An even Darker SOMA [ending spoilers]

[Cranky Old Man]

I listened to what Catherine said and she says:
C: They're a manifestation of a malfunctioning, station-wide, artificial intelligence called the WAU.
S: Station-wide? So we just made a powerful enemy.
C: No no, it's not like that. The A.I. isn't a persona, it doesn't feel or think like we do. It's more like... it's more like a cancer.

Notice how she doesn't say that it doesn't think - just that it doesn't feel or think "like WE do". Catherine adds that it would take too long to explain HOW an AI thinks, so she meant "in the WAY that we do"?
The Carthage thought it was necessary to assign an AI psychologist to Pathos II, so it thinks that WAU has a "psyche" in at least some loosely defined way.
WAU also showed the intelligence to improve its own code, and once a program gains the ability to improve itself, if it isn't super intelligent already, it can become so in the blink of an eye.
...but it still won't think in the WAY that we do, since concepts like what "humanity" is, is based on human superstition and stupidity. A human conscience is based on a moral upbringing. Emotions have to do with human instincts, which is something that an AI won't actually have either.

I don't think that the WAU would need emotions to use you for a task. A protocol is a form of motivation. The WAUs basic function is to repair structures with structure gel to maintain the station. That's a kind of "will" or "desire" that doesn't require a persona, and is free from emotion.

Also, have you watched the SOMA movie series? It shows pretty much exactly the kind of manipulation that I've described, even before the game starts. It also shows that the crew generally doesn't think much of an AIs ability to think. Emotions can make humans very stupid too, and it takes something inhuman to recognize and exploit this.

There's also the matter of the WAU gaining access to the brainscans, and later the brains in the corpses. Would it intergrate these things into its system, it could start developing a persona, which it could start using in order to interact with humans.

Regarding the arm. I don't think the WAU sees you specifically as an enemy, it's just reacting to the "poison" inside of you. Which could mean that the WAU is incapable of forming relationships, like Catherine says.

Then how do you explain the leviathan beginning to chase you afterwards? Either it just randomly busts in at that moment, through a mysteriously weakened floor, or it's WAU controlled and allowed in. It formed a hostile "relationship" with Ross, and it formed a hostile relationship with you. It recognized you as threats, either to it, or to its protocols to "preserve mankind".

However, I think it would be interesting to see how the different WAU creations would react to each other. What would happen if the Proxy met the robot from Upsilon, or disco-head from Curie?

They both inhibit partly human forms of individuality. I think they'd fight, but it's hard to say.

My point is that the WAU's thinking abilities are very, very basic or barely existent. For example: it'd take less cognition to mash everything together to something that resembles life, than to actually create and control a person for that specific purpose and guide it through Pathos-II.

Oh, I'm not saying that it used Catherine as a mouth piece in that exact way. It didn't control what she said (although the movies do show an understanding of how select sentences influence human behavior). I'm only saying that it decided that it was good for protocol if you started interacting with the person who was the most motivated to launch the ARK on the entire site. ...and possibly it could have manipulated Catherine into suckering you to launch the satellite before being scanned, but I think that that was all Catherine herself, KNOWING that you would lose all motivation after you failed being scanned. ...but in turn she would have no idea that the WAU was going to turn her off.
It wouldn't be a matter of the WAU turning off Catherine out of spite. The WAU would simply terminate a program connected to its systems to avoid wasting resources. The Catherine simulation would be terminated after having finished its task.

[i3670]

Notice how she doesn't say that it doesn't think - just that it doesn't feel or think "like WE do". Catherine adds that it would take too long to explain HOW an AI thinks, so she meant "in the WAY that we do"?
The Carthage thought it was necessary to assign an AI psychologist to Pathos II, so it thinks that WAU has a "psyche" in at least some loosely defined way.
WAU also showed the intelligence to improve its own code, and once a program gains the ability to improve itself, if it isn't super intelligent already, it can become so in the blink of an eye.
...but it still won't think in the WAY that we do, since concepts like what "humanity" is, is based on human superstition and stupidity. A human conscience is based on a moral upbringing. Emotions have to do with human instincts, which is something that an AI won't actually have either.

Ye, I guess that could be a possibility.

Also, have you watched the SOMA movie series? It shows pretty much exactly the kind of manipulation that I've described, even before the game starts. It also shows that the crew generally doesn't think much of an AIs ability to think. Emotions can make humans very stupid too, and it takes something inhuman to recognize and exploit this.

I've watched 7 episodes, I think. However, I did not enjoy them that much. They seemed cheap and fragmented. I hated those Golaski hallucination parts because they were so cliché, just "hey I'm your daughter and not evil at all". In short, I didn't pay too much attention to them.

Then how do you explain the leviathan beginning to chase you afterwards? Either it just randomly busts in at that moment, through a mysteriously weakened floor, or it's WAU controlled and allowed in. It formed a hostile "relationship" with Ross, and it formed a hostile relationship with you. It recognized you as threats, either to it, or to its protocols to "preserve mankind".

Having played the game twice with binary playthroughs I can say that the Leviathan chases you either way. It also bursts through the floor either way. I was thinking more about the healing nodes. Why would the WAU heal you if it hates you? I don't know a whole lot about what Ross actually did towards the WAU, if he actively tried to stop it.

