Re-Sleeving Reality: A Deep Dive into Altered Carbon Season 1

English writer Richard K. Morgan released a cyberpunk novel “Altered Carbon” in 2002. Events in the novel are sent to the distant future, where wealthy people have a real chance of attaining immortality by transferring their consciousness to young bodies. The story revolves around the exploits of Takeshi Kovacs as he investigates the death of a rich man. Fast-forward to 16 years later, the novel finally hits the screen on Netflix. The first season comprises 10 episodes, all of which originally aired on February 2, 2018. And if you can spare just one day when you have nowhere to go and nothing to do, Altered Carbon is probably the easiest way to kill the time.

Premise

Apart from some minor differences, much of the storyline in the novel is well kept in the show. The plot line still pretty much centers on the murder mystery of a wealthy individual, and we delve deep into the intricacy of the cyberpunk world through the perspective of Takeshi Kovacs. In the TV series, Kovacs is depicted as a former elite soldier of the United Nations Protectorate. His sleeve died about 250 years ago, and now he wakes up (his memories have just been downloaded into another sleeve) to find himself in a new body, living in a strange world that’s entirely different from what he knew a few centuries ago. But that’s only part one of his problem. He’s given two simple options: spend the rest of his life in prison or help the police solve the murder of the world’s richest man.

Re-sleeving plays a major part of the narrative in Altered Carbon Season 1. The “future” timeline presented here doesn’t really understand or accept the concept of death, except if you have no money. When you die of any cause, it’s possible to have your memories and consciousness transferred into a brand-new body through the process known as re-sleeving. However, only the wealthiest people – referred to as Methuselah – can afford to store their consciousness in some kind of cloud storage, run and maintained in satellites.

Money makes it easier to replace or clone bodies, so the rich can get “re-sleeved” any time without having to worry about dying of old age. As expected, immortality can’t really change human nature, and that’s the whole idea of Altered Carbon. Even if you can live forever, you’re still stuck with old-fashioned greed, lust, and desires. The murdered man in question is Lauren Bancroft, a 300-year-old Methuselah and an outright creep who lives in a skyscraper so high it passes through the clouds. He pulls some strings to get Kovacs back to life and out of prison to get to the bottom of the murder case.

Not everybody, even if they’re rich, is fond of the idea of re-sleeving. The neo-Catholics in Altered Carbon maintain the belief that a person can only live once, followed by the afterlife. Downloading your memories and moving it into another body is therefore a big, bold, resounding no. Such a dynamic delivers a true (in a fictional way) moral quandary that sends the characters into some philosophical debates, which are interesting if you’re into that sort of thing. Murderers like to target the believers because they know the victims wouldn’t want to be brought back to life for questioning.

Technology isn’t all about providing the opportunity to attain immortality. Artificial Intelligence is part of daily life in Altered Carbon. One of the most memorable is Poe, the manager of the hotel where Kovacs sets his base of operation. Poe is based on Edgar Allan Poe, and instead of being all high tech and robotic, the AI is a bit too clingy and outdated for its own good, just like many other robots in the series. The robots serve the narrative well to break the ice each time the story takes itself much too seriously.

As for the cyberpunk visuals, everything about Altered Carbon appears to come straight out of the same studio where Blade Runner was made. You have bright colorful neon, crowded city streets, dark alleys, and a seemingly endless rain. And if you try to remember hard enough, you’ll come to realize that the whole consciousness-transfer paradigm has actually been done before in another cyberpunk work: The Matrix. Not that Altered Carbon has nothing new to offer. Instead, see it as a blend of a couple of cyberpunk’s greatest hits.

We think Altered Carbon is, at its best, a notable rival to the long-established universe of Blade Runner. The murder mystery is an excellent way to open the narrative, but unfortunately it loses a great deal of exciting development before long. That being said, the socio-political issues it brings turn out to be major attractions to keep the audience engaged in the series. But the biggest highlight here is the visual; as a cyberpunk fantasy, the series gets everything right, from the neon and cool weapons to genetically modified people and futuristic cars.

Altered Carbon is science fiction alright, but do you think the idea of re-sleeving makes sense, at least theoretically? Can you explain what needle casting is? We’d love to hear from you.

Other Things You Might Want to Know

What are the episode titles in Season 1?

  • Episode 1 – Out of the Past
  • Episode 2 – Fallen Angel
  • Episode 3 – In a Lonely Place
  • Episode 4 – Force of Evil
  • Episode 5 – The Wrong Man
  • Episode 6 – Man with My Face
  • Episode 7 – Nora Inu
  • Episode 8 – Clash by Night
  • Episode 9 – Rage in Heaven
  • Episode 10 – The Killers

Who’s Edgar Allan Poe?

The short story “The Murder in the Rue Morgue” is largely regarded as one of the first true detective stories. It was written by Edgar Allan Poe and first published in 1841. He was also known for writing “The Balloon Hoax” in 1844, which was originally presented as the true story of Monck Manson’s journey across the Atlantic Ocean in just three days in a gas balloon. The Balloon Hoax was written for the Sun, which later retracted the story after the revelation that it had been a fictional tale all along.

What are Cortical Stacks and Sleeves in Altered Carbon?

Think of a Cortical Stack as a super-advanced memory card designed to store a person’s memories. When a person (or the body) dies, the stack can be removed and installed in a new body. Such a method allows for the possibility of a person having an eternal life, despite having to change bodies now and then.

A sleeve is a new body to be implanted with a cortical stack. In Altered Carbon, the amount of money you’re willing to spend determines how good-looking your sleeve is. If you have enough, you can even choose to replace a sleeve before the body dies, opening the door to forever youth and beauty. The less fortunate might end up having to live inside an already old and fragile sleeve.

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