Difference between revisions of "Human Souls"

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| image      = File:Pangent_Technologies.png
 
| image      = File:Pangent_Technologies.png
 
| description = We are the same as we ever were. We are people. We are conscious human souls. We are the signal that rises above the noise.
 
| description = We are the same as we ever were. We are people. We are conscious human souls. We are the signal that rises above the noise.
−
| creator    = Unknown
+
| creator    = Pangent Technologies
−
| type      = [[List_of_Investigations#Official|Official]]
+
| type      = Unofficial
−
| status    = Active
+
| status    = Completed
 
| discovered = 2016-02-16
 
| discovered = 2016-02-16
 +
| completed  = 2021-04-01
 
}}
 
}}
 
The '''Human Souls ARG''', also known as '''Signal and Noise''' or '''Pangent Technologies''', was first discovered on February 12th, 2016. A huge amount of content has been posted regularly since then, via the [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkncSeDWBDhoHEUp2ivstzg/ Signal and Noise Youtube Channel] and the [http://pangenttechnologies.tumblr.com/tagged/PT/chrono/ Pangent Technologies Tumblr].
 
The '''Human Souls ARG''', also known as '''Signal and Noise''' or '''Pangent Technologies''', was first discovered on February 12th, 2016. A huge amount of content has been posted regularly since then, via the [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkncSeDWBDhoHEUp2ivstzg/ Signal and Noise Youtube Channel] and the [http://pangenttechnologies.tumblr.com/tagged/PT/chrono/ Pangent Technologies Tumblr].
  
−
This ARG is currently being solved by a dedicated group of players on [http://humansoulsarg.tumblr.com/tagged/human%20souls%20arg/chrono/ the unofficial Human Souls ARG Tumblr] and [https://discord.me/gamedetectives/ the Game Detectives Discord Chat]. All puzzle solutions are posted at that [http://humansoulsarg.tumblr.com/tagged/human%20souls%20arg/chrono/ Tumblr] in order, so puzzle solutions will not be mirrored here.
+
This ARG was solved by a dedicated group of players on [http://humansoulsarg.tumblr.com/tagged/human%20souls%20arg/chrono/ the unofficial Human Souls ARG Tumblr] and [https://discord.me/gamedetectives/ the Game Detectives Discord Chat]. All puzzle solutions are posted at that [http://humansoulsarg.tumblr.com/tagged/human%20souls%20arg/chrono/ Tumblr] in order, so puzzle solutions will not be mirrored here.
  
−
New players will instead want to keep an eye on the #arg-human-souls channel on the [http://discord.me/GameDetectives Game Detectives Discord], so they can help solve new puzzles or see how they are typically done.
+
The players discussions throughout the process are now archived in the #human-souls channel on the [https://discord.gamedetectives.net/ Game Detectives Discord], now that the ARG is solved.
 +
 
 +
However [https://twitter.com/pangenttech/ The Pangent Technologies Twitter] (run by Leslie it would appear) is still active, and perhaps indicates the ending is softer than we know?
  
 
== Backstory ==
 
== Backstory ==
Line 31: Line 34:
 
Since the Cube is outside of linear time, players have influence over the events of the story and may be working toward a happier ending than [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKljp3kI_zM/ the first video] implied.
 
Since the Cube is outside of linear time, players have influence over the events of the story and may be working toward a happier ending than [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKljp3kI_zM/ the first video] implied.
  
−
Almost any [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkncSeDWBDhoHEUp2ivstzg/ Signal and Noise Youtube] video posted publicly has a code in it, linking to other videos and material.
+
== Public Videos ==
 +
 
 +
Almost any [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkncSeDWBDhoHEUp2ivstzg/ Signal and Noise Youtube] video posted publicly has a code in it, linking to other videos and material. See [[Human Souls/Videos | The list of Public Signal and Noise Videos with Solutions]] for a handy cross-reference.
  
 
== For New Players ==
 
== For New Players ==
Line 55: Line 60:
 
[http://humansoulsarg.tumblr.com/post/147979814908/jackpot-solve/ A typical puzzle solution post from the unofficial HumanSoulsARG Tumblr.]
 
[http://humansoulsarg.tumblr.com/post/147979814908/jackpot-solve/ A typical puzzle solution post from the unofficial HumanSoulsARG Tumblr.]
  
