What was the deal with Ross? (spoilers; every post a spoiler)

[THX1138]

Why was Ross able to appear and disappear? Did he have a corporal form or was he virtual?

[Abion47]

The current popular theory is that Ross, and similarly the Jiangshi, doesn't actually teleport, but instead gives out pulses of electromagnetism. Simon is a robot, so these pulses temporarily disable him, and after a few moments, he regains his consciousness. This is similar to what happens to Catherine when she is plugged/unplugged from the terminals, and like Catherine, Simon has no memory or sense of time passing while he is inactive, so to him, anything that moved around during that time period would have looked like it teleported.

[CrashHeadroom]

The current popular theory is that Ross, and similarly the Jiangshi, doesn't actually teleport, but instead gives out pulses of electromagnetism. Simon is a robot, so these pulses temporarily disable him, and after a few moments, he regains his consciousness. This is similar to what happens to Catherine when she is plugged/unplugged from the terminals, and like Catherine, Simon has no memory or sense of time passing while he is inactive, so to him, anything that moved around during that time period would have looked like it teleported.

I've been having a looooong think about this and I have come to the conclusion, Ross may not be real ATALL. Think for just a second, he's nothing but flesh held together with some W.A.U. cicuitry and he JUMPED down into the abyss "where you can be compacted to the size of a small can"....so my question is, why is he not compacted down to the size of a small can? XD

Im starting to think the sucker's all in your head

[Abion47]

The current popular theory is that Ross, and similarly the Jiangshi, doesn't actually teleport, but instead gives out pulses of electromagnetism. Simon is a robot, so these pulses temporarily disable him, and after a few moments, he regains his consciousness. This is similar to what happens to Catherine when she is plugged/unplugged from the terminals, and like Catherine, Simon has no memory or sense of time passing while he is inactive, so to him, anything that moved around during that time period would have looked like it teleported.

I've been having a looooong think about this and I have come to the conclusion, Ross may not be real ATALL. Think for just a second, he's nothing but flesh held together with some W.A.U. cicuitry and he JUMPED down into the abyss "where you can be compacted to the size of a small can"....so my question is, why is he not compacted down to the size of a small can? XD

Im starting to think the sucker's all in your head

Except when he jumped onto the climber, Catherine saw him too, so Ross seems to be pretty real.

[CrashHeadroom]

The current popular theory is that Ross, and similarly the Jiangshi, doesn't actually teleport, but instead gives out pulses of electromagnetism. Simon is a robot, so these pulses temporarily disable him, and after a few moments, he regains his consciousness. This is similar to what happens to Catherine when she is plugged/unplugged from the terminals, and like Catherine, Simon has no memory or sense of time passing while he is inactive, so to him, anything that moved around during that time period would have looked like it teleported.

I've been having a looooong think about this and I have come to the conclusion, Ross may not be real ATALL. Think for just a second, he's nothing but flesh held together with some W.A.U. cicuitry and he JUMPED down into the abyss "where you can be compacted to the size of a small can"....so my question is, why is he not compacted down to the size of a small can? XD

Im starting to think the sucker's all in your head

Except when he jumped onto the climber, Catherine saw him too, so Ross seems to be pretty real.

Unless he was a computer program desighned for them both to see him. Again he wasn't compacted which I think may be a good pause point. His body is weaker than simon's and the player just spent ages building a new body to deal with that depth, Ross' is pretty much falling apart and patched together. Something doesn't smell right with him lol

[Abion47]

The current popular theory is that Ross, and similarly the Jiangshi, doesn't actually teleport, but instead gives out pulses of electromagnetism. Simon is a robot, so these pulses temporarily disable him, and after a few moments, he regains his consciousness. This is similar to what happens to Catherine when she is plugged/unplugged from the terminals, and like Catherine, Simon has no memory or sense of time passing while he is inactive, so to him, anything that moved around during that time period would have looked like it teleported.

I've been having a looooong think about this and I have come to the conclusion, Ross may not be real ATALL. Think for just a second, he's nothing but flesh held together with some W.A.U. cicuitry and he JUMPED down into the abyss "where you can be compacted to the size of a small can"....so my question is, why is he not compacted down to the size of a small can? XD

Im starting to think the sucker's all in your head

Except when he jumped onto the climber, Catherine saw him too, so Ross seems to be pretty real.

Unless he was a computer program desighned for them both to see him. Again he wasn't compacted which I think may be a good pause point. His body is weaker than simon's and the player just spent ages building a new body to deal with that depth, Ross' is pretty much falling apart and patched together. Something doesn't smell right with him lol

We're starting to wander a bit into Occam's Razor territory. If he was a program, when who created him? How did the glass case at Omicron explode? How did Ross produce an audible and tangible thud when he landed on the climber? And in the case of Simon leaving the WAU behind and choosing not to kill it, how did Ross drag him back?

I do admit, the way that Ross can survive in the abyss without a suit is a bit of a sticking point, but in my mind, the most likely explanation is the combination of tumors and structure gel that is now coursing through his body is making it less crush-prone.

Doing some reading on what makes deep-sea creatures able to withstand the pressure produces two facts: the creatures have evolved to have the same pressure level on the inside of their body as the outside, and that much of their body mass comprises of incompressible material (such as water). The former doesn't really help, but since creatures like squids and whales can frequent these depths and still surface means that it's also not necessarily a requirement. The latter makes sense, though.

Structure gel is described as being a "cross-linked gel with aligned graphene in a polyunsaturated matrix". If the "gel" part of that description is water-based, then it would be highly resistant to compression. And seeing as Ross' innards are teeming with the stuff, it would allow him to go to depths far deeper than a human would normally be able to withstand.

Simon, on the other hand, is using a body that is strictly human (albeit a dead human), so he would still be limited to what a human body can do. While it's true that the body also contains structure gel, the gel is there for him to control the body, and isn't necessarily suffusing it, so it wouldn't protect Simon in the same way as it would Ross.

[CrashHeadroom]

.....I didn't think of that....When your body is effectivly goo there isn't much to compress I guess XD . Totally concede "you got it man, you got it"

[Mudbill]

Although it probably isn't the case, I think it's interesting to consider Ross being a non-physical being. Yeah, some points might make that theory difficult to prove (like Ross dragging Simon), but...

The WAU created Ross. I believe it's also theorized that Ross created Simon-2 in order to destroy the WAU. If that's the case, then the Ross that the WAU created could be purely digital, or perhaps it's just his scan. That additional scan could've been implemented into Simon when he was created. Now, obviously the WAU itself plays a part in the creation of both of these characters, which might be why they appear physical the way they do. It could explain Ross' "telepathic" abilities and other anomalies like the depth resistance.

It's a stretch, but maybe it could be tied in with some explanations for the physical events that occur.

[Abion47]

I'm not sure anyone thinks that Ross created Simon-2. In fact, I think it's all but confirmed that the WAU itself created Simon-2. Also, if Ross was purely digital, there are other questions that need answering as well. For example, if Ross doesn't exist in the physical realm, then what was going on with his body at Omicron? How was he talking to people, and how did he connect with Raleigh Herber? Why didn't he appear to Simon and Catherine sooner? The theory that Ross was some form of digital ghost introduces far more questions than it answers, so while I'm not discounting it as impossible, it's much more likely that he is a real being purely because of Occam's Razor (given two theories, choose the one which requires the fewest assumptions).