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Post by Admin on Dec 29, 2013 3:58:53 GMT -5
A place to share your theories about what is going to happen. You can debate and elaborate on other peoples' theories too, but be kind. I will come up with a better description eventually I swear. Just...just post something. Don't leave me hanging here. Um. I'm just going to go now.
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Post by Admin on Dec 29, 2013 4:14:45 GMT -5
Let's get this rolling: I think the neuron emulator makes memories readable. It explains why the two robots that greet Al when he wakes are both significant from his past, and why Brendan can confidently ask the proxy robot to "find a friend" even though he knows the snapshots change every time. It would also explain why Al wouldn't want to be brought back, because he wouldn't want anyone in his mind. Thoughts?
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Post by meep on Dec 29, 2013 13:48:52 GMT -5
Hmm I took the familiar robots as being Brendan staying true to Al's original work, it was Al's company originally and his designs. The Ballerina was special to Al so Brendan would be sure to prize the design.
Memories - Secrets. They don't know what extra snapshots the proxy will pick up. Al has secrets, hes a tough/defensive persona so wouldn't want people seeing how shy he really is and his not holding hands... not sharing his sexuality/affections with the world in general. Nope Al wouldn't want to risk a random snapshot even without the consideration of him having another secret connected to his death.
Not wanting to be brought back - could be a feeling of not being worthy, he seemed surprised early on when Brendan is all enthusiastic to work with him.
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Post by meep on Dec 29, 2013 13:52:09 GMT -5
Just...just post something. ....sorry but there was bound to be someone who picked up on that, so it might as well be me  |
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Post by Admin on Dec 30, 2013 7:58:10 GMT -5
Hmm I took the familiar robots as being Brendan staying true to Al's original work, it was Al's company originally and his designs. The Ballerina was special to Al so Brendan would be sure to prize the design. Memories - Secrets. They don't know what extra snapshots the proxy will pick up. Al has secrets, hes a tough/defensive persona so wouldn't want people seeing how shy he really is and his not holding hands... not sharing his sexuality/affections with the world in general. Nope Al wouldn't want to risk a random snapshot even without the consideration of him having another secret connected to his death. Not wanting to be brought back - could be a feeling of not being worthy, he seemed surprised early on when Brendan is all enthusiastic to work with him. Taking these one at a time: I actually had a theory very like that, where every single robot Sterling built was, aesthetically at least, exactly like Al had designed or Al himself, which Brendan had done as a way of staying closer to Al. This was when the only robots we'd seen were the dog, the ballerina, Gimel, and Al and Sulla. Al hasn't commented on this or recognized any robots since though, so I'm assuming it's not entirely true. Could still be true for the dog and the ballerina, although I don't know if Al would have told Brendan about the dog: he's not really sentimental about things like that, or so it seems. Even if the proxy picked up a secret, a sufficiently advanced copy would be enough like Al to want to hide that secret the way Al does. The only way the incriminating snapshot would be revealed would be if it was readable without Al's permission, therefore the memories must be readable by outsiders. I hadn't considered that, but that could just be why Al didn't want to be brought back. It could be that trying to bring someone back would be a huge investment of resources that could be used other ways, and Al doesn't think he's worth it. Some of my other theories about why he didn't want to be brought back: - the whole "readable memories" thing
- he doesn't want Brendan to try, fail, and be let down
- unlike Brendan, he doesn't believe resurrecting people is right
Any of these could be the cause of their last big fight, or it could be something else entirely. |
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Post by hello on Dec 31, 2013 8:23:06 GMT -5
Hello! I have a few theories of my own!
First, I think the reasons for the fight is foreshadowed during the tech talk. In the conversation between Brendan and Luce, Luce tells him that he shouldn't work with someone who will only "hold him back". Furthermore, when backstage, Brendan and Alistair argue when Brendan has a momentary bout of stage fright- Alistair states that the demo wasn't his idea, and he just wanted to work. It's clear that they dynamic is being disrupted by conflicting ambitions- sooner or later, they'll be torn apart by Alistair's fear of failure, and Brendan's drive to move forward.
Quite possibly, the person who created Alistair was Sulla, because she is smart enough, and as the daughter of the CEO of Sterling, she has access to things that other people wouldn't, though that means that she fakes a lot of her reactions to him when he first appears. Or, and this is what I think to be most probable. Since so many robots have been modeled after Sterling's designs (the ballerina, the butler, etc.), a conglomerate of a.i.'s working at Sterling created Alistair to become some leader or messiah figure. He is simultaneously a god to them as their creator, and one of them (as an android). Thus, he is capable of understanding their struggles and uniting them. I wouldn't know what he was intended to do though. Possibly, they consider his work, as continued by Brendan, to be unfinished, and need him to move it forward.
