Aris had been obsessed with "immortal computation" – the idea that a human consciousness could be distilled into a smart contract, living forever as pure logic on an immutable ledger. The academic community had laughed at him. "You can't code a soul," they said.
For 47 minutes, nothing. Then, the pulse resumed. But this time, the return transaction contained a longer string: bitcoin:bc1qp6ejw8ptj9l9pkscmlf8fhhkrrjeawgpyjvtq8
Elena was a blockchain forensic analyst, a job that sounded futuristic but felt like being a digital garbage collector. She spent her days sifting through the endless, transparent muck of the Bitcoin ledger, tracing stolen coins for a cybersecurity firm. Aris had been obsessed with "immortal computation" –
