{"id":860,"date":"2011-04-06T10:57:16","date_gmt":"2011-04-06T14:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/antipaucity.com\/?p=860"},"modified":"2011-04-06T10:57:16","modified_gmt":"2011-04-06T14:57:16","slug":"the-personifid-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/merikebi.warrenmyers.com\/?p=860","title":{"rendered":"the personifid project"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s not often I read Christian fiction – too often some (or even most) the doctrines embraced and promulgated by the authors are not ones I agree with.<\/p>\n

I was very pleasantly surprised to fine that {{R E Bartlett}}’s book, {{The Personifid Project}} was not like that. It’s even a great example of science fiction, in my opinion (wherein my definition of “science fiction”\u00a0requires<\/em> the “science” to be plausible inside the world the story creates).<\/p>\n

Imagine a world centuries from now where the oceans have evaporated, Man lives in artificially-contained and -supported cities, transportation is automated, and Man has developed the technology to transfer a soul from its original body and place it into an artificial one. That is the world Ms Bartlett creates.<\/p>\n

The cover asks an intriguing question, which indeed is why I bought a copy: “when souls reside in artificial bodies.. do they still have free will?”<\/p>\n

A huge corporation, Sevig Empire, has created and markets personifids – artificial bodies wherein your soul can reside\u00a0after\u00a0discontinuation of your physical body so that humankind can finally escape the eventuality of death. The prime engineering point of the entire technology was a woman named Lavinia (“Lev”), and a man named Ryan. But after a failed transfer of Ryan’s wife, Lev gives-up on the whole enterprise, preferring to die than to be responsible for another failed transfer.<\/p>\n

Jump forward 4 years. We meet Aphra who works at Sevig Empire. She has become attached to Ryan in the intervening time since his wife’s discontinuation, but is then unwittingly exposed to a nefarious plot by Sevig (the founder\/owner of Sevig Empire) regarding the personifids. In her attempt to escape, she is found and helped by Lev and her husband Birn – Followers of the “Triune Soul” (the future world term for Christians).<\/p>\n

Ms Bartlett does a\u00a0great\u00a0job of not being preachy about her characters’ faith – but also outlines the basic tenets of Christianity in a way that informs, but does not (or, at least should not) alienate.<\/p>\n

In comparison to other science fiction stories I have read, The Personifid Project<\/em> is similar to {{Minority Report}}, {{I, Robot}} (the Will Smith film version), {{Michael Crichton}}’s {{Next}}, and {{Surrogates}} – with a little {{Wall-E}} thrown-in for the environmental aspects.<\/p>\n