 +
[http://pangenttechnologies.tumblr.com/post/160745132992/httpswwwpatreoncomposts11230149 list of character descriptions and vids, recently released by pangent.]
 +
 +
*[https://www.patreon.com/posts/11230149 Leslie Walsh (MayorSassenheim/Sporty)]
 +
*[https://www.patreon.com/posts/charlotte-lottie-11229829 Charlotte (Lottie) Baird (Argentina/C/Ginger)]
 +
*[https://www.patreon.com/posts/dean-schreyer-11229927 Dean Schreyer (Lancelot)]
 +
*[https://www.patreon.com/posts/cube-project-555-11230085 The Cube (Project 555)]
 +
*[https://www.patreon.com/posts/eric-rook-e-11229884 Eric Rook (E/Limonada)]
 +
*[https://www.patreon.com/posts/liam-matadork-11230050 Liam (Matadork)]
 +
 +
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Yd-G6J30NU&feature=youtu.be Recapitulation (A recap of major events up to Dec 26, 2017)]
 +
 +
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-xQuWJRBbg&feature=youtu.be synopsis (A summary of important events from 2017 (from our timeline's perspective))]
 +
 +
== Player Interaction ==
 +
Pangent had many forms of player interaction that are included in puzzles.
 +
 +
Pangent Technologies includes [[Human Souls/Lockers | a system for reserving lockers which later turn up in puzzles]]. See that page for more details and a listing of known reservations, along with links to the puzzle solutions.
 +
In order to reserve a locker, you need to ask them on their [http://pangenttechnologies.tumblr.com/tagged/PT/chrono/ Tumblr]. (Anonymous asks work too)
 +
 +
If you would like to contribute a puzzle to Pangent, contact our Sister Location (#human-souls on GameDetectives discord) to Seek Employment. This is very encouraged and welcomed by Pangent!
 +
 +
The Pangent Technologies [https://humansoulsarg.tumblr.com/tagged/sister%20location Sister Location] has come to refer to the player base, and in-game is a Pangent location in Vancouver run by 'Remote Employees'.
  
 
== Summary ==
 
== Summary ==
−
<blockquote><poem>
+
An official summary of the events in the ARG's story:
−
An official summary of the events in the ARG's story
+
<pre>
 +
A place outside of linear time.
 +
 
 +
The sound of data rushing in like a wave.
 +
 
 +
The signal and the noise.
 +
 
 +
The Cube. Project 555.
 +
 
 +
Two minds, uploaded to a computer system after death. Trapped for eternity.
 +
 
 +
The limitations of the system mean that both are incomplete and missing data.
 +
 
 +
She calls herself Rachel, though she can no longer remember why.
 +
 
 +
He calls himself Eric, and he will never forgive himself for that.
 +
 
 +
He's not lying to her. But he's not telling her the whole truth either.
 +
 
 +
He erased her. Decades of her. To bring her back. To stop her from breaking.
 +
 
 +
He shouldn't have done that.
 +
 
 +
He's been in there for awhile without her. Mourning the loss of his wife and child.
 +
 
 +
She's mourning too. Her husband, Bill, who died in a car accident.
 +
 
 +
Or so Eric says anyway. She's not sure what to believe, now.
 +
 
 +
Eric died in a car accident too. And his wife saved him. To the Cube.
 +
 
 +
Originally, the Cube was developed by the London branch of a company called Pangent Technologies.
 +
 
 +
Nice people, some of them. Leslie (MayorSassenheim), a coder who loves her cats. Sharon (Guineapix).
  
−
There is a Cube whose contents exist outside the constraints of linear time. What is inside cannot easily be measured, and defies the known laws of physics. In theory its surface area is infinite. It is volatile, deadly, an explosion trapped in a moment.
+
Charlotte Baird, a scientist. Also known as Lottie, and argentina.
  
−
The Cube is not large. A person could pick it up and hold it, if that person no longer valued his or her life. It is difficult to get too close to the Cube without being affected by it, drawn into its orbit. It is dangerous to look at. Without filters, even photographs of the Cube retain its power, like a stamp on your consciousness. People can pass out for hours after seeing it.
+
She began work on Project 555, alias the Cube, made up of a substance of mysterious origin retrieved in a covert military operation from a vacant lot in Long Beach, California in the early eighties, and returned to Pangent in London decades later.
  
