(Theory) The Sibling is an Artificial Sprentelligence

[Ashbringer he/him]

So, this isn't really a Wind And Truth theory, but it ties a lot to the ending of Rhythm of War and the Old Magic Gods certainly help the idea.

Before RoW, I had thought that the Sibling would have been a greater spren of Odium that had been "corrputed" by Honor/Cultivation back to the good guys. That's obviously not what's going on, and Rhythm of War gave a much greater image of the Sibling being the spren of Urithiru, but I wanted to try and type up what I think is happening. (I'm also unused to typing up theories, so I'm probably not citing everything, just any particularly interesting WoBs.)

The short of it, is I think the Sibling is more than a spren of Honor and Cultivation, but one of the first to be created artificially.

 

The Other Bondsmith Spren

We know a few interesting things about the other Bondsmith Spren, the Stormfather and the Nightwatcher. We know from WAT Chapter 4 that the Nightwatcher came from one of the Old Magic Gods - the ancient spren of Adonalsium - being essentially commandeered or converted by Cultivation. We're pretty sure that the Stormfather is similar - I'm not sure if it's explicitly stated anywhere that the Stormfather predates Honor, but the highstorms definitely do, and the Stormfather likely does as well.

The Sibling has not been so mentioned. In fact, we don't really know when the Sibling was born/made. But I think it's implied that they are different. They also don't seem overtly like the spren of anything - the Stormfather's obviously the spren of the highstorm, and the Nightwatcher could be a spren of stone or even a more nature spren that Cultivation took over. Is the Sibling the spren god of spren? That could make some sense, but I don't really think so. (I think that's what BAM is, but that's another story.)

 

Urithiru

Notably, we have some evidence that the Sibling came much, much later to Roshar, with the assumption that they came with Urithiru. That's because we know it was built, from one of the TWoK epigraphs:

"Though many wished Urithiru to be built in Alethela, it was obvious that it could not be. And so it was that we asked for it to be placed westward, in the place nearest to Honor."

This happened far, far in the past; before Nohadon's time, and well before Ahariethiam, but well after humanity's arrival on Roshar. The Sibling insists that it is the Tower, and that seems to be backed up with what's seen by Navani. It doesn't make much sense to me that the Sibling would have already existed, then been placed into the Tower and bound permanently. It also doesn't make sense that, before the Recreance, the Sibling would have always needed a Bondsmith in order to generate Towerlight and function.

One other thing: there's a WoB that Urithiru was beyond the scope of Radiants on their own to create. This is said in reference to the Dawncities (and likely the Dawnshards), but it also is probably going to come up later.

Spoiler

jurble

So, Rysn's Dawnshard was totally used with Surgebinding to make the Dawncities right? E.g. the giant windbreaks in Kholinar that everyone wonders "How did they make those?" that would seem outside the power-level of Radiant soulcasting.

Brandon Sanderson

Let's just say this is a linguistic connection I expected people to make.

Also, creation of the Dawncities (and Urithiru) is beyond the scope of what a Radiant, or even a group of them working together, could create via Soulcasting. (Though note, it's not beyond the scope of what Surgebinding itself could do.)

Dawnshard Annotations Reddit Q&A (Nov. 13, 2020)

 

There's also many things we notice about Urithiru. The first is the gemstone pillar - thousands of gemstones placed in sequence, including a Suppression Fabrial but who knows what else. This seems to be the Tower's - and the Sibling's - heart. A little odd, but not that odd - the Sibling certainly seems like a manifested fabrial. But we don't hear a lot about the metals around old manifested fabrials, even though Urithiru should be full of them (and has some that we still don't understand, such as manifested + conjoined fabrials).

 

Fabrials and Big Spooky Machines

A few things on fabrials I do want to mention. In the Rhythm of War epigraphs, many rules about fabrials are mentioned, but one that sticks out are logicspren. Using the proper metals/gemstones/etc, trapped logicspren can be made to glow bright (1) or dull (0) given certain stimuli. This is commented to lead to several complex mechanisms, but it also heavily implies that logicspren can be used to create logic gates. If you know a few basics about computers, really all you need to create a computer is a few input->output gates: AND, OR, NOT, and maybe a few of the more complex ones like XOR. There's also a WoB that you can use fabrials to make a simple, analog computer. It wouldn't be very efficient, because it'd need to be huge (think Minecraft Redstone computers, which is what happens when you can't scale down your logic gates). But it works.

There's also another Cosmere principle in play, one that we most recently saw in some of the Secret Projects (mostly Yumi) - that anything with sufficient power, left on its own, develops at least a rudimentary mind. This is usually said to be sentient, not sapient, but in at least one case Sanderson mentioned that one could become sapient.

 

I think that both of these are what the Sibling is. Urithiru was constructed, including a massive array of fabrials (either with or without spren - I'm suspecting with) that could assemble into a computer that could control the various affects of the Tower. This massive fabrial was then directly powered with Towerlight by Honor and Cultivation, and the power of that much Light in the computer's systems led to the creation (or Awakening) of a new, powerful Bondsmith spren, the Sibling.

