WAU Intent (End Spoiler)

[Cyrus]

I played the thing all the way through, twice, and I still can't figure out what the WAU was trying to accomplish by creating Simon's new form and allowing him to progress to the point of killing it with Ross.

One possibility for there being some plot-holes like this is that, perhaps, the entire story is happening to Simon while emerging from a near-death experience or coma. This may not explain how the world in SOMA was so well-detailed, but the ongoing theme of the story is that reality is something we still don't quite understand.

Beyond this, one possibility I saw floating around was that, somehow, the WAU was able to "hitchhike" Simon's copy. Throughout the game you see records of corrupted brain-scans and so forth.

Perhaps the WAU developed enough awareness to influence the events carried out in SOMA, and saw that it could hop aboard the Ark through hidden data in Simon's copy. Would there be something for the WAU to do once integrated with the Ark computer?



One thing I see standing in the way of this idea is that the WAU has been able to control life and manipulate matter, energy, to the point where I don't see why it couldn't adapt to the new environment on a decimated Earth and basically take it over.

Would there be insurmountable limitations to the AI to the point where it couldn't do this?





Plenty of questions and open-ended ideas. Even if they're never satisfactorily answered, I really enjoyed the experience.


If you have any clue as to what's going on with the WAU, feel free to discuss.

[MrBananaGrabber]

Does anyone know why Simon was activated? My guess is that the WAU put together the body parts and made him, as part of it's interest in sustaining life, regardless of what form it takes.

But the WAU is clearly self aware, as it blew up the heads of the scientists, when it knew it was in danger. Which begs the question of why it didn't try and stop Simon once he had the special goo.

I suspect it comes down to plot holes. Maybe with computer game projects the writing gets less attention or resources than it would in the film industry (or not #Prometheus). So there are plenty of minor plot holes or inconsistancies.

'One thing I see standing in the way of this idea is that the WAU has been able to control life and manipulate matter, energy, to the point where I don't see why it couldn't adapt to the new environment on a decimated Earth and basically take it over.' - the surface of the Earth is basically dead, along with all life on it, so I think the only place the WAU could take over is whatever sea life is left alive. Which is already seems to have done to a lot of species.

Personally I didn't see much point in killing the WAU, as all the damage had already been done, and at least it was keeping the station functioning and various forms of 'life' alive, for better or worse.

[EX0m0nd0]

Which begs the question of why it didn't try and stop Simon once he had the special goo.

Simon doesn't have blackbox, plus Ross is aiding him.


There is another theory it's not WAU that made simon. WAU doesn't control its creation so who move Imogen Reed's body, assembly it with cortext chip and put simon's brain scan on it at upsilon? This is still a mystery, perhaps a sequel or prequel are planned.

There is a long discussion about this in soma subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/soma/comments/58my25/spoilers_i_didnt_wau/ (see the top comment)

[Jehuty]

[[One thing I see standing in the way of this idea is that the WAU has been able to control life and manipulate matter, energy, to the point where I don't see why it couldn't adapt to the new environment on a decimated Earth and basically take it over.]]

I forget who spoke about this, but it was probably Akers, who said that the WAU would indeed convert all life on Earth, essentially destroying it.

edit: j0j0, that reddit was a great read! thanks for the link!

[Riusma]

There is another "robot" (actually a diving suit full of structure gel, like Martin Fisher in Transmission mini-serie) at the begining of the story. This robot is killed by the "construct" (the "monster" you encounter in Upsilon) in the room where you can find the omnitool (that's the sounds and screams you can hear the first time when you get close to the door) where you can find its "body" headless (note that there is two diving suits missing - Simon and this other "robot" - in the room with the pilot seat, and another that is marked as "infected").

Apparently, in an earlier version of SOMA this "robot" and Simon had the same "nature" (i.e. a walking diving suit full of structure gel) and they woke up at the same time in the first room. You can find remaining of their dialogs in the game's sounds folders. Later in the game's developpment (after Transmission mini-serie) Frictional choose to give Simon an other nature giving him the body of Imogen Reed. The blood you can find in the first room (where Simon wakes up) suggest that the "other robot" (the one you find "dead" in the room where you can find the omnitool) brings Imogen Reed's corpse by ventilation shafts, cuts her head and put at the top the robot's cortex ship (from the UH near the pilot seat)... perhaps following a strong impulse from the WAU (maybe the WAU was trying to bring back power at Upsilon: if you think about it the majority of the robots - Catherine, Carl Semken, Robin Bass - is awaken when Simon restart the power, and there was little power remaining in the station - only 13 days - before that, which also could explain the importance of the Currie and its reactors for the WAU). :)

[Jehuty]

nice! i'll have to look for these when i play through again

[[P]etya]

Catherine and others said a lot of times, that the WAU doesn't really think. It just fulfills what was programmed into it. Its actions are driven by urge to keep everything safe and alive (as Azzarro said, nothing can die). However, for it it was enough to keep human beings alive as brain scans and in reanimated form. So, the WAU senselessly creates robots and implants brain scans into them to preserve humans.
The Omnicron genocide didn't happen, because it was self-aware. Or maybe in a little extent. Self-preservation was programmed into it and when it feeled threatened, it overcharged the black boxes. For the WAU, it was a little cost to kill everyone, it could reanimate them anyway. The WAU's program sort of realized that if it dies, it can't preserve humans.
So, the WAU is more of a simple AI with programming errors, not really an aware individual.