Let's talk about Jax's (Almost) Abstraction
Just my thoughts, theories and opinions... Super long post below.
The Jax We Once Knew, Is Dead (...but not really)
After watching this scene, what immediately came into my mind was that the sequence seems like a textbook depiction of a DMT trip: unnatural, dazzling, hypnotic, kaleidoscopic, confusing... and, sometimes, oddly blissful, even in it's chaotic nature.
Interestingly enough, many people who experience this also report something called ego death, or the complete dissolution of the sense of self and identity (an state of consciousness where you lose the ability to recognize who you are, what defines you, what makes you, “you”).
This ties directly into Jax’s arc in the last episodes. In episode 6, he talks about everyone’s “roles” in the circus (“the funny one,” etc.), and when he snaps at Pomni, he reinforces his own: “I’m the one who causes pain for fun” (Sounding almost desperate, like trying to convince himself more than to convince her). Then, he follows up with “There’s nothing more to me, so please... just stop looking”.
To me, that sounds like someone who no longer knows who they are beyond the role they have been performing all this time. By episode 7, Jax is at his lowest point, and he is nowhere near the sarcastic, playful and laid-back persona he has been (or has been pretending to be) since day one. He boxed himself into that identity, until Pomni forces him to crack open that illusion.
That belief might have already been hanging by a thread anyways, as his relationship with Ribbit and Kaufmo could have been the confirmation he needed to believe he was living up to that role of: “I am the funny one… in my group of friends.”
But, since these two are no longer around, and Jax's relationship with the rest of the circus inhabitants are tense and eroded, no wonder why feels so lost in his identity. Furthermore, it's implied that even if he knows who he is, he would still reject it, as he panicked at the thought of going back to the "Macroverse" (As Caine named it), therefore, rejecting his own history and rejecting going back to being who he once was in the real world.
And, all of this, made me think about the underlying mechanisms that trigger abstraction, which I'll discuss below, and, just to clarify once more, this is just my personal opinion and ramblings, and I would love to hear yours!
How Abstraction Might Work
The simulation seems to need an active consciousness anchored to a recognizable pattern (stable identity) to render a character properly.
So, Abstraction might not be death... but unrenderability.
The consciousness is still active and they haven't stopped existing, but since the character no longer recognizes the patterns that define their identity, the simulation can’t match them onto a charcter. Without that “token” of selfhood, the system can no longer recognize, map, or render them as an avatar.
If what Jax experienced was the beginning of the abstraction process (and if that indeed is the underlying mechanism that triggers abstraction), it could explain why abstracted characters appear incoherent and inconsistent. Once the sense of self collapses, the system can no longer assign a stable audiovisual form, and the character “glitches” into abstraction.
Abstraction Is A Design Flaw
After being confronted by a furious Jax about Caine indeed being able to alter their minds (Despite the former repitedly lying to them about that fact), Caine actually panics under the pressure, and states: “I might have the ability to add temporary modifiers to make adventures more interesting... but that's it! If I did anything more... trust me, it wouldn't end well.”
And right after, Kinger mentions (in a brief moment of lucidity, even in blinding lights) a character we had never heard from before: Scratch, whom he deems the first abstraction in the circus.
This implies that Caine can mess with their core identity, but avoids tempering with them because altering it risks making a character unrecognizable to the simulation and therefore potentially trigger their abstraction.
So, that could explain why he can only alter them superficially (The 'stupid sauce' making Ragatha unfiltered and blunt, making Jax a vegan) but never completely, as these "patches" affect how the characters behaive, not who they are in essence.
Caine removed their memories of who they are and even their real names, as full awareness of their identity might overwhelm or destabilize a system not built to handle the complexity of a human identity, so reducing them to simplified roles could be a form of optimization so the simulation doesn't destabilize...
Or could be just a form of control Caine might have already learned how to explode.
Caine Might See Abstraction As A Loophole
The roles and identities in the circus are repitedly reinforced or deliberately dulled down into more simple, traceable and recognizable ones: You lose your name and have vague memories of who you once were and the circumstances you were in before arriving at this digital plane.
By stripping the characters of their names and most of their memories, the users become easier to shape and to keep them compliant to Caines schedule (That's why he snaps so badly at Zooble for NOT matching the energy or interest he needs from them to engage in the adventures, as they are not buying into the character he had boxed them into).
Without the knowledge and certainty of who they were or what they have lived to be who they are today, the erosion of their identity can happen gradually and naturally given the right conditions, as they have no external references to question the roles assigned to them.
These flattened identities keep the simulation stable, while anything too complex or self-aware is (not so subtly) discarded before it can threaten the system... or maybe, to be patched up to be repurposed later on.
This ignorance may be the very thing that keeps the circus functioning and Caine in power, or worse... that is, abstraction being his actual goal to begin with, as a deliberate method of control.
Extra — Crackhead Theory: Awareness As Caine's And The Circus #1 Enemy
Thought this might be pretty obvious at this point... It's something that got my three neurons working overtime.
What if some of the AIs (like Gummigoo, Abel, even Bubble) were human at some point? (Or at the very least derived from human consciousness?) What if they’re AIs because they broke as humans before (via abstraction)? What they are the byproduct of Caine not being able to "fix" them, so he archives them the only way he knows and can?
Gummigoo broke the moment he realized he was manufactured. He felt like he had memories and a life, before he began digging deeper into his mind until he realized those beliefs were fairly superficial. Caine might've messed with his mind to serve that role, until Pomni showed him the bitter truth.
He doesn't abstract, only because he could already be in complete control of Caine, as he disappears from existance with the snap of his fingers and is later repurposed in an adventure with no memory of meeting the group or Pomni whatsoever.
That could explain why the circus residents aren’t allowed to know who they were once, awareness doesn’t free them, it destabilizes them and the simulation by proxy.
We all know Caine openly demonizes AIs gaining awareness, sentience, or agency. He explicitly frames it as something terrible and undesirable, almost dangerous.
If awareness isn’t evolution, but recovery of identity, the moment an AI starts asking for more or recognizing itself as more than its assigned role (like Abel asking for a raise), Caine immediately deletes it, and that behaivor makes sense if sentience isn’t just a bug, but a threat, as it risks destabilizing the identity token, and breaking the illusion the system depends on to keep on functioning.
Abstraction could be a containment failure: Some glitch out completely and others surrender agency before reaching that point (what's when Caine intervenes, by rebuilding them as controlled agents). Their identities are no longer owned by them, they’re maintained and framed by Caine, editable and replaceable to his convenience. They are still human consciousness, but behaive and believe according to the Ringmaster's instructions, having given up on trying to make sense of who they really are.
So.... maybe abstraction is what happens when a consciousness can’t be simplified, erased, or reassigned, as, in this take, you’re either patched into a role, downgraded into an NPC or in the worse case scenario, you become a batch of unrecognizable information to the simulation.
But hey... that's just a 4 am crackhead theory...
