Man Made

A first-person account follows an experienced spacefarer through decades of increasingly comprehensive prosthetic replacement after injuries and disease, from artificial limbs to synthetic organs and circulatory systems that become subjectively living. The narrative links routine voyages and exotic encounters with nonhuman thinkers to a catastrophic expedition mishap that necessitates further reconstruction, while chronic sensations such as phantom pain and questions of bodily continuity prompt reflection. The story examines how identity, consciousness, and the idea of a soul are tested when organic parts are progressively exchanged for protoplastic substitutes.