The Winter Market
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The Winter Market is a science fiction short story written by William Gibson, and published as part of his Burning Chrome short story collection.
The theme of the story primarily concerns the concept of technological immortality, in which one's consciousness is separated from the body and "uploaded" into cyberspace, where it continues to think and function on its own. Characters in the story express typical concerns regarding this type of theoretical mind transfer, as to whether or not the online consciousness really is the same individual, and whether or not it was moral to allow this to happen.
In this particular tale, the original body is defective and failing, partially due to genetics, and partially due to drug abuse. Hence, the act of leaving behind the original physical form is one of escape into an untainted existence.