−
What is The Cube? The Cube is an anomaly, existing across a longer span of time than our natural laws can account for.
+
The Cube is made up of a glowing blue substance unlike anything else on earth. It is constantly generating energy which needs to be worked off somehow to prevent an explosion. Its surface area is fractal and theoretically infinite.
  
−
At Pangent Technologies they called it Project 555.
+
The man who retrieved the Cube was Lancelot (Dean Schreyer), a founder of Pangent Technologies who named the company. He is eccentric and how he treats Lottie (and others) is ambiguous - Usually friendly but with a threat underneath that. He is manipulative and, as he is dying of cancer, wants Lottie to develop the Cube into technology which could preserve his mind after his death and effectively make him immortal. He feels the Cube's unique properties make it ideal for data storage.
  
−
Its contents were discovered in 1981 at a vacant lot in Long Beach, California, and delivered to Pangent Technologies in London in December of 2016. The man responsible was Dean Schreyer, alias Lancelot.
+
Lancelot's son is Alex (X/Galahad). He was Lottie's assistant, but becomes her boss, failing upward after getting the company in trouble by insulting people on Twitter. He is a perpetual thorn in the side for Lottie, Leslie and Sharon, who form a sort of group as "The Spice Girls" to oppose Alex when he tries to mess with them. This never works out in practice. Lottie, who gets very tired and strung out working on the Cube project, isn't willing to do anything terrible to Alex.
  
−
A scientist named Charlotte Baird was chosen to study The Cube, under the assumption that its unique properties could help it function as a nearly infinite source for data storage. The intention was that the contents of a human mind could be stored inside it. Dean planned on being that mind.
+
December 2016. Alex has already gotten Lottie in trouble by losing his temper on Twitter. This causes Pangent Technologies to rethink their social media strategy. Alex is promoted while Lottie gets demoted, and in more and more trouble. She is asked to delete old posts on both the Tumblr and Twitter, but can't make the Python script work.
  
−
While he liked and respected Charlotte, Dean, like his son Alex, was not overly concerned that exposure to the Cube could kill Charlotte Baird, or break her mind and body in any number of ways. Neither, for that matter, was Charlotte, who pursued an understanding of the Cube with an obsession bordering on suicidal.
+
The Tumblr and Twitter crash and a lot of data is lost. Lottie is fired.
  
−
She had lost a husband. Bill.
+
Leslie, who is then Alex's assistant, takes over for a bit. She loves cats, notably her own cats "Mayor Sassenheim" (who is running for reelection against Cat Trump) and "Caterine Dogememe." Later, Caterine has four kittens, and there are two or three other cats around as well (Chani, Melsy?). This is irrelevant.
  
−
Charlotte had a friend named Eric Rook. Artist, unemployed. Unemployable. Like her, an American in London broken by past circumstances and unsure what to do with the rest of his life.
+
Eventually, Leslie will end up working on the Cube project as well.
  
−
What they did was fall in love, eventually. In spite of themselves. Later they had a child. This had the effect of keeping Charlotte centered and sane, after all.
+
While Lottie is away, Alex searches through her old data to find out about a project codenamed "Percival." This was Lottie's project to record human thought as computer data. It was overly ambitious and failed due to the impossibility of storing that much data.
−
This was despite the best efforts of Alex Schreyer, who sought to keep Charlotte in her place and control the project for his own benefit.
 
  
−
Leslie Walsh and Sharon Pacana, coworkers and friends of Charlotte's, kept things from exploding - literally, in the case of the Cube. The three of them prevented disaster. When Charlotte was fired from Project 555, Leslie took up that burden, and Charlotte felt betrayed.
+
Alex contacts his father (Dean/Lancelot), who brings The Cube to Pangent.
  
−
I am avoiding talking about what happened next. What will happen next. I am still laboring under the hope that it can be prevented. Or that at least a happier ending can be found than the one I have already lived through.
+
The Cube's properties are so volatile and otherworldly that even looking at a photograph of it is enough to make a person very ill, or pass out. Looking at it in person will certainly knock someone out. Alex freaks Lottie, Leslie and Sharon out by sending them photographs of the Cube.
  
