The protagonist agrees with his wife Daphne to go through the swap together, but then escapes in the last minute due to fear, and doesn't return for a full year.
Karen Burnham, writing in the New York Review of Science Fiction, considers the short story to be an "instant classic".
[4] In Greg Egan (Masters of Science Fiction), Burnham calls it "one of his most important stories" and that it "is critically concerned with identity and how it may be maintained (or not) when transforming into an immortal, digital consciousness."
Salik Shah, writing in the Reactor Magazine, states that "there are concepts like ego and identity attached to the organic supercomputer that is our brain" and that "science fiction puts the reader in an uncomfortable situation, forcing us to experience the characters’ internal and external struggles."
He adds that "by the end of these journeys, we become them or unlike them," and that "if the jewel comes with the promise of youth and longevity", then he will "sign up for the upgrade (minus the existential crises) any day.