I haven’t played Finally Awake (yet) but reading through its article, it seems like a wild ride!
I’m in full conspiracy mode and not trying to be insensitive but it feels weeeeiiiiird that Samuel Domian, King of Dreamland essentially, mysteriously fell into a coma this year. After getting forcibly removed from his game last year. Just struck me.
I wonder how long before his coma Domian was removed from the game - according to the article on blankouts he fell into his coma on the 13th of June (2049).
And he played as the Demiurge before he was removed, too.
Also - weird idea but…Domian acted as the Demiurge, and suffered blankouts and then went into a coma (related? unrelated?)
Now, either other Moodoo employees or a custom AI act as the Demiurge… I hope the other Moodoo employees are alright. Are they having blankouts too.
And - can an AI have a blankout?
Oh, I hadn’t noticed there was a reference to this on the blankouts page too.
I wonder if the stroke and the blankouts are both symptoms of some problem caused by his presumably intense colloid usage?
@turnips Also - weird idea but…Domian acted as the Demiurge, and suffered blankouts and then went into a coma (related? unrelated?)
@LunaAndSotK I wonder if the stroke and the blankouts are both symptoms of some problem caused by his presumably intense colloid usage?
Well, the Blankout article says that the coma is attributed to “substance abuse and mental instability”… and is quoting from an article called “Sanial CEO Kathy Gao denies link between colloids and blankouts.”
Can’t manage to access the article, but sounds to me that Damian’s coma was brought up as a possible consequence of blankouts (whose only common point is having a colloid, making that denial suspect at best) and the response was “nah wdym the guy is crazy and took drugs”.
So the source for the coma’s origin is one of the people most invested in saying the colloid necessary to play Finally Awake had nothing to do with it, instead of… y’know. A medical expert or something.
Make of that what you will I guess 
There have been instances of individuals experiencing a blankout while one of their neural colloids was being pinged for a live montage. Analysis of these montages have shown no discernible abnormality or seizure activity that could account for a blankout.
Possible internal delay disconnecting the frontal lobe with the rest of the brain?
Good question. I guess it partially depends on whether we consider them as having colloids or not.
“…there are no apparent risk factors beyond having at least one colloid implant.”
I wonder how symptoms would present if AI could have blankouts. Would they be unable to remember what they’d done in a period of time? How different would the length be? For humans they last seconds or minutes, but I doubt AI experience time the way humans do. Would we have the capability to notice an AI blankout? An AI might never even notice it had experienced one unless it was asked.