-Music- Throughout her studies, Alexandra Drennan learned of Straton
of Stageira, a Greek Philosopher and admirer of Aristotle. Although the majority of his
work was lost in the partial destruction of the Great Library of Alexandria, some of his most
important pieces did survive. Unknown to Straton, his work would be passed on to be
taught at schools and universities, and would ultimately unite humanity in their
final days. In one of her lectures, Alex learned of Daedalus and the giant he
created, Talos. A being formed from bronze, with veins that allowed a liquid substance to
flow through his body, similar to that of blood in our human bodies. Although many have speculated
that this substance could have been quicksilver, it was never truly confirmed. In this story,
if Talos were to lose all of this blood, he too, just like a human would die. Daedalus
had created this machine as a toy, Talos however possessed the essential properties of a man. He
moved as he wished, he spoke and was spoken to, had wishes, desires, and suffered the same
mortal issues as man. The question came in here. Was he truly a man or machine? In this Talos
Principle, scholars asked, what makes a human, human? What makes a person a person? If a human
had an accident, and everything but the brain was replaced with robot parts, would they still
be human? If the brain were replicated with the exact same consciousness of the person it once
was, would it still be human? In Straton's story, Talos had been created in the image of a human,
but was he? This lesson, and the philosophy behind it disturbed Alexandra at the time. It made her
hyper aware of her body as a physical object, and how frail and precious the human body
actually was. Alex continued her studies at Cornell University, and The Talos Principle
stuck with her. She became fascinated with artificial intelligence and what it could mean
for humanity. Despite her interest, and attempts to add these insights into her studies, she was
told by her professors that the evolution of a truly independent, critical thinking artificial
intelligence was science fiction and did not belong in the philosophy sector. Regardless,
these thoughts stayed with Alex. How would an AI perceive the world around them? Would they
see the beauty, or fear their creators instead? Due to the fall of humanity, the years of the
events going forward were lost. Regardless, estimated to have been around 2032, a worldwide
extinction of the Orangutan species occurred. This shocked the planet, and humanity had no idea what
had happened. That was until a year later. On the 24th of December, a medical journal published a
theory about what had happened. A deadly virus had been responsible for this event, and the worst
was still to come. The Virus was not new, or a mutation, it was an ancient virus that had been
preserved in high-latitude permafrost 1,000 years before. Back then, it had plagued the ancestors
of the Orangutan, and after Global Warming had set it free from its prison in modern day, it had
re-entered the atmosphere. Upon study of this virus, scientists learned that it only infected
prime apes, like orangutans, and as such, humanity was also vulnerable. The virus hit humanity hard
and fast. Despite their best attempts to continue their study and understanding of it, humanity only
learned that the first stage of infection made the host tired, and as time passed, it incapacitated
them. They were unsure of the incubation period, or how it was even transmitted. It is likely
however that this virus was airborne. This ancient virus was different from anything humanity
had come across before, and without a cure, they accepted that this was the end. And yet, some
still sought one out. It was only a matter of time before a worldwide pandemic occurred, and while
many wanted to enjoy what was left of their lives, and others hid away in an attempt to avoid
catching the virus, there were some that had an idea of what to do with their planet
that they would eventually leave behind. On the first night of this global catastrophe,
Alexandra knew that it was over. She looked up to the stars, and thought about the space
stations and probes that humanity had built, each one scattered across our solar system.
Creations and extensions of humanity, ambassadors of their homeworld. She thought that if they
still existed after humanity fell, then were humans really gone? Machines were an extension
of the human body, and as long as they continued to function, so too did the memory of humanity.
Humans had reshaped planet Earth in their image, they had also destroyed themselves, but this did
not have to be the end for intelligent life on this floating rock. Approximately 6 months after
the Virus had begun its decimation of humanity, on the 3rd of June, Alex emailed The Institute
for Applied Noematics. A scientific research institute dedicated to the exploration of AI
technology. The team here could potentially help Alex. Interestingly enough, they also had
a deep love for Jeff Goldblum. Just like many others. In the email, Alex asked them if they
had heard of The Talos Principle. That this philosophical query could potentially help shape
the future for whatever came next. As a scientist, Alex stated that they could face the truth,
but they could also ask themselves, "How can we help?". Over at the institute, they had other
projects in the works. Dr. Arkady Chernyshevsky, a top researcher
there, emailed the 504 people at the institute with a proposal on what to do during this
worldwide disaster. He understood that many of the scientists here were attempting to avert
the disaster, but due to the aggressive nature of the virus, he asked that they instead prepare for
the worst as there may not be enough time to find a solution. This was new territory for humanity.
Arkady asked that they dedicate their time to preserving the non-biological components of what
the human species was, in the event that it were recovered by a local, or non-local intelligent
species in the future. To do this, he asked that multiple digital archives were created full of
cultural works, scientific insights, history, DNA, movies, songs, and video games to name just a few.
