How exactly does a brain scan of a damaged, dying brain done in 2015, primitive compared to what we see in PATHOS-II, result in the complete personality of Simon Jaffers being transferred directly into a cybernetically enhanced corpse? I know that Munshi's device was supposed to accurately scan and map out Simon's neural pathways but this is still something that reeks of science-FICTION. Even with the potential enhancements made over time by other A.I. programmers and psychologists, I don't see how they could completely recreate a human personality and consciousness from a time before the technology required was much more refined. Regardless, this is something that we accept in order to let SOMA tell it's story and raise the issues with personality, consciousness and technology that it does.

This is even more questionable when we find David and Simon's conversations on that A.I. computer in Theta, why are those there? What purpose does it serve? Why exactly would A.I. programmers use the primitive template of a dying human brain to create digital entities and personalities?

It makes me wonder just how extensive Simon's imagination was, I have a feeling he did a lot of reading, considering that he worked in a book shop.

Now this is the real issue that got me thinking about this theory. The WAU, as you all know by now, wanted to preserve mankind, or what was left of it, by any means necessary and it was slowly getting better at it. Now we don't actually know what Simon's stance on life support was but if this theory is anything to go by then it's something that likely terrifies him. Judging by all the handicapped people and robots we see across PATHOS-II it's possible that he has an intense fear of becoming a 'vegetable' at this point, this is entirely justified as Simon is already suffering from brain damage and is likely afraid of falling into a permanent coma and being put onto life support by his friends and family, or worse, being permanently paralysed and aware of his surroundings and situation. This is further compounded with a moral climax at Tau when we meet the dying Sarah Lindwall, as she guards the ARK, surrounded by the monstrous WAU, she begs Simon to kill her and let her die in peace once she realises that he is one of the last sane 'humans' alive. This could represent Simon's well repressed desires to simply end his life at this point and stop his suffering before it gets any worse, remember what he said when he found out Catherine was a robot: "Whats the point? Everything's f-ed.", he only decided to continue once Catherine had something for him to do, this leads onto another important point which i'll get to soon.

So what about WAU's 'monsters'? They could represent Simon's fear of losing his mind to his brain injury and going insane, but the could also represent his struggle with his life and health after his injury. He mentions having headaches of varying pain and intensity during the start of the game and if you explore his apartment you will find relatively fresh, unwashed bloody rags...It's also possible that he was having trouble staying awake and conscious during the day, which could explain why you black out if a monster is able to directly attack you.

When Simon reaches the 'heart of the WAU' he has the choice of following Ross's orders and destroying it, as he is the only one who can. Given that this is up to the player and it doesn't seem to impact the rest of the game much, Simon was probably too far gone by that point for it to matter anymore, even life support technology couldn't save him.

When Simon reaches Catherine at Lambda, she's trapped in a faulty, broken machine on the brink of failure and he has to trap her in a functioning device, the omnitool. It's disturbing just how 'okay' Catherine is with all of this and how she doesn't seem too affected by the state of PATHOS-II and the WAU. This could be because Catherine represents Simon's faith and optimism, atleast his individual sense of it, she encourages Simon to get used to his situation and the fact that while he is truly 'dead', he is still 'living on' in a sense and will 'live a life like his previous one, but better' once he is transferred to the ARK and it is sent into space away from the WAU, Pathos-II and the presently dead Earth. This is further compounded by the physical appearance of Catherine, she has an ideal, happy, reassuring face whenever we see her on a monitor, it's funny how big her face was when we first saw it in the Communications room at Upsilon and how hopeful it must have made Simon feel after experiencing first-hand some of the horrors that Pathos-II is going through.

Now, the ARK, given how important the ARK eventually came to be at Pathos-II and how almost everybody seems to support the idea, perhaps this represents another aspect of Simon's faith or his ideas on human faith. Given also, that it resulted in some pretty dark, unpleasant things happening at Theta, the ARK continuation suicides, it's likely that the ARK represents Simon's views on organised religion. Simon doesn't strike me as the religious type, but it is possible that he came from a religious family or that he was exploring various faiths during his final days, maybe a bit of both. Catherine could perhaps represent a priest that Simon spoke to, one who encouraged him to go through various rituals either at one point in his life or more recently to clear him of sin and guilt before he died. Simon may either have started to believe in this or saw it as incredibly silly and pointless. Catherine encourages Simon to be pragmatic in his quest for the ARK, making him go through and complete some disturbing and morally objectionable tasks and events, because Simon has no other choice and does not know what else to do, he does it all anyway. This could represent Simon's increasing fear and desperation as his death grows nearer, it could also explain why he travels into 'the abyss' and why it is so dark, creepy and unstable, same goes for Tau, which was also rather dark and frightening throughout. Once he gets to Sarah and asks for the ARK, she gives it to him when she realises what kind of person he is and that he is literally the ARK's only hope at this point, regardless of the players actions here this might represent Simon absolving himself of guilt, which was possibly simple as it doesn't seem like he had much to be guilty about in life, although i'll get to the issue of Simon-II and his identity crisis soon.

