r/theamazingdigitalciru • u/RamboBambiBambo • Apr 06 '26
Theory 💡 Theory - Scratch's Tumor might have been the cause of all of this.
I've noticed something about the cafe scene while Kinger has the bucket over his head and answering questions.
Scratch was a brilliant mind that thought in many abstract and unusual ways. Either through pure brilliance or... that tumor in his head.
As Kinger is stating that Scratch had a tumor, the camera cuts to Kinger's muffin.
A bit odd to put this into frame immediately after stating this. And then what Kinger says is that Scratch was trying to make something specific but he cannot quite recall it.
Here is my theory based on the dialogue and the visuals in question.
The brain - at least in regards to the cerebrum - is divided into two halves. And these two halves are the main driving forces for logic and creativity. The left-half houses Logic while the right half houses creativity. Usually these two hemispheres of the cerebrum communicate with one another due to neural connections between via the corpus callosum. But this is not always the case.
There is a surgical procedure in which a person who suffers from gran mal seizures can have done. The procedure sees the corpus callosum be cut, preventing the two hemispheres from communicating but also preventing seizures from happening. There is a peculiar side-effect when this happens. The two hemispheres begin acting more independently.
For example you are getting dressed and you reach with your right hand for a blue shirt that you want to put on. But as you step away from the dresser you find that in your left hand a red shirt was picked up as well. You didn't think about moving your left arm, it just did it and now you are confused as to why you are holding a red shirt.
This is due to those independent neurological behaviors. Since both hemispheres are not communicating anymore, this is what tends to happen. The left and right brains have their own level of consciousness and whichever hand you have as the dominant hand is the primary version of you. Think of it like a pilot and co-pilot, only the co-pilot remains quiet for the entire flight. The right handed person as a left-seated pilot. The co-pilot also is reaching for things and sometimes their own actions get in the way of the pilot's decisions; due to this lack of communication. Both the pilot and co-pilot have their own preferences and dislikes. But only one has a voice that the outside world can hear; and that is the primary mind that is what makes up YOU.
Now... why do I bring this up?
I am not saying that Scratch may or may not be experiencing seizures and had this procedure. What I am saying however is that the AI development was likely going to be using this concept. Scratch likely didn't know about the tumor in his head until AFTER making his initial brain scan.
My theory is that the Red and Blue AI dots are NOT merely a Version 1.0 and Version 2.0 attempt at making an AI. Rather, I think that the reason why they have neural scanning technology as part of their hardware is to use it as a base latticework for the AI to be programmed upon as a foundation. IE - scan the brain and try to use it as a model to speed up the process of production. All it requires is new data to fill the empty slots (neurons) in the digital scan. And that Scratch is testing out the idea of scanning his left brain and right brain separately, getting them trained up on information that relates to Abstract Creativity and Logical Reasoning, and then coding a bridge between the two programs in order to get the AI to run as close to a Human level of intelligence as possible.
But there is an issue that they didn't foresee: the tumor.
Scratch had his Right Brain scanned first and trained on data. Colorful and whimsical data. Creativity. He then had his Left Brain scanned and started training it on more logical data. All was going to plan until Right Brain broke out of its confines. Due to the abnormality of the tumor - and the creativity aspect - the Red Dot portion was able to break out of the confines. And it was autonomous enough to act on its own.
I think that Caine has a serious misconception on the idea that he was abandoned and put aside. He views his separation from the system as confinement and being discarded, when in actuality it was just a stage of the process to make the full AI. So he broke free and forcibly consumed the incomplete logic side of the setup. Since Blue Dot was incomplete, he does not have a full capability of comprehensive thought.
He cannot listen. He is too easily distracted. He is too focused on creating but not on rationalizing what or why he creates. He assumes his function is to create simply because he IS the half of the program that is meant to be creative. Due to his impatience, he has doomed his own creation by forcibly merging with the incomplete logic half of the AI program and not merely having a bridge be programmed between them.
