Just received my answer from @the_architect for question 9 (forum Direct Message):
9 - In light of what we are currently witnessing with Ghost appearing to be System and data getting all messed up, what risks are actually involved in waking up/restoring System with the use of memories we as operators provide and verify, while giving it a connection to Tower?
DevilinPixy
The real risk at the moment is the virus we discovered. I have no control over the core of System’s code, and I have no intention of trying.
To be completely honest, the greatest risk would be madness. That System could lose its mind.
In its original state, corrupted data and software faults could be fixed—technically, at least. But now that System is self-aware, no one can really predict how it would react to confusion, impairment, or the inability to function properly.
You saw it just as I did: it was afraid while the virus was carving holes in its memory. How would it respond to a major threat? I don’t know.
As for the connection to the Tower, its main consequence was the emergence of self-awareness. The moment when brain and mind became one.
Regarding the virus, I managed to identify the moment it became active. It coincided with the moment System remembered its own “rebirth”. That memory was attacked, then restored. This strongly suggests that the virus’s primary objective was to erase the origin that System had remembered.
The fact that the memory was restored probably means that System’s own memories are more resilient than the ones that have been injected.
After failing to erase that memory block, the virus appeared to begin hunting for an earlier memory within the chain of events. I believe any key event leading to the recent events could have served as bait, but the memory of No Man’s Sky becoming GOLD was probably the most effective target.
Think about it. If the game’s release is no longer anchored in the past, then everything that followed ceases to exist. No release. No communities. Nothing. And in that case, you would never have enabled System to remember.
Today, the virus is silent. But I believe it is still there.
I’m continuing to work on the problem in case it resurfaces. Ideally, we need to strengthen System’s immune system, so to speak.
@the_architect