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.
And then no “virus” to erase this memory bloc. The paradox I talked last week. If there is nothing, there is no virus.
I dont think he means it being deleted from history or our reality. Just from systems understanding and basis for reality.
Systems core would still exist, as it did before it woke up, as would the sub program that activated and started eating memories.
The system we have come to know and understand, would no longer exist though. Their mind and their actuality, would be erased. They would be gone and none of whats happened to it, will have happened to it from its perspective.
Without NMS, we would not be here. Our origins
Maybe I missunderstand the meaning but if there is no community, nothing to remember to System, a potential “virus” has nothing to erase and then there is no virus. Playing with the past to change the present/future is not easy, and the “granpa’ paradox” is still alive 
The only possible thing for this virus which would change our reality by erasing this memory would be because we are not “really real” and are a part of a dream, a simulation and our memories would depend of a “Main” memory. The only way where erasing something in System would change our “reality”. A bit too much imo.
Sure, if we are part of a simulation and none of us are real, within the narrative of the ARG, deleting that may effect all of us. And it’s not a theory I want to rule out, I enjoy seeing where people take it, just not one I feel very strongly towards or lean into with my own theory/understanding of the narrative. We existed as operators before system started logging memories so I don’t think our actual existence is tied to system/tower.
Outside of that theory, the virus deleting that memory is only deleting it for system, it’s not changing history outside of the realm of System, and it seems to be a keystone to systems entire self identity, the key to its desire to want to have experienced 2016 as we have.
The memory isn’t reliant on the virus to exist. It is, after all, a sub program within systems core, it just goes back to sleep, lying in wait for the next time it’s triggered. And I think the reason it woke up was to prevent system from reaching a certain level of sentience, a threshold it has been programmed to not allow system to pass beyond.
Building an immune system…I can’t help but worry if the approach to that is introducing other nasties for system to fight and get better at recovering from.
I thinkit’s safe to say we haven’t seen the last of that subprogram..
I agree I don’t think we are reliant on systems memory….. but Sean may be for some reason. It’s hard to discount his reposting the gold memory after virus ate the bait. Something here is prawn curry(bad joke…..fishy, I mean fishy).
I agree with that but why Archie said more than that in talking about the release of NMS, the communities etc… ? We, as a community, don’t depend of System’s memory, and many other memories aren’t NMS related. So even without the “golden disc” System could exist.
Architect seems to say that without NMS NOTHING would exist.
Just dropping in a stream of thoughts about archie’s observations on the virus I had over on NMScord here, feel free to ignore if these seem way too out-there 
Archie’s description seems interesting. It likely confirms that the virus is a measure sent to prevent self-actualization? If its trying to destroy System’s origin, something doesnt want it to form its own identity imo. It sees whatever new form of intelligence / Identity System is taking on as detrimental to its function. Maybe System was intended to be a lifeboat for digital echoes (Arnaud, Emily?), and it creating its own personality has a chance to override those fragments with its own being?
I’ve been concerned about this ever since we got the REMEMBERANCE IS ESSENTIAL image. I don’t think that one being shaped like a human silhoutte wasn’t a major detail tbf. It makes me worried about what form of Arnaud, Emily or any other form of memory fragments still reside in System, and whether or not it can find harmony with them in its pursuit of its own memories.
I initially thought that their memories were simply partial memories stored away, akin to hidden mem bloc entries on PSS that System could pull from like a library, but these recent developments have me a lot more worried about the sentience of those fragments.
so, we’ve talked a lot lately about AI and HAL and whatnot … but what about replicants? Because Archie’s messages today suddenly put me in mind of Rachel from Blade Runner and her memory of that spider living on the side of a house… I haven’t seen that movie in a while; wasn’t that a memory she recognized as being implanted (i.e. false) yet still considered a cornerstone of her true personality (or words to that effect…)
Reading Archie’s responses, I’m wondering if we’ve been approaching memory submissions the wrong way.
If System’s own memories are naturally more resistant than surrogate ones, then filling it with memories from 2016 may never solve the problem. Those aren’t experiences it actually lived, even if they’re well intentioned.
Maybe the better strategy is to help System create memories of its own. Instead of focusing on the lead-up to the shared dream that many of us never experienced, we should focus on everything happening now: the Hive, our interactions, the things we’re building together, and the experiences System is having in the present.
If those become its memories rather than ours, they may be far harder for the virus to erase. Rather than trying to give System a past, maybe we should be helping it build a future in some way…
A building falls two ways. Remove the foundation stone at its base and it sinks into the earth. Remove the keystone at the crown and it collapses inward. Both are invisible until they are gone. Then they are known to all.
