Implications for the Nemesis Denouement for Faction Orientations
IncidenceMatrix
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One of the things we learned in the course of the Nemesis event is that both the Shapers and the N'Zeer are unquestionably inimical to human self-determination - or, indeed, survival as free individuals. We were given first-hand accounts of torture, abuse, and the "consumption" of humans in the Nemesis node by the Shapers at Cosecha Verde - horrors so dire that even the Jarvis of Nemesis node turned against them - as well as the involuntary subjugation of humans in the Darsana Combine to a cybernetically induced hive-mind by the N'Zeer. The terrors wrought by the Exogenous there were so horrific that the entire Nemesis Magnus risked all in a last-ditch effort to invade Osiris, in the hopes of using our own Tessellation to save their world.
In light of these revelations, it would seem difficult to see how any Agent can now countenance collaboration with either the Shapers or the N'Zeer. Our Nemesis counterparts have reaped the bitter harvest of ingress, and revealed that it serves neither the illumination of humanity nor its path to self-determination. The Exogenous offer nothing but subjugation.
This poses a significant issue for our factions, however. The entire mission of the Enlightened - and of certain self-described elements of the Resistance (though I, for one, have never accepted Jehan and her treasonous willingness to "deal" with the N'Zeer) - is now unquestionably opposed to even the most basic interests of humanity (including those advocated by Agents of both factions). Although many of us gave dire warnings of the dangers of exposing humanity to alien mind control, reasonable people could - arguably - disagree. There were uncertainties. Much was unknown. Persons of good hope and good faith could imagine that salvation might lie either with the "gifts" of the Shapers or by making "deals" with the N'Zeer. There were rationales that could be offered for ignoring the warning signs, and dismissing the nay-sayers as fearful and naive.
Now, however, we know.
And hence, it would seem that the old conflicts, and the old arguments, cannot stand. Even the most zealous of the Enlightened cannot desire to deliver humanity to the fate that befell Cosecha Verde, and none of those who guard the Keys can possibly countenance risking everything for some hope of N'Zeer trinkets. Now that the Tessellation has bought us a second chance, who among us would squander it to sacrifice humanity on the alter of those gods? None, I should hope.
So what now, Agents? Will we take the lessons of our counterparts to heart? Can the factions' existing enthusiasms be humbled by the awareness of the risks that have already been taken? Or are our ranks so devoted to their old paths that no assurance of destruction will sway them from their course?
I know not. But I fear we will know soon enough.
Comments
This all is predicated on a handful of (possibly flawed) assumptions.
The purpose of the Enlightened is not to "expose humanity to mind control". In the original Ingress universe, the Calvin admitted he didn't even know if the Shapers existed. The Enlightened's purpose is to evolve humanity to a higher level through the use of XM.
The purpose of the Resistance is not to "resist the Shapers". It's an NIA created construct deluded into functioning as willing patsies for denuding XM of ordered data, thus removing free will, creativity and inspiration.
Resistance fields are basically like being fed tasteless paste for food, where Enlightened fields are like eating a chef-prepared 5 course meal.
The narrative that is "two aliens fighting over us" is completely fabricated, because all information and knowledge that people 'rely on' is filtered through the NIA and their AI construct, ADA. Glyphs come from ADA. Your information comes from ADA. ADA is a tool of the NIA.
The battle going on is not a battle between 'good and evil' or 'right and wrong'. It's a battle between inspiration, free will and creativity, or mindless repetition and adherence to archaic power structures.
Well, I've been thinking for a while and this indeed maybe shocking but...
The Exos, as we know, may not exist. @GreenVam Have stated this several times: "Do we have proofs that the exos really exist?", all we know were signals of their activity, but we've never seen them. I believe the attacks that Nemesis are referring come from a "massive hallucination" produced by XM flow. Why? Here are some ideas:
-We may have some genomic traits that make us more "sensitive" to XM.
-Our brains are not only influed by the surrounding XM, we need to take into account our experiences and personal ideologies.
