To Live Again

To Live Again is a science fiction novel by Robert Silverberg.

Recently i finished a silverberg book where about 10% of the population can be "reincarnated" sort of. their personas are imprinted onto another person's brain (IF they've got the cash), so in a way they get "To Live Again"...as the book is so aptly titled.

Twice a year the rich and powerful have themselves recorded. It costs around .5 million in fission (aka currency). When they die, people can pay to have the deceased inside their own brain. they have no motor control or sensation once imprinted. they just attribute their talents, memories and a second point of view. sometimes its a third, fourth or even fifth influence...it gets messy. The really powerful personas sometimes go dybukk and kick their hosts out of their own head. Before that happens there's usually an akward battle where the person has a fight with himself.

The more persons you carry within the more clout you have. people tend to overdo it. the nuevo riche try and get old family names so they can have ALL the assets. swindling and backstabbing abound. Reading this book was kinda like when i used to sit in on my stepmother's daily ritual of the young and the restless... I was too imature to be bored, so it was fascinating, fascinating fluff. I loved it! oh, the sci fi part is great tho. The poisons these people have access to! Carniphage starts turning your organs into a fizzy slime from the stomach out. your nerves and brain are the last to die, so you feel yourself mushing into a primordial pool of gunk. also they keep ironically quoting buddah and the tibetan book of the dead except that the main goal is the complete opposite. Nirvana is achieved when one STOPs being reincarnated...the cycle of life again and again is bad karma. which of course is why only the rich and powerful can do it. they want it all, all of it. again and again and again. its funny and fun. i say read it.