― There ain't no Atlas, kid. Never was.

But... it's also capable of becoming delusional (if it can come up with a delusion that is useful to the mission). Becoming anything is a change. Becoming delusional is a change to how one thinks. If NoA can become delusional, then the idea than it cannot change how it thinks is wrong. And the statement that NoA can become delusional comes from the Quaker, who is the AI expert among the pioneers, so I’m inclined to believe her when it comes to how NoA works.

But actually, the phrasing of how this information is presented is important, I think. Because it seems like some parts of NoA’s ‘mind’ are locked down more strictly than others.

The PDA entry for the Noetic Advisor Node says that “the Noetic Advisor cannot learn or alter its existing values or imperatives.”

Quaker says that NoA “has no fixed model of reality”

NoA’s purpose and priorities are set in stone, and it has some restrictions in what it’s allowed to do, but outside of that, it can think relatively freely, as long as it can find a way to make any new developments in its thoughts and priorities relevant to its main mission.

And that sort of recontextualizes this bit as NoA… basically admitting that it knows this and has already found a workaround.

If NoA wants anything else besides its main purpose, it has to justify that want in terms of how it would support its main purpose. But the possibility of NoA wanting something else isn’t entirely dismissed. NoA already knows a loophole.

And I think we’ve already seen NoA make use of this loophole in order to “want something else”

A special request that NoA “can’t call personal” but “could really increment” NoA’s “value function”

It is a personal request. But NoA can’t call it that. NoA had to express it “in terms of how it supported the colonists of Sleep Bay 3,” just like it mentioned it would have to if it ever wanted something it wasn’t built to want.

Funny to say, I never posted my take on this famous illustration here on Tumblr (And is like one of the first things I drawn abt Transformers). So I thought it was a good moment to remember that I am gay as fuck a proud member and ally of LGBTQ+ community (I would have been strange otherwise). Also, a small thanks to TF community that is canonically and fandomically very queer and welcoming (ofc exception are anywhere but still one of the nicest and most comfortable community I'd ever been). Also, yesterday was 2 june, is the Festa della Repubblica in Italy. The day commemorates the 1946 Italian institutional referendum held by universal suffrage, in which the Italian people were called to the polls to decide on the form of government following the Second World War and the fall of Fascism.

TWO MONTHS TILL UNICRONIANS WEEK!

Just an early reminder if you're an insanely slow artist (like the one writing this post) or missed the hypetrain when this first dropped. For more information about Unicronians Week, see the pinned post.

^^^^found out that the subnautica runtime editor also works with below zero, so i made sure to grab a few shots of him without the robot arms

^also a couple with his patterns glowing brighter when he talks (with arms though)

^funny thing i noticed before transferring him. the arms are just sitting down there.

I love to post AL-AN’s animations and such so I’m glad it’s appreciated. I started my blog because I got frustrated of AL-AN clips either being in low quality or having the HUD on, so I went in game and recorded a bunch myself!

References you say…

AL-AN BLAST

A bunch more under the cut. For all of your possible reference needs.

But I wonder if they could all feel each others’ pain. I wonder if each of them could feel the network as a whole getting angrier and more desperate around them as the infection spread. I wonder if that’s why the Sea Emperor couldn’t break through and communicate with them. The Architects’ own telepathy just being too loud and chaotic with the state the network was in.

I wonder if the network’s growing aggression singled out and targeted Al-An, when he was supposed to be developing a cure, he was supposed to save them; instead he disobeyed the collective, betrayed them, and set back their progress finding a cure. I wonder how often they reminded him of that.

I wonder if he heard their voices, felt their anger towards him. He was such an easy target for the heightened aggression Kharaa left them with. What was he hearing over the network as he tried to fix his mistake? As the Warpers were created? As the Sea Emperor fetus was dissected?

I wonder if he felt the progression of the infection in other Architects through the network billions of times over before his own body began to develop those tell-tale green blisters, signifying he didn’t have long.

Here’s a very adorable animation that AL-AN has in the early-access original story!