I have about 80 pages to go in Linda Chamberlain's science fiction/action novel Star Pebble. I have to admit that I've enjoyed it so far more than I expected.
While the novel portrays cryonics, radical life extension and the Chamberlains' idea of lifepacts favorably, I can't quite make out Linda's view of the private defense agencies (PDA's) which form the background of the main characters. If people with malign purposes could subvert PDA's that easily, and then get them to harm innocent individuals, would these anarcho-capitalist constructs prove that much better than state-run law enforcement and defense forces?
Oh, and of course the characters in that novel, set in the mysterious, far-future year 2057, wear futuristic jumpsuits with some body-protection functions. FM-2030 has a chapter in Countdown to Immortality about the use of "high tech clothing" to protect us medically, which he calls "Immortality Modules." I don't see evidence of that becoming a trend in real clothing you could buy at the mall, though smart phones have started to acquire some telemedical functions. Some routine engineering could integrate smart phones with telemedical sensors in street clothes to signal for help when you go into cardiac arrest or experience another event which threatens your life.
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