Given that Vast Sliver was 20 years older than the original version of GAIA, VS could have been created either partially or fully by a younger Elisabet, given VS’s role as a climate intervention AI, it intended role in helping protect the environment from destruction would align with her personality, and it’s it could have been her original attempt to create a GAIA like AI system, with the potential that Ted attempted to capitalise on VS or was otherwise infected by one of the super virus that he created could have resulted in it going rouge,
Given that for all her intellectual abilities, being able to create the concept of ZD within days of being aware of the situation involving the Faro Plague seems a bit of a stretch, maybe Elisabet had intended VS to be a smaller scale GIAI, with the ideas of some of the Subordinate Functions having been something that she had In visioned for years, only for the Faro Plague to cause those basic concepts to be required under the worst possible circumstances
With the possibility that given the idea of Past Sliver where VS was captured and forced to work against its will, I could see Ted having created another HADES Proving Lab environment to hold it, as for Turning Act Critiqued I could see Elisabet giving that she viewed GIAI as her own person and encouraged her to have her own personality, could have similar to CYAN having created other AI’s beyond the legal limits of O.6, that would be an interesting topic, to see what other AI’s that Elisabet could have hypothetically made during the years after leaving FAS and the start of the Faro Plague, and what became of them, maybe any hypothetical AI’s could be the narrative reason for explaining different parts of Elisabet’s backstory
Maybe Elisabet had been unaware of the truth about the fate of VS and using her considerable intellect and by that point influence, knowing that Ted had captured and imprisoned VS, would come to learn that VS was being harmed, maybe during the events that led to her meeting Travis as help, as I could see him trying to break into a near impenetrable digital facility as something he would do just for the challenge of breaking in, and secretly allowing VS to escape or giving it refuge and also Travis leaking some confidential information that would lead to the Act being viewed negatively, without her explicit permission
As for the idea that was presented in the RSQ video that VS could be connected to the origins of the Banuk Tribe, I think it is no coincidence that among all the tribes that have been encountered there were the only tribe without a definite origin that could be explained in scientific and historical terms, as the Nora’s worldview was influenced by the Mother persona of the caretaker of the Cradles and similar explanations for the origins of the other tribes
Given that the identity of the Ravenous Tribe that attacked Banukai was never revealed and that it is mentioned that the original Banuk came from a cave underground, I could possibly see that given that Elysium would by inference from the fact that the members of the bunker that Aloy fell into as a child could have hypothetically made it to Elysium on foot and that G Prime and other important facilities were located in the same area, I could see the location of the bunker being placed in the vicinity of the map of the first game,
I could see that the survivors within Elysium containing some of the greatest minds in various fields of study, could have intentionally disconnected themselves from the outside world after learning that Ted had killed the remaining Alphas, with VS with its nature of wanting to make connections with people could have either been found a way inside or being draw to the facility, and could have made their own attempt at digital transcendence/mind uploading and either their attempts where unfinished or something happened that stopped the process and forced them outside
With the possibility of cryogenic suspension “being frozen in ice” could have allowed them to survive several generations longer than the projected 100 years by rationing their resources to enable them to survive into the new world, with the passage of time there knowledge and possibly faults and errors accumulating to where only a small fraction of the population would have survived, with maybe VS being one of the few remaining within the bunker
With the possibility that giving RSQ theory about VS and the origin of the Banuk and Banukai with the last two letters of her name being AI would be a hint towards the idea, with the Ravenous Tribe maybe being another group of survivors of the Plague, with Shen noting in the datapoint Log: Margo Shĕn that various individuals from heads of state to CEOs to cults had their own personal bunkers, could have if some of them were anything like FZ would have wanted to possibly of digital immortality, maybe with Ted among them in some way to overcome his mutations before his mind was unresponsive, would have tried to take it by force, maybe with VS maybe in an attempt to gain connections with others would have potentially invited them into Elysium unaware of their true intentions in an effort to gain friendship with others or help the survivors
With the possibility that over time the truth about the story would have been slowly misunderstood and misinterpreted over generations into the currently understood version of the story, with the possibility that VS in an effort to atone for its actions would have assisted Banukai, with the effect of “maintaining the full force of the Blue Light” being a way of explaining a incomplete form of digital transcendence, with maybe some form of memory and information could be retained though individuality would have been unable to be copied fully,
With the possibility that a Sharman would be able to access some of the machines “song“ or data in a fragmented format, with Malmstrom the mentioned only location where the Sharman have their yearly meeting could potentially be located near Elysium, with the possibility that VS could be an unseen helpful guiding hand or VS could play a more overt role given that Ourea was unfazed by the existence of the “spirit” CYAN
With the memories of generations of the Banuk and in an even deeper level the memories of the ZD personal within Elysium being collectively involved in some massive database of information, that would be key to defeating NEMESIS by effectively making use of idea and knowledge that it would have no counter towards, maybe in the form of Aloy undergoing a VR/AR recreation of the events of the Old World and the creation of ZD from the point of view of one of the Gamma’s of the project, maybe even with Aloy viewing some interactions between the members of the database and Elisabet,
As for Vast Sliver itself, I can see VS joining forces with GIAI, with the new version of GIAI lacking 1000 years of development and lacking the processing power that HADES gave her, with VS offering its services to help protect the world, with the potential that to explain why VS never reach out before, VS could have similar to CYAN have been placed in a low power mode or otherwise become wary of forces outside the Banuk, with the possibility that knowledge of Aloy would eventually become known to VS leading it to reach out,
If the idea of VS being involved with digital immortality were true, possibly given the ideas in the RSQ video “Sylens Master Plan”, rest in peace Lance Reddick, then maybe Sylens could have been aware of the possibility that the Old Ones researched such technology given that he was aware of several other medical advances, with his previous experience as a Banuk Sharman leading him to the basic understanding of the concept, though it would not be until NEMESIS would he be aware that digital immortality was possible, I could see him “finding” VS and trying to use it an a manner that would grant him the full knowledge of remaining members of ZD and upload his mind into NEMESIS after Aloy had deleted it original programming, viewing the knowledge of hundreds of scientists as more worthy than the members of FZ
What do you think?
