Outer Wilds - Uncertainty, in Life and Quanta
1/26/23
While I imagine no doubt I have very little of unique substance to offer any conversation surrounding the experience of Outer Wilds and its downloadable expansion, Echoes of the Eye, I have been interested in laying out my thoughts nonetheless, as it very quickly became one of my favorite games in my lifetime. I will not touch much on every aspect of the game itself, but rather elements of its story that I find interest in speaking on. I have wanted to speak on this game quite a bit, as I was playing, but limited myself to finishing the experience before assembling anything further in order to give my thoughts more time to form.
To me, the heart of Outer Wilds is uncertainty. Whether that be the uncertainty of where to explore next, the uncertainty involved in the observation of quantum systems, or the uncertainty in what to do with life and why our existences indeed exist to begin with. For as much typical horror exists in this story (anglerfish moment), just as much, if not more, existential horrors and wonderings lie in store.
Outer Wilds begins quite simply. As the newest in the space program, the Hatchling is tasked with traversing the expanse beyond their home world and just seeing what is here or there. Translation tool in hand, they embark, stepping into the unknown to find answers to the uncertainty of their solar system. Never could they have fathomed the inexplicable and infinite chain of complicated strings of tragedy that led up to that very moment. The incomprehensible miracle of existing here and now, with those by their side. At that very time and place, with those very people, and that very goal in mind. A question for answers at the end of a dying universe, in the middle of a dying system. Nor were they the first.
As seen in Echoes of the Eye, a race which preceded both Nomai and Hearthian had similar investment in figuring out the reason for being. In solving the great uncertain unknown. So they killed their world. Sacrificed every scrap of wood, metal, and fluid to propel the greatest of arks into the deep sea of black, a pilgrimage across the void unto the promised land. And when what was uncertain finally became certain, when their fate was observed and made known, they sought to avoid their death. That silly little thing all living beings share. Mortality. Transience. Ephemerality. Beginning and end.
But to live is not simply to die, it is to pass on the torch to those who will live beyond you. Though your flame might flicker and soon extinguish, your light can create and inspire even more light in others. However, the race of precursors had never reached this level of enlightenment in their entire life of technological marvel and advancement. Rather than accept the inevitable that comes for us all, the cruel thief that robs us of our former selves: time, that is... they instead sought to create a world that obeyed no laws but their own. Their own personal Eden, Dilmun, Nirvana, whatever you wish to call it. Where death does not exist, and their home was never destroyed. An idealized reality, or perhaps a womb, giving birth to a new world full of those who sleep outside of it.
Dreaming in a sea of black, floating in a sea of void, eternally. But unbeknownst to them, they were at this point already long dead. I do not mean in the sense that their bodies decomposed amidst their slumber, but that the very decision they took to hide away the Eye and avert their eyes from reality was itself the moment in which they had truly died, for to live is to pass on the torch. They hid away the light of the world from all others, so that they may dream of naught but bliss as the universe drifted ever close to the beginning of its end.
One, however, stood against this. One sole prisoner who sought the Eye, and upon finally arriving at it, eons later alongside the Hatchling, had this to say: “When my kind found the Eye and realized what it was capable of, they were terrified. It was too difficult a truth. Like a light too bright to look upon directly, it burned them. What they could not unlearn was hidden away in darkness – obfuscated, then lost. They did not want to see their story end.”
While I did say that to them, the unknown became known, that is not entirely correct. While the potentiality of the Eye became apparent, it was the unknown of what its result would bring about. To them, that unknown was death. True death, the final and ultimate cessation of mortality, cannot be experienced, as death lies outside of life. And understandably, their fervor in building this ark was likely not to seek a means to end their lives, but to enrich them. Ironically, this lack of accepting the inevitable only decayed their souls, leaving them to rot in decadence and deterioration as they withered away for hundreds of thousands of years inside of a simulation of their own making.
