TIME EXTEND
The Talos Principle
How a thirst for story telling helped us come to terms with human extinction
By Jon Bailes
Developer Croteam
Publisher Devolver Digital
Format PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One
Release 2014
Humanity’s final act, as predicted by The Talos Principle, might be viewed as one born of sheer ego. Faced with a species-ending virus, a group of researchers seek to preserve our knowledge and achievements, hoping they might one day hold meaning for someone new. And by ‘someone new’ they mean their own creations: androids that might machinelearn their way to sapient thought and reboot civilisation. Implicit to this posthuman world, it seems, is the expectation of an invitation. Yet as your journey also takes you through a host of philosophical musings, you might consider an equally keen instinct at work, alongside self-preservation. Perhaps what humans really can’t abide is the notion of a story without a proper ending.
The Talos Principle wrestles with many of (western) civilisation’s major philosophical quandaries, including the biggest of the lot: what’s the point of it all? It’s a concept we can’t shake, no matter how insignificant we seem in the universal scheme of things. With consciousness comes desire for purpose, and with that a compulsion to narrativise, viewing the world not only as a set of facts but as a collection of stories. The Talos Principle underlines this point by mimicking one of the great creation myths: the Book Of Genesis.
Your android avatar comes online in a new Eden, with only a booming voice from on high for company. This is Elohim (a Hebrew word for God), who promises immortality in exchange for faith, on condition that you never climb the realm’s forbidden tower. Sure enough, within Elohim’s Ancient Rome- and Egypt-themed paradise, death in one of its puzzle spaces – which can come at the business end of an automated gun turret or exploding proximity drone – sees you quickly respawn.