They can see youthe Observer and Wigner's friend

A photon experiment hints that different observers' records can contradict each other. The real science behind the Cosmos Era ending “They can see you”.

Does the universe become more definite every time you look at it? There is a related real experiment. A 2019 photon experiment tested "Wigner's friend", and the result hints that different observers' records can contradict each other. The game's ending “They can see you” turns this into a slightly frightening idea: civilizations in the universe can observe the player. That is fiction.

This page first explains how to unlock the ending, then covers the “Seeing the Observer” node and that photon experiment, then several real studies on searching for alien civilizations, and finally a related novel, Blindsight. In the game, the numbers in the report come from your real play record on this device and are stored only locally.

How to unlock it

  • Hint: Every time you look, the universe becomes more definite. Someone will notice that.
  • Condition: First witness the ending “All the planets”. Then unlock “Seeing the Observer” and witness the end of the universe.
  • Reward: Your answer rewrites the last two chapters of the Observer's log.

The ending belongs to the Information category. The reward is that your answer rewrites the last two chapters of the Observer's log, which means the way this ending closes depends on your own choice. The “Seeing the Observer” node points the telescope not at any star but at the one bias that cannot be removed from all the observation records. The node's description says: what they are looking for is the pair of eyes that makes the universe definite every time.

The real experiment

A 2019 photon experiment tested "Wigner's friend", and the result hints that different observers' records can contradict each other. It is about whether the records of different observers agree. It does not say that civilizations in the universe are watching us.

A related piece of background is relativity: time and space are not absolute. A patent-office clerk published four papers in one year that changed physics (Einstein, Annalen der Physik, 1905).

How to look for other observers

  • Searching for interstellar signals: Two physicists suggested listening for alien signals with radio telescopes near the 21-centimeter frequency of hydrogen, which launched SETI (Cocconi and Morrison, Nature, 1959).
  • Dyson spheres: A sufficiently advanced civilization might enclose its star, and we could find such civilizations by their anomalous infrared radiation (Dyson, Science, 1960).
  • Scale of civilizations: Civilizations are sorted into three types, planetary, stellar and galactic, by the energy they can use (Kardashev, Soviet Astronomy, 1964).
  • Light sails to the stars: Pushing an extremely light sail with a ground-based laser array could accelerate a probe to one fifth of the speed of light (Lubin, Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, 2016).
  • Where are they?: If alien civilizations were common, they should long ago have spread across the Milky Way. Michael Hart concluded that we may be the first (Hart, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, 1975).
  • The last chapter of the universe: The fate of the universe trillions of years from now and beyond: stars burn out, protons may decay, and black holes eventually evaporate (Adams and Laughlin, Reviews of Modern Physics, 1997). Unlocking requires witnessing the end of the universe, which is why it relates to this ending.

These studies are real science on how humans look for other observers. They have not found any observers, and they are certainly not evidence for "they can see you".

Peter Watts's Blindsight (2006) is about humans sending a ship to make contact with an alien presence, and discovering that it is extremely intelligent yet may have no consciousness at all. Intelligence and consciousness may not be the same thing. Its scientific background is this: "blindsight" is a real neurological phenomenon, in which people with damage to the visual cortex say they cannot see, yet can point accurately to the location of objects.

Game lore, not real

Civilizations in the universe being able to observe the player is fiction.

Want to read the originals? Search these titles

  • Einstein (1905): "Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Körper", roughly "On the electrodynamics of moving bodies"
  • Cocconi and Morrison (1959): "Searching for interstellar communications"
  • Dyson (1960): "Search for artificial stellar sources of infrared radiation"
  • Kardashev (1964): "Transmission of information by extraterrestrial civilizations"
  • Lubin (2016): "A roadmap to interstellar flight"
  • Adams and Laughlin (1997): "A dying universe: the long-term fate and evolution of astrophysical objects"
  • Hart (1975): "An explanation for the absence of extraterrestrials on Earth"

Real basis

  • A 2019 photon experiment tested “Wigner's friend”, and the result suggests that the records of different observers can contradict each other.

  • Seeing the Observer: The telescope is pointed not at any one star, but at the one deviation that cannot be removed from all the observation records.

  • Blindsight (Peter Watts, 2006), the science: “blindsight” is a real neurological phenomenon: people with damaged visual cortex say they can’t see, yet can accurately point to where an object is.

Related research

These studies relate to this topic but are not direct proof of this page.

  • Special relativity: Time and space are not absolute. A junior clerk at a patent office published four physics-changing papers in a single year.

    Source: Einstein, Annalen der Physik 1905, "Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Körper"

  • Searching for interstellar signals: Two physicists suggested listening for alien signals with radio telescopes near hydrogen's 21 cm frequency, launching SETI.

    Source: Cocconi & Morrison, Nature 1959, "Searching for interstellar communications"

  • Dyson sphere: A sufficiently advanced civilization might wrap its star, and we could find it through anomalous infrared radiation.

    Source: Dyson, Science 1960, "Search for artificial stellar sources of infrared radiation"

  • Scale of civilizations: Sorts civilizations into three types by the energy they can use: planetary, stellar and galactic.

    Source: Kardashev, Soviet Astronomy 1964, "Transmission of information by extraterrestrial civilizations"

  • Light sails to the stars: Pushing ultralight light sails with a ground-based laser array could accelerate probes to one fifth the speed of light.

    Source: Lubin, Journal of the British Interplanetary Society 2016, "A roadmap to interstellar flight"

  • Where are they?: If alien civilizations were common, they should already fill the galaxy. From this Hart argued that we may be the first.

    Source: Hart, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society 1975, "An explanation for the absence of extraterrestrials on Earth"

  • The last chapter of the universe: Worked out the fate of the universe over trillions of years and beyond: stars go out, protons perhaps decay, and black holes finally evaporate.

    Source: Adams & Laughlin, Reviews of Modern Physics 1997, "A dying universe: the long-term fate and evolution of astrophysical objects"

Game lore (fictional)

  • Civilizations in the universe being able to observe the player is fiction.
  • The numbers in the report come from your real play record on this device and are saved only locally.
  • Node “Seeing the Observer”: What they are looking for is the pair of eyes that makes the universe definite each time.
  • Summary of the novel Blindsight: Humans send a ship to contact an alien presence and find it extremely intelligent but possibly wholly without consciousness. Intelligence and consciousness may not be the same thing.
See it in the game