Altered Carbon

Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net to Lemmy Shitpost@lemmy.world – 1448 points –
105

about a day

Well that's generous

Nah. The 24 hour window is so all the rich, connected people can apply for some grandfathered exemption clause that's not available to the rest of us.

Well they only operate in the “business day.” Which means after 5pm they’re more vulnerable and that’s when we must strike

People say you come back. Reincarnation. Do you think so? Well, it doesn't seem mathematically possible to me, man. Uh, 'course at one time what we had on the earth was six people, you know. I avoid "two" because it's controversial but six... most people agree, "fuck, yeah, we had six at one time." Six people, six souls... cool. They died, souls went back to the place; six new people souls- still six souls. Now we have four billion people... claiming to have souls. Someone is printing up souls... and it lowers their value, you know.

-- George Carlin

There's no particular reason to think souls and reincarnation would follow the normal flow of time. If you can be reincarnated in a different place from where you lived, why not a different time? Maybe you could be reincarnated as anyone who had ever lived, or anyone ever will live. Taken to the extreme, there could be just one soul and we're all reincarnations of each other. It's all woo, so why not?

Reminds me of the short story “The Egg” by Andy Weir (same guy who wrote The Martian and Project Hail Mary (which is an amazing book, btw)).

I recommend the egg. It’s a quick read.

4 more...

Lol @ me being reincarnated as a cat. I can't pay bills sorry

They'd track you until you're reincarnated into a paying body again.

And by “track” you mean they’d kill you over and over till you roll human.

Dont even remember past lives

Spent 178 years as various insects and sea creatures

Still owe $244'000 on a used honda civic rusting in a scrapyard in a completely different country

Strange to see Zullie outside of the FromSoft space, but also, 100% accurate point.

Yeah. They make great videos and they turned out to have rad politics too. Neato.

"Where is this going. Debts? Companies? Did I miss some huge lore dump? Wait ... are they talking about the lands outside?"

.>Be me.

.>Reincarnate into a cow.

.>Moo. Moo moo moo.

.>Moo moo moo moo moo.

.>Moo

.>🐮

Companies: 🥩🥩🍔🍔💲💲

I'd just be happy that people like me. On a bun nonetheless. But a like is a like.

Your debt-ridden Reincarnation as a Cash Cow

(Why does my voice-to-text randomly capitalize words?)

Are you going to be a dairy cow? In order to produce milk, dairy cows are kept almost continually pregnant. Unwanted male calves are slaughtered in their first week of life so that their mothers' milk can be harvested for human consumption.

I hate milk, but I love my other milk products like cheese, and yogurt.

Way easier to lie about it. Just pick babies out to be indentured servants for life to repay some imagined debts. Maybe make them feel it was their fault for not paying off the debt previously. We could even target kids from poor families for this, so they have less hope of fighting back.

We did this already, a bunch of times.

Isn't this just the caste system?

Yeah so it turns out you’re responsible for the things everyone in your group did in the past. And a lot of them died without paying their bills so that’s on you kid.

Rich people would probably set something up so that their future incarnation inherits their wealth, since it's statistically likely that they'd be reincarnated as someone poorer. I could also imagine a much stronger push to bring the birthrate up even at the cost of using unethical means to force it, because if the population decreases, there wouldn't be enough children born for an increasingly large percentage to reincarnate into

Considering the Rich tend to control governments, this would result in shit like a ban on contraception and abortion, mayhaps legally requiring everyone have a minimum amount of children.

Sue a termite for damages just in case they show up as a human later or charge rent to the birds nesting in your back yard

This is why reincarnation would come to be. It would then be spun in a way that would be beneficial for people. You can buy that house with a 250 year, 3 lives mortgage!

It is I the trillionaire eu keeps accruing wealth past his 250 lives.

2nd life into mortgage year one foreclosed because you couldn't pay :'(

And class action lawsuits for damages caused in previous lives. Started a war? Polluted the land? Several million people want compensation. Can't pay now? No problem, several lifetimes to pay off that debt.

Yeah thank god we’re not doing that kind of magical thinking.

What do you mean how long would it take? They would be the ones doing the research for that exact purpose.

I would say they would be the one to prove you can track reincarnation.

My first thought was Cruelty Squad tbh.

Is this the same person who does Elden Ring lore analysis? They do good shit.

Yeah, but it could also fix some things regarding racism, sexism, ableism, trans issues, immigration, geographic disadvantages etc. Maybe climate change?

