MedGel is one of the most important inventions of this century. And rightly so! No matter what injury or illness plagues you, with a little MedGel you’re back on your feet in no time. From that moment on, life expectancy only knew one direction: steeply upwards.
But that was far from the end of it. Thanks to adopting an imprint technology left to us by alien life forms, the final boss of all life forms, death itself, is no longer an inevitable end. It’s just an annoying inconvenience, like a bad headache: a bit of MedGel, and everything’s fine again. Who’s still complaining about that? Hardly anyone. Resistance to something like this is… well, rare. After all, it would be political suicide to take death’s side.
I’m deliberately leaving the ethical and social dilemmas aside here. Wiser minds have already dealt with them and filled whole libraries. Let’s stick to the practical applications and their consequences.
Who manages all those imprint databases, and what can be done with them? Could someone create a loyal army made up only of copies of themselves? Now that would be a sight: a Polaris full of clone troopers in heavy white marine armor. I’m sure I’ve seen something like that somewhere before… And if they can actually hit something on top of that, then good night!
The more interesting question, though: can imprints be manipulated? Change the mind or the body so much that you’d hardly recognize it? Or, on the contrary, so subtly that nobody notices? Could you perhaps even lend a hand yourself and, for a hefty fee of course, make some creative provisions for your future? Officially, changes like that aren’t supposed to be possible. Lots of laws and regulations have been written for it. But does that really stop everyone? And do we understand the technology well enough to rule out manipulation with technical certainty? Would we even notice if something like that happened to us? Are you still you then? How can you be sure?
I mean sure, if you wake up and suddenly have a third arm on your back or you’re four meters tall, that would probably stand out. But what if at the next Imperator election you suddenly vote for a different candidate than you always do? Did you just change your mind, or did someone give it a little push?
I’m just asking questions…
