JUST LIKE HEAVEN

IT’S TAKEN 30 YEARS FOR SCI-FI COMEDY TO HIT OUR SCREENS, BUT IT’S NEVER BEEN MORE TIMELY, AS CREATOR GREG DANIELS EXPLAINS

- TARA BENNETT

The world has a lot of angst right now. Extended time confined alone pondering our mortality will do that to a population. Luckily for creator/ writer Greg Daniels (The Office US), an idea he’s been developing for 30 years is finally making its appearance at a point when humanity can fully appreciate its irony, and surprising hopefulness, at the exact right time.

Daniels’ sci-fi comedy Upload is set in a near-future when our ubiquitous technology is now even more enmeshed with our daily lives – and deaths. The series posits a reality where humans can, before their expiration date, choose to upload their consciousness into a corporate cloud that retains your memories. You exist digitally as long as there are funds to pay for your virtual care and feeding. Take that, Heaven or Hell! Religious judgement can now suck it, since financially stable humans can continue in perpetuity, looking just the same and interacting with loved ones via VR masks and suits until they eventually reunite in the mainframe.

The clever concept is one Daniels first thought up when he was mulling over sketch ideas for his writer gig on Saturday Night Live. While out on a walk in New York City, he remembers seeing the new tech of the time – Compact Discs – in a window display. This triggered a light-bulb moment about a future where humans digitise their memories to be recreated in a virtual world.