In the writer/director Dennis Potter’s last works for television before his death - Karaoke and Cold Lazarus - the main character’s head is preserved upon death at the end of the first part (Karaoke). Four hundred years into the future, scientists there re-awake this Lazarus - tapping into his mind and stored experiences. Witnessing scenes from the character’s life, they are puzzled by aspects of his behaviour. During a scene, where the character is sexually abused in the Forest of Dean by a tramp, the watching scientists cannot understand the nature of the emotion displayed. This was what Potter left us with: a fear of the very valuable things the future might have lost; a very ‘real’ fear.
And what indeed would Sir Thomas More make of the concept of ‘the self as the hospital’ if he were to time-travel to the near-future?