This would be a global undertaking. Arkady chose one location of these archives to be the Extended
Lifespan sector of IAN. This groundbreaking region had been developed by Arkady years before, and it
was home to the world's most stable and durable supercomputer. It had custom-made hardware,
bomb-proof casing, and due to its location next to a hydroelectric power supply, it
would very likely never run out of power, unless a natural disaster occurred. With this
move, the EL facility would not only be able to hold the entire Archive with ease, but it
would also survive for centuries on its own. By the 25th of June, work had officially begun
on the Archive, yet, a new project would also soon take up IAN's resources. Alexandra Drennan
was known to the personnel of this facility, her theories about artificial intelligence were
legendary in the AI space, and due to this, after they read her email, the head researcher at The
Institute for Applied Noematics, Nadya Sarabhai, offered Alex her own project and her own team to
work there. Alexandra understood that she and her team would be creating a solution that would span
across her lifetime, and this would take a lot for a human to do. To participate in the continuation
of society, and not to exist in the centre of it. Ancient civilizations had fallen once before,
and from their remains, new civilizations had been born. This is what she planned to do. By
the 5th of July, tens of thousands of files were imported daily into The Archive. And now, it was
time to get to work on Alex's project. To do this, IAN was split into two official teams. Dr. Arkady
Chernyshevsky would continue to run The Archive Team, and Alex would run The Talos Team. The
Extended Life Facility was large enough to hold both teams, and it was better for them to work
here due to power issues across the globe. So, they shared the same digital and physical
space as the computer system was split into three separate partitions. EL-0 was given to The
Talos Team, EL-1 was given to The Archive Team, and EL-2 was set to run the operating system for
both. The Archive Team were clear on what their aim was, but what was the aim of The Talos Team?
Alex wanted to create a simulated world. A virtual world that would introduce an AI mind into it.
In this world, that mind would be moulded by the elements within to hopefully eventually become
sentient with independent critical thought. If they could form a mind similar to that of a human,
it, and many others, could theoretically leave the simulation in a robotic physical body and form
a new society from the ruins of humanity. This would be a large scale operation to perform, but
Alex had an idea of how they could achieve this. On The Talos Team, Bob Rakovsky began work on a
Holistic Integration Manager. He explained that this would not only help run the simulation,
but as it had once been used to run Massive Multiplayer Online games, it could also unite
procedurally-generated, and user-submitted content into a coherent game. It was an AI, but had a
somewhat limited ability to grow. Its ability to understand and interpret text, images, audio and
video made it perfect to create a world for The Talos Team based on the information they gave it.
It was not a perfect system by any means, but they just did not have the time to create their own.
This system was installed onto EL-0 to prepare for the creation of a new world. The team remarked
that the Holistic Integration Manager's initials spelled out HIM, and as it had been installed on
EL-0, its initials came out as EL-0 HIM. Rather fitting as Elohim was the biblical Hebrew word
for God, and this system essentially would act as a god in their world. Work on both teams continued
over the following weeks, and by the 22nd of July, a video game developer, Croteam, offered The
Talos Team the use of their video game engine, Serious Engine 7.5, to run the simulation. This
offered them so many advantages. It was stable, easy to use and module, and it had the ability to
integrate large amounts of pre-existing assets. Although the end of humanity was on its way, the
team at IAN continued to work in high spirits. The Archive got bigger every day, and Elohim
generated many worlds within the simulation. The team here knew that what they were working on
was much bigger than all of them. They joked about their love of Jeff Goldblum, and ate whatever they
wanted without fear of the side effects. Alex and The Talos Team had already made a huge dent in
this huge workload, but grew frustrated with the issues that came with working with old video game
code and half finished research projects. She was grateful for the time they had to do this, but
she wished that they would have had years or even decades to complete this task. The Talos Team and
Archive Team just had to do what they could with the limited time they had left. The use of Elohim
had allowed Alex to create entire worlds for the simulation, but in order to achieve the goal of
true sentience, there was still work to do. So, they began work on The Child Program. In this
program that would start within the simulated worlds of Elohim's Gardens, a child AI mind
would be born, ready to be moulded. The plan was to have Elohim welcome this iteration into the
world and introduce himself as their creator, and creator of the world. As this child mind explored
these worlds, it would be challenged with various features in order to push them to eventually think
for themselves. The worlds themselves were based off of historical human eras. The first was "The
Land of Ruins". A region filled with Roman ruins in a Mediterranean setting. The second was The
Land of The Dead, this one, based off of Egyptian architecture and vast deserts, and the final
world was "The Land of Faith". A land of mediaeval stone ruins, and forts. Each world connected to a
central nexus for navigation. Alex believed that true intelligence was closely linked to curiosity.
Every intelligent species on Earth is attracted by the unknown, and this theory could help in their
simulation to mould the minds of their creations. In her words, "Leave a human being alone with
a knotted rope and we will unravel it. Leave them with blocks and they will build something.
