Robot Stories (2003): Clay story
A dying sculptor must choose whether or not to transfer his consciousness to a digital world before he passes away.
12 total · 3 choice · 4 major · 5 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| coping with a terminal illness | choice | The main character John coped with having a year left to live owing to an incurable lung infection. |
| digital afterlife | choice | The story is set in a future where it is normal for people to have their consciousness transferred to a digital world before they die. |
| nature vs. artifice | choice | The dying clay sculptor John ultimately refused to transfer his consciousness into a digital world, because he wanted to keep using his physical senses to make sculptures. John could not love the digital copy of his wife in the same way that he loved the original. In the end, John choose to die rather than become part of an artificial reality. |
| digital clone of a person | major | John's wife had died in the past but her consciousness lived on with him in the form of a virtual hologram. |
| husband and wife | major | The story explores the relationship between John and the digital clone of his deceased wife. |
| romantic love | major | The story explores how John loses his connection with his wife after her consciousness is transferred into a digital world. |
| sculpture | major | The clay sculptor John was working on finishing a one last project before he died. |
| father and son | minor | John's son urged him to continue his sculpting work in the digital after world. |
| feeling of inadequacy | minor | John confided in Helen that he felt he didn't deserve her. |
| hologram | minor | The consciousness of John's deceased wife appeared in his home in holographic form. |