Question about Victims

I was reading the second page of the new 2017 rules. One thing that stood out to me was that there were electrically charged balls that signified an alive victim while a ball that is not electrically charged was considered dead. I was wondering, how would we be able to detect an alive victim versus a dead victim? Or does it not matter?

The rule (1.8.3) states:

  • Dead victims are black and not electrically conductive.
  • Living victims are silver, reflect light and are electrically conductive.

The live victims will be electrically conductive. This does not mean they are charged. It means that a current can pass across them (conductive) or a current will not pass across them (not conductive).

This means a live victim will complete an electric circuit where a dead victim will not.