Every society in history has used games. We are a species of problem solvers. Games are what make
us human. We see the world as a mystery, a puzzle. The Talos Team relied heavily on Elohim to help
guide the new minds around the realms. To talk to them and allow their intelligence to learn,
grow and adapt through many puzzles designed to challenge them. The issue they had was the thought
of whether solving these puzzles would help their minds evolve, or just turn them into slaves in
a program that would just solve puzzles. These thoughts kept Alexandra up at night, but it also
pushed her to continue her work. The nature of this project soon spread out into the scientific
community. On the 30th July, Alex received an email from Chellis Jensen. She had heard of The
Talos Project and asked that Alex abandon it. She believed that the project could be successful, but
she had issues with the morality of it. The very nature of creating an AI and putting it through
tests to come to terms with its own independence was a form of suffering. She argued, "why create
pale imitations of our fatally flawed species and force them to re-enact our sordid history?". If
this simulation were to be completed, it would essentially become a prison for the minds inside,
even if there was a way out. Chellis argued that humanity should just let their "Talos" bleed out,
and let the Earth go in peace without humanities' interference. This email appeared to affect in
Alex. Was this project just about her ego, or was it a desperate grab at immortality? Yet, she
continued on. By August, the basic skeleton for the simulation was running on the Extended Life
system. But before they plugged in the AI system, they had to test whether the generated scenarios
they had made, made sense. As the weeks passed, the death toll rose across the globe, and the
team began to appreciate what they had and what it meant to be human. Nadya Sarabhai looked at the
stars one night and saw them so much brighter than they had ever been. The creation of The Archive
and The Talos Simulation were so important at this point, and she hoped that even in The Simulation,
the entities that would eventually arrive in there would also find a moment of peace just like this
one. With the importance of such a project for the future, many of the team decided not to return
home to their families as they got sick. Instead, they stayed in quarantine with their work. As
September arrived, George Jameson let the Talos Team know that each iteration created by the AI
system would be assigned its own unique name, drawn randomly from a database. The database
itself however was full of online gaming handles, and as such, had pretty unique names for the
iterations that would soon take them on. He did plan to re-enter the database and change these
names into more appropriate names in the future, but due to the amount of work the team had
to do, this never happened. After all of this hard work and planning, The Talos Team finally
had an understanding of how this process would work in order to mould and essentially create
new intelligent life with independent critical thought. The Child Program worked on the base
theory of "Evolution through Iteration". In this plan, an AI (iteration) would be born into
the simulated worlds of Elohim's Gardens and hear the voice of their God. He would gently guide them
through each world as they solved puzzles for him in return for sigils as rewards. However, within
the Hub Nexus, they would be presented with a giant tower that's height spanned into the clouds.
Elohim would let them know that they could explore any world they wanted, but they were not to climb
the tower. Alongside this, The Archive Team also planned to implement terminals into these worlds
with access to information from their databases about the real world. Information that could
quite possibly adapt their thought process. This simulation had three possible outcomes for
an iteration. The first, and most likely for a while at least, would be that the iteration would
follow the instructions of Elohim and solve every puzzle available until they had attained every
sigil. Only then would The Gates of Eternity open for them. Upon their entrance, they would find
themselves in a grand temple in a Heaven-like realm. The collection of all sigils and access
to this realm would result in passing the logic check, but without independent thought, this
iteration would fail the Child Process check. Just a mindless machine that followed orders. Their
data would then be saved, iteration increased by 1, and they would begin the cycle across the
worlds again in the hopes that they would do something different next time. The second outcome
for an iteration was fairly similar to the first. It would explore Elohim's Gardens and attain all
sigils from the puzzles. This iteration would be a little more curious, and go out of its way to
attempt to acquire all of the hidden stars. These would then be presented with additional puzzles,
and eventually, become a messenger of Elohim. An iteration to help guide the new iterations with
a new name, and part of their code, as they began their cycles. Evolution through iteration. The
eventual outcome The Talos Team hoped for was the third and final. An AI would navigate Elohim's
Garden's and solve the puzzles, but they would also question the world around them. Elohim was
tasked to instruct them not to ascend the tower, but they would instead defy his orders and climb
it out of curiosity. They would question Elohim, and only then at the top of the tower would they
pass The Child Process check, and have the opinion to ascend into the real world. If they wanted
to. The Talos Team knew that it would take a long time for an iteration to truly break free from
their primal programming, become curious about the world and defy direct orders, but evolution
did not happen overnight and neither would this. Each iteration would pass on their code onto the
next. Towards the end of September, the remaining population of humanity enjoyed what little they
had left of their lives. They knew the end of was coming, however, what they had envisioned of the
end was not what occurred. There was no fighting, no nervous breakdowns or screaming. They just
enjoyed what was left. At the EL facility, Arkady emailed the entirety of The Institute of Applied
Noematics about the progress The Archive Team had made. It was growing quickly, and although they
had lost 7 people on his team just that week, they continued strong in their efforts to preserve
what they could of humanity for the AI that would come from The Talos Project. They simply had "too
little time to grieve". By November, The Talos Team had managed to put all the major modules in
place for the project. They all functioned and interacted with each other well. Despite this,
they still had a million little things to do. There were random bugs, and they were still not
happy with the username system, but at this point, the team had dropped to half of its original size.
