Ark: Extinction - Homo Deus

[Daedros]

So, while watching a video on Ark: Extinction earlier, i thought of something. I knew that Homo Sapiens were extinct in Ark, and that we play as a "Homo Deus" (Man God), which many think are an evolutionary descendant of Homo Sapiens. But what if we're actually a sentient AI program that's within a hominid form (which explains how our body converts into data streams when we ascend)? What if there's an AI Overmind (think Skynet) on Earth (where Extinction takes place) that is using the sentient AI programs to stress test the adaptability of the human form in different environments, for determining which form is the best to transfer itself into for exploring the universe, because it's bored of being trapped on a dead world (Homo Sapiens obviously nuked themselves into extinction, maybe even in a war with the AI Overmind). The Devs have even hinted before that the Arks aren't the product of Aliens. Way to pull a Matrix on the players.

[Paroxyde]

Nah, we ain't homo deus... I'm pretty sure we are homo sapiens.

We are just like the dinos, clones with fake memories. And I'm fairly certain we are not even physical clones but virtual ones. We are just AI with fake memories in a simulated environment.

[Daedros]

32 minutes ago, Paroxyde said:

Nah, we ain't homo deus... I'm pretty sure we are homo sapiens.

Just before the Overseer battle on the Island, one of the consoles states that Homo Sapiens are extinct, while Homo Deus is "endangered". But yeah, our bodies are probably just holograms, hence why it turns into a data stream when you ascend or transfer Arks.

[Royalstar]

3 minutes ago, Daedros said:

Just before the Overseer battle on the Island, one of the consoles states that Homo Sapiens are extinct, while Homo Deus is "endangered".

Yes, homo sapiens may be extinct, but so are dinosaurs. My guess is we (the players) are genetically engineered homo sapiens, just like all the other creatures.

[Daedros]

23 minutes ago, Royalstar said:

Yes, homo sapiens may be extinct, but so are dinosaurs. My guess is we (the players) are genetically engineered homo sapiens, just like all the other creatures.

Homo Deus (Man God) more fits the digital aspect of what we play as in Ark. It's a "species" that has literally transcended the physical (godlike). An AI within a human form.

Kind of reminds me how in the PS1 game, Xenogears, God (Deus) was actually a machine.

 

[Paroxyde]

1 hour ago, Daedros said:

Homo Deus (Man God) more fits the digital aspect of what we play as in Ark. It's a "species" that has literally transcended the physical (godlike). An AI within a human form.

Kind of reminds me how in the PS1 game, Xenogears, God (Deus) was actually a machine.

You don't get what we are saying. Dinos are also virtual and have the memories of the dino, you just don't know it.

For all we know, dinos with lvl 100-115 have killed Overseer or Rockwell and dinos 115-130 have killed both while dinos above 130 have already finished ark:extinction.

And I think you should be max lvl 150 after ark: extinction, matching wild dinos.

A while before, it was written on the implant that you are a homo sapiens, it was only with the aberration update that it was gone. They removed it to give more space to write the survival quotient...

[banggugyangu]

8 minutes ago, Paroxyde said:

You don't get what we are saying. Dinos are also virtual and have the memories of the dino, you just don't know it

I don't personally believe that anything in the ARKs are "virtual".  I believe that it's all biological, but genetically cloned from DNA of actual beings throughout time.  If we look at the technology of the ARKs themselves, it's not dramatically different than Tek tier technology.  Suffice to say, the ARKs' creators are from an epoch that is fairly close to Diana's group.  It clearly has advanced since that point, for sure, but not dramatically.  Diana's group is known to be from the time period that discovered Element and invented Tek.   As such, they have the Tek Transmitter and Tek Cloning Chamber.  These are likely the same vein of technology used to "spawn" the dinos and survivors on the ARKs.  

I'm curious to see how Extinction plays out, however.  It wasn't the  ARKs' creators' plan to send survivors to Earth upon ascending from Aberration.  The reason this happens is due to the modifications Santiago and others made to the ARK and their creation of the Portal.  (It stands to reason that they were only able to build the portal due to the station being destroyed by them before hand, and thereby circumventing the halting of progress imposed by the obelisks.)  Does this mean that we're going to see completely new creatures on Earth?  It stands to reason that dinosaurs are placed on the ARKs for purposes of experimentation only.  There's no reason to assume that Earth is inhabited by them once again in the game's present.

