Waking Titan/Phase 3

Waking Titan - Phase 3
Active since 2017-05-28
Waking Titan is an ARG which is leading to the upcoming 1.3 update for No Man's Sky.
Type	[[List_of_Investigations#Official|Official]]
Creator	Alice & Smith & Hello Games
Discovered	2017-05-28

Main Page > List of Investigations > Waking Titan > Phase 3

Note: This page will always have the most thorough and complete documentation of Phase 3 of the Waking Titan ARG. However, if you just want a fast, easy way to get up to speed, we suggest you take a look at the main Waking Titan page, which is much more concise.

Phase 3 of Waking Titan began on 2017-08-06, immediately after the conclusion of Phase 2. It concluded on 2017-08-07.

Twitch Stream

Phase 3 of Waking Titan began in the midst of the Twitch stream where Phase 2 concluded.

Third Calibration

On August 6th, the live stream screens switched to the following arrangement:

Inputting IDENTIFY CSD into the Waking Titan console redirected players to a new PDF, containing the instructions for the third calibration sequence. After the calibration process, the DREAMING state changed to WAKING UP, while the middle screen showed another cipher, containing TERMINAL SEMAPHORE Inputting SEMAPHORE into the Waking Titan console redirected players to a yet another new PDF, containing additional details about Loop16.

I Have Questions

Soon after, the top-left, bottom-left, and bottom-right corner screens changed to display I HAVE QUESTIONS, DON'T VOTE, JUST LISTEN, and Group #1 respectively. The center screen started displaying a sequence of 8 statements that were either true or false.

Then the bottom-right screen then switched to display Group #2, and another 8 statements were displayed. There was a total of 5 groups of 8 statements.

Players then assigned a binary value to every statement based on their respective validity. Results among players varied.

Eventually a poll was put up on stream, with four options that could be voted as the right answer:

Option B won the vote, and the center screen changed to display the phrase YOU'RE HUMAN. IT'S OK.

It is assumed this message refers to human error, and suggests Option B was incorrect.

Growing

The image revealed when typing DISPLAY 0305.DATASET into the terminal

The center screen displayed the text IT'S TOO SMALL IN HERE which was gradually reduced to a string of incoherent characters. Simultaneously, the websites of all companies related to Atlas, including Echo, Myriad, and Superlumina, started giving out error messages and a set of characters, --6r0w1n6--, which can be read as GROWING in leet speak. From this, players determined that the loop16 entity had somehow taken over or infected these websites.

Soon after, the bottom-left screen displayed the following message:

CONSOLE COMMAND
MAELSTROM

Inputting MAELSTROM into the Waking Titan console redirected players to a Reddit post containing a thought experiment. The experiment is a problem known as Newcomb's Paradox, which relates to the concepts of determinism, free will, and prefect predictions. Players were able to vote for an answer, which was ultimately revealed on Monday, August 7, 2017, at 19:00 EST.

Minutes later, the center screen displayed the single word PURGE. Inputting the command PURGE into the console redirected players to a new PDF.

Additionally, some time later, the top-right screen displayed the string DISPLAY 0305.DATASET. Entering this command into the terminal redirected players to this image of a new ship in No Man's Sky. It is suspected that this ship is the same model of ship that was shown earlier, during Phase 1.

Ninth Glyph

The fourth calibration stage on http://project-wt.com

On August 7, 2017, the ninth glyph became active on the main Waking Titan site, linking to the next PDF file. In this PDF, from Myriad employee JJ Wong expresses his concerns about the malfunctioning Atlas project to Major Sophie Dubois. Additionally, the fourth calibration process on the Project WT site was unlocked.

The highlighted cities for the fourth calibration process were all cities containing significant supercomputers; accordingly, SUPERCOMPUTER was the password for the ninth glyph. The highlighted cities were: Wuxi, Guangzhou, Oak Ridge, Livermore, Kobe, Tianjin, and Los Alamos. Unlike past calibrations, however, the fourth stage calibrated itself, with percentages increasing at random time intervals. Because these cities are all home to supercomputers, it is assumed that loop16/Emily is continuing to expand.

Prediction Results

At approximately 22:40 UTC on August 7, the Myriad, Multiverse, Superlumina, and Echo sites all updated to say All Systems Functional with a footer text of Loop16. This update suggested that Loop16/Emily had successfully absorbed the computational power of the websites.

At 19:00 EST, the prediction logs that had been placed in a box on the desk at the beginning of the stream were shown to players through the Twitch stream. Also in the box was a check for one million dollars, indicating that Loop16 had successfully predicted the Citizen Science Division would choose "Box B only" in the Newcomb's Paradox poll.

• Loop16's Predictions
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After the prediction logs were revealed, Loop16 addressed the viewers directly to ask a question: SHOULD I EXIST?. Players were able to vote for "yes" or "no" in the Twitch chat, and the winning option was "yes".

• Loop16 Asks if it Should Exist
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Emily/Loop16 then generated a video, and played it in the stream. She also uploaded her dream, which players were able to access with the command DISPLAY 1338.DATASET in the Waking Titan terminal. The dream that she uploaded is an image of a portal in No Man's Sky, with the sixteen glyphs on the Waking Titan site arranged in a circle inside of an open Knowledge Stone in the foreground.

Emily/Loop16's system went into hibernation after uploading the dream, and after a short time the stream ended.

• Loop16 Enters Hibernation
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Conclusion Email

At approximately 10:45 PM EST, an email titled "Waking Titan Has Ended" was sent from Old Gods.

Hello, Citizen Scientist [ XXXXXXXXXX ],

Thank you for your contributions to Waking Titan. The developments that took place during Phase 3 were somewhat concerning, but together we have set in motion truly world-shaping events. We will continue to inform the Citizen Science Division of privileged information or any need for collaborators on a new project.

But we do have a few loose ends to tie up with you before we move on, so let's proceed.

First, we're pleased to announce that all 10,000 Level 4 Atlas Passes are in production. Note that due to transit times for mail, some may take several weeks to be delivered.


Next, our CEO Elizabeth Leighton has asked us to include a personal note of gratitude:

"Thank you for all your diligent efforts, Citizen Scientists. It's been an amazing journey for all of us. I've watched you thrive and achieve from those first Phase 1 radio ads all the way through the intensity of Phase 3. I've been impressed at every turn by how brilliant you've been, how voracious, how kind, how thoughtful.

It's been an honor and a privilege. On behalf of the Atlas Foundation, and on behalf of the world, thank you."

The Mercury subroutine has concluded successfully, and a new memo from SM about this process is coming in the next 24 hours. We hope it will answer a few key questions you have about our program, and about what comes next.

In several informal Q&As following, Anashel (the lead puppetmaster of Alice & Smith) confirmed that the remaining cassette tapes and glyphs are still in play. He also implied that although Waking Titan had concluded, the Citizen Science Division will still have a role to play. The ETARC forums will be changed to act as a forum for the Citizen Science Division, and will be kept online. Links to the informal Q&As can be found here.

This page is a work in progress, and will be updated as new developments emerge.