The Reason for the absence of Reason

[BigBadBagsworth He/him/his]

We know that post-shattering, Reason and Valor vanished. I believe that Reason has taken in all the world at the moment of the shattering, Then turned his power inward. This means: Shards can only sense each other when they somehow manifest their power to affect or observe (think of illuminating something to be able to see it; light bounces off) the world. So by not affecting anything and not sensing anything, Reason became undetectable. 

Why did he do this? Time for a thought experiment!

Imagine two mistborn are burning atium, and one is covertly watching the other. The observer has no scenarios where it's possible to affect the observed. The observee would only have one atium shadow to the POV of the observer, because multiplicative atium shadows depends on feedback: one person changes their action based on the future of another, which changes the future of the first, etc.  Imagine the feedback between a mic and a speaker: the mic's sounds are reproduced by the speaker, which are picked up by the mic... but if the mic and speaker are too far away, then no feedback occurs. the same would obviously be true of two Seers unaware of each other. But if one was aware of the other but had bound himself to only be able to watch, then the ignorant Seer would only have one atium shadow, because there was nothing the observer could do that the observed could react to. 

My theory is that Reason took in and memorized the current state of the world, and used the laws of nature and his power as a Shard to see possible futures to determine exactly what would happen next. Since he couldn't affect the world, there was only one future to his point of view, and he could know exactly what could happen, then re-enter the world with a precise knowledge of what's about to happen.

There's a few holes: two fighting Seers would still have many atium shadows. But maybe, like some have suggested, Reason is sensing the surrounding world, but while hidden, like in places with lots of metal on Scadrial, or in the shattered plains among the fourth moon's shards. This would allow him to just guess the likeliest paths, once in a while checking what's actualy happening in the present. Or maybe the thousands of years he's been waiting have let him thoroughly explore each path. (This is, in my opinion, the likeliest reason for the absence of Reason.)

[KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren He/Him]

14 hours ago, BigBadBagsworth said:

We know that post-shattering, Reason and Valor vanished. I believe that Reason has taken in all the world at the moment of the shattering, Then turned his power inward. This means: Shards can only sense each other when they somehow manifest their power to affect or observe (think of illuminating something to be able to see it; light bounces off) the world. So by not affecting anything and not sensing anything, Reason became undetectable. 

Why did he do this? Time for a thought experiment!

Imagine two mistborn are burning atium, and one is covertly watching the other. The observer has no scenarios where it's possible to affect the observed. The observee would only have one atium shadow to the POV of the observer, because multiplicative atium shadows depends on feedback: one person changes their action based on the future of another, which changes the future of the first, etc.  Imagine the feedback between a mic and a speaker: the mic's sounds are reproduced by the speaker, which are picked up by the mic... but if the mic and speaker are too far away, then no feedback occurs. the same would obviously be true of two Seers unaware of each other. But if one was aware of the other but had bound himself to only be able to watch, then the ignorant Seer would only have one atium shadow, because there was nothing the observer could do that the observed could react to. 

My theory is that Reason took in and memorized the current state of the world, and used the laws of nature and his power as a Shard to see possible futures to determine exactly what would happen next. Since he couldn't affect the world, there was only one future to his point of view, and he could know exactly what could happen, then re-enter the world with a precise knowledge of what's about to happen.

There's a few holes: two fighting Seers would still have many atium shadows. But maybe, like some have suggested, Reason is sensing the surrounding world, but while hidden, like in places with lots of metal on Scadrial, or in the shattered plains among the fourth moon's shards. This would allow him to just guess the likeliest paths, once in a while checking what's actualy happening in the present. Or maybe the thousands of years he's been waiting have let him thoroughly explore each path. (This is, in my opinion, the likeliest reason for the absence of Reason.)

I don't think Reason will see the one future, because the knowledge of something might prompt him to emerge, which would alter the future. Also, Shardic vision can only see possibilities (like Sazed explained in TLM) even when other beings with Fortune are involved.

Also, Defiant spoilers

Spoiler

Your wording reminds me of the way M-Bot hid from the Delvers. Could there be a connection? After all, the Spiritual and Cognitive Realms do resemble the Nowhere.

 

[BigBadBagsworth He/him/his]

First, I think that the concept of a god as a being that resides outside of the physical world and is only detectable due to how it affects the world is just something Brandon writes about a lot. (you could easily make an "if I had a nickel" meme out of this). I think that, yes, Reason would have to explore multiple paths, if only because of the 'two fighting seers' situation. 

An alternate tangent: Humanity, it could be said, is two parts: Reason, our ability to logically think things through to protect ourselves, and Valor, our compulsion to do stoopid things to save others. It interests me that both of those are missing (Although I suppose you could say that humans are three part: Reason, Valor, and Odium, and maybe virtuosity for artistic inclinations would put it to four parts, but I thing Reason and Valor are most fundamental).

[CognitiveShadow he/him]

I thought it was confirmed that Reason was the 'survival shard' that Brandon told us had gone off on their own and tried to just stay away from the conflict and survive.

Valor on the other hand, I believe to be hiding behind enemy lines on Roshar as a 4th shard.

[Returned he/him]

I have to think that Reason would be smart enough to not pin all of its plans on futuresight in a scenario where everyone else is using it all the time. If anything, I would think that Reason is the Shard to rely on futuresight the least both because of how tenuous it clearly is and also because its normal deductions should be superior due to its nature (as I understand it, at least; we don't know what inflections Reason has).

Immediately post-Shattering is when the Vessels were at their most human (before the erosion of their personalities by their Shards) and were most able to have and pursue their own interests and goals, so if Reason took off immediately I don't feel confident suggesting why without more knowledge of the person Reason was beforehand. But maybe Reason was one of the "the Shattering needs to happen, I'll do my duty" participants, and doing that duty maybe involves existing and not interacting with the others?

In any case, if inter-Shardic conflict was likely (and it seems nearly guaranteed from the start), and is so devastating to the Vessels (most of the ones that we know have engaged in conflicts with other Shards are dead), Reason running off to solitude might be the smartest possible move. Especially to stay clear of Whimsy and its caprices!