 

Spoiler

Snipexe

Could an analog computer be made using fabrials?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Orem Signing (March 16, 2019)

 

Questioner

If an advanced android was created with artificial intelligence using technology—but not Investiture like other artificial intelligences—artificial blood, organs, all that stuff, would they be able to access Invested Arts?

Brandon Sanderson

That's an excellent question. It's a really interesting question in the context of the Cosmere. So for right now, I am saying—now, maybe we will invent true AI, and I'll have to backpedal, but what I'm saying is in the Cosmere, true AI requires Investiture. And so a thinking machine is going to basically... the line between a thinking machine and a spren is going to get very blurred. And it's going to either attract [Investiture] or require it, and so the answer to you is "yes, to an extent". There are some Arts that are easier to use and some that are hard, depends on all these things, but the answer is "yes"...A thinking machine that actually is self-aware would be a person in the Cosmere for that reason, and would have the same Cognitive aspect and Spiritual aspect—so a soul, if you would—that an organic being would have.

Dragonsteel 2022 (Nov. 14, 2022)

 

The Young Pyromancer

If you built a computer and you programmed it to view the world in a certain way, would that affect the world, like, Cognitive aspect?

Brandon Sanderson

Not unless the computer starts to become self-aware.

Questioner

What if it was an Awakened computer?

Brandon Sanderson

If the computer were becoming self-aware, then it would act like any other sapient entity.

Skyward Seattle signing (Nov. 10, 2018)

 

 

 

A Few Answers

I like this theory because I think it explains a few things about the Sibling that I didn't think made sense.

 

The Sibling's Control

Throughout Rhythm of War, and the few intro parts of Wind and Truth, we see how impressively the Sibling can control Urithiru. But... it's not really that much control. Even once the tower fully reactivates, the Sibling's main defenses are the suppression fabrial and other powerful-but-preestablished defenses. Why? Because the Sibling's a computer - while they may be sapient at this point, they only have a few predetermined ways to interact with the world. They need time (and probably outside help, like Melishi) to gain new functions.

 

The Recreance and the Sibling's Slumber

Another thing that's unusual about the Sibling is that they were bound at the time of the Recreance, and yet seem to be... not fine, but not the same as the other deadeyes. I think that's because of a few things. The main one is the Sibling losing their Towerlight. This theory isn't really about why that happened - BAM's Binding is still a very complicated thing, and Honor dying at the same-ish time doesn't help - but rather what affects that would have. If the Sibling is essentially a computer running on Towerlight, losing access to that Towerlight would be like unplugging the actual PC. The Sibling was left on emergency power, still able to let some parts function but not the majority of their mind. The Sibling later woke up, of course, but I think I know why - because the Coalition had started dumping Stormlight into their systems, through the Oathgates and a variety of other fabrials.

There's also the fact the Sibling was bound - or at least, was bound when BAM was bound and the cascade of events that began the Recreance started. My theory for that's pretty simple. The honorspren in Lasting Integrity think that the Sibling ended their bond before the Recreance; I think it's more likely that Melishi was the one who died, instead of the Sibling.

 

Raboniel's Unmaking

It also doesn't make much sense to me that Raboniel would be able to turn the Sibling into an Unmade, given access to the gem pillar. Sja-Anat, sure, but Raboniel, a simple Fused? That seems beyond her power level, as it seems like the Fused have fairly little Investiture compared to other cosmere beings (ie Elantrians, or Yumi). 

I think the reason it could work on the Sibling is by flooding their system with Voidlight. Again, if the Sibling is the Light within the systems, replacing that Light with Voidlight would have a dramatic effect on the Sibling.

 

There's many other mysteries with the Sibling, of course. But I think this does explain a great many of them.

First theory, so let me know how I did!

[Njvodin]

Great theory! 

Very well put together, and I enjoyed reading it.

 

I think your theory is very interesting, and the implications of this theory too, for what the Unmade could be, are also very interesting.

By that I mean the Unmade could have been spren gods, just like the highstorm, and whatever Nightwatcher was before Cultivation corrupted it.

But that might be another theory for another day.

[Ashbringer he/him]

12 hours ago, Njvodin said:

Great theory! 

Very well put together, and I enjoyed reading it.

 

I think your theory is very interesting, and the implications of this theory too, for what the Unmade could be, are also very interesting.

By that I mean the Unmade could have been spren gods, just like the highstorm, and whatever Nightwatcher was before Cultivation corrupted it.

But that might be another theory for another day.

Thanks!

I do think some of the Unmade might be similar - not quite the AI of the Sibling, but the less aware Unmade like Nergaoul and Moelach may have gained their awareness unintentionally. I still think Ba-Ado-Mishram being a corrupted "god of spren" would make sense as a reason why her binding would disrupt Nahel bonds so much, same with Sja-Anat potentially. Dai-Gonarthis is too much of a wild card.