IS SIMON A ROBOT?

[cantremember]

I feel terrible for Simon, being barely human but still experiencing the fear of the person he used to be, aswell as the slow realization that he actually no longer exists except as a scan of his brain running on someone else's "hardware", inevitable to die, be stranded alone or "living" inside virtual reality.

[Fragr]

WARNING! MASSIVE SPOILERS BELOW! (obviously)

Spoiler below!

I remember a conversation between Catherine and Simon where the player finds out that he's actually walking around in Imogen Reed's body. (I think it was in omicron, at the very least it was in the ARK simulation room, where you have to try and get the prototype ark running.)

I seem to remember Catherine scanning Simon's body and saying that the cortex chip and other electrical components that make up Simon's "brain" had simply been forcefully inserted through Imogen's skull and held together with gel.

This, coupled with the X-Ray imagery of Simon's body during the scan, leads me to believe that "Simon-2" actually has a head, only that it got so mangled when the cortex chip was inserted that you can't really tell anymore.

Keep in mind that all of this is from memory, so i might be remembering something wrong. I'm going to start a second playthrough soon, so i might be able to confirm or debunk my theory after that. In the meantime, if anyone else knows, feel free to chime in?

If you look closely at one of the mirrors in a room with better lighting (as well as the x-ray that catherine takes)you'll notice that the top half of Reed's head and face are destroyed above the lower jaw with some of the back of the skull remaining.

I somehow forgot about the x-ray. You are right. I went ahead and watched a playthrough on youtube and there it is, the lower half, containing the black box, but it still doesn't explain how the cortex chip was placed on the body.

Again, spoilers below, you know the drill.

Spoiler below!

I doubt that the WAU could have used the black box to make Imogen's body destroy it's own head and place the cortex chip in the resulting cavity. I find it more likely that something destroyed Imogen's head and either installed the chip directly, or something/someone came along and installed the chip in the dead body afterwards. As for who/what that something was or why they did it, i guess we don't really have any way of knowing. As far as i know, the game doesn't provide any solid clues.