[Paroxyde]

22 minutes ago, banggugyangu said:

I don't personally believe that anything in the ARKs are "virtual".  I believe that it's all biological, but genetically cloned from DNA of actual beings throughout time.  If we look at the technology of the ARKs themselves, it's not dramatically different than Tek tier technology.  Suffice to say, the ARKs' creators are from an epoch that is fairly close to Diana's group.  It clearly has advanced since that point, for sure, but not dramatically.  Diana's group is known to be from the time period that discovered Element and invented Tek.   As such, they have the Tek Transmitter and Tek Cloning Chamber.  These are likely the same vein of technology used to "spawn" the dinos and survivors on the ARKs.  

I'm curious to see how Extinction plays out, however.  It wasn't the  ARKs' creators' plan to send survivors to Earth upon ascending from Aberration.  The reason this happens is due to the modifications Santiago and others made to the ARK and their creation of the Portal.  (It stands to reason that they were only able to build the portal due to the station being destroyed by them before hand, and thereby circumventing the halting of progress imposed by the obelisks.)  Does this mean that we're going to see completely new creatures on Earth?  It stands to reason that dinosaurs are placed on the ARKs for purposes of experimentation only.  There's no reason to assume that Earth is inhabited by them once again in the game's present.

You store stuff in your implant... You can store 150 vaults inside one vault... You can store 45 large storage boxes inside one large storage boxes... I'm pretty sure it's virtual... But in any case, even if we are not virtual, we are by no means, "special". Either all lifeforms are homo deus, or none is. Humans are not special.

And there is an obelisk down there. Actually, this is how they are getting teleported there, by setting the teleport coordinates to the obelisk down there. Chances are, we will see Raptors down there. 

And I think while it wasn't planned this way, the conceptors of the Arks decided to go along with it and added Rockwell as an ultimate life form, like the other bosses, and letting them come down deal with what all the ark was about (in my opinion): make lifeforms that can survive on the harsh environment down there, as pretty much everything went extinct beside the homo deus who are on their last straw. The arks are conditioning environments to train lifeforms for survival. The Island>Scorched Earth>Aberration, one being harder than the last, to finally throw you in live environment.

[banggugyangu]

12 minutes ago, Paroxyde said:

You store stuff in your implant... You can store 150 vaults inside one vault... You can store 45 large storage boxes inside one large storage boxes... I'm pretty sure it's virtual... But in any case, even if we are not virtual, we are by no means, "special". Either all lifeforms are homo deus, or none is. Humans are not special.

And there is an obelisk down there. Actually, this is how they are getting teleported there, by setting the teleport coordinates to the obelisk down there. Chances are, we will see Raptors down there. 

And I think while it wasn't planned this way, the conceptors of the Arks decided to go along with it and added Rockwell as an ultimate life form, like the other bosses, and letting them come down deal with what all the ark was about (in my opinion): make lifeforms that can survive on the harsh environment down there, as pretty much everything went extinct beside the homo deus who are on their last straw. The arks are conditioning environments to train lifeforms for survival. The Island>Scorched Earth>Aberration, one being harder than the last, to finally throw you in live environment.

That's just it.  In the lore, the ARK's creators lost control of Aberration altogether.  It's literally a situation where they no longer have any handle on that ARK's situation.  This is why the ARK is in the state it's in.  Also, I never said any of us are homo deus.  I know there's an obelisk on Earth.  It's present period technology.  We don't know how long the ARK experiment has been going, but it's safe to assume that technology hasn't progressed since its inception.  "Storing" stuff in your implant is merely a limitation of this being a game.  You can't have a survival game like this without an inventory of some kind.  Look through almost every RPG in history.  Item inventories have been quite comical.  ARK is no different.  When we look at it from a physics standpoint, it makes even less sense.  A Foundation that weighs 4 lbs when created (which is comical in its own right) is destroyed into half of the materials used to create it leaving you with ~61 lbs. of materials.  Physically this is impossible.  The reasoning for it is to make building a LOT less annoying.  If every structure you were placing weight the same as the materials used to create it, you could place a single foundation at a time.  This is a game design choice that goes against logic and has no bearing on the lore itself.  The same applies to the inventories of the survivor, the dinosaurs, and all structures.  In regards to a dinosaur, we see no implants on them to "store" stuff.  Most saddles don't contain any form of storage pouches.  Are we to believe that they swallow everything we put in their inventories and regurgitate them later when we need them?  No.  It's simply game design choices outweighing realism for sake of "fun".  Letting those concepts bleed into your understanding of the lore will mislead you.

