[SPOILERS] SOMA and The Matrix similarities

[Omnitool]

I noticed some small but interesting similarities of SOMA with The Martix:

1. The "digital ego" from Matrix, described by Morpheus and the self perception described by Catherine.
When you were in the matrix, your mind created your physical appearence within the matrix based on your mental perception of yourself. Basically, it made you look how you believed you looked, made you see what you wanted to see.
In SOMA, when Simon wakes up in Pathos-II in the pilot seat, he sees himself just like he was (he is even dressed the same) when he took the first scan in Dr. Munshi's lab. If he would come across a mirror at Upsilon, he surely would see himself as he was before the scan. The same happens with Carl Semken in a robot body (he is convinced he is human and states he can see his hands and feet) and many other robots at Pathos-II.
This photo from Frictional Games describes the situaton perfectly and beautifully (I also find it a brilliant work of art, with an impressing feeling of sadness and emotion)
  image.jpg (Size: 31.12 KB / Downloads: 278)
When Simon finds himself in the Comms Center at Upsilon and the dome cracks and is flooded, he begins seeing his real self. He needed to be inside a diving suit in order to survive, he already was wearing one, but his mind didn't want him to realise that before his survival actually depended on it. If he could see himself again before Catherine tells him he is a robot, he probably would see himself normal (with his human head) and just wearing the diving suit.
Catherine states clearly that after you have been scanned and copied into a robot body, your mind supresses your real self perception and you see yourself how you want to see yourself, similar to the "digital self" in the Matrix.

2. An AI keeping people alive connected to it and trapping their minds in a virtual simulation.
In The Matrix the Machines AI kept people alive and uncounscious, connected to it, and their minds were trapped in a complex virtual simulation.
In SOMA, the WAU keeps the people trapped alive and uncounscious in the structure gel mass, and their minds are in a virtual simulation like the Ark or the Matrix.
A question arises here: What would happen in SOMA if a person inside a WAU simulation would commit suicide or die, would also his/her body die? What would happen if a person inside the Ark died?

3. In The Matrix it is stated by the Architect that earlier versions of the matrix were failed, because the people's minds realised they were in a simulation and they went mad or died.
In SOMA the scans uploaded inside robots would go mad if they found out they were not the original real people. This also happened in simulations, if this happened the simulation would crash or the Cortex Chip would break.
In The Matrix the solution was to give people a sense of choice, not to force a certain reality upon them. There is an interesting similarity between this concept and the choices Simon makes throughout the game...the choices have no effect on the ending, but did they provide him with a sense of choice that helped him not go insane?
Another interesting similarity is that the first version of the Matrix was an actual paradise, while the Ark is also a paradise!

4. Early design and concept art.
The 2013 gameplay (brain in a jar) footage of SOMA looks strikingly similar to the Machines design in the Matrix. The corridor leading to the central room with the brain that gets transformed looks very similar to the Machines City and the Machine technology from Matrix. The transformed brain itself, with the black colours and the red lights looks similar to a Sentinel from Matrix.
In the Soma Vertical Slice video (inside SuperSecret rar), when the player dies he awakens in a similarly designed area (like the Machine City), and he is immediatly put back into the simulation after. This indicates that in this early concept of the game Simon was plugged in a virtual reality similar to the Matrix, and when he dies and awakens, the machines quickly put him back into the simulation (into the matrix).

Has anyone found any other interesting similarities?

[Yggalf]

Has anyone found any other interesting similarities?

At Theta where you use the Scan of Brandon to constantly torture him by reloading the virtual reality simulation and asking him about the code and he instantly realizes that this is not reality but a simulation and his stress level goes instantly trough the roof so the simulation shuts down.

In Omikron Basement where a WAU created Creature grabs simon and his vision turns black he wakes up in the Lucid Dream inside his Apartment in 2015 with his Girlfriend Ashley and after and Explosion wakes up back at Omikron where he has to force his way out of the WAU created structure that holds his body in place.

Similar to when neo woke up from the matrix and a machine released him from multiple cables attached to his body and he could witness reality for the first time.

[Omnitool]

The Zeppelin also looks very similar to that huge floating machine in The Matrix which hovers over the place where the humans plugged into the matrix are stored and does maintanance for the pods where they are kept.

