In Morgan’s novel, set in the 25th Century, human memories are backed up and stored in cortical stacks, data storage systems implanted in the human body. If the body dies, the stack can be “resleeved” in another body, enabling human beings to become essentially immortal. But only the very rich can afford to be resleeved frequently, and when one such very wealthy, very long-lived individual, Laurens Bancroft, dies, his stack is shockingly destroyed as well. Thanks to a remote backup, Bancroft is able to be resleeved again, but finds he’s missing the memories from the 48 hours prior to his death. While the police rule Bancroft’s death a suicide, Bancroft himself believes he was murdered.
— James McTeigue, on an adaptation of Richard K. Morgan’s Altered Carbon (via urbanbuddha)