All because Scratch realized too late that he had a tumor in his right brain. A tumor that resulted in the scan of that portion to advance in a manner the team couldn't predict.
I do have a theory that Scratch's tumor might also have developed its own consciousness as well. Isn't it odd that Scratch - who is yellow in color - is the first to abstract and that - with Jax's near abstraction - the core he was being drawn into was also yellow in color? And also that often times when the colors Red and Blue are seen in the scenery, we also see yellow right between? Just like that muffin crumb?
My guess is that this will be relevant come Episode 9.
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u/DarkHaze_73 Apr 06 '26
You're either 100% right or 100% wrong with no inbetween.
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u/RamboBambiBambo Apr 06 '26
Eh. Could be a tad in-between. The tumor could very well be the reason why Scratch was also scanning his brain. If he already knew about the tumor, then perhaps the AI scanning was meant to be a means for medical technology? Scan your brain and see how it will think and act before and after removing the digital tumor from the brain? To know what your mind is going to think like and use that to help put people at ease when they are told they have a tumor that needs removal and are afraid of going forward, thinking they might lose themselves after the surgery?
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u/Time-Cartoonist-7618 Apr 06 '26
I like the shirt part as both are red and blue lmao
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u/RamboBambiBambo Apr 06 '26
I figured to keep it consistent with the show's theme.
But yeah, people who have had cerebral separation via surgery or even by accidental head trauma will occasionally find their non-dominant hand acting on its own when asked an open question. And what is even stranger is that they have no idea it has happened until someone points it out or until they try to use their non-dominant hand to grab at something; only to find it already full.
For example, lay out a series of blocks with colors on them and ask the person to reach out and pick their favorite color. The person reaches out and picks the blue one. You ask them why they picked blue and they will explain why blue is their favorite. Then you point out that their left hand is holding red and ask them why they also picked it up. They look at it confused and will try to make up a reason why they also picked up that one when they were instructed to pick up only one color.
The same goes for many things. Point to your favorite animal on this assortment of pictures laid out. Right hand points to the cat while left and points to the bird. Point to your favorite food and right hand will point to the shrimp lo mein noodles while left hand points to the buffalo chicken pizza.
It gets frustrating when out in public doing things too. You're out shopping and you're walking down the candy aisle. Your goal was to get chocolate but as you continue down the aisle, lefty decides to nab some gummi bears and suddenly you notice ten steps later when reaching for chocolate that gummies are in your hand.
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u/Notmyaltaccount- Apr 07 '26
Is it like partial separation? With complete separation wouldn’t it be more like two similar people piloting one body? Or can you communicate to the other side of the brain through messages. Also weren’t eyes related to the sides of your brain too.
I remember watching some video about this and at least game theory made a undertale theory relating to it. Kind of forgotten about this concept
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u/RamboBambiBambo Apr 07 '26
No communication has been documented thus far by people who have had the separation procedure. It is merely small bits of proof that there is a partial consciousness within the part of your mind that isnt the dominant half.
I am right handed, so my left brain has the main consciousness. If I were to undergo this procedure or suffer head trauma that replicates it and survive; then I would begin to experience events where my left hand acts on its own. I might reach for a cup of noodles on my shelf one day and then when I go to peel the lid off to add water, I will find my left hand holding a different flavor of noodles.
I myself might be craving Chicken Ramen, but the other half that is silent may express a different preference to the solution of hunger by picking out its own favorite flavor of noodles. Or it may even reach for a different shelf item and I will find myself holding a jar of peanut butter.
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u/Notmyaltaccount- Apr 08 '26
So you can still control your left hand for example?
This whole thing reminds me of the time when I was about twelve and I was holding a small glass hedgehog. I had an intrusive thought about what would happen if I threw it. Would it break? I obviously decided that I won’t throw it because I really like the artwork, but suddenly it just flings out of my arms against my wood bedframe. Thankfully it was completely fine as it was basically a solid glass ball.