Akers and his proxies also act like Agent Smith, hunting people not connected to the WAU and forcebly plugging them in, like the Agents in Matrix hunted intruders and people who realised they are in a simulation.

[Filizitas]

I think the ARK is a Matrix of its own. But without existing bodys, they are imprisoned there forever.
I dont actually its possible to collect even one mind into a machine without destroying it or the machine.

[Omnitool]

I think the ARK is a Matrix of its own. But without existing bodys, they are imprisoned there forever.

That is exactly what I was thinking...

But are the scans inside the Ark really immortal? What would happen if a person inside the Ark would commit suicide or die in an accident? Do people have any control over the simulation inside the Ark? Do they have any control over the space probe containing the Ark?

I've written all my thoughts on the Ark here: https://www.frictionalgames.com/forum/thread-31212.html

[cantremember]

I think they can modify it, but my default their bodies are modeled from what I presume some kind of DNA, so in the same way that an exact "image" of their brain would resume to function the same way the real one would, I suppose the bodies would evolve the same, although they could easily modify themselves to be immortal.

I think they are stuck in the simulation, they can edit aspects of the simulation, but have no control over the physical probe, and would be unable to foresee any impending doom (probe running out of power, or crashing into something or any other physical damage), but presumably an event unlikely enough to not worry about it.

[Omnitool]

I think they can modify it, but my default their bodies are modeled from what I presume some kind of DNA, so in the same way that an exact "image" of their brain would resume to function the same way the real one would, I suppose the bodies would evolve the same, although they could easily modify themselves to be immortal.

I think they are stuck in the simulation, they can edit aspects of the simulation, but have no control over the physical probe, and would be unable to foresee any impending doom (probe running out of power, or crashing into something or any other physical damage), but presumably an event unlikely enough to not worry about it.

As I wrote here https://www.frictionalgames.com/forum/thread-31212.html , I believe they are in a form similar to some sort of human DNA, and could even reproduce.

There is also the possibility that people inside the Ark get older and die just like normal people, and they can actually have children.
Think about it like in real life:
- In real life, our physical appearance information is stored in our DNA. A child's physical appearance is the result of combined DNA from both parents, and the child's counciousness is a result of the social envirnoment, education and life experience (the child also imitates the parent's personality on an involuntary, subcouncious level).
- In the ARK, people's counciousness also contains their projected physical appearance, and all this is stored in code, as digital information. When a child is born in the Ark, both his/her appearance and personality traits are a perfect result of a 50/50 combination of the parent's traits, the child's gender is random (also a 50/50 chance). Given that all people in the Ark are the world's most brilliant minds (scientists, scholars) this is not a bad thing at all!

This would generate an interesting ethical dillema: Is a "lifeform" born from two scans inside the Ark considered a separate being, equal with its parent scans, or just an AI made from mixing features from the two parent scans with a 50/50 ratio? When it is born as a baby does it have the intelligence of an adult (given that it also takes personality traits and memories from its parent scans)?
My opinion is that it should be considered a human being equal with the others, and it is very possible that it will have a superior intelligence from a very young age, but it will also grow a personality of his/her own, built on top the "inherited" one.

Also, they have quite a lot of control over the Ark, both physically and regarding the simulation running inside it.

The Ark is governed by a simple AI system of its own, that manages the simulated envirnoment, weather, physics and all other factors. However, the original team that developed the Ark could have total control over the system. They could expand the envirnoment as much as the storage space permits and even control the trajectory of the space probe containing the Ark, and probably even fix and maintain it in some manner!
Proof in this direction is found within the game:
- During a conversation between Simon and Catherine, he asks her what will be the first thing she will do after they launch the Ark. She replies something like: "I will deploy the solar panels, stabilise the trajectory, etc" this proves that she has total control over the space probe containing the Ark.
- During the game Simon finds numerous diagrams detailing how the Ark is built, and its specs. They show that it is equipped with a remotely controllable robotic arm. It could be used for maintanance and repairs while the Ark is floating through space, controlled from within the ark via a simulated computer terminal or even a Pilot Seat.