Optimistic of you to think people wouldn't use it as an excuse to be even MORE discriminatory. There would be Ultra-Whites who could claim they were never non-white in the past X years, with seniority by how far back they can trace their reincarnated whiteness. And of course there would be new religions claiming that if you follow them you'll be reincarnated into the race/environment of your choice.

Odds are you aren't going to be reincarnated as a white person though. Seems like they would cut the shit out the first time they are reincarnated as something different.

Suicide would be an epidemic.

Pretty sure that would result in negative karma, and thus the new reincarnated form would be even less desirable.

The word "desirable" in the context of human-only reincarnation opens a whole other can of worms

There was no indication that karma or any such system was included, you included that into the scenario and it is therefore invalid.

There would be people racing to get to the simplest organism incapable of sentience if there were a karmic system.

That's what the basis of reincarnation is about though.... karma. You do good deeds, your karma level goes up, you get a better reincarnated life in the future. Likewise, the opposite is true as well.

Karma is an aspect of the Hindu and Buddhist reincarnation beliefs. They do not have sole ownership of the concept of reincarnation.

If they had said "What if Hinduism is right and reincarnation is real?" then that would be a different scenario. They only put forth that the concept of reincarnation was real.

Ah I see what you mean now. Eh, regardless I'm sure the universe would have some sort of similar karmic system in place to prevent thatt suicidal loop hole.

There's no secular reason to think that the universe would care, or that a universe capable of caring would see it as a problem.

Depends on what version of reincarnation we're talking about.

Like what, a paramecium or baker’s yeast or something? At least I can’t have a collection agency coming after me then

Great show!

Politicians would be the ones passing the bills, lobbyist spend a good amount of money on buying politicians and our gov'ts to screw the working class.

I would have loved a show that was just about Poe and with various guests who stayed in the hotel

The first season was awesome, the second season not so much. I feel they wanted to put too much story into too few episodes in season two, which just left kind of a mess. I loved the concept though, sorry to have seen it canceled.

The first season stuck mostly to the first book. The second season was based on about 1/3 of the third book and 2/3 of stuff they pulled out of their ass, which is probably why it seems so disjointed. They hardly touched the second book, which focused on how corporate captured governments start wars to maintain the military industrial complex.

I miss Altered Carbon. So much.

Too bad it was only one season long.

There were two seasons, but there were three books.

No, I distinctly remember there being only one season.

The second season had Idris Alba. I don't know if you're doing a bit like "There's no season 9 of scrubs" but there's definitely a season 2 of altered carbon and it slaps.

It was Anthony Mackie and it wasn't good, at least not in comparison to the first season.

Shit, you're right. I have no idea how I mixed those two up. And honestly I think it was a bit better personally, they went all out on budget and it was apparently the reason Netflix dropped them.

Zulie the Witch has me watching videos that deep dive into lore and filenames for games I've never even played, good channel.

If you're an ssshole don't you come back as an insect or animal? That would mean rich folks would have to do actual good to avoid that. Whatever their policies, after the first few trust fund dung beetles and assorted other multi-lifetime embarrassments, they'd probably snap out of it.

Hey check out the cockroach yacht club guys! Lol, how did that forced birth + soul tracking debt thing work out for you!?

Then like half their debtors would achieve nervana and fuck off to heaven or whatever.

I think the kharma religions, this would take care of itself.

If you spend your life as an asshole you come back as a sea cucumber.

They would fall fast. What would the threat of death mean to a revolutionary? You will fall, and I will see it with my own eyes.

I used to play bass for Altered Carbon.

I played bass for ur mom. It was the old one string gourd bass.

Edit:

Hell, I almost forgot. She played my gourd bass ocarina like a pro.

Edit 2:

I took a picture of it.

I have no idea of the context or even if there is any, but this kind of utterly directionless chirping and unwarranted shittalking is the reason I love the Internet.

But can she play washtub bass as well as Emmet Otter?

Bro, you should have been there. I’m telling you. I’ve never seen anyone go to town on a gourd bass ocarina like she did.

She said that she’d never played one before, but I’ve heard that one before too.

That's actually a horrible thought... The idea that even after death, you're still going to get fucked. But luckily everything will eventually be gone... surely. X_x

Good luck trying to get money from a Galapagos tortoise! Reincarnating as a long lived and endangered (?) species, the new gamble!

Joke's on them: can't get blood from a turnip, which is what I figure I'll be reincarnated as with my Karma.

They will do year earlier