Extra lives was a standard feature in video games even earlier than Pac Man and still remains a feature of some video games even today. Some corner of my brain recently wondered how that would work exactly and I found a new story universe unfolding in my mind. In "Revive," which I think would be more appropriate as story-based video game than a novel (though it could easily be both), a future exists where medical technology is so advanced that it's possible to bring people back from the dead on a routine basis. This would be based on massive brain reconstruction after death and sophisticated chips implanted in the brainstem that record a person's mental status at the time of death--a sort of "black box" for the human mind. People who could afford the regeneration services could be routinely brought back to life--though a medical technology as advanced as this would probably be able to keep the very wealthy alive forever--that is, keep them from death o...
Thoughts on stories, the universe, and everything.