Fascinating subject.
If anyone’s interested, these issues feature in an excellent sci-fi trilogy by a Chinese author, Cixin Liu, called The Three Body Problem.
The idea of alien civs taking pre-emptive aggressive action to neutralise new civs (which may in time pose a threat) is covered, as is an ingenious way of combatting this.
The novels are very scientifically literate as well as being an engrossing read.
Thanks. Fascinating story and great concept.
In the ‘early years’ of redaction when sudden death has effectively been cancelled I could envisage a huge change in behaviour: a massive uptick in people taking part in highly risky pursuits (mountaineering, sky diving, bungee jumping etc).
Also a creation of Westworld-style theme parks WITHOUT THE ROBOTS where you get to have real shoot-outs with real bullets against real flesh-and-blood people and if you happen to cop a fatal wound you know you’ll be dropped in the redaction machine.
In other words a new world of much greater risk taking where the (21st Century) obsession with safeguarding life at all costs is dispensed with. In addition to more general recklessness then, perhaps there will also be more murder because… well, why not? You can just revive the victim. (These leads me to some dark thoughts: do serial killers in this new world just have the same victim every day, putting the body in the redaction machine overnight? Not a pretty picture).
And what would be the most heinous crime in this world? Perhaps this: a crime syndicate that specialises in removing a substantial part of your body mass (a leg and an arm, say) before you can be redacted, to be returned only on payment of everything you own. (How can they be made to pay, you ask? Simple—redact them when fully intact and tell them what you’re going to do with their remains unless they cough up).
Sorry for the random thoughts, but they all popped into my head while reading.
I need more time to consider the broader philosophical and psychological questions around redaction technology once it has become established for hundreds/thousands of years. I suspect humans would adapt in ways that are beyond what we can currently imagine.