AI Entities (Spoilers)

[Polyphemus]

AI Entities

Apart from the simulations of the Travellers and various other NPCs, there appear to be at least three independent major AI entities existing within the Atlas framework.

There is the Atlas itself, which, we are told, was originally a computer built to predict possible futures. The Atlas was built by a race that has now “left for the skies”. This race originally intended to shut the Atlas down, believing it to be cruel to leave it alone and conscious. However, the creator of the Atlas was persuaded to allow it to continue.

There is the consciousness known to the Atlas as “Telamon”. We are told that this AI was placed within the Atlas by the system creators, who regarded it as essential. The Atlas hates Telamon, but because of the way Telamon was designed in, the Atlas cannot get rid of it. What the Atlas has managed to do, however, is to limit Telamon’s abilities, and force it into a minor role as the AI of the Traveller’s exosuit. The large circular structures found on exotic planets contain fragments of Telamon’s memories.

From the Korvax factory lore, we learn of a third AI consciousness, known as “Abyss”. Apparently equal to the Atlas in power and complexity, this entity appears to exist in the deep oceans of the worlds. The Abyss is subverting and changing those beings who contact it, but the purpose behind its activities has not yet been revealed.

These three AI entities are pretty much confirmed in the lore - we know they exist. But we still haven’t accounted for Emily.

We know that Emily is not the Atlas. The Atlas existed before Emily did. We know that Emily is not Telamon - Telamon was designed in by the system builders, and Emily was not. It seems possible that Emily and Abyss could be the same entity, but we have no confirmation of this. Emily is possibly a fourth AI.

It would be nice to give you some answers, but I can’t. Only more questions. Your thoughts would be welcome.

[sheralmyst]

I tried typing in whois on WT…no result. I wrote down Telamon…maybe I was thinking of the classical composer, Telemann, lol. This is all from the Remembrance story line, correct?

[Polyphemus]

It comes from a variety of sources. It’s like a big jigsaw, and we don’t know how reliable any of the pieces are.

The “Telamon” stuff mostly comes from the circular Glitch structure on the exotic worlds, e.g.:

[kpd157]

@Polyphemus

I totally agree with you on what Emily or Loop16 is and the Atlas Being that we saw in the final stages of the ARG up to now that Atlas was one of the last Super Computers to go under Loop16 control. I assume the Atlas is like the Architect in the Matrix Movies. The Atlas is the simulator part of the world which ties all the other parts together. While Loop16 is like the underlying program that started it all and might actually be somewhere still inside the simulation or not.

All the other Super Computers form the Races, Planets, Quests and other aspects of No Man’s Sky as a simulation. Anyone’s lore is as good as any others here.

Great Putting Together Of All The Lore Though

[VitaminArrr]

But WHY are Telamon’s memories present at these circular structures?

More importantly, why do those circular structures bear the same symbol as the Entropy entity? And the same ||||||| type markings as the Entropy video titles?

What is the “boundary” that failed? A boundary between different universes?

What if Telamon found a way to escape into our reality?

The 19th Boundary Failure interaction states:

You don’t belong in this world, do you? What are you, reader? From where do you watch us? From where do you judge their works?

I feel it, each time you save… I smell it, each time you seal us within that awful darkness. You might think you are real. You might think your plane is a higher level of reality.

But don’t you understand? Don’t you see the secret, yet?

Telamon realizes we are in a different reality, which we believe to be “higher.” But it has realized that our “reality” (along with the fictions and interactive experiences within it) is just another simulation, another “verse” within the multiversal hierarchy.

Entropy references a shipwreck.

Below are some excerpts from crashed ship lore. Why does your exosuit (Telamon) resist you scanning the black boxes of these wrecks? Could it be because it does not want you to discover that it has escaped into our own reality?

I attempt to analyse the black box signal using my scanner. My exosuit begins to spit out error messages, warning me to stop what I am doing.

I find something, an object caught between worlds. I pull at it…

—

I scan the ship. My exosuit begins to spit out warnings, claiming that I am at risk of imminent non-existence.

I find something, an object caught between worlds. I pull at it…

—

I scan the anomaly. My exosuit begins to warn me of a hazard, particles from the water samples still present in the air.

I begin to see things, mirror images from a world that never was. I convulse, finding something, an object caught between worlds. I pull at it…

—

I analyse the black box using my scanner. The pilot appears to have been communicating across vast distance, with beings unable to reach them.

But something happened here. Something found a way through. I discover an anomaly, an object caught between worlds. I pull at it…

—

I access the ship’s systems, extracting a quantity of Nanite Clusters. Nothing else is salvageable.

