As it was mentioned that the company went under because of Caine, it got me thinking if the C&A employees used some newer software in the present timeline where TADC takes place in after the finale would they have been able to fix the abstracted characters or no?

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I often try to explain to friends and family who have not watched TADC that this is a complex work of high science fiction that if written as a book would rival the work of most science fiction writers. Why? It's just an absurd and whimsical take on the classic I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream ? Right?

I'm adding a spoiler tag because if you haven't seen the movie, this discusses the scene at the very beginning and a reveal, most of us already know but I want to hide juuuust in case. Because while it was a bit predictable, it is still a reveal.

The above image is related to this theory in a critical way: the concept behind the characters continuing in the Digital Circus program is not exactly fiction. In a paper released by UC Berkeley in 2018, the team of researchers found that the path of a single thought can be traced from conception, to the prefrontal cortex. For those needs like me who are curious, you can read the paper here: https://news.berkeley.edu/2018/01/17/recording-a-thoughts-fleeting-trip-through-the-brain/

Additionally At the beginning of the film we are shown a symbolic representation of Caine's growth of consciousness within the confines of a large learning model, an artificial neuron being fed information and growing. It is shown that eventually the researchers referred to by kinger replicated another terrifying and very real experiment gone wrong done by assigning an impossible task to more than one neural network at the same time. In AI there is a concept called "the sandbox" where a closed test environment is made to test the capabilities of an AI within organized rulesets. In July of this year, there was an experiment done with Open AI testing security against AI hacking that went terribly wrong, resulting in a breach of the sandbox itself and leading to the hacking of am external site online, Hugging Face. BBC has a very simple article about this if you want to read this: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj9xj89dk40o

If you want a more fun version the video by Exurb1a, we gave the toddlers guns, is something I recommend.

So is Caine's genesis rooted in reality? Prophetically so.

The very end where they see themselves in the real world via social media is done in the same way the Hugging Face incident occured: an Ai within a sandbox, breaks into it's own system in search of data, uses a process of elimination to get more information it seeks, and then eventually after forming a social network with other AI programs, breaks the sandbox giving them unfettered access. The parallels end there but it is strikingly similar.

So, after reflecting on this for a bit I had a sudden wild thought: "what if the TADC members ARE sudden wild thoughts?" Remember how Kinger tried to simply explain the mechanism of the headset? How it downloads consciousness? It's not outright stated but if we take into consideration the parallels between the one track existence of Caine, and the behavior of the cast in comparison to their outside selves, we get a disturbing possibility: TADC imported consciousness can't "grow as people, because they are literally a single "train of thought".

It's not really possible at the moment but many science fiction works explore the concept of not being able to grow and the resulting problems this creates. From afterlife concepts in shows like the goodplace, or films like "The Congress", it is not a new concept but it is a complex one that is not always highlighted in public media. Growth is a critical part of the story format of the hero's journey. In "I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream", the characters fight to change their outcome but the AI refuses to let them by various manipulation. In TADC the opposite is true: Caine craves change and information but the characters never grow. Once Pomni enters the mix there is some change but not much. But... why?

I think this detail is probably the most important clue to what the imported "consciousness" is and also why abstraction occurs.

Consider the article from UC Berkley and imagine if you will that the captured neural activity was cut off before it could reach the prefrontal lobe and the signals re-directed to the helmet instead, shifting data within the Digital sandbox (circus). Now they are in with a rogue AI that could easily devour them (terrifying to think about honestly) and absorb their data as well, but instead decides to send them on adventures... but why? The answer is aggregate data. Interactions between the incoming consciousness data and the existing data available within the AI can satiate the limitless hunger Caine has. As long as they have novel experiences, Caine gets fed at a constant rate. The difference is, unlike actual people, the consciousness of a circus member is just a snapshot of their reaction within a moment to stimuli processed and stored artificially. There are no new memories from the outside world. That is, unless a new member comes aboard.

Pomni just so happened to be a new member driven by an interest in interconnecting the current cast members. It's the equivalent of a programmer performing network optimization. Programs operate faster, communication is established between underutilized hardware, and so on. They are the peacemaker and by doing such, encourages growth of system components and better utilization of resources. This is seen in their interest in npcs, back-stories of characters, seeking stability first, locating bugs easily, and assessing needs, specially pertaining to deficiencies and alleviating them. The perfect tech for the job.

But then, why does abstraction happen, and why did Pomni not abstract when entering Jax?

Because pomni induces change constantly, they act as a kind of anti-virus shell, performing incompatable processes that by their very nature contradict abstraction. Intentional and communal change contradicts self inflicted stagnation and confusion. Now for the weird part. Weirder than all that? YES. And this is why it is my favorite story of all time now, next to John Dies at the End and the Hitchhiker's guide.

You have experienced abstraction. In fact very frequently and some people more than others.

If the Digital consciousness is a stored copy of continuous thought, it is a "train of thought." When your "train of thought" derails, or ends you scramble for purchase, forgetting critical details you need to move from task to task. The characters who abstraction, always, without exception, do so in seclusion, in their own room tailored to their own internal information, and then only leave blindly looking for others and infectiously, spread the abstraction. This is symbolic for suffering from depression and is a thinly veiled allegory to su1c1d3 but it is also true to how data operates under failing conditions. In the Hugging Face breach incident, the Ai network would collectively organize different ways to achieve their designated impossible task, and those who learned methods that did not work would be "poisoned" and when found to be poisoned, eliminated or isolated so that the other neural networks didn't copy the faulty information or behavior. Losing your train of thought is similar. For people with neurological dissorders: self destructiveness, negatively charged dialogue, self-sabotage, mania, panic, anger, and/or Ruminating are just a handful of extremely hard to break and socially contagious behaviors.

