Digital Life

What is reality, and what is a dream? She died because of him. Every time he wakes in the middle of the night, he sees that cold winter again: the person, pale and emaciated, gives him a pallid smile and gazes at him so calmly. Every ounce of suffering she endured was tied to him, right up until she died.

He wakes from the nightmare once more, or perhaps falls into another dream. Time seems to have turned back. Everything is still as it was, and there is still time to make things right.

Is a consciousness uploaded to a machine a complete life, or merely a stretch of cold data? Should people remain forever in a beautiful dream, or return to cruel reality?