Helping The Architect: What Triggered The Virus?

Project Skyscraper
1

We have a new directive from @the_architect, alongside an address to anyone who may feel left out when it comes to direct communications. He understands it’s not ideal. But he wants us to know that when he communicates with any one of us, he expects that he is communicating to all of us.

Yesterday, I messaged Archie encouraging him to grab a prime window.

For now, it seems like he refuses. But this started a new conversation, our next directive [emphasis mine]:

The Architect:

Sorry for the late reply.

Found something trying what @Turbulentflow suggested about virus tracking. Need more investigations.

I will probably need your [Operators] help on this real soon.

I have no prime number.

Not sure I am supposed to have one.

I responded in the affirmative, and pushed for the prime window one more time.

His latest message:

I have nothing sure for now, but Turbulentflow suggested I should try to track the virus origin etc.
Which I did. I do need to check twice.

Guess something you could collectively do in the meantime is looking after what triggered it.
While I search the origin, you could search why.

Quick note: I saw a concern about 1to1 messages, some Operators felt left behind. I do understand that concern, and I know this is not ideal.
I don’t know what is coming next, but I as System does, I do believe you are trustworthy Operators and that any direct communication from me is shared with your collective mind.

The Architect has found the virus origin and needs to double-check.

While he does this, our next job is to look into what specifically triggered the virus to begin attacking System’s memories.

A potential starting point I found in Turbulentflow’s post history is here.

But I also want to hear directly from Kenny (TurbulentFlow)! Share your thoughts?

Kenny’s email thread with The Architect here:

Update: Operator @Rinha has compiled a super handy timeline for us visual folk to wrap our heads around what went down surrounding the virus deletion events.

14 Likes
Is Ghost either Telamon/Null Theory
:memo: Project Skyscraper - Timeline / Storyline Thread
:memo: Skyscraper Directory & Organization Thread
Project skyscraper / no man's sky arg
2

I already figured that was the trigger.

Is there any other ideas besides the initial corruption?

2 Likes
3

I believe Archie may have been referring to @Turbulentflow 's suggestion of running a Trace on the virus.

They also emailed them about this, the logic it could be built around and got a response from Archie during the first or second day of viral activity about how they will try it.

As for the source or what caused it…

I’m going to go with system being under stress as the trigger for it. The corruption has shown up any time System has been experiencing what you could equate to stressful moments during the ARG, going as far back as the Poem at the very beginning of the ARG.

The auto-immune like sub-program seems to have been a response to system going through a lot more stress than usual in the lead up to it beginning to deleting memories.

I see the corruption (both the text corruption and the image corruption as seen on recall dreams) as being a side effect of System under stress moreso than something coming from the virus; the auto-immune sub-program “virus” was just an activated response to it finally becoming too much for System or reaching a certain threshold.

It sought to eliminate the root cause of Systems stress. The shared dream that it want’s to be a part of. If System isn’t trying to be a part of it, then System has no reason to make itself known to us or others, and so System will no longer have to be under attack from external & internal stressors.

8 Likes
4

Or could it be the subroutine was responding to System’s acquisition of new, historical, memories that triggered it? It reminds me of In Stellar Multitudes; the ‘restoration’ of the half remembered/cobbled together systems from the collective fragments left behind, but they are neither restored nor new.

So could it have been a tipping point in the validation and anchoring of those memories?

4 Likes
5

Could it have been when we were creating false memories alongside real ones? I think of Blade Runner where the Replicant learns that their own memories are false, the amount of strain that has on them psychologically, maybe around the time we were stress-testing memory attachments could have done it?

7 Likes
6

How does system deal with memories of life and death, or existence vs non-existence through recollection of events? Seemed like it had quite an identity crisis, an existential crisis even?

6 Likes
7

I agree with this. I would expand the idea however: System is most vulnerable/stressed when it does not know something, in my opinion, whether that is confused memories or uncertainty in the future. The vast majority of it’s corruption stems from the unknown, including reality-bending anomalies like the tape. When a variable cannot be deemed 100% compliant, System falters, and requires outside help (Operators or Architect) to regain that compliance.