Once he reaches Phi, it is a bright, calm, functional place compared to what he has just recently visited, maybe this represents Simon's last moments of clarity as he prepares to leave Earth and 'board' the ARK. When he finds Catherine's corpse, neither of them are all that surprised that she died although they are both saddened that her friends had to kill her, this could be a metaphor for Simon's friends and family losing all hope in him as he slowly dies on a hospital bed. Once he finally transfers he and Catherine to the ARK and shoots it off into space, he is immediately saddened and angered to realise that they have both been left behind and feels like he has been betrayed and manipulated by Catherine. Now this has a few possible meanings.

i. Due to the rapid descent into darkness, Catherine losing it with him, going crazy and dying, this likely represents Simon's intense fear as he finally dies, for real. Perhaps he died alone, during the night, with no-one to comfort him.

ii. If you're an atheist then this represents the idea that there is NOTHING after death, nada, not even darkness.

iii. If you believe that you're aware after death but are trapped for eternity in oblivion then this could represent that as he is now completely trapped and alone.

However, after the credits, we see the perspective of the Simon that was transferred to the ARK, it's incredibly heavenly as he rushes through the natural, parkland setting to meet his bright, golden, feminine, angelic saviour, Catherine who is standing in front of a big, futuristic, inspiring city just across a glittering, diamond-like ocean. Immediately after this sequence we see the ARK drifting away from the charred, dying Earth and into the dark expanse of space.

The ARK wasn't just the final remains of 21st century humanity, the human race as a whole or even the life of Simon Jaffers. If you're a spiritual person then it IS Simon, it's his soul and to someone who believes in that stuff, perhaps Simon did during his final hours, then it represents him leaving his corpse to explore the universe without physical boundaries, or just stick around in the ARK world.

If you look in a few intact mirrors scattered throughout the game you will see Simon's robot body, two bright red eyes staring out from a dark hood. I can't remember, but I think either Simon had removed the mirror from his apartment or broken it at some point for some reason, ("I DIDN'T ASK FOR THIS!") This could represent how Simon felt looking into a mirror most nights after his brain injury, seeing his bloodshot eyes staring at himself in darkness, if you look closely enough you can also see the remains of Imogen's jaw, there are a lot of exploded heads throughout this game...

Speaking of exploded heads, what about in Omicron, where almost everyone's head was blown clean off by the WAU? That and the audio logs there paint a disturbingly big similarity to how Simon must have felt post-injury.

When Simon uploads himself to the high-pressure diving suit per Catherine's instructions, he's horrified to find that the brain-scan process effectively creates two exact copies of a human personality. However he doesn't get to 'talk to himself' before Catherine shuts the preceding Simon down, but he does give her an earful of just how morally and ethically wrong it all is. He then has the choice of shutting down this incapacitated Simon, effectively killing it, which is a disturbing metaphor for Simon's condition near his own death, although I doubt the real Simon was on life support for very long before he succumbed to total brain death.

Given Ross's horrifying appearance and the way he blinks in and out of existence, harassing Simon and ordering him to destroy the WAU, he could be another representation of Simon's repressed urges to kill himself, as well as his possible fear and hatred of modern life support technology. He only begins to appear once Simon has reactivated Omicron and is looking for the pieces required to create his new diving suit, perhaps he is also tied to Simon's guilt about his situation and what he feels he has to do at the time. This is further supported by his frightening appearance on the elevator down to the abyss, in which he appears in full force during Catherine and Simon's conversation about how wrong it was to create two Simon's. His grotesque physique could also represent Simon's fears of death and his anxieties about his appearance and injury.


However, regardless of whether or not you destroy the WAU, he is vaporised and no longer exists after that point, perhaps Simon felt less guilty, anxious and self-destructive after making his final decision about the WAU and what it represents.

There isn't any healthy human being left on Earth in 2104, they're all either dead, trapped in a malfunctioning robot, stuck on some disturbing form of life support, horribly transfigured into an insane robot or cyber-mutant or trapped inside a computer. Maybe they all represent a part of Simon so they're all sharing the same incapacitation and eventual death that he's going through.

Simon, Catherine, Ross and any other cyber-mutant, robot or human A.I. of some sort is simply a ghost, their real bodies and selves are deads, they're just digital copies that live on for a while and then disappear, leaving a broken shell behind. This could be another metaphor for Simon's futility and how he feels about himself before dying.