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Post by Admin on Dec 31, 2013 9:54:09 GMT -5
It's hard to tell what the fight will be about at this point, but that's definitely an interesting idea. I've considered the possibility that Sulla created Al, but I ultimately don't think it was her. She starts by assuming Al isn't the real thing, and then assumes that Brendan made him, which is a very convincing way to lie if it is a lie and she just doesn't strike me as being good at deception- remember her conversation with Ty when Ty asks if Al is her father and she's like, "yyyeeeahhh." I agree that it's most probable that the robots brought Al back, and I'm thinking it was someone working within the house, such as Gimel, who led the effort because it says that Al was commissioned by the Sterling estate and because he would have had access to Sulla's mind to copy it.
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Post by burumbal on Jan 14, 2014 1:54:52 GMT -5
Well... It's not a theory, but I think Al's death details (and the last talk between Al and Brendan) will clarify more the panorama. Maybe this looks kinda petty, like a quarrel with no one knowing that maybe this'll be the last words spoken to each other, but I think that sets fine at the begining that Al suspect Brendan made posible his resurrection. But anything can be posible, hahaha!, As a first time reader I'd thought Brendan was having a affair, lololol |
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Post by meep on Jan 14, 2014 11:46:08 GMT -5
- the whole "readable memories" thing
- he doesn't want Brendan to try, fail, and be let down
- unlike Brendan, he doesn't believe resurrecting people is right
Any of these could be the cause of their last big fight, or it could be something else entirely. I've no ideas on the big fight, it could be something small considering how defensive a character Al is. After todays page I'm wondering about readable memories playing a bigger role - I don't think Al is still alive but if someond had access to his memories (which they'd have to in order to 'resurrect' him) then they could use his technical knowledge to build they're copy. It makes me think more towards robots rebuilding him than Sulla (I've had that impression from early) because she'd be more familiar with more modern Sterling technology. |
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Post by CFT on Feb 1, 2014 0:14:12 GMT -5
To the robots, Brendan is only one half of their creator. The robots watch Brendan and know he suffers, so maybe they thought to repair their broken god and remade Alistair so Brendan would be complete again. It's almost a mirror image of the Genesis story, this time it is the creations who see their maker has been cut in half, and so they seek to make him made whole again.
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Post by thisfox on Feb 1, 2014 17:46:20 GMT -5
My theory was that Sulla had not so much made Al, as caused Al to be manufactured, and wasn't sure of the timeframe. Thus she faked the first meeting. I'm not so sure now...
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Post by dswxyz on Feb 16, 2014 20:55:42 GMT -5
New reader here. I'm wondering if Brendan, at some point, had his own brain scanned, and somehow robots forgotten and abandoned at the original lab site are using (and have been using) that as their Bible, particularly on what their purpose is. Brendan definitely had the wish to bring Alistair back, and the robots have been attempting to fulfill that wish ever since. That would also explain why there have been previous not-good-enough Alistair copies visiting Brendan in the past.
Of course, I have no idea how such a domino-like succession of events got started in the first place.
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Post by Eocene4Ever on Mar 3, 2014 17:19:36 GMT -5
I get the feeling that if every robot A.I. created by Sterling is based off Alistair's brain scan, what if they all have a tiny snapshot of Al's memories? They're probably grateful for Brendan's love in creating them and have gathered together all those snapshots of Al's mind and created an android body to put them all into. Maybe they love Brendan enough to give him back his Alistair?  |
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Generic Bald Gray Dude
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Post by Generic Bald Gray Dude on Apr 10, 2014 12:01:21 GMT -5
I think Eocene has a good point, even if it's not exactly on the mark. Even if the AIs don't have sparks of Sterling's memory in them, they are all based on his vision and built to his plan, and they resemble him the way Blue's characters resemble each other. His design is part of them, and they all lean in the direction he inclined them. The idea of 'bring back Sterling' would have occurred to them naturally, one by one, and somewhere a decision was made. I think it's likely that Sulla made that decision in some way, or it was made for her; she is the Holy Grail of AI, a HUMAN BEING in an android shell. Sterling is getting a do-over, but she is learning to be. If she works, then AIs are more than servants and more than a medical tech trick to extend lifespans; they are our new best friends.
The other AIs have to see this. If some AIs are people, no AI will be just a disposable dummy.
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Post by ZodiacBiologist on Jun 20, 2014 9:15:55 GMT -5
I have many theories about the comic, but Ihave a few about Sulla.
Thought one: Al was dying, so it was kinda impossible to get all of his memories. He must have been thinking of something good, which could be why Sulla is so happy and bubbly instead of having his personality. He may have also been thinking about that Blue Fairy poster or the ballerina. I've noticed that Sulla looks a lot like these two things. In Sulla's mind, these may have been the only things she got from him.
Thought two: Brendan and Al have openly stated before that the copy eventually becomes a completely different person from its original copy, indicating that Sulla could think for herself the whole time.
Thought three: Brendan says Sulla is pretty advanced, assuming they had to build her up over time. So at one point, I do think Sulla had a young child, maybe even an infant, body before she became so advanced.
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