Life and Death: Soul Hackers 2 First Thoughts
Soul Hackers 2 is going to be a game I have a lot to say about given the various themes at play in the game. Societal stagnation, lack of creativity, hope, and despondency as well as combined life and machine intelligence is going to give way to a variety of reflections. However, I’ve been struck by life and death as a theme and Soul Hackers 2 has a unique set of protagonists because they have all seen death and are “soul hacked” back to life and it made me think a lot about death and living. (This is a spoiler for the first couple hours of the game but it’s vital to this reflection.) I’m going to start with some personal reflection and then tie it into the Soul Hackers 2 beginning.
The primary lens from which I view death is stopping feeling the effects of time. That is what we can know without any spiritual or religious component. Heidegger, in Being and Time, writes about how being is a “being-toward-death” for which we never feel the fulfillment of being itself because being is completed in death and we no longer perceive anything after we die. Death has always fascinated me because everything that is felt about death is only truly felt by the people who remain after you die and the perception of time is gone. Anything which messes around with the perception of time fascinates me because it shows how we don’t live in just an objective universe. As someone who suffers from severe depression and anxiety, I have felt the time dilation that anxiety and suffering slows down the flow of time in a way that I know only I uniquely feel it in my own experience. I have also experienced joy where time compresses and speeds up and it floors me sometimes how time flies when I’m in a joyful moment. Consciousness is a different experience based on one’s perception of the time in which they are. Consciousness is affected by time because perceiving time is one of the innate products of having consciousness.
My own theory about death given this information about stopping feeling the effects of time and consciousness being conditioned by our perception of time is that death is a process, mostly imperceptible to humanity of changing state. There are different beliefs and near-death experience research which highlights possibilities about the change of state and connection to spiritual presence, often dependent upon religious imagery. I think in the change of state, our death connects us with the energy present in the universe and that spiritual energy flourishes or damages the environments dependent upon lingering feelings which are left behind. There is more work I need to think about in terms of how feelings are really micro-electrical currents of brain activity and how those tie into the places we hold dear. But I think our energy returns to the world we know and remains present through the electrical currents, even if our brain is “inactive”.
Soul Hackers 2 presents an interesting theory about death. Death happens, but there is a moment before full death where the soul is present around the body. It is the moment where Ringo, the main character, can capture the soul before it “gets away” and use it to reanimate the body. Death is a dualistic reality in Soul Hackers 2, the body dies but the soul doesn’t leave at the same time. The soul hacking also gives Ringo a special ability to connect to the three individuals she has revived and can explore their mind palaces to learn major aspects of the characters’ lives. I’m intrigued by how much the soul connects to life experiences and while the reality of death is dualistic, the body and soul are very much integrated.
Death can be an uncomfortable topic but I wanted this to be a take as death and the flow of time will be a key theme in games for much of the next year. I’m excited to bring more takes on Soul Hackers 2. Next on the blog will be Part 2 of the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 reflection focusing on the lifespan of people in the world and how that effects collective memories.
