A throwaway reference to a fictional machine in Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep and The Cookie Monster .
Death cubes are not described explicitly, but from context they appear to be computing devices designed to
repeatedly run simulations of an uploaded consciousness, usually human-equivalent. Moral questions to this sort of application arise from fact that uploads in question are normally erased at the end of simulation. Death cube use would thus effectively be a serial homicide.