[Paroxyde]

11 minutes ago, banggugyangu said:

That's just it.  In the lore, the ARK's creators lost control of Aberration altogether.  It's literally a situation where they no longer have any handle on that ARK's situation.  This is why the ARK is in the state it's in.  Also, I never said any of us are homo deus.  I know there's an obelisk on Earth.  It's present period technology.  We don't know how long the ARK experiment has been going, but it's safe to assume that technology hasn't progressed since its inception.  "Storing" stuff in your implant is merely a limitation of this being a game.  You can't have a survival game like this without an inventory of some kind.  Look through almost every RPG in history.  Item inventories have been quite comical.  ARK is no different.  When we look at it from a physics standpoint, it makes even less sense.  A Foundation that weighs 4 lbs when created (which is comical in its own right) is destroyed into half of the materials used to create it leaving you with ~61 lbs. of materials.  Physically this is impossible.  The reasoning for it is to make building a LOT less annoying.  If every structure you were placing weight the same as the materials used to create it, you could place a single foundation at a time.  This is a game design choice that goes against logic and has no bearing on the lore itself.  The same applies to the inventories of the survivor, the dinosaurs, and all structures.  In regards to a dinosaur, we see no implants on them to "store" stuff.  Most saddles don't contain any form of storage pouches.  Are we to believe that they swallow everything we put in their inventories and regurgitate them later when we need them?  No.  It's simply game design choices outweighing realism for sake of "fun".  Letting those concepts bleed into your understanding of the lore will mislead you.

No, the "weight" is not the mass, but the amount of data used for it. And then every weight now makes more sense, why fur armor weight so damn much. It takes more data to render fur than a simplistic metal wall. Dinos have their own implants, you just don't know it, it's inside their head and they instinctively see it. While we have ours on our hand because we can look at it and it allow interfacing with it while dinos can't. When you access their inventory, it's a direct transfer link between the two implants, same as when you look into a dead body.

And they have in under control. Let me quote our friend Edmund:

"I am beginning to understand. It was hard to comprehend, for my eyes are still newly opened.

I did not used to see as I see now, nor did I speak as I speak now. When I speak, it is not to a man. They are lesser beings.

When I speak, I speak to this place, speak to the ARK, and it speaks back to me. It tells me secrets, things that I never could have understood as I was before.

It whispers to me of something greater, a plane ever higher than the one I walk now. We can reach it, the two of us. The ARK and I. Together."

[banggugyangu]

4 minutes ago, Paroxyde said:

No, the "weight" is not the mass, but the amount of data used for it. And then every weight now makes more sense, why fur armor weight so damn much. It takes more data to render fur than a simplistic metal wall. Dinos have their own implants, you just don't know it, it's inside their head and they instinctively see it. While we have ours on our hand because we can look at it and it allow interfacing with it while dinos can't. When you access their inventory, it's a direct transfer link between the two implants, same as when you look into a dead body.

Because all of this has been confirmed in the lore, oh wait....

[Paroxyde]

31 minutes ago, banggugyangu said:

Because all of this has been confirmed in the lore, oh wait....

It did with Gallus or Gallios or something like that, forgot his name, but they were removed from the explorer notes. It even said that he kept coming back to life on his bed and the others can't even notice. 

[banggugyangu]

You edited your post to quote a man who has gone insane, shows signs of schizophrenia,  and is drunk with power as proof that the ARK's creators have Aberration under control?  He literally says that the Element "sings" to him.  If it's been taken out of the explorer notes, then that's to say that the devs have pulled it from the canon of the game.  Also, if the ARK's creators have the means to clone humans from various periods in history, retaining/injecting (undetermined) memories, and transmat them across space, then surely they're capable of cloning another, injecting the new memories into it, and transmatting that newly cloned human to a specific location within the same ARK.

