Altered Carbon

Altered Carbon explores how practical immortality erodes moral responsibility and deepens class stratification. In this society, human consciousness is stored in cortical stacks and can be downloaded into “sleeves,” which could be real or synthetic bodies. This innovation prolongs lifespans indefinitely but in ways that are unevenly distributed. Access to immortality is largely dependent on wealth and power: The ultra-rich maintain banks of clones and can afford frequent resleeving. For everyone else, the prolonging of life is dependent on their ability to afford new sleeves, which can be rented or recycled bodies. This system creates a greater distance between the wealthy and the poor, as a person’s body comes to reflect their economic status. The rich can immediately identify those who cannot afford expensive sleeves and come to see them as less than human.

Ortega believes that this imbalance corrupts the rich. She says: “You live that long, things start happening to you. You get too impressed with yourself. Ends up, you think you’re God. Suddenly the little people, thirty, maybe forty years old, well, they don’t really matter anymore” (53). According to her, their extended lives distort their perspective. This corruption is embodied by