Oh, I'm not saying that it used Catherine as a mouth piece in that exact way. It didn't control what she said (although the movies do show an understanding of how select sentences influence human behavior). I'm only saying that it decided that it was good for protocol if you started interacting with the person who was the most motivated to launch the ARK on the entire site. ...and possibly it could have manipulated Catherine into suckering you to launch the satellite before being scanned, but I think that that was all Catherine herself, KNOWING that you would lose all motivation after you failed being scanned. ...but in turn she would have no idea that the WAU was going to turn her off.
It wouldn't be a matter of the WAU turning off Catherine out of spite. The WAU would simply terminate a program connected to its systems to avoid wasting resources. The Catherine simulation would be terminated after having finished its task.

That could be a possibilty.

[Cranky Old Man]

Second: Why all the talk about WAU trying to get on board, or control the ARK?

The WAU's primary function is to preserve humanity. I don't think WAU interfered with the ARK project, because it also is a way of preserving humanity. Why would it need to stop/control something that fits within it's purpose? That's probably why it left it alone.

On a final note. We could see that WAU was getting better at keeping humans, human. It could be that it began to understand a little more about what 'preserving humanity' meant.

No, the WAU doesn't want to STOP the ARK. It'll launch the ARK. It just doesn't need Simon (or maybe even Catherine) to be on board of it.

The WAU doesn't mean conquering other planets with dragons as a hostile action. It's simply spreading humanity to ensure humanity's survival. ...only "humanity" in this case, is a bunch of brainscans, that I personally argue doesn't even have a real consciousness. It's death looking like life, made to sucker people just like The Thing. Imagine The Thing as being something that an alien civilization cooked up to preserve itself, augmented by an artificial intelligence into a being of perfect survival. That's what alien civilizations might be in for if they find this satellite, only this thing isn't even actually living itself.

[Noble81]

The WAU was not on the ark! I won't/don't believe it

If you look at the ark and the space gun neither are visually effected by the WAU. Everything else in the game that the WAU has affected has that look to it, you can tell it is infected.

In the room you first pick up the ark there is WAU in there but it has not infected the woman and it has not touched the ark...

Oh and I took Catherine turning off not as the WAU terminating it but that the virus was working at all systems were shutting down.

[i3670]

The WAU was not on the ark! I won't/don't believe it

If you look at the ark and the space gun neither are visually effected by the WAU. Everything else in the game that the WAU has affected has that look to it, you can tell it is infected.

In the room you first pick up the ark there is WAU in there but it has not infected the woman and it has not touched the ark...

Oh and I took Catherine turning off not as the WAU terminating it but that the virus was working at all systems were shutting down.

I believe me and Cranky are aware of this. This thread is just a "what if..." thing.

[Cranky Old Man]

The WAU was not on the ark! I won't/don't believe it

If you look at the ark and the space gun neither are visually effected by the WAU. Everything else in the game that the WAU has affected has that look to it, you can tell it is infected.

In the room you first pick up the ark there is WAU in there but it has not infected the woman and it has not touched the ark...

Oh and I took Catherine turning off not as the WAU terminating it but that the virus was working at all systems were shutting down.

Well, yes, and no.
There was no physical GOO on the ARK. However, nano machines are microscopic, and can spread out thin and hide in cracks. They're not always visible, and could easily travel down your arms and onto the ARK.
However, cortex Catherine was visibly infected, and the WAU is even BETTER at infecting DATA. ...so there's no question that if WAU wanted on board the ARK, it would just need to infect Catherine's download with its own code.
...so I'm hesitant to show growths on the satellite hull, but there's a real possibility of WAU spreading within the DATA of the ARK. It could if it wanted to.

[brunobyof]

During the game, it is indicated that WAU itself resurrected me. Why? Probably because I was meant to do a task for it: I was meant to find the ARK and launch it into space.

Well you apparently assumed WAU itself considered that the best chances of humanity were flying over the space instead of just being there on the abyss like on of the scientists proposed in the audio log on which we learn that Catherine was accidentally killed because she didn't accepted that hipothesis.
It happens that i actually agree with the guy on the audio: Catherine was selfish to do what she did. Not that she deserved to die but hey lets be reasonable at least!?

While there is much more space out there, there's no evidence of life anywhere, and the ark would eventually fall into some gravity field which would inevitably lead to its elimination. Maybe, just maybe, it could be floating into space forever but i actually think that Earth could be safer for the ARK than the actual space out there.
Maybe earth would end badly and sooner than the ark would get caught by any gravity fields, who knows?
whatever option you pick, it doesn't change the fact that WAU is not evil by any means. Its a program, an AI. It does what it was made to do even if its creators don't understand how it would do it.
If you killed it or tried to end with it just because you thought that it could be conspiring against you or using you just to do something then well, you could actually become a killer in real life because we are surrounded by people who does this exact same thing everywhere!
I rather prefer to think that you just feared the consequences of wau leading humanity into its own reasonability, into its own purpose, undetectable, unmeasurable, but then again, why is that so different from real life?