I’d agree, but Brendan doesn’t think so. He explicitly believes he can copy Al’s soul to a new vessel with no loss on Al’s part. As unreasonable as that may be, it would be pointless to tell him otherwise. And it’s probably only that belief that keeps him alive right now.

Okay, total Internet stranger here, but I’m so sorry to hear this. Thinking of you.

I’ve been going back and forth on this one a bit.

At first I thought it said ‘—AL’, as in, Al signed it and came home in the middle of the night coughing up blood and found that Brendan had never read it.

And on Page 19 of Chapter 5, it looks like Brendan is the one who leaves the note there after Al storms out of the building. (Al’s already outside and stays there until after dark; the hand we see leaving the note is probably Brendan’s, since Al’s hands are enormous and since Brendan’s also in the process of grabbing one of the replicators, presumably in order to make sure at least one of them is safe.)

It’s interesting that Android-Al wakes up and goes, “No,” on Page 5 of Chapter 1. Is he looking for the note that isn’t there? Or does it more have to do with not being in the bedroom he expects?

I keep seeing people mention the note as written TO Al, but I just reread the first few pages as well, and considering that the note is in Al’s bedroom and Brendan is the one outside, it seems to me that the note is signed FROM Al, isn’t it?

that said, still heartwrenching. :(

Just saying,
Copying a person (if it was possible) is not ‘saving’ the person in any way, they aren’t a book or cd you are ripping, talk about the most severe of copyright and intellectual property infringement possible. It is actually just substituting a copy for the person in the survivors mind, so they don’t have to deal with their loss, which is childish…and dangerous. Death is part of life, and Brandon is not dealing with it. At all.

If anyone here wants to see what fresh ‘brave new world’ transhumanism leads towards, check out the Eclipse Phase rpg. It isn’t pretty, and goes quite a ways towards the commoditization and devaluing of human life, as well as the dehumanization of the ‘copied’ humans themselves, kill one, who cares? Just whip up another copy and torture it to your black heart’s content. If I can whip up a copy of a person, in any number of reiterations I would like, or lobotomize a ‘copied’ human mind into a semi-mindless servant, exactly do you claim to value human existence aside from as chattel property? Or claim you are opposed to slavery?

There are some things in this world we should not be allowed to own or barter in.

Agreed. The careful research for the same of verisimilitude (even on the subtlest level) is one of the things I love about the comic. I reacted the same way to the military uniforms and symbols. And to software problems versus mechanical issues with the giant robot.

would you rather they be looking up a nice casket? chill out my friend