectropictE Electropict

          @cstross

          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...

          Matthew KenworthyM This user is from outside of this forum
          Matthew KenworthyM This user is from outside of this forum
          Matthew Kenworthy
          wrote last edited by
          #44

          @electropict This is very close to Vernor Vinge's novella "The Cookie Monster" : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cookie_Monster_(novella)

          1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • Charlie StrossC Charlie Stross

            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.

            Dean L. SurkinD This user is from outside of this forum
            Dean L. SurkinD This user is from outside of this forum
            Dean L. Surkin
            wrote last edited by
            #45

            @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.

            Charlie StrossC 1 Reply Last reply
            0
            • Angus McIntyreA Angus McIntyre

              @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 …”

              KrukuK This user is from outside of this forum
              KrukuK This user is from outside of this forum
              Kruku
              wrote last edited by
              #46

              @angusm @cstross
              Should we ever be able to map individual human consciousness, including memories, completely and accurately from human brains the notion of a "debtor's Hell" could become a reality, at least as far as using human minds as computers for unpaid labour is concerned.

              1 Reply Last reply
              0
              • Dean L. SurkinD Dean L. Surkin

                @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.

                Charlie StrossC This user is from outside of this forum
                Charlie StrossC This user is from outside of this forum
                Charlie Stross
                wrote last edited by
                #47

                @dsurkin Yes, I have a signed first edition copy. (It also has a thinly-disguised Elon Musk style entrepreneur who buys up all the bankrupt hells and runs hells as a software service on behalf of their creators.)

                1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • ALFA ALF

                  @cstross

                  Morten Juhl-JohansenM This user is from outside of this forum
                  Morten Juhl-JohansenM This user is from outside of this forum
                  Morten Juhl-Johansen
                  wrote last edited by
                  #48

                  @Astronomy_A2Z @cstross That is basically what happens to me at work wheneverI have had a heavy lunch.
                  A resurrection effort around 1 PM.

                  1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • Charlie StrossC Charlie Stross

                    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.

                    Jürgen HubertJ This user is from outside of this forum
                    Jürgen HubertJ This user is from outside of this forum
                    Jürgen Hubert
                    wrote last edited by
                    #49

                    @cstross

                    This actually pops up in German folklore, and fits with the old Catholic notion that donations made in the name of the dead, or paid masses held in their name, would shorten their time in purgatory.

                    https://wiki.sunkencastles.com/wiki/The_Fire_Mountain

                    1 Reply Last reply
                    1
                    0
                    • R ActivityRelay shared this topic
                    Reply
                    • Reply as topic
                    Log in to reply
                    • Oldest to Newest
                    • Newest to Oldest
                    • Most Votes


                    • Login

                    • Don't have an account? Register

                    • Login or register to search.
                    Powered by NodeBB Contributors
                    • First post
                      Last post
                    0
                    • Categories
                    • Recent
                    • Tags
                    • Popular
                    • World
                    • Users
                    • Groups