Altered Carbon - General Discussion

[Meredith Quill]

This topic replaces the old forum for this show which has been vaulted here:

https://forums.primetimer.com/forum/3150-altered-carbon-v/

[AuntieMame]

So did anyone else think that a huge hole in the world building was how were all of the bodies/sleeves created? Because our characters seem to have no trouble getting young, healthy, even enhanced bodies. We know that people in jail donate their bodies as part of the punishment. What happens when their terms are served? Are they given another sleeve? We get hints that bodies are at a premium (and very expensive) both by showing us the little girl sleeved into an old lady and that clones and sleeves are very expensive for even the wealthy during the visit to the high end sleeve factory. 
 
So where are the bodies coming from? Cloning requires an ova denuded of genetic material for each cloning attempt. Dozens to hundreds of ova are required for each “successful” clone. Where are the eggs coming from? 
 
If artificial womb techniques have been developed than why are clones so expensive? Even good sleeves are shown as the province of the extremely wealthy. Clearly artificial manufacture of human bodies hasn’t been perfected and still requires female humans and female ova, the root cell of all life. Women at some level still have to create all of these “sleeves” and all of the characters have had several. Even those who aren’t wealthy. Plus, “bodies” are born with consciousness inborn. What happens to the original consciousness  if the body/child is ultimately going to grow up to be a sleeve for someone else?  
 
Yes, the consciousness is stored as Digital Human Freight but why wouldn’t people fight against basically being killed/stored once they’d developed enough to be attractive as a sleeve for a wealthier person? Has an organized crime trade in sleeves/slaves developed? And how does the brain and body of the sleeve react to having a different consciousness in it? I know that substance dualism is so strong an idea in Western culture and philosophy that we fail to even see it and see the body as an insensate thing, mortal and held in contempt, but is the human creature (or any other creature for that matter) truly a thing of replaceable, discrete components? Especially the mind?  Is the mind truly separate from the rest of the body?
 
Why would women continue to have children in these circumstances? It seems that no one keeps their original body. And how could there possibly be multiple bodies to go around for most people? 

Yes, yes, I know this is supposed to be a hey look at the ubercool tough guy and special twist, everyone switches bodies, so the villain can surprise you by stealth. But the very fact that the source of all of these sleeves is invisible and that none of these questions even occurred to the author is very interesting. Women and their reproduction really are invisible. So invisible that I haven’t seen anyone question the source of the multiple sleeves for everyone. Especially after we’re explicitly told that high end sleeves are expensive and clones more expensive still. Technology that can be scaled gets cheaper not more expensive so clearly most of this still requires some of the old fashioned reproductive cells and bodies. Women are needed more than ever to make multiple bodies for most people born. And humans have expanded to other planets so human population is up not down. Are there complexes of female breeder slaves somewhere endlessly producing sleeves? How are these sleeves raised to adulthood? 
 

What I find most interesting is that the author didn’t think of any of this. Just wondering if any other viewers saw the massive disconnect in the logic and world building. There is a very interesting speculative fiction story here but even the most obvious questions never occurred to the author. I realize it will be a while before anyone responds but people do watch older shows so I thought I’d put it out there. 

[Tachi Rocinante]

Book reader, finished Season 1. The cinematography and effects were very well done.

Overall I liked it, but there was some unevenness throughout. Dichen Lachman was not quite believable. I liked Will Yun Lee and Poe.  Kinnaman was passable, and Higareda was a little inconsistent. 

[Tachi Rocinante]

Finished Season 2.  It was decent.