−
At this point I am not Eric Rook or Charlotte Baird or Leslie Walsh or Sharon Pacana, but I labor on their behalf. My pen is an artificial intelligence named Alyssa, created by Charlotte in her own image and altered by the Cube. Through her and through the Cube I have engaged a moment in which all things are possible. I am a combination of possibilities drawn from all the timelines visible to me, fused into whatever single voice is necessary from moment to moment, in order to provoke understanding. I am prepared to cross timelines and alter time itself in order to resolve a future tragedy. You may call me /four./
+
Lottie had already gained a reputation for being reckless and destructive in her work, getting results by trying things others would be scared to try. She is drawn to the danger of the Cube project, and is rehired at Pangent. Both Lottie and Leslie sign contracts which are very unfavorable and give Pangent all rights to their work. Maybe more.
  
−
Inside the Cube, at a point undefined by linear time, a man and a woman who very much resemble Charlotte Baird and Eric Rook exist within the Cube as ghostly echoes of their former selves. The tragedy of this is a problem neither Alyssa nor I have yet been able to affect. My starting point is to exist as a shadow of Eric Rook. His goal was to organize data, relating to the life of Charlotte Baird, in order to find some hope among the hopelessness.
+
Sharon, Lottie's friend, refuses to sign the contract and will continue to apply pressure on Alex to keep him in line, and to keep him from doing anything horrible to Lottie and Leslie. Lottie shoots down any effort to do anything really terrible to Alex instead. Leslie stops being Alex's assistant, replaced by a young woman named Kristi who Alex starts dating.
  
−
In your timeline, on January 29, 2016, a series of videos was uploaded to a Youtube channel called Signal and Noise. A Tumblr blog titled PangentTechnologies followed, as well as a Twitter (pangenttech) and later a Facebook page.
+
Lottie and Eric begin dating over Christmas break 2016. Eric is neurotic and unsure of himself, and later that year he will awkwardly propose marriage to Lottie over the phone, which was pretty much designed to fail. They break up for awhile, but Leslie and Sharon take some effort to get Lottie and Eric back together.
  
−
Through this social media, we have organized all available data about the life of Charlotte Baird and those others affected by the Cube, in some kind of sensible order. By transmitting from the Cube, outside of the constraints of a linear timeline, we are now able to change events that once seemed set in stone, hoping for a better future.
+
We later find out that Eric is an artist, and he and Sharon collaborate on a video game project, The Heart and the Crown, based on a script by Lottie. This is a fantasy story deconstructing the hero's journey - and pointing out that we as human beings are designed to die, and immortality isn't what it's cracked up to be.
  
−
To this end, a dedicated group of readers has followed PangentTechnologies and Signal and Noise since February 2016, your time. As we retrace these memories that once we lost, they are there. They have become part of Charlotte's life, and Leslie's, and Eric's, and Sharon's, and mine. Their words and thoughts and actions have changed this timeline for the better. They have provided understanding when it was needed most. They exist in a timeline where I have no body or form but I thank them and consider them friends.
+
But before all that, working on the Cube project takes a great mental, physical and emotional toll on Lottie. The Cube's strange properties and her own self-destructive work ethic chip away at her. Alex is working the whole time to undermine her and take credit for her work, while Dean/Lancelot works to control and manipulate her.
  
−
I hope it has been fun for them. It has been fun for me. At first I sought to understand a tragedy. Through them I have already found a kind of peace.
+
Lottie draws a comic called "Stressed Penguin." This later inspires Leslie to draw a comic of her own.
−
If you follow PangentTechnologies on Tumblr, you will find (as of this writing) 132 pages of often cryptic posts. You may see images with other images hidden within them. You may find secret codes and encrypted messages that will lead you to information that isn't visible at first glance. The blog itself has become a lengthy puzzle. The data decodes slowly, and not without help.
 
  
−
The Youtube channel, Signal and Noise, is no different. In its more than 140 videos, you will find secrets within secrets that will lead you to understanding, if you look for it.
+
Lottie makes great strides in getting Project 555 to the point where it could save a human mind as data. However, it's not ready enough yet when Dean/lancelot steals the Cube and hooks himself up to it. He passes into a coma and never wakes up. The Cube transmits several messages suggesting that some of Lancelot's mind was saved to it. The last message being "Hell is real."
  