[Daedros]

1 hour ago, Paroxyde said:

And they have in under control. Let me quote our friend Edmund:

"I am beginning to understand. It was hard to comprehend, for my eyes are still newly opened.

I did not used to see as I see now, nor did I speak as I speak now. When I speak, it is not to a man. They are lesser beings.

When I speak, I speak to this place, speak to the ARK, and it speaks back to me. It tells me secrets, things that I never could have understood as I was before.

It whispers to me of something greater, a plane ever higher than the one I walk now. We can reach it, the two of us. The ARK and I. Together."

That right there supports what i suspected. The Ark is a sentient AI system.

[OrisRas]

homo sapiens went extinct, homo deus is the clone version. there both sides are heard and explained

[Paroxyde]

10 hours ago, banggugyangu said:

You edited your post to quote a man who has gone insane, shows signs of schizophrenia,  and is drunk with power as proof that the ARK's creators have Aberration under control?  He literally says that the Element "sings" to him.  If it's been taken out of the explorer notes, then that's to say that the devs have pulled it from the canon of the game.  Also, if the ARK's creators have the means to clone humans from various periods in history, retaining/injecting (undetermined) memories, and transmat them across space, then surely they're capable of cloning another, injecting the new memories into it, and transmatting that newly cloned human to a specific location within the same ARK.

If he was alone showing these symptoms, you could pass it as him being crazy. However, I invite you to read Boris' notes. 

[banggugyangu]

4 hours ago, Paroxyde said:

If he was alone showing these symptoms, you could pass it as him being crazy. However, I invite you to read Boris' notes. 

I have read all of the notes.  It's a logical assumption that element is a highly unstable chemical in its liquid form.  Radioactive chemicals can cause any number of effects on the human body.  Who's to say that element also can't cause these symptoms.  In regards to him becoming the boss of Aberration, He's the only time we ever see someone enter the boss arenas by a means other than what is intended.  Obviously there are certain things that are automated on the ARKs.  The whole ascension process itself appears to be so.  It's possible that because he entered in an unintended way, he "replaced" the original boss.  It's also possible that the boss' genetic information could have been destroyed when the station was destroyed and Rockwell being the first creature to enter the arena since was then put in place of that.  This all isn't explained fully, so we don't know.

@OrisRas Survivors aren't homo deus.  That's been known and confirmed for quite some time.  Homo Deus are likely the creators of the ARK and an evolutionary descendant of homo sapiens.

[Paroxyde]

2 hours ago, banggugyangu said:

I have read all of the notes.  It's a logical assumption that element is a highly unstable chemical in its liquid form.  Radioactive chemicals can cause any number of effects on the human body.  Who's to say that element also can't cause these symptoms.  In regards to him becoming the boss of Aberration, He's the only time we ever see someone enter the boss arenas by a means other than what is intended.  Obviously there are certain things that are automated on the ARKs.  The whole ascension process itself appears to be so.  It's possible that because he entered in an unintended way, he "replaced" the original boss.  It's also possible that the boss' genetic information could have been destroyed when the station was destroyed and Rockwell being the first creature to enter the arena since was then put in place of that.  This all isn't explained fully, so we don't know.

@OrisRas Survivors aren't homo deus.  That's been known and confirmed for quite some time.  Homo Deus are likely the creators of the ARK and an evolutionary descendant of homo sapiens.

No, the original boss was bombed by Santiogo & Diana and by how they described it, it seemed to be an Overseer or some variant of it. It didn't make them the new boss. More over, the control room was above while rockwell is below. I can only assume that the Ark chose the closest thing to an ultimate life form to replicate, which is Rockwell.

I'd like to point out that the other ultimate life formes (maybe beside the overseer) seem to be the same clones of the same creature taken at their peak (Scar on the megapithecus). Maybe Rockwell died from the fall, but was cloned by the ark and thus thinking he never even died as it got its memory injected back to the new body. (He died fallen into the elemental pool. It changed him and thus registered as a "peak" of power, but as he ultimately met his demise from the fall, the ark cloned him as an ultimate life form.) And his natural habitat being the elemental pool, the ark made his arena accordingly, like the other ultimate lifeforms.

