Living forever

Living forever

Netflix's new series Altered Carbon explores technological solutions to human mortality

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

A new scientific study has been published on the upper limits of the human lifespan. While medical advances continue to lengthen the average time a human stays alive on Earth, scientists have determined that the maximum age a human can likely survive is no longer than 120 years, due to physical imperfections in the gene-replication process. Like all things borne of flesh, our bodies can only alter the natural force of entropy for so long before we break down forever.

But what if your memories and personality manage to outlive your physical body? What if you can keep living forever by downloading your personality into a new, healthy body?

Such is the premise of Altered Carbon, the upcoming Netflix original series due out this week. In a far-flung, neon-splashed cyberpunk future hundreds of years from now, humans have achieved the ability to download and "re-sleeve" human consciousness in new bodies. Death is no longer permanent, and human lives are treated as a commodity to be bought and sold, as no one can truly die any more.

In this future, long-dead soldier Takeshi Kovacs is downloaded into a new body after 250 years on ice, to solve the mysterious corporeal death of an important aristocrat who is convinced he was murdered before his consciousness was uploaded to a new body.

Based on a 2002 novel by Richard K. Morgan, the series is adapted and directed by Laeta Kalogridis (Avatar, Nightwatch, Shutter Island), and will star House Of Cards actor Joel Kinnaman in the leading role, alongside other notable actors such as Tony-winning Hamilton alum Renée Elise Goldsberry. The series is also reportedly partly directed by Emmy-winning director Miguel Sapochnik (Game Of Thrones), and will see its 10-episode season go up in its entirety on Friday.

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