Immortality Inc

Author: Robert Sheckley

Many of those in the Transhumanist camp believe that sooner or later, in a twisted take on the 'reincarnation' mythos, we'll be able to effectively separate minds from bodies and incarnate them into machines. This novel, by contrast, envisages a world where something that some might consider much more desirable is possible: separating 'minds' from bodies and implanting them into new bodiesin the process wiping out whatever minds might have been resident in there. Sheckley explores a future in which this has become commonplace; with all the unforeseen attendant consequences. It's not a pretty world, which predictably includes a major criminal component having to do with the transmigration issue. Plus some interesting inventions, like Suicide Booths that help those who don't want to reincarnate anymore to go to whatever other place there is or isn't after 'real' death. Why it's on the list: Sheckley provides us with an excellently-envisaged nightmare future, based on a simple 'what if'. Even though this was written in the late 1950s, it has lost none of its appeal; depicting the nightmarish world that might result from what, on the face of it, seems like something almost all of us secretly desire is solidly imagined. Read if you like: Immortality tales. 'Unforeseen consequences' tales.