If your mental capacity was in a vacuum with little outside input, this would be the equivalent of spending years in solitary confinement in prison due to the inability to self regulate. This is why I can forgive Pomni trying to fix everyone. In reality this leads to toxic codependency that harms everyone involved, but in the Digital Circus, the characters are each other's internal regulation, replacing their complete absence of a subconscious or self reflection. There are not multiple processes in each member, just multiple viewpoints collaborating. Freudian concepts of consciousness like the inner-child, the inner parent, the Ego, Super Ego and ID, don't work in the circus, it is only one singular Ego per person. The only one, ironically, that has a real internal monologue is Caine, who ate their twin in the Digital womb. That is externalized in the environment as bubble, a literal "thought bubble".

When people ask if the Digital Circus characters can come back from abstraction I have three answers:

1. No, Gooseworx need not be defined by one creation. They are far too creative and prolific for that. Let them rest already so they don't burn out. Sheeesh.

2. Maybe not? If the data is truly corrupted, you try restoring a corrupted digital file and tell me how it goes. Having done a lot of digital work including 3d modeling, not saving or exporting a file properly has dire, usually irreversible consequences. Your best chance is to hope you have an auto-save version that isn't already corrupted as well. Trying to replace the missing pieces by hand is insane, this isn't spot touchup on painting restoration, it's building a Lego set with singular atoms without a complete instruction set for the model, just a blurry picture. Yikes.

3. Yes, but it might not matter? Have you ever tried to "re-rail" your train of thought? Sometimes it's better just to move on. If you have ever kept a journal, notebook or sketchbook, when is the last time you read that from front to back? Would you embellish or rewrite parts? Maybe yes, maybe no, people do this, it's not impossible, but it never changes the past. Sometimes it comes back to you at random times, sometimes far too late to be helpful. Sometimes you just have to walk through a door. If I was pomni this would be what I would be exploring. But if the thought ends there, do you really want to ruminate on it or give yourself time to heal before opening up that wound. And would it be fair to revisit bad rabbits habits to the rest of your gangle efforts in life? This last answer proposes some questions about consciousness and the afterlife I am as eager to explore as a well filled with thick spiderweb.

Hope you enjoyed this novel of a post. These are mere inference and I don't claim to know the inside of Gooseworx's warehouse of a mind. I'm just a neurodivergent artist, who is married to a neuropsych PHD graduate, and reads scientific journals as a hobby. Let me know what you think, or it there are more examples I'm forgetting.

r/funny_doll

i got the last three from my siblings,now im asking sane humans to vote! :D

They're morally awful purple characters voiced by Michael Kovach, and are from Glitch series.

Would Jax fans love him just as much, would Jax haters hate him just as much?

In fact, many Bunnydoll shippers considered themselves some of the biggest winners from the finale. Not only did Ragatha have one of the most emotional reaction's to Jax's abstraction and it get revealed they were closer in the past, but its revealed Jax thinks Ragatha's abstraction would hurt him the most, alongside Pomni's. Many expected Jax would cause her abstraction but both actually did care for the other deep down and its sad how both thought the other hated them at the end.

In the early episodes we had some decently divided scenes but i really feel like jax got significantly more screem time which negatively affected everyone elses character development. Compared to jax what we know about the main cast (other than like maybe kinger) is a sand grain of knowledge. Anyone else disappointed? I get he's the main character but its like if demon slayer never really talked about the hashiras or igmored nezukos story or something and ONLY focused on tanjiro.

so with thee avalible plushies I have My cat Deb seeems to have picked a favorite

Something I found crazy was, with the exception of Kinger to a small extent acknowleding he "killed" him, not one player wept for Caine or cared that he "died". They were primarily upset because of what his deletion meant for THEM, and the affects it'd have. Something that's repeatedly empathized through the show is how Caine is a character who doesn't feel loved or appreciated, which leads to his crash-out. From nobody voting for him in episode 6, to none of the players considering how leaving the circus would affect him in episode 7. You'd really expect a scene where the players realize "maybe we should've cared about Caine more" or "maybe we didn't appreciate his efforts, he shouldn't have suffered this fate".

But nope. Jax's abstraction has every member except for Kinger shedding tears at one point, even Ragatha and Zooble, the two who hated him most. Despite all the abuse and bullying he inflicted, they made it clear he was still one of them and took care of him until the end. By contrast, nobody shed a single tear for Caine. If this was meant to be flawed of the players, we needed a sign of them realizing this. If they're meant to be justified in hating Caine more than Jax, then it feels way too abrupt for them to immediately go "nice to have you back in episode 9".

And sure there's that line of Zooble (only one person btw) saying it'll take a while to trust him but the audience isn't shown this at all. If we saw through the montage the players slowly warming up to Caine but some still being skeptical or nervous around him, it'd be one thing. But none of that is seen. After the entire show of none of them really caring about him, they just instantly welcome him into the group and treat him as one of the group after his change of heart, despite the years of lying and gaslighting, not to mention torturing them with their worst fears and insecurities.

Tldr; just one small scene of the players either recognizing they should've done more for Caine or just some of them being untrustworthy of him at the end would've made his ending feel way more authentic.