Immortality Inc

Author: Robert Sheckley

Different kind of apocalypse; not so much an event, but a pretty serious degeneration of society, plus an additional apocalyptic factor, introduced ironically by a way to make people immortal by a technology that allows them to reincarnate into other bodiesâ€”in the process wiping out whatever mind might have been resident in there. Sheckley explores a future in which this has become commonplace; with all the unforeseen attendant consequences. It's not a pretty world, which predictably includes a major criminal component having to do with the transmigration issue. Plus some interesting inventions, like Suicide Booths, which help those who don't want to reincarnate anymore to go to whatever other place there is or isn't after 'real' death. Why it's on the list: It is a technology-created apocalypse that definitely ended the "world as we know it" and people aren't "feeling fine". Not necessarily even the ones that reincarnate, because that's why they have suicide booths, so they can off themselves when they've had enough. Sheckley provides us with an excellently-envisaged nightmare future, based on a simple "what if". Even though this was written in the late 1950s, it has lost none of its appeal; depicting the nightmarish world that might result from what, on the face of it, seems like something almost all of us secretly desire. Ratings: Grimness: 4, Bizarreness: 2, Hope: 2, Fun-factor: 2.