Imagine a world where you have an opportunity to live another life: the only precondition is that you must have a loved one who's passed away — died — their intact body with some degree of brain activity is "on ice", and they're willing to let you inhabit and guide them in this other life.
Therefore, supplies are tight: there isn't an unlimited supply of alt (alternative, additional) accounts. You make contact with them, they consent, you both agree to a Terminal-of-Service.
Logging in consists of hooking up to a machine where you exchange minds with them. They have access to your memories, you have access to theirs. You can see the world through their eyes, and experience other senses as well. For minutes, or perhaps hours at a spell, you become like one person.
(You're still able to disagree.)
What do you experience in this other world? It may depend on what you and your dearly departed believe in. From like minds, you'll shape a mortual (mutual + mortuary + virtual) home unto your own; this may be more or less comforting depending on the relationship you had with the semi-deceased. Then, you'll travel onwards and meet others. Perhaps you'll play some games together, reminisce about the "good old days", discover connections you never knew existed…
Interesting, I used to work at a Game Testing Company and I wrote up
one time a Design Document on sort of a premise like this, except you were able to "Hop" into Rigged bodies from other planets. Yours Torley is definately more Elegant .
-S
And here I thought this was the plan all along..to merge the increasingly Turing capable avatar/bot until distinctions/dissociations with the Primary were inconsequential. Thus enabling the consanguineous avatar-corpsicle integration to function independently in either realm once storage at Alcor had been secured for the meat component!
=)
Really, wasn't that Philip's goal all along? To provide a challenging, complex environment for his doppelganger until science caught up to science fiction?
@Sabastian: I'm enamored with ideas of controlling bodies remotely! On a more grim note, I think of some sort of hive mastermind animating the dead like puppets. o.O
@xyryx: "Corpsicle" is a word I'd like to use more. Who knows what Philip's avatar has been learning all this time… it's funny how the RL Philip came to resemble his incarnation more by wearing the same clothes. OH HOW OUR AVATARS INFLUENCE US!