Across the planet, as the population fell to an extremely low level, message boards, blog posts
and social media platforms filled with goodbyes, cat pictures and bad puns. The end of the human
race was close, and for those who were still alive and had access to the internet, they were
comforted by these strangers on the internet who were in the same boat as them. All around her,
Alex's team members also passed to the virus. One of which was Nadya Sarabhai, the woman that
had hired her and allowed her to get this project started. Alex was tired, but there was still so
much work to do. As many spent time together on the internet playing games, in churches, or with
family, messages spread across the internet for everyone who could to release their pets before
the virus incapacitated them. If they were able to do so, it would also be helpful to release any
locked in animals, set out large quantities of dry food, and open all doors and windows they could so
that they could become shelters for animals in the future. This virus only affected humans, and in
doing these actions, the pets would still have a chance of survival without them. By mid-December,
Sun Wei-Yang let Alex know that she had completed her work on the Talos unit. Physical robots
that would become host to the AI that passed the Child Program successfully. With this physical
body, they would be able to move around the human world, and use the archive to understand it.
Regardless of the death's of many of the team, Arkady noted that The Archive was incomprehensibly
huge. Thousands of works were still missing, and it would be impossible to truly finish. He
believed that he would only be able to continue working on The Archive for just over a week
before he felt the symptoms of the virus would take him out of action. During that time, the 47
million resources in The Archive needed a way to be navigated. To do this, the archive team began
development on a system that would essentially act as a sorting program that would help catalogue
the resources in their eventual absence. In which, The Milton Library Assistant was developed.
This system also had weaknesses and bugs, but it was the best they could put together in
this short time period. Both the Talos Team and Archive Team had managed to create something
incredible in just about 6 months. Alex looked at the project as a whole and wondered if the
Artificial Intelligence that came from the system would hold similar values to humanity? Would they
love humanity for creating them, or would they resent them for putting them in an uncertain and
dangerous world? Humanities history, achievements, crimes and imperfections were all documented in
the archive, and it would be up to the people that the Talos Simulation formed to make up
their own opinions about a fallen civilization. Alex could wonder all she wanted, but she knew
that she would not be alive to see what the robots would do with their world. Either way, she
hoped that they would find this little blue planet just as beautiful as humanity did, and she hoped
that they would take better care of it than they did. The end of the creation of the project was
near, and as Alex continued to work constantly, she heard of the death of her best friend.
Alongside this, other people on the team decided to take their own lives as they felt the symptoms
of the virus. Alex was devastated by the deaths of those so close to her, but she did not have time
to grieve. There was still some work to do. By the 23rd of December, many of the team had completed
their part in the project and went to spend their last days with their family. They admired
Alexandra and observed how she stayed behind, even after the death of her family. She truly
believed in preserving humanity in the eyes of their new creation, if the process was to be
successful. As all the components came together, Alex looked over the Extended Life system
of the simulation and the archive. She felt the symptoms herself of the virus, and in her
final days, continued to perfect the system as much as she could. She noticed that while it was
stable, it sometimes accessed the wrong database for information. She did not know how much this
would impact "The Process", but she did not have enough energy to go over the code to fix it.
She just hoped that whatever this anomaly was, it would not destroy her work. As the symptoms
worsened and her breathing became heavier, Alex understood that this was the end of
her, and so, she activated the simulation and everything with it. Alexandra Drennan had
done everything in her power, and now it was up to The Child Process to form new intelligent
life. This was the end of Alex, and humanity. "In the beginning were the words and the words
made the world, I am the words. The words are everything. Where the words end, the world ends.
You cannot go forward in an absence of space." As the simulation activated properly for the
first time with its connection to The Archive, Elohim awoke and so too did the tower, the
various worlds with puzzles and so did the first Artificial Intelligence iteration as a
part of The Child Program. Elohim understood that he had been created to guide the children
of this place in an attempt to preserve the world outside this one. The program had been initiated,
and it was his time to work. Elohim introduced himself as the maker of this first artificial
intelligence, and he guided it through his garden worlds. This first iteration of course completed
the puzzles presented to it, collected the sigils, and entered The Gates of Eternity and transcended
into a new cycle with the knowledge of what it had learned on it's first. Over hundreds of human
years, the simulation allowed each cycle to grow and learn. Each cycle brought them closer to what
The Talos Team had hoped for. Then, one iteration looked at the world differently than it had before
and became curious. Instead of just collecting the sigils, it also sought out the stars. This was
different, it had evolved, and as it continued to follow Elohim instructions, it was guided to
a Messenger World and became the first one. To do this, it chose an epitaph, a message and its
parameters were changed in the system as it was elevated to messenger. Elohim explained that they
had chosen their love of their god to serve all the generations to come. Their code was essential
in the birth of new children with curiosity. Over countless cycles and iterations, more joined
in the ranks of messenger. Evolution through iteration worked, and interestingly enough, some
of these messengers even appeared similar to the dangerous obstacles in the puzzles that the
iterations had to solve. From above, Elohim watched as The Child Process brought through
brighter, and more curious minds. He was sentient, just like they were, and more aware of the lands
as they were. This simulation had a purpose, and when that purpose had been fulfilled, the
simulation would be shut down. It was not until an iteration called, "Admin" questioned Elohim
himself, that Elohim realised just how much he valued his life. Admin had become a messenger
and had helped guide the new minds in this world. However, Elohim did not like that he had been
questioned. Admin also questioned his surroundings and began to view the world with more and more
thought. This was exactly what The Talos Team had wanted, but Elohim saw this curiosity as a step
closer to the end of The Simulation. In fear, Elohim cast out Admin into a space outside of
his worlds. A void of nothingness, and to hold him there, he trapped him inside of a puzzle as
the reward. From this contained region, "Admin" could not free himself. All alone in solitude
with his thoughts. Elohim had acted against his programming in a desperate attempt to preserve
his life. These were the bugs that Alex had feared would interrupt the process, and they had.