But this prisoner’s light did indeed reach another. The Nomai clan of Escall, who received the signal of the Eye, however briefly. A race deeply devoted to unraveling the secrets of the uncertain, they sped their vessel toward the source of the Eye, ardent in their discovery of the oldest possible existence known to any of their kind. And yet in the end, death came for them all. Call it coincidence, or more inevitability, but their vessel’s warp core would lead them into the jaws of death, from which many would escape, but eventually all would succumb to in one way or another. Swiftly and silently after all the advancements made to bring about the ultimate achievement for the existence of all beings in their iteration of the universe, the Nomai of this system... died. On the cusp of reaching the greatest possible uncertainty to them and laying bare its every secret, the immediate radiation of the Interloper saw to it that they would never achieve their objective. Death is merciless. It comes for us all. That much will never, ever be uncertain.
------------
Which brings us to the Hearthians, a relatively new race to the system with plenty of spunk and guts, deriving many a new technology from the surrounding Nomai artifacts. It is revealed that the Nomai in fact encountered the primordial Hearthians before they had ever developed society and technology, and strove to do everything in their power to protect this group of creature while going about their search for the Eye. The Nomai were an active cultivator of life (yes, I know, despite the irony of attempting to combust the Sun. For the greater good, at least?).
The Hatchling meets a fair number of other Hearthians amidst the cosmos in their journey to ascertain the truth. The whole of the astronaut program is fairly respectable, but I’m tired, so I’ll just talk about the ones that Hatchling meets way out there.
Esker, earliest of the astronauts, who dwells where none visit anymore due to its antiquated nature. Alone on a rock hurtling through the expanse, rather persistent in their attempts to keep the Hatchling at their campfire for some comfortable company.
Then our astronomer, Chert. A cheery little fella who looks a bit too closely at the universe and goes catatonic at realizing it’s all finally ending. But it’s nice... isn’t it, to find someone to watch the world end with?
On that note, Gabbro’s existence was always quite amusing to me. They were obviously creative and intelligent from the get-go, given their construction of the quantum poem and their knowledge of its level of variation, but what stuck out to me the most was also their sheer proclivity for relaxation. To stare death in the face and say “You know, yeah. It’s my time.” The Hatchling even learns meditation from Gab after a few loops, given it was obvious even to them how Gab just swayed in their hammock, in the midst of a cyclone-torn planet hurtling through the emptiness next to an exploding sun, simply did not give a fuck. Enlightenment really is just accepting the good and the bad, and taking it in stride, it seems.
Somewhat of a foil to Riebeck, who was constantly anxious in their exploration of the stars as the resident archeologist, though admittedly their resolve in doing these things regardless of their fears is clearly a noble thing to have accomplished. And who could forget Feldspar? The absolutely fearless!... or something. A life of pure bravado and adventure led them to being trapped in utter isolation, and yet, to them, that was the best thing that had ever happened to them (possibly only because you were able to find them anyway).
------------
The Hatchling met not just Hearthians, but a Nomai and even precursor. A trinity of races assembled across the span of time, linked from one to the other, passing on the light of life. A series of torches, or batons even, from one lifespan to the next to the next. Which of course brings me to the climactic point of the story: the Eye of the Universe.
The astronauts, precursor prisoner, and Solanum of the Nomai all gather here (in quantum form, or something...), for the final, great, last, ultimate conclusion to the eons of tragedy and curiosity that linked each and every one of them from start to end and led them to right here, right now. And after all, this is a story of uncertainty. Staring at what is known to happen, and accepting the uncertainty of what comes next. Death can never be experienced, only feared. And without fear, there is no need to hesitate.
As the wanderers lay their gaze upon the Eye, they see the infinite possibilities, the endless uncertainty, the absolute innumerable potentiality. They look death in the eye, and they accept their place and role in the system of life. They collapse the unknown, the infinite, into a singular, more tangible space.
Life is but a miracle that needs no further explanation or comprehension to realize the enjoyment that it brings. Well, call it a miracle. Call it coincidence. Call it inevitable. Call it honestly anything, I don’t care. We exist here and now as the observers of our world, making anything and everything possible with our hope and will for life. Life does not begin so that it might end. It begins so that it might begin again. For here, for there. For now, for then. For yourself, for myself.
If there is certainty in anything, it is that this life is a blessing, even if ephemeral. All else I can say is... may your life be full of light. Your influence surely is felt by someone, somewhere. In this vast, incomprehensible universe, full of infinite uncertainty, you are seeing, and are being seen. I hope to see you all at the end. Take care of yourself, and those around you. Accept the limits of your existence as you do. That might just be what this world needs.
