[SPOILERS] SOMA unsolved mysteries thread

[Bigbob]

I thought of UH8 but how does that tie in to a map of space? I have 2 theories on the space poster. Most of the 1st half of this post you probably know but it helps to have the facts to understand my theory so I'll take the time to type it out.

For this to make sense we have to have an understanding of what Soma tells us about Carthage industries: in the 4 years directly before the comet Carthage comes in and gets the 3 employees secretly on the staff, site Alpha created, the WAU incorporated, the WAU monitors the black boxes, and Ross gets the fail safe for the black boxes removed. It's strange timing that this happens directly before the comet.

Delenda Est. It's a short story by Poul Anderson and part of the Time Patrol series. Main character Manse Everard and his colleague travel back to 1960 Manhattan, NY where they are quickly captured. Everard doesn't understand the language until he meets a scholar named Deirdre. Deirdre is able to communicate using classical Greek which Everard understands, and helps him determine it's an alternate timeline in which 2 other renegade time travelers went back in time and using a butterfly effect changed history as we know it in our actual time line.

Everard thinks to himself that Deirdre is helping him figure out what happened in her timelime, not realizing that she's actually helping him to change events back to how they were, causing her timeline to cease. Not sure if this theory ties into Soma in any way. When Carthage sent Dahl, Sarang, and Ross to Pathos 2, where they able to get Pathos 2 employees to give them information that led to their individual stories? I can't think of anything specific but it's fun to think about.

The renegade time travelers brought guns to the 2nd Punic War in approx 200 BC and caused a sequence of events that caused the death of 2 Roman leaders and changed history by allowing the country of Carthage to defeat Rome. Roman influence died out in this timeline and history proceeded with Carthage as dominant. Everard goes back in time and kills the renegade time travelers(meaning the butterfly effect does not happen), and causing the 2 Roman leaders to not die (like in our present history), and Everard returns to our timeline.

The Gameological Dig YouTube video series makes the Delende Est analogy that Manse Everard traveled back in time to change history and Simon traveled forward in time to save the human race by launching the ARK. He didn't elaborate beyond that although I'm not sure if he contemplated what I'm saying.

However all along I've considered if Carthage Industries is in the future and sent the 3 employees back in time to change history. Dahl covers the evacuation attempt of Tau to buy Ross time to study the WAU at Alpha. She's towing the company line. They sent people back in time to try and make sure the WAU would survive the comet. It also explains your theory on a Carthage employee creating Simon 2.

It wasn't until the comet hit that the WAU changed protocol. The only person in the game that realizes this is Ross and he couldn't communicate with Dahl/Sarang because the WAU leaked the gel which caused the wildlife to knock out comms. It could fit that since Dahl didn't know the WAU was out of control that's why she was pleased that no more evacuation attempts would be made. It doesn't matter if people starve to death as long as Ross can make sure the WAU survives to create an alternate future in which Carthage Industries has power, or at least the WAU carries on as an AI even after humans are extinct. Possibly to assure the Vivarium can be finished.

Therefore I was wondering if the map of space indicates that Carthage/Sarang knew about the comet ahead of time?

The other theory I had was the map indicates Carthage is operating from somewhere else in our galaxy.