Altered Carbon: This upcoming Netflix cyberpunk series looks equal parts intriguing and horrifying

Altered Carbon will start streaming from February 2.

What if you could store human consciousness digitally? Scientists are not sure if consciousness is a thing or not, but science fiction writers have their liberties due to the word ‘fiction’. English author Richard K. Morgan wrote Altered Carbon where human consciousness can be downloaded and even transferred to another body. Soul transfer is its equivalent in horror movies. If your consciousness, practically the real you, can be converted to code, then the possibilities are endless, and not all of them pleasant. For example, when you die, your loved ones (or not) can transfer ‘you’ to another person’s body and reanimate you. And I kid you not, a character in the series wants his ‘murder’ solved. This is out-and-out horror!

Here is the official synopsis: “I didn’t ask you to bring me back into this world… In a future where you can change your body like changing clothes, nothing is eternal… except life itself. Explore immortality with Joel Kinnaman and Laeta Kalogridis in this exclusive look at the concept of eternity within the cyberpunk world of Altered Carbon where consciousness can be downloaded onto any stack and put into any sleeve, at any time. Plug into another body, and solve a murder, HERE. Based on the classic cyberpunk noir novel by Richard K. Morgan, Altered Carbon is an intriguing story of murder, love, sex, and betrayal, set more than 300 years in the future. Society has been transformed by new technology: consciousness can be digitized; human bodies are interchangeable; death is no longer permanent.”

Altered Carbon stars Joel Kinnaman, Renée Elise Goldsberry, James Purefoy, Martha Higareda, Dichen Lachman, Leonardo Nam, Chris Connor, Ato Essandoh and Trieu Tran.

“I’m thrilled to get the chance to share the cyberpunk world of ALTERED CARBON with the Netflix audience. It’s been a labor of love and lunacy, much like the journey of Takeshi Kovacs himself, and I’m beyond excited for all of you to see what we’ve created,” showrunner Laeta Kalogridis said in a statement.

Altered Carbon launches on Netflix in February.