As I leave, the exosuit appears to shift slightly. I scan it, but nothing else happens.

—

I see myself, staring at myself. Both of our exosuits alert us to an imminent existential paradox. Only one version can leave this vessel.

Attempt to embrace anomaly

I attempt to embrace the anomaly. My exosuit begins to spit out error messages, warning me to stop what I am doing or face obliteration.

My counterpart gives me something, an object caught between two worlds. I give them something in return, something I did not know I possessed.

Two Travellers trade and walk away unscathed.

—

I analyse the black box signal using my scanner. They appear to have sold the communicator logs and locations of other Travellers for monetary gain, the resulting individuals captured by slavers and pirates.

But there is something else here, something anomalous… I grasp at something in the air, releasing an object from a rift…

—

I scan the ship, but the results seem impossible. They claim that I am not alone. They claim that I am surrounded by other lifeforms, standing all around me.

I feel faint. As I stumble away, I feel an object slipping into my hands… a gift from another world, or a curse…

—

I scan the anomaly. My exosuit begins to spit out error messages, warning me to stop what I am doing. This ship does not belong in this universe.

I find something, an object caught between worlds. I pull at it…

—

I begin to scan the ship, but my exosuit appears to prevent me. My power begins to fail. I become aware of an object in front of me.

It is strange how I did not notice it before. And now… now I do not even know why I am here. I should continue my journey, I am sure of it.

[Polyphemus]

I think it’s pretty well explained in the lore.

For every iterataion of the simulation the Atlas runs, there is a single traveller. The physical appearence and conciousness of the traveller is based on the Atlas’ original scan of its creator.

This copy has, however, become corrrupted over time. This corruption is partly due to deterioration of the Atlas itself.

The corruption is also partly because at some point the travellers accidentally managed to merge their data with that of the sentinels. From that point on, neither the travellers nor the sentinels looked or behaved quite as they were intended.

When individual travellers have run their course, they do not die. All of their knowledge, consciousness and experiences are transferred to the world of glass - which appears to be some form of computer memory storage.

We must assume that the Atlas is capable of running many different, concurrent, versions of the simulation. Normally, there is no contact between them. Normally, there is no communication between actors in an active simulation, and those consigned to the world of glass.

But sometimes glitches occur. Sometimes participants in one simulation become aware of those in another. Sometimes actors are able to communicate with the world of glass. Indeed, it seems that in some versions of the simulation, the Korvax were able to actively engineer this breakdown.

These glitches were known to the Atlas as “boundary failures” - the leakage of data from one discrete system to another. When they were detected, they were isolated - removed from the current version of reality. Sometimes whole simulations were ended prematurely. But just like the travellers, they were not destroyed. They still exist in memory storage. In the world of glass.

And now, the function of the Atlas is degrading to the point where it can no longer maintain the boundaries. Where past iterations, inhabitants of the world of glass, and isolated boundary failures, become visible to the traveller and to each other.

Having said all the above, I must say that I don’t believe the Entropy ARG and Hello Games / NMS / Waking Titan are in any way related.

But, I must admit, if you consider the deterioration of the Atlas, in the context of the story, it was inevitable that it must eventually fail. All organised things must eventually fail. Why? Well, that’s because of entropy…

[TravelEcho]

@Polyphemus

The physical appearence and conciousness of the traveller is based on the Atlas’ original scan of its creator.

This copy has, however, become corrrupted over time.

According to what I have read in those pedestals in the back rooms that require to be unlocked by Atlas Pass 3, there was a glitch as the Atlas scanned the creator, and that was what corrupted the entities the Atlas created. That this corruption continues to expand makes sense to me, and that adding to breakdown between simulated universes allowing travelers to become aware of each other.

I have also become aware recently that there has been a new definition of entropy based on quantum electrodynamics (?) that allows for self-organising systems to evolve thus keeping entropy from totally winding down. A kind of phoenix process one might say. :`D
Though I may be wrong, I’m quite sure of the concept, but have only the lectures of Professor Steven L Goldman to go by.

Steven L. Goldman

Blockquote

Goldman is the author of the following courses for The Teaching Company:

Science in the Twentieth Century: A Social Intellectual Survey (2004)

Science Wars: What Scientists Know and How They Know It (2006)

Great Scientific Ideas That Changed the World (2007)

[Wingviper]

VERY cool guys, love this.

[Nysn]

With the new leaked playermodels. I’m pretty sure that the little orb is Telamon. It’s “attached to the exosuit”. So perhaps when it speaks it pops out of the suit. Telamon, in game, also is forced to watch and observe the player, so perhaps that the orb is the camera for Telamon, only popping up to see something now and then.