Cheating Life – 1.1

i

IT ALL STARTED when they made suicide legal.

I guess it really started before that, when that team of university scientists in Singapore set up Stephenson Lenses in the local emergency rooms. They were as surprised as anyone by their results: images of unexplained energy leaving the bodies of the dying. Of course the scientists were largely ignored until an American TV magazine picked up the story, after which they were laughed at instead. The AP caught wind of it, and the team was heckled and shouted down at every news conference. But they were the crack in the dam.

The next year, a startup in Michigan announced the ability to “fingerprint the unique psychic energy” of a person, even when that person was still alive. The startup’s founder called this individual pattern an ‘echoshape’ and thought he could market his tech to biometrics firms, but everyone else still called it a soul and didn’t want it mapped, thanks but no thanks. The startup foundered, and their hardware scattered on eBay. A couple of venture cinematographers got their hands on an echoshaper, took it to their local hospital, and filmed dozens of spirits leaving the dead then meandering over to the maternity ward. Public Access saw it, Nightly News saw it, and then everyone saw it – souls and reincarnation in one neat package.

Next