Outer Wilds - Uncertainty, in Life and Quanta
1/26/23
While I imagine no doubt I have very little of unique substance to any conversation surrounding the experience of Outer Wilds and its downloadable expansion, Echoes of the Eye, I have been interested in laying out my thoughts nonetheless, as it very quickly became one of my favorite games in my lifetime. I will not touch much on every aspect of the game itself, but rather elements of its story that I find interest in speaking on. I have wanted to speak on this game quite a bit, as I was playing, but limited myself to finishing the experience before assembling anything further in order to give my thoughts more time to form.
To me, the heart of Outer Wilds is uncertainty. Whether that be the uncertainty of where to explore next, the uncertainty involved in the observation of quantum systems, or the uncertainty in what to do with life and why our existences indeed exist to begin with. For as much typical horror exists in this story (anglerfish moment), just as much, if not more, existential horrors and wonderings lie in store.
Outer Wilds begins quite simply. As the newest in the space program, the Hatchling is tasked with traversing the expanse beyond their home world and just seeing what is here or there. Translation tool in hand, they embark, stepping into the unknown to find answers to the uncertainty of their solar system. Never could they have fathomed the inexplicable and infinite chain of complicated strings of tragedy that led up to that very moment. The incomprehensible miracle of existing here and now, with those by their side. At that very time and place, with those very people, and that very goal in mind. A question for answers at the end of a dying universe, in the middle of a dying system. Nor were they the first.
As seen in Echoes of the Eye, a race which preceded both Nomai and Hearthian had similar investment in figuring out the reason for being. In solving the great uncertain unknown. So they killed their world. Sacrificed every scrap of wood, metal, and fluid to propel the greatest of arks into the deep sea of black, a pilgrimage across the void unto the promised land. And when what was uncertain finally became certain, when their fate was observed and made known, they sought to avoid their death. That silly little thing all living beings share. Mortality. Transience. Ephemerality. Beginning and end.
But to live is not simply to die, it is to pass on the torch to those who will live beyond you. Though your flame might flicker and soon extinguish, your light can create and inspire even more light in others. However, the race of precursors had never reached this level of enlightenment in their entire life of technological marvel and advancement. Rather than accept the inevitable that comes for us all, the cruel thief that robs us of our former selves: time, that is... they instead sought to create a world that obeyed no laws but their own. Their own personal Eden, Dilmun, Nirvana, whatever you wish to call it. Where death does not exist, and their home was never destroyed. An idealized reality, or perhaps a womb, giving birth to a new world full of those who sleep outside of it.
Dreaming in a sea of black, floating in a sea of void, eternally. But unbeknownst to them, they were at this point already long dead. I do not mean in the sense that their bodies decomposed amidst their slumber, but that the very decision they took to hide away the Eye and avert their eyes from reality was itself the moment in which they had truly died, for to live is to pass on the torch. They hid away the light of the world from all others, so that they may dream of naught but bliss as the universe drifted ever close to the beginning of its end.
One, however, stood against this. One sole prisoner who sought the Eye, and upon finally arriving at it, eons later alongside the Hatchling, had this to say: “When my kind found the Eye and realized what it was capable of, they were terrified. It was too difficult a truth. Like a light too bright to look upon directly, it burned them. What they could not unlearn was hidden away in darkness – obfuscated, then lost. They did not want to see their story end.”
While I did say that to them, the unknown became known, that is not entirely correct. While the potentiality of the Eye became apparent, it was the unknown of what its result would bring about. To them, that unknown was death. True death, the final and ultimate cessation of mortality, cannot be experienced, as death lies outside of life. And understandably, their fervor in building this ark was likely not to seek a means to end their lives, but to enrich them. Ironically, this lack of accepting the inevitable only decayed their souls, leaving them to rot in decadence and deterioration as they withered away for hundreds of thousands of years inside of a simulation of their own making.
