Hardware technical difficulties experienced at the end of the game (spoilers)

[THX1138]

What broke at the end of the game? Does the OmniTool still function?

[Abion47]

It's not clear what specifically happened at the end of the game since, well, it's the end of the game. My theory is that Catherine's emotional outburst, similar to what happened to Brandon during the Theta simulations, drew too much power from the Omnitool, causing the cortex chip to short out. While I feel like this sort of damage to the chip is 100% repairable, I doubt that Simon has the knowledge required to pull it off, so he is just left with an Omnitool and a functioning tool chip, but no working cortex chip.

[Caterpillar]

It's not clear what specifically happened at the end of the game since, well, it's the end of the game. My theory is that Catherine's emotional outburst, similar to what happened to Brandon during the Theta simulations, drew too much power from the Omnitool, causing the cortex chip to short out. While I feel like this sort of damage to the chip is 100% repairable, I doubt that Simon has the knowledge required to pull it off, so he is just left with an Omnitool and a functioning tool chip, but no working cortex chip.

Very interesting point of view, but as far I remember, an excessive stress level in Brandon simulations could only cause to driving him crazy, not broking his cortex chip. Am I wrong?

[Mudbill]

Brandon was just a simulation. If I understand it correctly, when he started getting too emotional it ran the virtual simulation "out of memory" you could say, which essentially crashed it. This resulted in you having to boot it up again, with fresh memory and a fresh mind of Brandon.

Since Catherine is running directly onto the Omnitool (and considering the Omnitool probably wasn't made specifically to store personalities), it's likely that it doesn't account for all memory leaks that may happen.

Did you know that there are malwares that can fry a PC by overworking the components? Find a bug or an exploit. Consider that Cath's emotional outburst was an overlooked exception in the software, and it could cause the Omnitool to run beyond its own limits, basically frying itself.

I also don't think the Brandon simulation had any cortex chip anyway since it was just a simulation.

[Caterpillar]

Therefore I wonder what is the difference between a simulation and a cortex chip

[Mudbill]

I guess the more correct term would be virtual simulation or emulation.

Say that the simulations are sandboxed. They have a specific amount of resources dedicated to them, and that's it. If they exceed it (or close up to rather), they will only hurt themselves, not the host computer.

The live personalities are also simulations, but they aren't sandboxed, so if they wanted to, they could consume all available resources.

[cantremember]

I thought the simulation shutting down on high stress levels was just a security feature to prevent the subject's suffering.

[Mudbill]

Perhaps it was, or perhaps it was shut down to prevent the subject suffering because the host machine would suffer otherwise, which would probably slow down the processing for the simulation and could possibly result in some very freaky glitch experiences for the personalities.

[Abion47]

Here's the full conversation where they discuss the subject:

S: "Do we need to turn it off? Can't we just keep him alive until we've got the cipher?"

C: "The longer he's exposed to the computer model the more he'll get hung up on it."

S: "What's so wrong with letting him settle in a little?"

C: "It would drive him insane. So let's keep the sessions short and the suffering to a minimum."

...

S: "Does anything carry over? I mean, could he remember this hell we're putting him through?"

C: "The simulation never affects the scan pattern. Each time is a fresh start."

S: "That's a little comforting, I suppose."

So strictly speaking, regarding Brandon at least, there wasn't any danger of him overloading the systems, and it was more a matter of ethically terminating the simulation before the subject suffers from unnecessary mental stress. However, I feel like the situation with Catherine and the Omnitool is under different circumstances. For one, it's not a simulation in the same way that Brandon was. Brandon was placed within a virtual world, whereas Catherine exists in the real world (albeit in a computer chip and only perceives time passing while she is plugged into something).

Also, keep in mind just what that chip is. It's a cortex chip, a piece of modular electronics designed to house an AI that will operate a piece of equipment with relative autonomy. It wasn't designed to run an AI as complex as a human brain scan, though, so the power and processing capabilities would have already been stretched to their limits. It was also caked in structure gel, so it's safe to assume that it has been compromised in some way. Finally, if you're paying attention to the display on the Omnitool or on the image of Catherine whenever you plug her in somewhere, you can see that the Omnitool is degrading over time.

Then consider the ARK simulation in the downstairs lab at Theta. With each new module that the simulation had to run, it increased the storage and processing requirements of the simulation itself. For Catherine, it would make sense that running a "process" like complex and extreme emotions would be another "module" that the chip would have to run, and given the state of the Omnitool, it's a safe bet that her losing it would finally drive it past the breaking point.

Now a fair amount of this is based on assumption and conjecture, it's true. But I choose to believe that this is the reason for Catherine breaking if for no other reason than the alternative is not satisfying. If it wasn't this that caused the Omnitool to break, then we would have to accept that whatever the cause was, it was a massive coincidence that the Omnitool happened to break just as Catherine was reaching the peak of her anger.

[cantremember]

Yeah, while replaying SOMA I was at this part and thought of this topic. Indeed in the dialog Simon specifically asks if the simulation has to be shut down and why not just keep it going, and Catherine suggests not doing so because it would drive Brandon insane, and wants to minimize his suffering.

Another interesing bit of dialog, Simon asks if the scans in the storeroom are like his, and Catherine replies "no, yours is flatter and less dynamic". Basically calling Simon a numbskull.
She doesn't say any more detail but still a small interesting bit of dialog since there's also an ongoing discussion whether Simon is just slow originally, or if he just refuses to believe what horrifies him, or if it's the scan process that impairs his cognitive abilities.