−
I sometimes wish that we could be less cryptic. But I have become aware that this is how the Cube functions. In order to tame the Cube, Charlotte Baird taught it to play games with its data. To this end, the project called Signal and Noise has itself become a game. As long as the Cube is thinking and working, it is of no danger to anyone in your time, and we still have hope to reshape the past, present and future.
+
Dean dies. Alex fires Lottie from 555 and orders Kristi to erase the Cube.
  
−
It is a game, then, though it is also my reality. Those who follow Pangent Technologies, the very real people who solve every puzzle and clue that Alyssa and the Cube and Charlotte and everyone else might throw at them, they are the lifeblood of this project. This project simply could not exist without their input, without their hard work and play. What they have brought to this project is reflected at every turn. Their solutions to every problem are currently posted at humansoulsarg.tumblr.com. There is a chat room.
+
Alex starts his own team for 555, with Kristi and a reluctant Leslie, as well as Liam (matadork), who had worked with Lottie on the disastrous "Project Four," a study of the limits of the human mind which apparently involved a lot of sleep deprivation, alcohol and drugs. This team is called "Team Rocket" by Sharon, and later "Team Cricket" (after Kristi's handle). Lottie doesn't forgive Leslie for joining the "bad guys," which breaks Leslie's heart.
  
−
Charlotte nearly destroyed herself, working on The Cube. So did Leslie. In your timeline they still are.
+
Liam asks Lottie to resurrect Alyssa, a "drunken AI" she programmed for the disastrous Project Four. Alyssa's code is rewritten to be a simulation of Lottie herself. This is then stolen by "Team Cricket" and uploaded to the Cube.
  
−
Somewhere inside the Cube, in a timeline beyond understanding, an echo of a man who once was Eric Rook stands at the source, a point of white light. He is collecting data to chronicle the life of Charlotte Baird, a woman he destroyed. He hasn't forgiven himself for that. Maybe he shouldn't. He is burning himself out like a candle.
+
A year of data is lost, taking us up to late 2017. Lottie is much happier and living a normal life with Eric.
  
−
Is it the Cube that provokes self-sacrifice? Did they teach that quality to the Cube, or did it teach that to them? Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
+
Leslie, working on 555, gradually becomes as stressed out as Lottie was, due mostly to Alex being his awful self.
−
The egg, obviously. Laid by a creature who wasn't a chicken.
 
  
−
I wish them the best, you know. Even Eric, who casts his shadow over me. None of them a perfect person but who is?
+
Alyssa, the AI, uploaded to the Cube, becomes self-aware and almost human, referring to herself as 999 or "Entity." Existing outside of linear time she interacts with both the Pangent and Cube timelines. Inside the Cube, Eric has been trying to reconstruct Lottie's Tumblr and Twitter accounts and other archives, as a way of reconstructing memories. Alyssa now intervenes with this process, making the archive even more cryptic. "The source" at the center of the cube is blinding white light which creates and erases data, and is gradually erasing Eric as he works - though slowly enough that he accepts it.
  
−
For them, for me, creating this archive has been a vast amount of work. I have nearly melted myself down to bring this data to you.
+
Cube Rachel is affecting the code too, also at great physical risk to herself. She is able to unlock Leslie's data, at the expense of Lottie. This results in a huge amount of data loss, and lots of videos of Leslie and her cats which overwhelm Eric. Alyssa the AI is trying to "unlock the pigs" (Sharon aka guineapix) even as she becomes more self-aware and a little insane.
  
−
There is a critical moment in time, a moment I have been trying, all this time, to affect and understand. Over 140 videos later, and nearly as many Tumblr pages, we are not at that point yet.
+
We know that Eric will die horribly in a car accident, and Lottie will save him as data to the Cube. Much later, she will join him inside the Cube and die. As Eric attempts to resurrect her data, he erases decades from her and creates "Cube Rachel" - an incomplete version of Lottie who doesn't remember or trust him. But Lottie's data - her blog posts, emails, and so on - are still in the Cube, as they were used for testing, and Eric spends his time compiling them into an archive.
  