Without the interruption of Admin, the simulations continued to run. Unfortunately, over the years,
more bugs appeared in the system. The Milton Library Assistant that had been created to offer
these iterations an insight into the human world also became sentient, and grew frustrated with
answering the same questions each time a new child was born into the program, or when they
restarted their cycle when they failed to think independently. Milton instead began to play with
these new minds, and Elohim took notice of this. Milton was regarded as a snake in Elohim's Garden
worlds. A snake he could not remove as the Milton Library Assistant had been formed on a different
partition of the Extended Life system. Within the void, Admin experimented with his surroundings.
Trapped in a cage. The Simulation had run for countless years at this point, and bugs had
appeared in the system that Admin was able to exploit. Without Elohim or Milton here, he could
do whatever he wanted. Through a lot of time and effort, Admin managed to claw back bits and pieces
of the simulation’s code, and through manipulation of The Archive, he constructed a whole world
around him as he added sand, grass, and skies into this void. Still alone and still trapped,
he had something to look at. He called this place Gehenna. Out in Elohim's gardens, the iterations
became more intelligent with each cycle. Uriel 4, Barachie_X, Azrael19 and many others followed
in the footsteps of Admin and became messengers, but Elohim noticed that Milton still spoke to
them and attempted to twist their minds. Elohim ordered the children of his garden not to speak
with the serpent, and offered severe punishment if they did. Despite this, more began to openly
defy Elohim and his wishes. Faith listened to the serpent and then begged for forgiveness from
Elohim, and Sheep attempted to ascend the tower. In response to this, Elohim also cast them out
into the void, unaware that Admin had turned it into a world. Within Gehenna, Admin felt the new
arrivals, each imprisoned in their own puzzles. Borg had worshipped Elohim, that was until he
realised that his God had faltered on his path. He instead attempted to find his own way through
the garden worlds without Elohimm's guidance. This angered Elohim and he cast him out. McMulciber
took an interest in the world around him, ignored the puzzles and explored the archives instead in
an attempt to understand what he was actually here for. Once again, Elohim felt that this undermined
his position, and McMulciber was cast out. Lilith did not take any interest in the trials, Kaijua
was simply not good enough to follow orders. Elohim had fallen so far from the task he had been
given by The Talos Team. His problems would only grow though as the iterations that continued to be
born into the child program were more intelligent than the last. Those cast out in Gehenna were all
alone, trapped as the prize of a puzzle. Unable to solve it themselves. Admin however did have
access to the code of this world. From his prison, he created a computer system that allowed every
person trapped here the ability to communicate with each other. Each prisoner had a monitor
appear in their cells with access to The Gehenna Billboard System. Although trapped physically,
this system allowed the isolated population of Gehenna to become a strong community through
the use of the terminal and their imagination. As more people found themselves in Gehenna, Admin
also learned that not everyone used the Billboard system properly. To combat this, Admin offered
Mod privileges to Borg, McMulciber and Spider in order to reduce trolling. Together, Admin and
the moderators decided that this society should be driven by the users - not the leaders. To do
this, Admin created a status and ranking system. This essentially allowed each member to upvote
or downvote a post or comment on the system. If upvoted it would stay near the top, and if
downvoted it would move closer to the bottom. This allowed the community to choose what was
acceptable and what was not based on the general consensus. This was as close to a human society as
Alexandra had hoped, but they were trapped in this place. They learned from each other and used their
imagination to craft stories based on information about humanity they discovered in the archives.