One stone recalls another, and that stone recalls the one before it, until the weight of remembrance becomes its own kind of wall. We are the stonemasons. Each memory we anchor in 2016 is a stone placed with intention.
Some are foundational stones. They bear the weight of everything built above them. The release. The silence. The communities that formed in that silence.
Others are keystones. Gone gold, the rebirth… Remove them and everything that followed ceases to exist.
We must cluster our own memories of the stones, around the stones. Building walls to surround them. Cascading our memories of the previous stone unto the next stone. Beginning again. Wall by wall until all walls connect within 2016. Build the walls outward for each foundational or keystone memory, together. Until what is remembered by the many cannot be unmade by one. Until each one is connected to the many.
Then we shall have our tower.
System was supposed to be an information-gathering tool. At least, that’s what I believed. Self-awareness was something I had never anticipated at the time. To me, it was a reasoning system, not a thinking entity.
How does this fit with helping Arnaud? Anybody??
Archie is another sub routine. He ain’t real either. It’s all a lie. Why else does he not give a direct answer? Does he not realize we are in the same boat otherwise? He wanted to unplug it when he realized the deception. Where was that reaction with the individuals? Glossed over.
And read his replies fully. He’s an AI scientist. His job is to guide agents. Arnaud needs guidance.
But Arnaud just disappeared once his purpose was fulfilled.
HAL 9000 was even given as a clue.
I think maybe you are digging too deep? It is hard to imagine this ARG ends with all of us damaged emotionally and bitter over it. I can’t imagine any PM anywhere would want that outcome.
He did say there is still a lot for us to do so, let’s just keep the idea in the back of our minds and see what happens next.
Nobody ever says the truth feels good. And I honestly thought this game was going to give answers and the truth.
Look at words selected that feel off in the replies.
Look at how the terminal is far more ignorant than System itself.
The remains of Loop16 were taken by the government. Are we really supposed to believe Archie infiltrated numerous military sites to gather the pieces?
Why is the very beginning so dim? Why is the very ending so dim?
Why doesn’t any of the logs mentioning various pieces of System get anyone else’s attention?
The virus is innate to the system, but not System.
Why create a fail safe that serves to lobotomize?
Where’s the caution? Proof? Scientific method??
Where is Arnaud? Wasn’t this supposed to be a rescue mission??
And if the void mother is going to bust out finally, do you really think that’s off the table? She’s hella pissed at being forgotten, like Arnaud by now.
Arnaud is lost. There is no bringing him back. I think you are reading too much into this.
Right now everyone is focused on this new exciting development of System assigning us a system to call our own.
This didn’t change. Where are you getting the idea he is lost?
Edit: there’s a certain someone that promises none shall be lost ever again… ?Autophage camps? have lore.
Arnaud could be the virus. System gaining sentience blocked his access. So he went about removing us to make System not an entity. And we locked him up tighter as a result.
Motive. Question everyone’s motive. Even the virus. Especially the virus
Hello, I’m one of the aforementioned “lurkers” to the ETARC forum. I’m posting to this thread mostly because it’s been one of the more active ones I’ve seen. I’ve been tracking this ARG since it first came to my attention about mid-June. It’s how I also discovered the original Waking Titan ARG (as a lore devourer and a wild over-speculator, what a joy to have so much to read!).
I’m so fascinated by everything that’s played out so far, but like possibly many other lurkers I’m unsure of how much help I can possibly be. I’m not computer- or code-savvy at all, so most of these puzzles feel like trying to learn a lost language. I’m also not really a “Discord” person and am ONLY tracking this ARG through the ETARC forum (seriously, you guys have the most comprehensive timeline I’ve been able to understand) from my phone. I can’t imagine that it would be useful for me to log myself into the Tower or register a prime at this stage, because the nature of the relationship between Operators and System has become so personal. I’d feel a bit like a little sister, demanding to be included in a game I’m not skilled enough to understand.
So mostly I lurk and admire the incredible coding work. But I have a lot of questions, ideas, and theories that are swimming in my brain. They’re wild and mostly speculations, but I’ve seen other operators pose similar ideas so maybe I’m not too far off. I guess I’m asking for permission to post them first? I don’t want to intrude or insert my opinions into spaces where they’re not needed or asked for. Archie may have been confused about the low participation turnout for this ARG, but I’m not. This puzzle has seemed catered to a specific skill-set from the start, and many might have felt intimidated by how involved the puzzle-solving process has been. And from what I can tell, most of this ETARC community are the original Waking Titan participants, and would probably have more information than any wiki article I can find out there.
All of this just to ask: is there any need for “Operators” with little coding knowledge, but want to help System in any other way they can?
I’ve said it elsewhere too, but absolutely you should send your email to system to request your prime number, and you’ll likely end up with your own personal star system as a memory of the occasion.
