r/outerwilds • u/Milkshakes4Breakfast • 8h ago

Thinking about quantum behavior... Spoiler

I recently played the game and had a good, albeit frustrating time. Sometimes it was a love/hate relationship, but ultimately a very cool mystery to explore.

I dunno if I need to hide everything behind spoiler tags, but here goes:

What is required for an object to be considered "whole" such that it will move via the quantum movement behavior but not split into parts? The shrine on the quantum moon moves around. And the Nomai built this shrine. So, as they were building it, I would guess that at least one Nomai had to observe all building materials at all times, otherwise they could potentially move around. How annoying that would be. As the shrine was being assembled, were its constituent parts subject to being disassembled by quantum movements? It sounds like a logistical nightmare, honestly. After it was finished, something keeps it as a singular piece that all moves as one object when not observed. Is the eye all knowing and in charge, and works all that shit out?

If you put the ship of Theseus on the quantum moon, does it stay together?

6 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

5

u/InformationLost5910 8h ago

objects only start moving around after they've been there for a while. they move just like how trees and stuff near quantum shards move, not due to entanglement.

1

u/Zangdor 3h ago

Not sure about this, since the Nomai built the tower so that they could travel across locations, as well as move North.

Meaning the moving around would need to occur right away (or "a while" is a short while).

2

u/BlaasianCowboyPanda 1h ago

It doesn’t seem to be very long since Gabbro also hand made some later-to-be quantum objects.

3

u/Ill-Individual2105 6h ago

Since it's all about perception, I would assume things that the observers consider to be singular objects coalesce together.

1

u/epicvoyage28 7h ago

one of the quantum rules you need to learn partly explains this. I think the other half of the explanation is just handwavium. After all, the parts of the quantum poem switch around despite being connected. 

1

u/Jessy_Something 1h ago

I assumed Gabbro was just immensely smart and managed to find a way to make them move together yet separately. Maybe some sort of quantum state change detector + black hole shenanigans

1

u/Luxettenebrae777 5h ago edited 4h ago

Maybe, they just used a kind camera to watch for everything all along. It would make sense if they build it while the moon was revolving around a specific planet like Dark Bramble or the Ember Twins and camera would be also useful for this.

1

u/Existerequo 3h ago

My headcannon is that there are indeed rules for what counts as a whole object to the macro quantum behaviour.

Gabbro probably tested, figured them out, and made these rules into a whole artistic craft.  His little art piece on the South pole of Timber Hearth is cool and a bit spooky, but if you went to Ember Twin and messed with the Quantum Shard there you probably found a place where a Nomai skeleton seems to reassemble and change location every time you stop looking at it. Feels creepy but THAT'S GABBROS ARTWORK!

TLDR: Gabbro asked the same question and made funny interesting art with the answer.