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This was a short story I read in the early 2000's. The main character is a woman and it starts off talking about her life and her husband/boyfriend who ends up passing away. She ends up taking a new pill that stops people's aging completely. The entire world no longer ages and as centuries go by, they no longer need their physical bodies and can choose to leave their bodies behind and explore the universe as a type of energy. The woman chooses that path and the story is really about the experience of living "forever" and transcending into a purely mental/energy state.

If anyone has any leads I would very much appreciate it. I read this story over ten years ago and have never forgotten it.

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  • Does she also try to recreate the boyfriend/husband as a virtual avatar, only to decide that it's an empty imitation of him and not the same as having him again?
    – John O
    Commented Jan 21, 2014 at 5:59

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This struck a chord, so I did a little Googling and came up with The Gentle Seduction by Marc Stiegler. The full text of the story is on his website.

It contains a woman who lives through the singularity and is seduced by it's wonders, bit by bit.

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  • I can't believe it, but that's it! Thank you so, so much! I've been looking and googling for it for years and you got it with a "little googling". I can't tell you how happy I am and thank you again.
    – George
    Commented Jan 21, 2014 at 19:30
  • Just for reference, I started by googling for a list of transmumanism short stories. That got me to a wiki article, and from there it was a matter of skimming the short story section. In other words, I got lucky.
    – Bob Warwick
    Commented Jan 21, 2014 at 19:42

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