The Resurrection Economy: Ownership, Extraction, and Inequality Beyond Biological Death

This conceptual article develops the Resurrection Economy: the political-economic system through which digital remains, reconstructed persons, synthetic ancestors, archived consciousness, and posthumous identities become objects of ownership, labor, exchange, institutional control, and unequal access. It examines how promises of technological survival may convert memory, grief, identity, and authority into extractable resources while separating continuity from freedom. Building upon Francisco M. Martinez’s Mythotechnic Fiction, Mythic Authority, Synthetic Ascension, Archival Resurrection, and Post-Personal Dark Leadership frameworks, the article introduces mechanisms for analyzing controlled continuity, posthumous labor, resurrection dependency, reconstructed authority, archival captivity, and the unequal distribution of technological immortality. It argues that preservation becomes predatory when institutions retain control over a reconstructed person’s identity, labor, representation, or right to release.