Theory history: Submitted 2015-09-16, Doubtful 2016-01-15
Flash location: CHM
When the AI under the lighthouse was first created, it was to catalogue every scrap of information in the world. But eventually, the information grew too vast for even the AI to handle. And so, the AI created a gem that could store the knowledge: it was the first Wisdom Gem.
Inside the Gem, the knowledge shaped a vast world, in which the knowledge was stored in every object, big or small. The scientists were ecstatic when they found out. They had, in theory, created a new world. One which they could possibly colonize. However, joy quickly turned to frustration when they discovered they had no way of getting inside the tiny gem, and in fact had no way of retrieving the information hidden within. And so they created a new AI to build a machine that could transport them to the world within the gem.
They downloaded the AI into the brain of their greatest scientist, a man named Murtaugh. The scientist created the machine, but in the time it took him the AI had used all the space inside the first Gem and had been forced to create a second one. The machine, which was dubbed Submachine, only had the capacity to remember the entrance to one of the gems, so the scientists were forced plan ahead, and create one that could transport them to eight of the gems through the use of cipher plates, which they thought was more than sufficient.
However, they were surprised to learn that new information was being created inside the gems themselves, as objects were coming into existence in the gems without the AI creating them. The new information coming from the objects was too much, and the AI was forced to create gem after gem, with each of the gems then spawning more and more objects. Finally, they had a breakthrough and made a Submachine that could remember the entrances to as many as 999 gems.
The AI eventually stopped storing information in whatever gem it had on hand, and started storing certain information in certain gems, hence the locations that reflected places and ideas in the real world, such as the “Lost” and the “Hell” locations. However, the AI had long since gained sentience, and, for benign reasons or greedy reasons, created a defense system capable of causing amnesia in those inside the newly named Subnet.
It worked by using the explorers own distractions, each time they thought of something other than what they were looking for, it grew harder and harder for them to remember that they were looking for something. Eventually the AI inside Murtaugh gained sentience as well, and stopped creating newer and more accurate Submachines.