Emi's Blog

<- Back to blog

This article was originally written on the 22nd of May 2330. It has been lightly edited and formatted.

A Brief History of Death

Earlier this year, on the 14th of March, Samantha "fanti!i" Hobbes shattered expectations live in front of an audience of 340.2 billion by single-handedly killing the last four members of Fire in the what This Friday described as the "most exciting six minutes of television the world has ever seen". Hobbes, the last surviving member of Earth, had outlived 2270 cast members of a total 2326 during Prim 10. The event is of historic significance for being the longest running live b-sporting event at 3 years, 10 months, and 13 days, demolishing Prim 8's barely 2 year-long run, and has now eked out the record for the most fatalities for any single b-sporting event in recorded history. In celebration of Prim 10, here's a brief history of b-sports: from the political history of lethal consent and the brave pioneers of early b-sporting events, all the way to Prim 10 in the modern day.

An uninformed and aesthetic, albeit common, view of history would say b-sports have their roots in ancient Rome with the Colosseum. But, when it comes to direct inspiration and political momentum, the real history of b-sports started when death began to outpace murder at the end of the 21st century. From here, there is no way to discuss the history of b-sports without starting at Sterix.

While it's quite difficult to find an adult without at least a surface level understanding of their sterix system, most younger than 200 years old are probably not familiar with Sterix, the company. Sterix rose to prominence in 2072, selling the world's first commercially available medical nanobot system for pet animals, and by early 2078, Sterix opened their systems for use by the human public. While counterintuitive, it took eleven more years for perception of Sterix use in adults to poll at or above 50% approval by the general public in the United States. Discussions around State trust projects often conclude near the end of the Second Sixties, ignoring that, while clearly waning, medical denialism persisted strongly for decades. Starting in 2091, 50% of adults between the ages of 21 and 45 had some kind of Sterix system.

This is a trend which would only continue to modern day, where the CDC claims fewer than 1 in 5000 United States citizens do not have a sterix system. It is worth noting that these numbers may also be an overestimate, as Christine Nowak in the Chicago Journal of Medicine (2317) put it, "Genuine cases of steric isolation that have been studied show a vastly higher rate of hospitalization for strains of the influenza virus than can be extrapolated from population statistics surrounding sterix use. If the data were accurate, we'd expect 14-15 times as many cases of influenza hospitalization than are seen today. It is far more likely that the majority of individuals claiming or displaying steric isolation are running covert aftermarket modifications for either state or personal applications".

Longevity advancements in medical science would go on to drastically change the political landscape. In 2052, the average age of death was 84. By contrast, the average person born in 2052 is still alive today. In the United States, the Social Security Act was enacted in 1935 by then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt wherein the government then distribute the funds to the "retired" — senior members of society who were deemed incapable of labor. Its funding was sourced from a portion of the salaries of working individuals, with the promise that, eventually, they'd be on the receiving end. The effective age of retirement would change over subsequent years, but sat under 70 until 2034. The primary crux of the system was that, year after years, individuals receiving payouts needed to die faster, as for most of the lifespan of the Social Security System, funds left quicker than they came in. This came to a head in 2094 when then-President Stanley Zhang ratified the Modern Lifespan Retirement Act, raising the minimum age for retirement from 89 to 100 years of age, only grandfathering in those who were at or above 89 at the time of ratification.

Public reaction to the Modern Lifespan Retirement Act was extreme. Most population centers in the United States housed a number of protests and riots from July in 2094 to March of 2095 and terrorist acts from various deconstructionist groups grew during this period until April 1st when Stanley Zhang was assassinated. While initially attributed to a novel form of steric cancer, Zhang's assassination was eventually claimed by the cyber terrorist collective, Legacy. VP-Cum-President Anya Meyer declared martial law shortly after being inaugurated, and Sterix sat firmly in the center of controversy.

