Musing on "death"

Didn't know exactly where to put this; it's kind of a "role playing mechanics" thing I guess...

Anyway, it occurred to me this evening that the sociological implications of non-fatal death might be something worth thinking about once in a while. I mean, how would human (or close to human) behavior change with the introduction of non-fatal death and how might this be reflected in the game? Wouldn?t a world/society where death could be reversed create some pretty dramatic changes in the social/moral fabric of life?

In violent conflict, life would become just about the cheapest component of force. The ?suicide mission? would become a viable part of tactics and strategy instead of last-ditch desperation. (Any of you read the Orson Scott Card story ?Ender?s Game?? You may recall Ender using a kind of suicide tactics during his final battle in the training center. If you haven?t read it, find it and read it. It?s GREAT.) Most military missions would probably become one-way in fact, since resurrection would probably be cheaper than bringing anyone home. To do any real damage to an enemy, one would have to use applications of force intended to not only kill people, but to kill or subvert the entire technological structure that would allow them to come back.

And this suggests the development of freaky soul-hacks of the resurrection systems, the existence, or even the rumors of which would create all kinds of existential problems and paranoia (?Am I really me? Is this really my idea? Are you really you??) which could in turn result in a kind of extreme solipsism where the only thing anyone would really trust or believe in would be one?s own immediate moment-to-moment experience. Homicide would become one of the effects of a bad mood, or even just boredom. Suicide/homicide performance art, suicide/homicide clubs, and suicide/homicide sexual behavior might emerge. Death threats just wouldn?t carry the same weight, so we?d have to scare each other with horrible tortures which could be indefinitely sustained without risk of death.

And of course, we?d have all kinds of quasi-religious ?back to nature? terrorist movements focused on making death real again.

Anyway, we have the ?arenas,? which are of course the result of non-fatal death, but I?m wondering if other things might not be brought into our role-playing and the over-arching storyline which would reflect this quality of life on Rubi-Ka. We might even see certain programs and items which take advantage of resurrection , like powerful weapons/programs which would kill the user, but help out team-mates in certain situations. Or soul-hackers which might introduce permanent or temporary changes to one's character, and of course anti-soul hackers to allow one to do personality checksums and personality cleaning.

Ah well, just musing.

Another interesting point is religion. It would have to change, because a large part of the motivation behind religion is exactly the uncertainty of death.

In the game universe, the Catholic church accepted the use of Ressurection Tech when Omni-med proved the existance of the non-corporeal eternal soul. But not the existance of God. Only that something is left behind when you die...

But religion must still exist, because death still exists:

When you get too old, Ressurection Tech no longer works, and then when you die, you stay dead.

PK weapons exist (We've all done the missions)

The idea about Military operations is a good one, though. When your soldiers don't need transports to get home, and when them dieing is no serious problem for them, wars become a zero-solution scenario. The absolute devestation of the enemy regardless of the cost of life. Even equipment can be reconstructed, so whomever controls the best Resurrection Network wins.

Omni-Tek is the Hypercorp which controls Notum. This means that they must have a potentially awe inspiring military power base.

I would hate to have to go to war with a company with the kind of resources Ressurection Tech entails. I think the Clans should be very grateful that ICC has prevented Omni-Tek from bringint this force to bear on their little rebellion...