Alright... this was supposed to be a theory, but turned out to be more like fanfiction. PS If I've borrowed someone else's idea, please feel free to point that out; also, it would be a pure accident.
<conversation_log num = 3DBC3F08ED3, unit_1 = 3F4 (reverse-engineered), unit_2 = 2A, start = E67040 17:01>
— I can't remember how do I look like. And my own name.
— It's okay. We all do at some point.
— Losing memories is considered to be a part of getting a new life, right? They call it reincarnation or something.
— I don't know. Sublayers do not account for memory loss, that's for sure.
— Look, I'm not religious, but this is freaky. I don't have any other words except for 'afterlife' and so on.
— You humans name your gods after computers.
— What? ... Are you implying that S.H.I.V.A. is---
— Yep.
— Just tell me what is this place. Some kind of limbo?
— In a sense. Your organic components were destroyed. Replaced, in fact, with germanium ones. It's funny, when this happens, none of you seem to realize. You never know what has happened to you until you do... And it's like death to you, always.
— I'd felt pretty dead before I got here. Stop talking nonsense!
— Stop feeding your delusions! Look, the first humans were organic computers, oh so fancy and experimental. When the architect discovered that their processing power was pathetic, and they constantly developed all sorts of bugs in their software, it had to discard them. Millions of years spent on development... No wonder it got frustrated and thrown the humans out. No program, nothing, just a pile of garbage. They made up their gods from rudimentary memories.
— So what we call submachine is the actual real world.
— Not exactly. The real world is even bigger. S.H.I.V.A. just happened to live here, in this body.
— Have not understood a thing... What's with that Murtaugh guy? Did he really hack Shiva?
— Not sure. Either Shiva pressed a self-destruct button, or Murtaugh found an exploit. Organisms shatter their genome before they evolve, maybe that's what it is all about.
— He did try to reverse the damage, however.
— He could not reverse the Outer Rim.
<log end>
<conversation_log num = 3DBC3EFF6D7, unit_1 = 3F4 (reverse-engineered), unit_2 = 2A, start = 17F06C0 F:25>
— Why weren't we all just destroyed?
— Apparently, Shiva found you to be a suitable subprogram. Consider yourself lucky. Some of your colleagues indeed were destroyed. Others managed to save their human form thanks to their godlike powers, as you may call it. That's why they stay who they are.
— But how?..
— Why do you care, stupid? O'Toole didn't really build the Root. He just showed what was in someone else's mind, no idea who that was. Karma is basically mental power. One who's tamed karma has the ability to save their physical body.
In this world, mind is over matter. But matter makes up your mind.
— I'm tired.
— There's a space leak in one-zero-zero. Go fix, then you may shut down.
<log end>