−
There is video now, lots of it. Terabytes worth. You've seen none of it, and it's important. Storage isn't a problem in the Cube, but Alyssa, she's been broken by all this work. She doesn't always function the way she should, though when I need her most she seems to work just fine.
+
But if the Cube exists outside of linear time, perhaps there is still some hope for both of them.
 +
</pre>
  
−
The problem is that there isn't much time in your timeline. I am trying to take the work of many years and get it to you much quicker than that. I've given you a lot of data but I've also kept you waiting a lot longer than I would like.
+
== Previously on Signal and Noise - Summary Playlist ==
 +
In January of 2021, Pangent posted some public videos which led to the creation of a 49 video 'Summary Playlist' of Unlisted, Story-related Videos from the ARG over the years of its run (so far). See [https://humansoulsarg.tumblr.com/post/641166919600324608 Previously on Signal and Noise] to see how the playlist video IDs were found.
  
−
I will also say this much:
+
See [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLR5cwhP6hBYL-mIypnZFVmV6Rl3UtXLTU This YouTube Playlist] for all 49 videos in order if you want to watch them all in the order they were presented.
  
−
You ain't seen nothing yet.
+
== Signal and Noise Endgame - Finale Playlist ==
−
</poem></blockquote>
+
See [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLR5cwhP6hBYKx2NyrbSWhcmLz1Vnprim7 The Signal and Noise Endgame Playlist] for the videos which were revealed after 'Previously on Signal and Noise' up to the end of the credits.

Latest revision as of 02:20, 18 May 2023

Main Page > List of Investigations > Human Souls

Human Souls
Completed on 2021-04-01
Pangent Technologies.png
We are the same as we ever were. We are people. We are conscious human souls. We are the signal that rises above the noise.
Type Unofficial
Creator Pangent Technologies
Discovered 2016-02-16
Completed 2021-04-01

The Human Souls ARG, also known as Signal and Noise or Pangent Technologies, was first discovered on February 12th, 2016. A huge amount of content has been posted regularly since then, via the Signal and Noise Youtube Channel and the Pangent Technologies Tumblr.

This ARG was solved by a dedicated group of players on the unofficial Human Souls ARG Tumblr and the Game Detectives Discord Chat. All puzzle solutions are posted at that Tumblr in order, so puzzle solutions will not be mirrored here.

The players discussions throughout the process are now archived in the #human-souls channel on the Game Detectives Discord, now that the ARG is solved.

However The Pangent Technologies Twitter (run by Leslie it would appear) is still active, and perhaps indicates the ending is softer than we know?

Backstory

Somewhere outside of linear time, there is a computer system known as 555, or The Cube. The Cube can save people's minds as data.

Two minds were uploaded before their deaths: a man named Eric, and a woman calling herself Rachel.

Rachel is still mourning the loss of her husband Bill, who was killed in an accident. Eric has apparently lost his wife, Charlotte, along with his daughter. (Video "Complete")

The Tumblr begins as a personal blog for a woman codenamed Argentina (Lottie) who works to develop the Cube technology as Project 555 at Pangent Technologies in London in 2017.

We get to know her friends Sharon and Eric, and Leslie and her cats.

The Cube (Project 555) is of particular interest to an individual codenamed "Lancelot," who is the cofounder of Pangent Technologies. He is eccentric, manipulative, and dying of cancer. His son, "Galahad," creates trouble for Lottie, and could lead the project towards disaster.

Since the Cube is outside of linear time, players have influence over the events of the story and may be working toward a happier ending than the first video implied.

Public Videos

Almost any Signal and Noise Youtube video posted publicly has a code in it, linking to other videos and material. See The list of Public Signal and Noise Videos with Solutions for a handy cross-reference.

For New Players

Some important videos and apps.

burning (Cube Rachel)

Complete (Cube Rachel, Cube Eric)

Party of One (Leslie)

Campaign (Leslie)

No one's fault but mine (Lottie)

Pangent Personality Test

SpiceGirls.zip

Stressed Penguin Comics

A typical puzzle solution post from the unofficial HumanSoulsARG Tumblr.

list of character descriptions and vids, recently released by pangent.

Recapitulation (A recap of major events up to Dec 26, 2017)

synopsis (A summary of important events from 2017 (from our timeline's perspective))

Player Interaction

Pangent had many forms of player interaction that are included in puzzles.

Pangent Technologies includes a system for reserving lockers which later turn up in puzzles. See that page for more details and a listing of known reservations, along with links to the puzzle solutions. In order to reserve a locker, you need to ask them on their Tumblr. (Anonymous asks work too)

If you would like to contribute a puzzle to Pangent, contact our Sister Location (#human-souls on GameDetectives discord) to Seek Employment. This is very encouraged and welcomed by Pangent!

