Rights catalogue

The Chimera Awakens

Lina Ulvestad Halås

‘’Someone else’s hands are washing me in the morning, doing my make-up, lifting my hair up and tying it in a bun. I am watching someone touch someone else’s body but can feel the touch on my own.” A lecture at the university discusses the possibility of freezing the brain of people who have died, with the idea to wait for the technology which allows them to bring the brain back to life in a new body. Kim volunteers, without further consideration. Suddenly she wakes up in the future. The technology they have been waiting for now exists, but the programme is shut down due to concerns that it is unethical. Kim is one of very few so-called chimeras. Kim was a committed student with a future at a Greenpeace arrangement in Antarctica, but the life she used to live belongs to the past and she accepts a job as a maid at a hotel. After a while her memory starts to fail, and large parts of her life disappear from her. She begins to seek refuge in the world of games, and her avatar gradually becomes a larger part of the life Kim believes to be living. The Chimera Awakens addresses popular culture and the role of modern technology and its influence on our lives.