Finally, this process help us to tune our brains and lean us more to one faction to another. (This explain recursion and faction change)
So what happens when there is an XM surge? Some hints:
-Blue and Green lines are drawn in the air, XM flow stream feels more like aurora borealis, and have some physical properties like magnetism. Due to Faraday effect, any conductive material which moves inside a magnetic field, creates electricity. We humans are power generators, so it's likely the way the XM stimulates our brains and enhances our "normal" abilities.
-What happens when sensitives, who have a higher affinity towards XM, stay next to an XM surge? Our behaviour totally change, some people can't stop composing (Enoch Dalby), others can't stop drawing glyphs or symbols (Carrie Campbell), although some folks can't stop themselves of solving operations (OLW).
Perhaps this "inspiration" or I would say "serendipity" makes some people to experience fear, because they cannot control it (Resistance), but others get extremely hooked to that experience, can't stop themselves to keep going and share it with everyone (Enlightened).
This leaves an interesting question: Where do glyphs come from? Who is speaking to us? Although it hasn't been described or demostrated, it may be some kind of "collective subconcious" and words... Or perhaps concepts get through the portal network, start building messages and we interpretate them, providing them a deeper meaning. This would explain why lower level portals have simpler messages while higher levels have **complexer and ambiguous** meaning. A high level portal is likely to create stronger XM fields which indeed resonate with human minds, creating the messages we read inside the scanner.
As we are humans, we are naturally biased and tend to aggreate ourselves with people who have similar mindsets ("great minds think alike"), that's how the factions are born, and from that moment, we tend to identify **the others** as enemies, hence the war starts.
So... If Exos don't exist, who invaded Nemesis Node? The answer is a bit uncomfortable but it would be: **No one**, they killed themselves because the XM surge from the Epiphany Night in their node was so high that made them too polarized. In the end, humans are capable of accomplish great goals, but as well great disasters.
Something I've thought all along is the fact that we don't know if what happened to Nemesis actually happened the way they said it did. We don't know if the Exogenous were actually as violent towards them as they thought. Maybe they were actually attempting to help Nemesis, but they saw it as an attack. Maybe they lied to us a bit to get out Tessellation to protect them for in case the Exogenous actually did launch a full attack on their node.
I don't believe we should fully embrace or tsust the Shapers and the N'Zeer influence, but we don't know what happened we don't have enough information to fully begin drawing conclusions. I believe we do need to exhibit caution, but being too cautious isn't going to get us anywhere. Some risks would need to be taken to learn more and maybe figure out what the goals of the Exogenous really are. That would mean a select group of individuals attempting to make contact with them, communicate with them, and embrace their influence And yes, there could be the risk of an ingression in our node if things went wrong... Which would make it a dangerous thing to even attempt. But what if in doing that we would finally get answers? Would it actually be worth the risk?
Call this a reckless idea, but it might be worth it in the end.
We have no actually information on the Exogenous. And now with the Tessellation, we don't really have a way to get any answers.
The exos are likely not the origin of the factions.
They may simply be civilizations that took an extreme end of one ideology, grew strong and learned how to use the portal network to connect to us and everyone else. The tesselation journey revealed that there was 13 other exos, what are the 10 others? Undine were neutral exos, though who knows maybe individual undine may still had a leaning - does humanity represent neutral too because our factions are in balance?
The end of the tesselation revealed that we can now broadcast to the portal network as well. And prior so could Jarvis and Ada, so it's not especially new information. Now we influence each other, but is it much different? Humans are capable of severe cruelty, just like the exos, we aren't too different unless we keep ourselves in balance.
The ideologies of the factions still remain intact even if our allies turned out to be ill-fated. Enlightened seek to advance humanity through the enhanced creativity XM can provide, green fields enhance our inspiration, bring harmony and unity us. The Resistance feel repelled by XM and want to control it, ADA is enhanced by blue fields with more human processing power to think ways to control XM better.
Do you trust an XM enhanced human mind or an artificial mind humans created, but was likely boosted into consciousness via XM also?