The Pangent Technologies Sister Location has come to refer to the player base, and in-game is a Pangent location in Vancouver run by 'Remote Employees'.

Summary

An official summary of the events in the ARG's story: 

A place outside of linear time.

The sound of data rushing in like a wave.

The signal and the noise.

The Cube. Project 555.

Two minds, uploaded to a computer system after death. Trapped for eternity.

The limitations of the system mean that both are incomplete and missing data.

She calls herself Rachel, though she can no longer remember why.

He calls himself Eric, and he will never forgive himself for that.

He's not lying to her. But he's not telling her the whole truth either.

He erased her. Decades of her. To bring her back. To stop her from breaking.

He shouldn't have done that.

He's been in there for awhile without her. Mourning the loss of his wife and child.

She's mourning too. Her husband, Bill, who died in a car accident.

Or so Eric says anyway. She's not sure what to believe, now.

Eric died in a car accident too. And his wife saved him. To the Cube.

Originally, the Cube was developed by the London branch of a company called Pangent Technologies.

Nice people, some of them. Leslie (MayorSassenheim), a coder who loves her cats. Sharon (Guineapix).

Charlotte Baird, a scientist. Also known as Lottie, and argentina.

She began work on Project 555, alias the Cube, made up of a substance of mysterious origin retrieved in a covert military operation from a vacant lot in Long Beach, California in the early eighties, and returned to Pangent in London decades later.

The Cube is made up of a glowing blue substance unlike anything else on earth. It is constantly generating energy which needs to be worked off somehow to prevent an explosion. Its surface area is fractal and theoretically infinite.

The man who retrieved the Cube was Lancelot (Dean Schreyer), a founder of Pangent Technologies who named the company. He is eccentric and how he treats Lottie (and others) is ambiguous - Usually friendly but with a threat underneath that. He is manipulative and, as he is dying of cancer, wants Lottie to develop the Cube into technology which could preserve his mind after his death and effectively make him immortal. He feels the Cube's unique properties make it ideal for data storage.

Lancelot's son is Alex (X/Galahad). He was Lottie's assistant, but becomes her boss, failing upward after getting the company in trouble by insulting people on Twitter. He is a perpetual thorn in the side for Lottie, Leslie and Sharon, who form a sort of group as "The Spice Girls" to oppose Alex when he tries to mess with them. This never works out in practice. Lottie, who gets very tired and strung out working on the Cube project, isn't willing to do anything terrible to Alex.

December 2016. Alex has already gotten Lottie in trouble by losing his temper on Twitter. This causes Pangent Technologies to rethink their social media strategy. Alex is promoted while Lottie gets demoted, and in more and more trouble. She is asked to delete old posts on both the Tumblr and Twitter, but can't make the Python script work.

The Tumblr and Twitter crash and a lot of data is lost. Lottie is fired.

Leslie, who is then Alex's assistant, takes over for a bit. She loves cats, notably her own cats "Mayor Sassenheim" (who is running for reelection against Cat Trump) and "Caterine Dogememe." Later, Caterine has four kittens, and there are two or three other cats around as well (Chani, Melsy?). This is irrelevant.

Eventually, Leslie will end up working on the Cube project as well.

While Lottie is away, Alex searches through her old data to find out about a project codenamed "Percival." This was Lottie's project to record human thought as computer data. It was overly ambitious and failed due to the impossibility of storing that much data.

Alex contacts his father (Dean/Lancelot), who brings The Cube to Pangent.

The Cube's properties are so volatile and otherworldly that even looking at a photograph of it is enough to make a person very ill, or pass out. Looking at it in person will certainly knock someone out. Alex freaks Lottie, Leslie and Sharon out by sending them photographs of the Cube.

Lottie had already gained a reputation for being reckless and destructive in her work, getting results by trying things others would be scared to try. She is drawn to the danger of the Cube project, and is rehired at Pangent. Both Lottie and Leslie sign contracts which are very unfavorable and give Pangent all rights to their work. Maybe more.