[banggugyangu]

Read it again.  The BOSS arena was NOT bombed.  The STATION was bombed.  This is the same thing that you see when you teleport from the tek cave, but prior to fighting the overseer.  Overseers aren't referred to as "Ultimate Lifeforms".  The lore even references them as being akin to a caretaker for the ARKs.  I encourage you to go back and read all the notes from the beginning again, as it seems your understanding of the events is a little clouded.

[Paroxyde]

1 hour ago, banggugyangu said:

Read it again.  The BOSS arena was NOT bombed.  The STATION was bombed.  This is the same thing that you see when you teleport from the tek cave, but prior to fighting the overseer.  Overseers aren't referred to as "Ultimate Lifeforms".  The lore even references them as being akin to a caretaker for the ARKs.  I encourage you to go back and read all the notes from the beginning again, as it seems your understanding of the events is a little clouded.

I think you should read it again...

Diana : 

"Months of planning, a squad of guys armed to the teeth and the biggest homemade bomb you've ever seen...and we still weren't prepared. How could we be? I don't think anyone could have been ready for that insane, shapeshifting whatever-it-was.
It attacked us as soon as we carted the package to the center of the platform." 

Which is the overseer arena.

And then Nerva :

"I had not expected to battle another monster, much less one so powerful. Yet here I stand, victorious! My men lie dead, my beasts lie dead, yet I still stand!"

Refering to the battle with the overseer. Where did you ever see that it was referenced as akin to a caretaker? And can't a caretaker be an ultimate lifeform, though I doubt it is one, as I have explained earlier if you did not read it proprely.

And It might not be an overseer but a shapeshifting boss! As aberration might very well be another map, not the Island. Why? Because there was already ingrained tek ruins when diana's group came (long before they did anything):

"So those abandoned structures that scout team spotted a while back? Well we're still not sure who left them there, but Santiago says that he's detecting the emissions from what could be hypercharged, crystallized Element shards in their vicinity. We need those for the Gateway Project's focusing lens, and we haven't been able to make them ourselves."

[banggugyangu]

16 minutes ago, Paroxyde said:

I think you should read it again...

Diana : 

"Months of planning, a squad of guys armed to the teeth and the biggest homemade bomb you've ever seen...and we still weren't prepared. How could we be? I don't think anyone could have been ready for that insane, shapeshifting whatever-it-was.
It attacked us as soon as we carted the package to the center of the platform." 

Which is the overseer arena.

And then Nerva :

"I had not expected to battle another monster, much less one so powerful. Yet here I stand, victorious! My men lie dead, my beasts lie dead, yet I still stand!"

Refering to the battle with the overseer. Where did you ever see that it was referenced as akin to a caretaker? And can't a caretaker be an ultimate lifeform, though I doubt it is one, as I have explained earlier if you did not read it proprely.

And It might not be an overseer but a shapeshifting boss! As aberration might very well be another map, not the Island. Why? Because there was already ingrained tek ruins when diana's group came (long before they did anything):

"So those abandoned structures that scout team spotted a while back? Well we're still not sure who left them there, but Santiago says that he's detecting the emissions from what could be hypercharged, crystallized Element shards in their vicinity. We need those for the Gateway Project's focusing lens, and we haven't been able to make them ourselves."

