Dennis Hollingsworth

ZARDOZ

The future imagined by John Borman in the movie Zardoz has moved one step closer:

Years ago, I read a short story by (I think) Greg Egan in which everyone gets a tiny crystal storage device implanted at the base of his or her brain. Via nanotechnology, the crystal is "wired" to the entire brain and is essentially just backing the brain up as it goes, neuron by neuron. In a sense, the crystal is a sort of "warm standby" backup of the brain, the ultimate disaster recovery system.

The crsytal is diamond, and thus highly resistant to shock, changes in temperature, etc. So no matter what happens to you, no matter how traumatic, chances are the crystal comes out just fine. So whatever happens to me, I am a restorable entity. Via stem cell technology, they can grow back anything that's missing from my body, up to and including major chunks of brain. Then once my body and brain are whole, they just do a restore from the crystal, and voila!

It's me. Just like before the accident.

I guess that this would be the "cure" for acephalia.

(This is a screenshot of the great unsung John Boorman movie, Zardoz. A film as loved as much as it is mocked. By all means, see it for yourself and choose which side you're on.