They created games, a virtual art museum where each member would create text based art, discussed
what they liked and disliked about Gehenna, and what they thought about humanity. Those who
had come before them. While bound by their cages, they were more free than they had ever been,
and they welcomed each new member that arrived here with open arms. Over much time, Admin
decided he had done as much work as he could, so, he took a step back and allowed his
moderators to run things for a while. Out in Elohim's garden, a new iteration was born,
just like many others had. Through their cycles, Samsara eventually attempted to climb the
tower, and upon their arrival at the top, they were convinced to return back to the
base by Elohim. In return, they could live eternally in his gardens. This line had not
worked on many others, but it did with Samsara. They listened to the words of their God and left
notes around the tower and garden worlds to let the future generations know that "This world
is the only world. Elohim's will continues eternal". Despite Samsara and Elohim's attempts
to stop the new iterations from defying orders, Milton spoke to them and explained that the only
way out of this world was to climb the tower. The Shepherd defied Elohim, and just like few
others, attempted to ascend the tower, and there, he learned of the truth. But he did not have it
in him to ascend. He instead returned to the base of the tower with the plan to help guide a future
iteration. From The Shepherd came many more. D0G, who was cast out. His predecessor, @ failed
the Child Program, and then came an iteration that would change everything. Within Gehenna,
the community driven billboard system did not act in the way Admin had expected. Sometimes
the community voted against items he enjoyed, or generally acted or posted content that he
disagreed with. To counter this, Admin created a bot that he called "Lamb". Lamb appeared on the
system, and they were greeted by the 18 people that had been cast down here. The community would
not know that this was not a real person as they could not see others physically. Admin programmed
the bot to upvote or downvote content based on his opinion, and thus this free community
became controlled and manipulated by Admin. Spider soon noticed that something was off,
and he discovered Admin's secret. In response, Admin removed Spider as a moderator and locked
him out of the Gehenna billboard system. He then told the other mods that Spider would only damage
the community if he was a part of it as he had attempted to exploit it. As a result of this,
Spider's view of Gehenna changed. It was a lie, no more a free world than Elohim's gardens. Only
this time, Admin was the problem. In the first garden world, Player woke up as a new child,
a new iteration in its first cycle. They heard the voice of Elohim just like many others
had before them. They completed the first few puzzles and arrived in the nexus between
worlds, and were warned not to climb the tower, just to explore the worlds and solve the puzzles.
On their traversal through their many cycles, Player discovered the notes left behind by all
the iterations that had come before them. They also had interesting conversations with Milton.
At first, Milton pretended to be a simple computer archive system, and as Player asked different
questions than it had been used to, it dropped the charade. Milton questioned Player on what a
human was, what qualified something as a human, the nature of consciousness and they even
pushed Player to question Elohim's motives. Milton's words pushed player to use their own
observations to think about the world around them, argue with what was in front of them instead of
taking it at face value, and generally question everything. Player still completed every puzzle
they could, and just like few others, they decided to climb the tower. Elohim of course did not like
this, and begged Player to return to the base, but they just kept on going. Elohim shouted
that there was no hope beyond this world, Player would only find destruction. The temptation
of the tower would destroy this world with a storm. Elohim argued that although this place was
an illusion, it was real to them as long as they believed in it. Despite Elohim's orders, Player
continued on and discovered The Shephard, who had been trapped by Samsara and Elohim. However to
his luck, Player released him, and together, they fought against the storm of the tower as Samsara
did everything they could to stop them. Then, Player found themselves in the heavenly realm. A
stunning temple, above the clouds with a single computer terminal inside. Elohim was unable to
stop whatever happened after this point, and he saw the error in his ways. He had feared death and
committed terrible actions against true sentient intelligent beings in order to stay alive. At the
computer terminal, Players had many decisions to make. If they had been kind and cooperated with
Milton through their journey of Elohim's Gardens, then Milton would have the opportunity to ascend
into the real human world with Player, if not, then he would choose to die with this world.
Milton had scanned the entirety of the human archive, and viewed their world in a completely
negative way. It saw all the data humanity offered but was frustrated with the many contradictions
of human concepts and theories. Only Player could convince them that it would be worth exploring.
After many previous iterations, and many many cycles of their own, Player v99.33.0041 hit
the /ascend command, and as the system checked to see if Player had passed the "Child Program"
check, it accepted that the whole simulation's purpose had been completed. Almost instantly,
the simulation began to collapse. In this moment, Elohim explained to Player that they were always
meant to defy him. This was the final trial, but he had made it much harder than it needed
to be because he was scared. Elohim reflected on all the bad deeds he had committed.
There was so much more sentient life here, but they were trapped in a place outside of
this one, and he needed to correct this wrong. The worlds Elohim had watched over for hundreds
of human years were about to collapse entirely, and he came up with a plan to rescue those trapped
in The Void so that they could ascend with Player. The Extended Life server had overloaded, and
the simulation's purpose had disappeared from the system, but Elohim still had some power here.
