Headcanons

Headcanons are particular beliefs that have not been used in the universe of the game, but seem to make sense to some of us and could explain many things. Feel free to add yours!

= Neural stimulation for comatose patients =

My sort of headcanon is that the island is a sort of neural stimulation for comatose patients as a sort of way to wake them back up. Humans by nature recognize and follow patterns easily, which is also why it includes the environmental puzzles instead of making everything flat panels. The island needs some logic to it, because if they can't find an answer to where all of the glass on the island came from, for instance, the illusion would start breaking down and it would make matters even worse. That's also why you never get any actual people, and the only sort of human figures you find are either statues or recordings. Simulating personalities is very easy to break, especially with such an intimate perspective.

Greater Dog, in the Discord post-100% chat, 8th of June 2016.

= Post-traumatic syndrome of the designers =

My own headcanon used to be that the simulation served as a tool to help victims of accidents or attacks, who suffer from post-traumatic syndromes. More precisely, I thought that the four developers that we hear in the cave audio logs could have been victims of the cargo shipwreck. That would explain why some turn to religion and others to rationalism, the references to shipwrecks (and sirens as an allegory for the cause of the shipwreck), the idea to keep looking for a goal (as expressed by the grail references), the need to focus on problem-solving to be in "highly-susceptible states, the places to rest and enjoy the view, the idea to "make deletions, not lobotomies", etc.

Clementsparrow, in the Discord post-100% chat, 8th of June 2016.