Criminal negligence was declared in late 2095 and, as a consequence, Sterix suffered stifling government intervention. While Sterix held an 85% share of the medical nanobot market in 2094, it was forced by the state to modify its products to follow a new "closed system" protocol: by 2099, all Sterix systems needed to be completely disconnected from external networks, with physical intervention by trained medical professionals being the only process of modifying or interfacing with the closed network. Additionally, Sterix had to make its new protocols and many of its proprietary designs public to enable auditing, modification, and, most importantly, for competitors to implement. By 2110, less than 10% of all "sterix" systems were made by Sterix. By late 2111, Sterix went out of business with little fanfare. It is believed that none of the living individuals from this era still have functioning original Sterix systems; however, tracking down the specific moment in time that the last name-brand Sterix system stopped functioning is impossible.

The advent of Sterix is undeniably intertwined with the history of fatal consent. In 2125, 14 years after Sterix went out of business, rogue suicide as the cause of death for individuals in the 100-120 age range rose to 50% for the first time in history. This was due to a variety of factors; the mid 22nd century is known for its rapid decrease in violent crime, and the advent of sterix systems with its related medical advancements had nearly eliminated murder by disease. So, while the overall death rate was significantly diminished, a modest increase in rogue suicidal ideation was notable. It is important to clarify that sentiment surrounding death in the 2100s was much more puritan than modernly. From The Last Man to Die (2210), "Early human sentiment around death can be hard to understand. Death as we see it is not what death was in 2050. To die in that time meant to be murdered, be that by another or by nature. Even voluntary death was considered a tragedy due to its association with murder. If 2200's attitude towards death is a respectful deference to autonomy, 2050 is characterized by a fearful cowering away from lack of autonomy".

The first version of fatal consent was legalized in 2135. This policy was draconian, requiring a minimum age of 100 and a processing period of 2 years between choice and action with a mandated regimen of antagonizing "therapy". Despite this, it was controvertial at the time from the opposite direction. Fatal consent activists like Katie Thomas are often maligned modernly for the seeming modesty of fatal consent in the early 22nd century, but the compromises made were a pragmatic product of their time. Were Thomas to live past 2138, it is no doubt that she would have been a vocal supporter of b-sports and a key figure in further modernizing fatal consent.

The label is only applied in retrospect, but Red Team paved the way for what we now know as b-sports to thrive. In 2141, 31 members of the 21st century military weaponry enthusiast militia roleplay collective ran their first "Live Sim". All 31 members of Red Team had been on track to obtain fatal consent since as early as 2137. On the morning of August 2nd, Red Team split into 2 teams and defined the modern live ammunition firefight staples of retro firearms, large arenas, and team based tactics. Unfortunately, the specifics are lost to time, as unlike contemporaries, this live sim was not recorded or broadcast. Three members of Red Team died on August 2nd, and one more died from his injuries the following day. Nine further members were hospitalized for critical injuries but made full recoveries.

The United States v. Red Team was the first high profile case to push on the definition of fatal consent. By 2142, their case was heard by the Supreme Court and, in a 14-11 decision, it was the majority decision that the right to a "dignified death" provided in the text of the Humane Passing Act and the well documented enthusiastic consent of all members of Red Team constituted a form of assisted suicide. Justice Andrew Q. Stanford, the last member of any United States high court to vocally oppose sterix systems, penned the minority opinion describing the ruling the "darkest day in all of human history". He would be murdered by prostate cancer five years later in 2147, a death which could have been prevented by adopting a sterix system of his own.

Following in Red Team's footsteps, live sims slowly became a modest success. Individuals from several copycat groups faced jail time for not fulfilling the fatal consent requirements of the Humane Passing Act in trying to recreate Red Team's live sim. The most notable controversy was when Anteater held a 6 person live sim including one 95 year old who was, at the time, exempt from fatal consent due to his age. Most prominent events, however, were by the books. The earliest successful b-sports broadcast of the time was a 4 team, 120 player live sim called Illegal War which, ironically, was hosting a completely legal war. Illegal War marketed itself to video game enthusiasts, with its participants drawn from several high profile competitive VR FPS teams. With this pull, its event drew 114,000 eyes live on September 8th 2146. Of the participants in Illegal War, 92 died from injuries during the event, with the 5 winners splitting a $240,000 prize pool (modernly worth a rectified $1420).