/Sigh.... The overseers are a final protocol for testing survivors prior to ascension.  They, along with the bots they spawn, are made of element.  They also reside on the stations  (Located FAR above the ARKs).  The BOSS arenas, however, are subterranean.  Both of these details are confirmed in placement in-game.  One of these details is confirmed in lore.  (If you spectate, you can travel to the boss arenas which involves going through the ground mesh.)  You're getting hung up on vernacular, though.  Let me specify.  On the Island, you have 3 boss arenas:  The broodmother's arena, Mega-P's arena, and the Dragon's arena.  Yes, the Overseer is a "boss" but his "arena" is part of the station.  He's also a completely different case from literally every boss in the game except Rockwell in that defeating him results in ascension and travel to a new ark.  Now if we look at the Overseer as merely a machine being controlled by the station's computer systems, we see that the overseer is easily replicated as a final testing environment for ascension.  Arguably every ark would be designed this way:  First prove yourself by defeating the ultimate lifeforms so that you may face the final test against the overseer.  In the lore, Raia had already defeated the manticore and offered that tribute to Rockwell and Helena.  We're not presented with them having to face against an overseer, but they already have one before.  It's possible that this only needs to be done a single time to be granted travel.  In aberration, we have an anomaly.  As you quoted, they're clearly facing off against the overseer when they reach the station.  Arguably the stations are likely identical in design.  (The ARKs all appear to be identical with the exception of the actual landscape and conditions  the survivors are subjected to.) When they blew the bomb, we don't know exactly what extent the damage was, but the fact that it caused the obelisks to go out of control tells us it was pretty extensive.  The ARKs also appear to be powered by liquid Element.  When the obelisks went out of control, the Element started pouring into the landscape causing aberration to become what it is.  Now the important part.  Rockwell FALLS into the boss arena.  The stations are up in the sky, Rockwell goes DOWN.  This is clearly a different place than what Diana and crew blew up.  Also, the "Abandoned structures" are  of tek design similar to the obelisks.  It's very likely they were structures intended for maintenance created by the ARKs creators themselves.  Keep in mind that a lot of Aberration wasn't intended to be seen by the survivors.  The bomb they set off in the station has done a number on the ARK itself.  Now back to the Ascension part of things in reference to Rockwell.  Santiago basically Jerry-rigged the whole ascension system to transport them to Earth instead of to another ARK.  Arguably the fact that Rockwell allows for ascension is due to a malfunction in the overseeing systems caused by the bomb itself.

As far as the overseers being "caretakers"... just look at the name.... "Overseer"... I mean... come on.....

[Thorium]

It's not simulated. Storing multiple storage boxes in one is easy, you can do it in reality and it's done every day. You know a storage box is mostly empty space? You can store the parts of multiple storage boxes into another storage box. That we don't need to deconstruct and reconstruct structures is just a QoL mechanic and not proof of virtuality. If you are virtual you would also not need to be converted into a data stream. You would be just data and transfer as information with the speed of light to another ark. Only if you have a physical body conversion to data is needed to teleport you.

[Paroxyde]

4 minutes ago, banggugyangu said:

/Sigh.... The overseers are a final protocol for testing survivors prior to ascension.  They, along with the bots they spawn, are made of element.  They also reside on the stations  (Located FAR above the ARKs).  The BOSS arenas, however, are subterranean.  Both of these details are confirmed in placement in-game.  One of these details is confirmed in lore.  (If you spectate, you can travel to the boss arenas which involves going through the ground mesh.)  You're getting hung up on vernacular, though.  Let me specify.  On the Island, you have 3 boss arenas:  The broodmother's arena, Mega-P's arena, and the Dragon's arena.  Yes, the Overseer is a "boss" but his "arena" is part of the station.  He's also a completely different case from literally every boss in the game except Rockwell in that defeating him results in ascension and travel to a new ark.  Now if we look at the Overseer as merely a machine being controlled by the station's computer systems, we see that the overseer is easily replicated as a final testing environment for ascension.  Arguably every ark would be designed this way:  First prove yourself by defeating the ultimate lifeforms so that you may face the final test against the overseer.  In the lore, Raia had already defeated the manticore and offered that tribute to Rockwell and Helena.  We're not presented with them having to face against an overseer, but they already have one before.  It's possible that this only needs to be done a single time to be granted travel.  In aberration, we have an anomaly.  As you quoted, they're clearly facing off against the overseer when they reach the station.  Arguably the stations are likely identical in design.  (The ARKs all appear to be identical with the exception of the actual landscape and conditions  the survivors are subjected to.) When they blew the bomb, we don't know exactly what extent the damage was, but the fact that it caused the obelisks to go out of control tells us it was pretty extensive.  The ARKs also appear to be powered by liquid Element.  When the obelisks went out of control, the Element started pouring into the landscape causing aberration to become what it is.  Now the important part.  Rockwell FALLS into the boss arena.  The stations are up in the sky, Rockwell goes DOWN.  This is clearly a different place than what Diana and crew blew up.  Also, the "Abandoned structures" are  of tek design similar to the obelisks.  It's very likely they were structures intended for maintenance created by the ARKs creators themselves.  Keep in mind that a lot of Aberration wasn't intended to be seen by the survivors.  The bomb they set off in the station has done a number on the ARK itself.  Now back to the Ascension part of things in reference to Rockwell.  Santiago basically Jerry-rigged the whole ascension system to transport them to Earth instead of to another ARK.  Arguably the fact that Rockwell allows for ascension is due to a malfunction in the overseeing systems caused by the bomb itself.