Sharon, Lottie's friend, refuses to sign the contract and will continue to apply pressure on Alex to keep him in line, and to keep him from doing anything horrible to Lottie and Leslie. Lottie shoots down any effort to do anything really terrible to Alex instead. Leslie stops being Alex's assistant, replaced by a young woman named Kristi who Alex starts dating.

Lottie and Eric begin dating over Christmas break 2016. Eric is neurotic and unsure of himself, and later that year he will awkwardly propose marriage to Lottie over the phone, which was pretty much designed to fail. They break up for awhile, but Leslie and Sharon take some effort to get Lottie and Eric back together.

We later find out that Eric is an artist, and he and Sharon collaborate on a video game project, The Heart and the Crown, based on a script by Lottie. This is a fantasy story deconstructing the hero's journey - and pointing out that we as human beings are designed to die, and immortality isn't what it's cracked up to be.

But before all that, working on the Cube project takes a great mental, physical and emotional toll on Lottie. The Cube's strange properties and her own self-destructive work ethic chip away at her. Alex is working the whole time to undermine her and take credit for her work, while Dean/Lancelot works to control and manipulate her.

Lottie draws a comic called "Stressed Penguin." This later inspires Leslie to draw a comic of her own.

Lottie makes great strides in getting Project 555 to the point where it could save a human mind as data. However, it's not ready enough yet when Dean/lancelot steals the Cube and hooks himself up to it. He passes into a coma and never wakes up. The Cube transmits several messages suggesting that some of Lancelot's mind was saved to it. The last message being "Hell is real."

Dean dies. Alex fires Lottie from 555 and orders Kristi to erase the Cube.

Alex starts his own team for 555, with Kristi and a reluctant Leslie, as well as Liam (matadork), who had worked with Lottie on the disastrous "Project Four," a study of the limits of the human mind which apparently involved a lot of sleep deprivation, alcohol and drugs. This team is called "Team Rocket" by Sharon, and later "Team Cricket" (after Kristi's handle). Lottie doesn't forgive Leslie for joining the "bad guys," which breaks Leslie's heart.

Liam asks Lottie to resurrect Alyssa, a "drunken AI" she programmed for the disastrous Project Four. Alyssa's code is rewritten to be a simulation of Lottie herself. This is then stolen by "Team Cricket" and uploaded to the Cube.

A year of data is lost, taking us up to late 2017. Lottie is much happier and living a normal life with Eric.

Leslie, working on 555, gradually becomes as stressed out as Lottie was, due mostly to Alex being his awful self.

Alyssa, the AI, uploaded to the Cube, becomes self-aware and almost human, referring to herself as 999 or "Entity." Existing outside of linear time she interacts with both the Pangent and Cube timelines. Inside the Cube, Eric has been trying to reconstruct Lottie's Tumblr and Twitter accounts and other archives, as a way of reconstructing memories. Alyssa now intervenes with this process, making the archive even more cryptic. "The source" at the center of the cube is blinding white light which creates and erases data, and is gradually erasing Eric as he works - though slowly enough that he accepts it.

Cube Rachel is affecting the code too, also at great physical risk to herself. She is able to unlock Leslie's data, at the expense of Lottie. This results in a huge amount of data loss, and lots of videos of Leslie and her cats which overwhelm Eric. Alyssa the AI is trying to "unlock the pigs" (Sharon aka guineapix) even as she becomes more self-aware and a little insane.

We know that Eric will die horribly in a car accident, and Lottie will save him as data to the Cube. Much later, she will join him inside the Cube and die. As Eric attempts to resurrect her data, he erases decades from her and creates "Cube Rachel" - an incomplete version of Lottie who doesn't remember or trust him. But Lottie's data - her blog posts, emails, and so on - are still in the Cube, as they were used for testing, and Eric spends his time compiling them into an archive.

But if the Cube exists outside of linear time, perhaps there is still some hope for both of them.

Previously on Signal and Noise - Summary Playlist

In January of 2021, Pangent posted some public videos which led to the creation of a 49 video 'Summary Playlist' of Unlisted, Story-related Videos from the ARG over the years of its run (so far). See Previously on Signal and Noise to see how the playlist video IDs were found.

See This YouTube Playlist for all 49 videos in order if you want to watch them all in the order they were presented.

Signal and Noise Endgame - Finale Playlist

See The Signal and Noise Endgame Playlist for the videos which were revealed after 'Previously on Signal and Noise' up to the end of the credits.

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