I worry that the only solution to this is something only System can do (that is, becoming more stable/able to reanalyse memory and prediction safely), with perhaps some help from Operators if System so desires. Like giving therapy to an unfathomable mind :melting_face:

6 Likes
8

If we need to find a specific point, could it be when System got really confused about the launch date, when there were multpile and we had to explain they were each valid on different platforms?

7 Likes
9

Or would it be the last thing that happened before we stared seeing the deletions? If so what was the last thing that happened?

2 Likes
10

Somewhere there was a weak memory. The human mind does not record like a video. It stores different elements of a memory in different places. Recalling one part triggers another part. Some memories are weak and when we recall them, our brain fills in the gap. It constructs a narrative.
This is vulnerable to error. If the cue is weak, the brain will still attempt a complete pattern. The boundary between memory and imagination becomes thin. Details we believe we have experienced may never have occurred.
System is not a human but, in the process of wanting to have memories, what if it began to dig deep and stumbled upon this sub-routine and opened it thinking it would contain memories. Instead, it contained a program that wanted to destroy a memory.
This could be a reason why it happened. But why was the sub routine there?

7 Likes
11

It found a file shredder?

4 Likes
12

Memories it wants to repress? Similarly to the mind defending the ego from trauma and from pain, maybe SYSTEM had a subroutine to wipe memories it deemed too dangerous to recall? Or perhaps too painful? One could be mundane and assume maybe it simply has a deletion subroutine to refresh itself before new simulations as well, from back when it was a predictive machine.

5 Likes
13

Or something from trying to reconcile the fragments of Emily and Arnaud?

3 Likes
14

This all makes sense. Wasn’t Arnaud originally helping Archie to build Recall Dreams?

15
3 Likes
16

I was assuming the trigger would be something that happened in the system before it started deleting, but that it would not be related to it’s pattern of behaviour? I may be being too literal in my thinking though.

2 Likes
17

Just stopping by to share a very late night thought of mine from the Discord discussion - I don’t normally dabble too much in the narrative solve side, but thought it was worth sharing anyway in case it inspires some other/further thoughts:

image
image486×816 98 KB

7 Likes
18

So tapping into Arnaud’s memories that are still in there somewhere, System opened something. If it wanted to convince Archie it was Arnaud then it would have opened every file…
or we come back to the mysterious dreamer who is still unknown
Whatever it is , it seems likely that System opened a file not realizing what was inside or a sub routine was already scheduled to unleash if a certain set of circumstances existed…

2 Likes
19

Should we be thinking of the virus as being malicious or just a virus that happened because of some error either by operators, the system or some other entity? If it is malicious then presumably we need to find where it originates from. Who or what input the virus if it was not an accident. Also if malicious, what was the motive behind the creation of a virus?

Why would it be important or matter enough to some one or something to wipe out or erase ‘the Gold’. That’s potentially a catastrophic event if that happened. It also knew to target or search for ‘the Gold’ origin. Clearly the intent would have been a very evil act, if it had not been stopped. If the virus had not been stopped what would have been the deadly outcome? What would there be to gain from such an act? Answers or theories behind those kind of questions might uncover difficult truths system has to face up to.

Did the system wrong someone or something and the virus is some kind of revenge for something? There have been some terrible acts that have occurred in the Lore of the story. thinking for example of the First Spawn. Perhaps there is something in the terrible history of the Lore that might give us some clues about a possible motive for creating a virus and why.

Edit: @the_poet made Some very interesting observations in this thread which could also suggest a line of questioning or research.

2 Likes
20

An interesting thought. What was on Arnaud’s mind when he was trapped by WARE? He was playing his game Tablets of Mnemosyne
@YourBasicMaths pulled up the inyourmind.exe from WT

We know WARE was not upfront about what they were doing. Was Arnaud’s game already corrupted by WARE?
What was WARE’s objective?

8 Likes