As far as the overseers being "caretakers"... just look at the name.... "Overseer"... I mean... come on.....

First of all, nowhere in the lore is it shown that the boss arenas are below, they just built the map this way. If you go to the overseer arena, you clearly see all three arena through glass panels that I highly doubt are screens. I think it's the actual arenas. The Arenas are latched to the overseer arena. Meaning since they didn't mention any scenery like that, it's safe to assume it's a specialised Ark, like Scorched earth which only host the Manticore. It might have hosted an actual ultimate lifeform possessing shapeshifting abilities (Not overseer).

Once its arena was destroyed, the ark needed a new one and Rockwell in his final hours fitted the bill just right. 

As to why it beam us to the surface, I think of two possibilities:

-The project gateway couldn't be destroyed by the obelisks as they lost power, so the Ark put Rockwell down there as a guardian but also a final test for the specimen.

-The Ark figured it was another way to cull the specimen and let it be. Then proceeded to duplicate this Ark's environment to finalize the testing. (Basically why there is more than one aberration server)

[Paroxyde]

13 minutes ago, Thorium said:

It's not simulated. Storing multiple storage boxes in one is easy, you can do it in reality and it's done every day. You know a storage box is mostly empty space? You can store the parts of multiple storage boxes into another storage box. That we don't need to deconstruct and reconstruct structures is just a QoL mechanic and not proof of virtuality. If you are virtual you would also not need to be converted into a data stream. You would be just data and transfer as information with the speed of light to another ark. Only if you have a physical body conversion to data is needed to teleport you.

Have you ever copied ark to an other disk? Or any games or movies? Now tell me how long it would take to copy a human filled with DNA data from one ark to an other? Cutting you into packets and sending you bit by bit, just like the cinematics...

Actually, physical teleportation should be the instantanious one, because if you are not teleported "whole"... Well... Let's just say it would be bad.

[banggugyangu]

15 minutes ago, Paroxyde said:

First of all, nowhere in the lore is it shown that the boss arenas are below, they just built the map this way. If you go to the overseer arena, you clearly see all three arena through glass panels that I highly doubt are screens. I think it's the actual arenas. The Arenas are latched to the overseer arena. Meaning since they didn't mention any scenery like that, it's safe to assume it's a specialised Ark, like Scorched earth which only host the Manticore. It might have hosted an actual ultimate lifeform possessing shapeshifting abilities (Not overseer).

Once its arena was destroyed, the ark needed a new one and Rockwell in his final hours fitted the bill just right. 

As to why it beam us to the surface, I think of two possibilities:

-The project gateway couldn't be destroyed by the obelisks as they lost power, so the Ark put Rockwell down there as a guardian but also a final test for the specimen.

-The Ark figured it was another way to cull the specimen and let it be. Then proceeded to duplicate this Ark's environment to finalize the testing. (Basically why there is more than one aberration server)

So... Let me get this straight... You think that the same race that has technology to clone, digitize, and transmat biological creatures in an instant wouldn't have the capabilities to show an image as if you were simply looking through a pane of glass into the arena itself? You are going back and forth with limiting this fictional race based on our own current limitations, which is shown in the next post where you imposed the bandwidth and data through puts of current technology on them for purposes of transmitting and transmatting the biological creatures.  The aberration notes specifically talk about Rockwell falling into the lair of the "Guardian" and assuming it's role.  They also talk about Diana's crew descending from the platform on the trip back.  Two very distinct details that confirm what I said earlier:  boss arenas are subterranean and the stations are aerial.