But this prisoner’s light did indeed reach another. The Nomai clan of Escall, who received the signal of the Eye, however briefly. A race deeply devoted to unraveling the secrets of the uncertain, they sped their vessel toward the source of the Eye, ardent in their discovery of the oldest possible existence known to any of their kind. And yet in the end, death came for them all. Call it coincidence, or more inevitability, but their vessel’s warp core would lead them into the jaws of death, from which many would escape, but eventually all would succumb to in one way or another. Swiftly and silently after all the advancements made to bring about the ultimate achievement for the existence of all beings in their iteration of the universe, the Nomai of this system... died. On the cusp of reaching the greatest possible uncertainty to them and laying bare its every secret, the immediate radiation of the Interloper saw to it that they would never achieve their objective. Death is merciless. It comes for us all. That much will never, ever be uncertain.
------------
Which brings us to the Hearthians, a relatively new race to the system with plenty of spunk and guts, deriving many a new technology from the surrounding Nomai artifacts. It is revealed that the Nomai in fact encountered the primordial Hearthians before they had ever developed society and technology, and strove to do everything in their power to protect this group of creature while going about their search for the Eye. The Nomai were an active cultivator of life (yes, I know, despite the irony of attempting to combust the Sun. For the greater good, at least?).
The Hatchling meets a fair number of other Hearthians amidst the cosmos in their journey to ascertain the truth. The whole of the astronaut program is fairly respectable, but I’m tired, so I’ll just talk about the ones that Hatchling meets way out there.
Esker, earliest of the astronauts, who dwells where none visit anymore due to its antiquated nature. Alone on a rock hurtling through the expanse, rather persistent in their attempts to keep the Hatchling at their campfire for some comfortable company.
Then our astronomer, Chert. A cheery little fella who looks a bit too closely at the universe and goes catatonic at realizing it’s all finally ending. But it’s nice... isn’t it, to find someone to watch the world end with?
On that note, Gabbro’s existence was always quite amusing to me. They were obviously creative and intelligent from the get-go, given their construction of the quantum poem and their knowledge of its level of variation, but what stuck out to me the most was also their sheer proclivity for relaxation. To stare death in the face and say “You know, yeah. It’s my time.” The Hatchling even learns meditation from Gab after a few loops, given it was obvious even to them how Gab just swayed in their hammock, in the midst of a cyclone-torn planet hurtling through the emptiness next to an exploding sun, simply did not give a fuck. Enlightenment really is just accepting the good and the bad, and taking it in stride, it seems.
Somewhat of a foil to Riebeck, who was constantly anxious in their exploration of the stars as the resident archeologist, though admittedly their resolve in doing these things regardless of their fears is clearly a noble thing to have accomplished. And who could forget Feldspar? The absolutely fearless!... or something. A life of pure bravado and adventure led them to being trapped in utter isolation, and yet, to them, that was the best thing that had ever happened to them (possibly only because you were able to find them anyway).
------------
The Hatchling met not just Hearthians, but a Nomai and even precursor. A trinity of races assembled across the span of time, linked from one to the other, passing on the light of life. A series of torches, or batons even, from one lifespan to the next to the next. Which of course brings me to the climactic point of the story: the Eye of the Universe.
The astronauts, precursor prisoner, and Solanum of the Nomai all gather here (in quantum form, or something...), for the final, great, last, ultimate conclusion to the eons of tragedy and curiosity that linked each and every one of them from start to end and led them to right here, right now. And after all, this is a story of uncertainty. Staring at what is known to happen, and accepting the uncertainty of what comes next. Death can never be experienced, only feared. And without fear, there is no need to hesitate.
As the wanderers lay their gaze upon the Eye, they see the infinite possibilities, the endless uncertainty, the absolute innumerable potentiality. They look death in the eye, and they accept their place and role in the system of life. They collapse the unknown, the infinite, into a singular, more tangible space.
Life is but a miracle that needs no further explanation or comprehension to realize the enjoyment that it brings. Well, call it a miracle. Call it coincidence. Call it inevitable. Call it honestly anything, I don’t care. We exist here and now as the observers of our world, making anything and everything possible with our hope and will for life. Life does not begin so that it might end. It begins so that it might begin again. For here, for there. For now, for then. For yourself, for myself.
If there is certainty in anything, it is that this life is a blessing, even if ephemeral. All else I can say is... may your life be full of light. Your influence surely is felt by someone, somewhere. In this vast, incomprehensible universe, full of infinite uncertainty, you are seeing, and are being seen. I hope to see you all at the end. Take care of yourself, and those around you. Accept the limits of your existence as you do. That might just be what this world needs.