The success of Illegal War drove organizers of combat sports like boxing and theatric combat sports like wrestling to experiment with a brand of hand to hand combat to the death. Lethal Cage marked the first broadcast event of its kind in 2155 in a nearly 4 hour match to the death between Max "Max Coff" Baden and Nick "Nick Trick" Swanson. Unlike Illegal War, Lethal Cage's reception was mixed, the death of Baden during the low point of combat sporting left fans with little to be excited for, and critics were turned off both by the explicit, slow paced nature of the fight and the apprehension of both participants. Swanson retired from combat sports shortly after this event and exited the public spotlight. Lethal Cage was revived in 2171 for a series of similar fights to the death with novice fighters, this time to critical success, and often credited as the reason combat sports saw a resurgence in the 2170s

By 2165, fatal consent was much more easily obtainable. This caused the growth in independent b-sports. Live streamer and philanthropist faZZl capitalized on this, wandering the paths of a park in his home town Portland and whisking away enthusiastic strangers to play a version of Russian Roulette for money at a nearby firing range. While his live content was often burdened by logistics, his highly edited videos performed extremely well, funding his future charity. He began upping the stakes with competitive obstacle courses, social deduction games, trivia, and combinations thereof. faZZl was named the most prominent content architect of 2165 at the Content Awards. In 2167, one of the surviving participants in one of faZZl's videos attempted to sue faZZl for his application of fatal consent, but faZZl won the case and strengthened the rights of individuals through fatal consent.

As many would expect, the Third Nineties was a stifling period for b-sporting. Indie b-sporting waned and large organizations saw a predictable decline in viewership, leading to Lethal Cage being cancelled after its final event in September 2192. By the turn of the century, combat sports, fatal or otherwise, were struggling to maintain their hold on popular culture. Live sims, on the other hand, had new life breathed into them by the release of Red Team (2203), a dramatized documentary covering events from the live sim's inception in 2137 to the conclusion of The United States v. Red Team in 2142. The Tide's aggregated list of top movies of the decade had Red Team (2203) firmly in second, trailing behind 12 Degrees (2208).

Prim was a fresh take on b-sporting, with its first event occuring in 2251. A collaborative primitive survival game unlike any other; a number of teams are left without modern amenities in a massive artificial natural reserve with no time limit. The last team standing wins. Prim 1 was an instant hit, its modest 80 member cast and 4 month runtime being instantly eclipsed in 2253 by Prim 2 with a then-groundbreaking 240 participant event that lasted 13 months. Audiences loved the survival mechanics underpinning the social dynamics within teams and the applications of bootstrapping technology, forming strategy, and applying raw strength in combat.

Starting in its third iteration, Prim was one in a relatively uncommon class of b-sports: clean b-sports. To be "clean", participants are disallowed not only performance enhancing physical modifications, but also must undergo steric isolation: the process of completely wiping out an individual's sterix system. Steric isolation is an extremely uncommon procedure; it was developed as a standard operation to cure forms of steric cancer in the early 22nd century, but has since been rendered obselete on account of advancements in sterix technology. This is a dangerous process which leaves individuals vulnerable to various forms of environmental murder, and modernly is effectively only engaged with in secure environments by b-athletes participating in clean b-sports. Prim monitors participants undergoing steric isolation and, with its modest medical team, has nearly retconned history, marrying modern technology with defunct, centuries old medical science for the most advanced treatments for isolation ever. Principly, the diets of isolated individuals needs to be precisely controlled, as a standard healthy diet contains both far too many raw materials intended to be consumed by sterix systems and a critical lack of nutrients typically synthesized by the same systems. Samantha "fanti!i" Hobbes, whose isolation was resolved on scene by medical professionals after the conclusion of Prim 10, described her experience of steric isolation in 2326 in preparation for the game in an interview with QBoS after her victory.