Theme · Book 7, This Inevitable Ruin
Staying human
'If we get to the point where we don't help each other anymore, that's when we stop being human.' The book's argument with itself: Carl covers the Meadow Lark signs so no one farms the elderly for experience, is told by twenty percent of a focus group that he is carrying dead weight, and cannot decide whether keeping them alive was a kindness.
Segment appearances
Progression
Survival has more than one meaning: an order to send a child dinosaur out, erased (ch. 30); a Conscription potion put away (ch. 48); a ring refused and swallowed (ch. 85); Bautista's shame at not being counted human (ch. 87); Katia made human again, and less (ch. 86).