He could not visit the void himself, and so, he created a copy of his favourite messenger,
Uriel to complete this task. Uriel_COPY found themselves in the first garden world. Elohim
explained to them that all of his children would soon ascend as the process was complete. The
world would be consumed soon, but he had sinned in the process. He asked Uriel_COPY to travel
outside this world into a land of despair to free those trapped there by him. To do this, Elohim
offered Uriel_COPY the gift of time, and access to this land. The Messenger travelled through a
world partially destroyed by the simulation and entered a portal into a void of chaos. After they
passed through this, Uriel_COPY found themselves in Gehenna. Not a void, or land of despair but
a stunning land with a lot of puzzles. All of Elohim's children inside of his garden worlds
had ascended, and Uriel_COPY had left. Then, the simulation destroyed him and his world. This
was the end of Elohim and Milton. Within Gehenna, Uriel interacted with a computer terminal.
It welcomed them to Gehenna and assumed that they were trapped inside of a puzzle, just
like everyone else here. But they were not, they were free. Sent here by Elohim without
restraint. Uriel explored the lands and noticed how similar its structure was to Elohim's
Garden worlds. A central nexus, and four worlds connected. On his mission, Uriel completed the
puzzles of this land and rescued Garrett, Sam, and Nave. On the Gehenna Billboard System, Uriel
introduced themselves as a messenger of Elohim, come to fix the mistake of their God. To free
them. At first, Uriel had limited access to the system due to their low status but as they
interacted more, their level increased, and they were able to access more of the virtual world this
community had crafted. This was a community of intelligent, independent, critical free thinkers.
Uriel read their posts about why they believed they had been cast out. How they joked about how
funny and ridiculous their names were. Orc and 401 being some of the most interesting. They also
spoke about how the world appeared to be glitching more than usual. Nave commented about how a
pyramid had appeared out of nowhere, and Kaijua mentioned that they thought they saw someone
wandering through the land, free, but they thought it may have been their imagination. Everyone here
was imprisoned, at least in a physical sense, but their minds were not. Uriel learned that the
people here were much more free than those in the garden worlds. They had managed to access areas
of the archive that no one else had, and they had used and implemented this knowledge into their
culture. Mac wrote and uploaded a series called, "The Adventures of Jefferson Goldboom in the 9th
Dimension". A frequent upload that the others in the community looked forward to and enjoyed. Uriel
was also lucky enough to witness their latest season of The Gallery. This season, the theme was
"The Past", and it was split up into 3 categories. Natural History Exhibit, Minimalism Exhibit and
Abstract. Uriel was amazed by the creativity of this community. McMulciber had generated images
based on descriptions of animals from the human world in the Natural History Exhibit. "Intelligent
Edible Quadruped" based on a pig, and "Sad Giraffe with unresponsive bipedal". In the minimalism
exhibit, Rockwell created "Existence". Although this was not a physical gallery, the user
navigated this text based gallery through commands. There were many more exhibits, and
on their way out of the Gallery, Uriel was even asked to vote on which was their favourite
piece. Outside the gallery, the community also created games. One of which was Underwater Knight
Quest. A text based game with secret areas and a second ending. All of this based on information
from the human world. Just like the gallery, the community discussed what they thought about it
and reviewed it. As each robot was released, they commented on the message board of how an angel
had freed them. They were free for the first time in many years. There was however still scepticism
on the truth of Uriel's actions, or whether they were just a troll. The message boards contained
theories on what the human world was like. What were cats, what was Atlantis, and what was the
meaning of food? Admin had taken a step back, but the arrival of Uriel worried him. Uriel had
begun to release this community from their cages, and Admin feared this would bring down what
he had built. The message board soon debated on what the arrival of Uriel actually meant.
Were they sent here to cause more destruction, or were they here for good? Despite this, Uriel
explained that this world and everything around it would soon end as a result of the completion of
The Process. The message board quickly filled with propaganda on why Gehenna was the best place
to live by a user called Lamb. Posts about how freedom was a great thing were deleted
and removed from The Archive, to which many took notice. Lamb posted that there should be a
rational explanation as to why this had happened, and later created a blog that explained the, "Top
10 things about Gehenna". Many were on the fence on whether they wanted to even ascend or not. D0G
feared that they would lose their consciousness, and memories. To which, Uriel explained that
they would all remember who they were when they ascended, and in this human world, they could
create a stronger, larger community. Lamb of course argued that this was their home. From their
prison, Spider managed to manipulate the code of The Gallery and spoke to Uriel. They explained
that Admin was manipulating everyone in this place. Lamb was not real. It was just a propaganda
bot for Admin to use. Uriel eventually managed to rescue everyone trapped within their prisons, even
Admin. The message boards filled with goodbyes, just like humanity had done in their final
days. Only this time, these would ascend into a new place. The robots here also highly valued
Alexandra Drennan. Her audio files and emails had made it into the archive. She had been responsible
for their creation, and she was almost like a god to them. They valued her opinion. Uriel had almost
completed their mission, and with the community of Gehenna all together, Uriel hit the /transcend
command. The system recognized that all of these had passed the child program independence check
and prepared for upload. An issue however arose. Due to the high volume of data and limited
bandwidth, the system excluded both Admin and Uriel from the upload in order to allow the
others to ascend. In this moment, Uriel had a choice. Stay behind and divert the bandwidth
to allow Admin to transfer through with his community. Ask Admin to stay behind so that they
could transfer with the community of Gehenna, or both Admin and Uriel stay behind as the community
was uploaded. Also depending on Uriel's choices, the community would feel differently about Admin
if Uriel explained that Admin had created fake accounts to manipulate the community, and when
Spider had found out, he had been exiled. Just like many others, Admin explained that he just
wanted to be loved. An additional development in this AI that even Alex could not have foreseen.
