How it works

Revival consists of bringing you back to life in the event your body dies. The process requires backing up your memories, creating a clone of your body and restoring memories to your new clone’s brain. Memories are captured via the Neuronal Interface Module (NIM) implanted in your brain, and transmitted to the central memory bank where all human memories are stored. Both of these are SEV technology, developed initially to revive astronauts killed in high-risk space missions. Cloning and memory restoration can be performed in certified medical facilities connected to the memory bank.

Neuronal Interface Module

The NIM is a device implanted in your brain allowing memories to be backed up. Every newborn and revived clone is issued with a standard NIM. It’s commonly known as the “NIM socket” or just “your socket” due to the visible entry located behind your left ear, but the device is actually made up of three components: synaptic translator, quantum transmitter and extension socket.

The synaptic translator is responsible for translating neuronal activity (synapses) into viewable and storable formats. Older versions of this component consisted of an invasive hardware implant, but nowadays it is biological, genetically engineered into the human genome. The synaptic translator performs two functions:

• Converting today’s memories into the universal multi-sensory encoding (MSE) format. MSE contains video, audio, smell, taste and touch data suitable for conscious human sensing. MSE is used to recover the current day’s memories during the revival process, to support criminal investigations, or for personal purposes such as memory albums. Regulations require your MSE data to be kept in the memory bank for one year before being permanently deleted.

• Capturing incremental long-term memories in a storable format. This process is triggered during sleep, after the brain has processed today’s short-term memories. It ensures the memory bank has a state consistent with your neural pathways, which makes it possible to restore all your memories in the event of death.

This separation between short term (today) and long-term (after sleep) memories means that revival doesn’t actually recover today’s memories. Instead, your brain’s state is recovered up to your last sleep, and your last day’s memories are recreated via an MSE upload. 

The quantum transmitter is responsible for sending memory backups (both MSE and incremental) to the memory bank in real time, using quantum entanglement. The transmitter is accessible from the NIM socket and can be upgraded or replaced in case of malfunction.

The extension socket is used to plug external devices that enhance the capabilities of the human brain. Although many approved applications exist for personal use (typically augmented reality and entertainment services), use of the extension socket is heavily regulated. Since memories in MSE format are the primary source of evidence in criminal investigations, governments and authorities enforce strict security standards to ensure memories are not tampered with. For this reason, the extension socket is read-only, which means that applications cannot be installed on the NIM and must be read from pluggable hardware cards instead.

Memory bank

The memory bank is a central database where all human memories are stored. In reality, it’s not one database, but rather a network of high availability servers and multiple databases distributed across geographically separate data centers. It’s the largest and most complex software system ever built, storing over half a trillion petabytes of data and capable of processing new memories for almost 22 billion people in real time. It includes multiple levels of redundancy to prevent data loss, including data centers located in Mars. A further data center is currently under construction in Titan.

The memory bank is operated by SEV under a commercial contract, regulated by the International Revival Council.

Cloning

The revival process requires cloning your body and restoring memories into your clone’s brain. Clones are created using your genetic code, which is stored in the memory bank alongside your memories and can be accessed by certified medical facilities. New clones default to 21 years of biological age, except if you request a different (older) age before your body dies. Reviving into a clone younger than 21 is not allowed. Growing your clone to 21 years of age takes roughly 24 months in optimal laboratory conditions.

Before revival, people used to state their age with a single number. Saying “I’m 35” meant that the person had lived for 35 years, as opposed to saying “I’m 141 35”, which today means the person lived for 141 years while her clone is biologically 35 years old.

Like memory backups, cloning is a heavily regulated activity to ensure genetic enhancements are done within approved thresholds. Health-related changes, such as the removal of hereditary conditions, are allowed with few restrictions. Physical appearance changes, on the other hand, are regulated. Any modifications to your body must be within the human genome boundaries (you can’t grow a tail for example). Facial features can be adjusted within limits per revival, such that the person continues to be recognizable to prevent fraud and identity theft. People who make allowed adjustments to their face across many revivals, however, can end up looking very different.

Reviving clones with no changes, or with approved health enhancements, is a universal benefit covered by your taxes. Other enhancements are considered a non-essential benefit and as such must be paid privately.

Technical limitations

In addition to the regulatory restrictions mentioned above, there are certain limitations imposed by the human brain and the underlying technology used for revival:

• It’s not possible to merge memories, so each person can only have one active clone updating the memory bank. For this reason, the memory bank includes a failsafe mechanism that prevents a new clone from gaining consciousness if another clone is still connected.

• The synaptic translator takes about 3 seconds to convert synapses into an MSE stream. Even though transfers to the memory bank happen in real time, this delay in translating synapses means that today’s memory capture can miss the last 3 seconds of a clone’s life if the brain or NIM are destroyed before the synaptic translator can do its job. Several criminal investigations (the majority of which homicides) have been hampered by this limitation.

• Even after the latest developments in genetic engineering, the human brain cannot reliably store more than 200 years of memories. Personal storage of older memories in MSE format is recommended for people approaching 200 years of life, after which older memories start to be replaced with new ones.

Population control

After revival became a universal right, the human population on Earth grew exponentially and reached over 19 billion people. This resulted in overcrowding in many countries, leading to the creation of the International Revival Council (IRC) which introduced population controls. The Earth's population became capped at 16 billion people from 2145 to ensure sustainability. When your body dies, if you request revival on Earth, you are required to wait for 30 years or for a slot to become available, whichever comes first. The waiting time decreases to 5 years if you chose to revive on Mars, or you can revive immediately on Titan. Controversially, these rules apply regardless of the cause of death. Decades-old petitions are requesting the IRC to waive this rule in exceptional circumstances (for example if you are a victim of homicide). The IRC, however, has avoided changes for fear of allowing people to game the system to their advantage.

More recently, the IRC approved the right to die permanently. An average of 2% of the Earth's population exercise it annually, but this is not enough to offset the birth rate, which has remained constant between 1.23 to 1.30 births per person over the last 20 years. Birth rates are monitored, but not controlled. People are free to have as many children as they want, with anyone under the age of 21 being revived immediately on their home planet in the event of death. After turning biological 21, everyone is subject to the same rules as described above.

People convicted of criminal activity on Earth have their stay revoked and are moved to one of the many prison facilities on the Moon. After undergoing a rehabilitation program, convicts are returned to the general population on one of the colonies - there is no option to return to Earth during their current clone life. Reoffenders are faced with harsher penalties of 50 to 100 years of dormancy, depending on the nature of crimes committed.

As of 2180, the global human population stands at 21.5 billion people: 16 billion on Earth, 5 billion on Mars and 500 million on Titan.