Longtime search for a 1960's or 70's book.

[elevator]

I thought the title was Dream Merchants or something similar, but no luck googling. The story was about aliens who arrived on earth with an offer to humans of immortality. Basically, they would implant a microscopic chip of a human's brain, which supposedly contained all the personality of the person, into a supercomputer traveling trhough space forever. The person (chip) was able to pre-program the life story they wanted to live out within the cyberworld including how they would die. They then entered the life programmed and lived it out. This could be repeated throughout eternity ie virtual immortality. The options were limitless and one could choose any time period etc. throughout human history, as well as have other persons appear as recurring characters in the story. Of course, while living out the life all memory of past lives was unknown.

 

[Pyan]

Are you sure about the date, elevator? This sounds remarkably like Eric Brown's Kéthani sequence of stories, but thy weren't published until about 2008...


Eric Brown: Kethani

 

[CassFrank]

I have come across this book but cannot place it.
It is from the 70s.

 

[Dave]

If it helps, the word "microchip" only came into use during the 1970's. (If that word was actually used. The science fiction idea of storing lots of information in a library of small chips/discs is much older than that, and the original series of Star Trek had black discs that held infomation for the computer.)

 

[PaulMmn]

If it helps, the word "microchip" only came into use during the 1970's. (If that word was actually used. The science fiction idea of storing lots of information in a library of small chips/discs is much older than that, and the original series of Star Trek had black discs that held infomation for the computer.)

Star Trek also had those little 2" square (approx.) things they slid into the computers.

 

[Dave]

Yes, my apologies, they were very square and not at all circular, which my use of "discs" suggests.

My point was that use if the words "microscopic chip" must predate the term "microchip" and I thought that might help hugely in tracking down the publication date of the book. (But is seems everyone would rather nitpick my posts for errors today instead.)

 

[Orcadian]

Are you sure about the date, elevator? This sounds remarkably like Eric Brown's Kéthani sequence of stories, but thy weren't published until about 2008...


Eric Brown: Kethani

@Pyan, all: Does anyone know where I can download Kéthani as an autiobook? My eyes are letting me down a bit now but I can still enjoy SF by listening to it... Thanks!