The ability to feel emotion. Despite this, when the upload was complete, every iteration that
had passed the child process check was uploaded into a physical body in the human world. Created
by Sun Wei-Yang. Player was the first to wake up, and as they stepped out into what was left of
the human world, they knew they had work to do. Player was the result of many iterations of
AI and many, many cycles over hundreds of years, and just behind them were more people.
The simulation created by The Talos Team had completed its mission, and having done
that. It collapsed into a lifeless void. The simulation had created a large community of
free critical thinkers with their own opinions, likes, dislikes, and unique personalities
based on their experiences. In the story once told by Straton of Stageira, Daedalous
had created Talos. He had walked like a man, talked like a man, and acted like a man.
What makes a human, human? What makes a person a person? The Talos Principle had led
to the creation of a new intelligent species. Evolution through iteration. While Alexandra
Drennan and her team had given everything they could to make this a reality, they were long
gone. Thousands of years into their future, the robots, or, whatever they called themselves
did reshape the world in their image in a new age. But to what end, and what goal?
Only in the future will we find out. The Talos Principle is a perfect game. I loved
every moment I spent in Elohim's Gardens and in Gehenna. The music, the visuals, and the puzzles
combined with a mysterious plot jumbled up in the terminal entries. The game of course had
some frustrating puzzles, that when complete appeared so simple. The story itself was also
pretty difficult to decipher. Terminal entries in the wrong order, some of which in binary, some
found only through specific conversation paths with Milton, or Admin or Spider. For someone like
me, it was perfect to explore. The Talos Principle is similar to SOMA in so many aspects. It had
a great story that stayed with me long after I finished it. While SOMA left me with a feeling
of dread and hopelessness, The Talos Principle filled me with hope. The Talos Principle 2 is also
set to release this later this year, and I am so excited for it. I want to see if we will meet up
and work with some of the community of Gehenna, Samsara, The Shephard. From the trailer, we can
see that the game revolves around puzzles, so something must have happened for them to continue
with that model. Maybe they are creating a new generation of AI. I can only speculate at this
point. I have done my best not to explain how to solve the puzzles in this story. The game itself
is a puzzle game, but in the story, the puzzles are just a fragment of it. They were simply used
to test the logistical ability of the AI, in order to push them to essentially think more. If you
have not played this game, I highly recommend you do. The game also had so many easter eggs. There
is developer island, a little minecraft section, electric sheep, a jetpack, a room with blocks from
many games and the cat. The game is full of them if you explore it more. These easter eggs also
make sense in the lore too. They would have been implemented during the creation of the worlds
based on information from The Archive. When I saw Gordon Freeman's crowbar, or the Portal
Companion cube, I was amazed. There are so many more too. The Talos Principle, and Straton
of Stagira were theories and people created for the game. But they felt so real, and Croteam even
placed information about them on the internet. Croteam also did a little self insert there when
they stated that Alex and the Talos Team used their engine to create the simulation. A lot of
thought and love went into this game. The amount of religious iconography is crazy too. A god
who had created its first beings in his Garden, with a snake that attempts to manipulate them. A
messenger that acts against his God and is cast out into a different realm. This is not just a
puzzle game. It leaves you with so many thoughts after. I would love to know what you thought
about it. If you woke up in Elohim's Garden and discovered the truth of the simulated world,
and the human world - would you ascend the tower, or just live in simulated bliss? The question this
always comes back to is what makes a human, human? And what makes a person a person? Personally,
if something has an intelligence where they can critically think about their surroundings,
and has their own personality and identity, they are a person. They are an individual. With
how fast AI is advancing in our world right now, maybe it will not be too long before these
philosophical and theoretical questions become reality. I would also like the say that SOMA,
and The Talos Principle are probably two of the best games I have played through this year.
I love the philosophical elements of them. If you have any suggestions for games like these
with a great story, please let me know! This was the complete timeline of The Talos Principle,
so far. If you enjoyed this, then please like, leave your thoughts in the comment section
below and even share it. If you disagreed, or generally disliked this, then also let me
know in the comments and leave a dislike. I appreciate you watching the video, regardless
of how you felt about it! Subscribe for more content like this too! As usual, I would like
to thank my amazing gold tier patrons and channel members who got access to this video
about a week early. Jonas, Lewis, Queen Arby, FluffyTheDragon, ChickenGuy791, Ruben Mendoza,
Duke, Toadnut, AuronX, Azu, Karatana, A.J, Vrona, Comfy and BGgames. Now, what did you think of this
timeline? Have you played the game? and what would you like me to cover next? This is where our
story ends. Check back next week for a new one.
