The Unincorporated Man
The incredible has happened. A billionaire businessman from our time, frozen in secret in the early 21st century, is discovered in the far future and resurrected, given health and a vigorous younger body. He awakens into a civilization in which every individual is formed into a legal corporation at birth, and spends many years trying to attain control over their own life by getting a majority of his or her own shares. Life extension has made life very long indeed.Justin Cord is the only unincorporated man in the world, a true stranger in this strange land. Justin survived because he is tough and smart. He cannot accept only part ownership of himself, even if that places him in conflict with a civilization that extends outside the solar system to the Oort Cloud.The Unincorporated Man is a provocative social/political/economic novel that people will be arguing about for decades.
Stats for nerds
12recommend
23mentions
16people
2010–2026years
61% recommend35% neutral4% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Somewhat lesser-known sci-fi novels I read in the past:
The Unincorporated Man (and three sequels)
Cross between science fiction and fantasy: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality ("HPMOR") - the premise is that Harry Potter is raised by a good aunt and uncle, and is taught the Scientific Method and so he uses that when encountering magic.
Old Man's War (and sequels) by John Scalzi
Redshirts by John Scalzi
Science-reality: Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!
Ra by qntm
There is no Antiemetics Division by qntm
- The Unincorporated Man
(Ender's Game too, but haven't read the sequels, but I also recommend Ender's Shadow - a parallel novel from a different character's perspective.)
- In the "give this a read" category... The Unincorporated Man. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unincorporated_Man // https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4025200-the-unincorporat...
It has some intriguing ideas that... bear thinking about. I'll note that this is a social / political / economic paper with a story more than a good story with interesting ideas.
From one of the Goodreads reviews which spells out the basics of society:
> This novel offers a really interesting and innovative SF concept: in the future, every person is incorporated upon birth. Twenty percent of the shares go to the parents, five percent goes to the government, the rest can be sold by the owner for education, possessions and so on. You can buy and sell someone's shares as an investment, for charity, even as a hostile act. Reaching "self-majority" - owning the majority of your own shares - is similar to becoming independently wealthy in today's world. The entire future society is based on this basic economic concept. I thought it was a fantastic idea and was really excited about the novel.
> Unfortunately the brothers Kollin ruined this inventive idea with some really poor writing and plotting. It's a classic example of great concept, poor execution.
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The "sold by the owner for education" - gets into a "you want to go to college? Sell 5% of your shares to the college."
I'm not going to claim it's a good idea, just an interesting point for discussion to think about and bring up when political discourse is acceptable late at night at a party or other social event.
- May I suggest a science-fiction novel, The Unincorporated Man?
- Go read The Unincorporated Man. This isn't a novel idea; it was explored in a novel published in 2009.
- Highly recommend reading 'The Unincorporated Man' for anyone interested in this.
