Technology As Depicted In Tiptree

The technology in Tiptree’s story is made to act as a form of escape from society, but certain negative aspects of society are not excluded from cyberspace. Artificial bodies are made to conform to a certain standard of beauty, which might be an even higher standard than reality, because P. Burke’s body matters even less in this world than in the real world. In Egan’s story, the jewels are supposed to extend lives, but by doing so, the jewel itself becomes “immortal” (Egan, 159). The narrator loses his life to the jewel slowly, and neither his mind or his body can be saved. The jewel even takes over the narration, and explains that the previous narrator “spent the last week of his life helpless, terrified, suffocated by the knowledge of his impending death...in spite of that, I think of him now as a pale, insubstantial shadow” (Egan, 171). This conclusion critiques the dangers of the tendency to think that fusing the mind with technology will not affect the body, and it parallels the way in which P. Burke’s body suffered until her death as well. P. Burke’s death is quickly wrapped up, while the ending focuses sarcastically on Paul. Even though Joe is the only person who “never forgets her,” it seems as if this is only because she “was the greatest cybersystem he has ever known” ( Tiptree, 78). …show more content…
Burke and the narrator of Egan’s story lose major parts of themselves, and P. Burke’s body is only remembered for her value as a part of a larger system of technology, while the jewel can barely see the narrator's