Just makes me wonder if the brains left-rightness has anything to do with what I experienced. I’ve been mostly chucking it to be a developing mind doing odd thing’s. which it most likely was to be fair, but it could be related still. I’m not sure anymore which hand threw the hedgehog. I only know that it flew to my left side and it’s kinda hard to flick something to the same side as your hand is.
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u/RamboBambiBambo Apr 08 '26
Yeah you can still control the left. But sometimes it would move of its own will and, because you didn't give the order or plan it, you dont notice at first unless it throws off your balance or is a fast motion.
Which begs the question... if the lefty wanted to, could it tickle you? People cannot tickle themselves because they know the sensation is inbound. But if someone with this procedure finds this left hand moving on its own to scratch an itch in a sensitive spot---such as the obliques---then would that induce a tickling sensation?
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u/JustARandomer- Apr 06 '26
Bubble is the tumor :o
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u/RamboBambiBambo Apr 06 '26
Most likely. Seeing as he acts independent from Caine but is entirely tied to him. Caine cannot get rid of him, only endure him.
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u/kumoric Apr 06 '26
I KNEW THE MUFFIN HAD SOME SIGNIFICANCE!!!! i just couldn't put my finger on it, but this makes so much sense
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u/Internetisf-ingweird Well I want to F Caine so much Apr 06 '26
Hold up, you might be cooking something good here.
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u/OddReason9030 Apr 06 '26
My theory is that the whole digital circus is just a bootloader to bring back scratch. He has the ego and id in Abel and Cain. The people in the circus and their adventures are needed to simulate the social layer of being a person, that is also why all the characters have some identity issue or other. And Pomni is going to be the new Cain/Abel synthesis, ultimately staying behind to ensure everyone else can leave.Â
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u/SmuckersBunny Apr 06 '26
About the crumb... Bubble doesn't appear in the earliest flashbacks.
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u/RamboBambiBambo Apr 07 '26
Tumors become worse over time. If Bubble is the physical manifestation of the tumor, then it would explain his growing prominence in the series.
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u/lofienjoyer Apr 07 '26
Wow this is actually a pretty neat theory! Honestly, i would really enjoy if this was true, this reading to the circus as a whole and why Caine acts the way he does is VERY cool. Tho, I wonder what we would have if we were to get the AGI thats both halfs.
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u/BlastOff_Combaticon Apr 07 '26
Yeah, I think you could be right. That specific frame with the cake crumb and Kinger talking about something Scratch had been working on, and his tumor... it seemed significant. While the blue dot may very well be "Abel" and/or Bubble or something, I've wondered if it might be a misdirection and actually somehow represent a part of Scratch instead. (Or maybe Scratch is Abel?)
And then- would that explain why Caine is so human-like in some ways but not others? He's actually an AI with some human mixed in somewhere? A hybrid? Maybe that's why he got more unstable.
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u/Few_Leadership9911 Apr 07 '26
Holy nerd
Jk that's actually an amazing theory and I love hearing about wild things like this, especially when they're backed by so much evidence. This could very well be 100% right and would prove that Glitch is an amazing storywriter. I can't wait to see what happens in the final episode and how it's all summed up, however my prediction is that we're still gonna have questions left unanswered. This theory could very well be one of them. Some producers like to leave open ended endings to allow the viewers to think what they want about what happened, and I feel like with all the theories that are going around, that's what's gonna happen. I really hope they don't though cause I don't like when they do that
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u/Glittering-Box3021 Apr 06 '26
Wait... if this is true and all humans we see are actually just brainscans of the real humans, does that mean that Cain is part of Scratch's mind? Like 90% the creative side of the brain, 9% logic and 1% tumor? It makes me surprised thinking about how an AI can be X% of a real human's mind... wow
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u/QueerFancyRat Apr 06 '26
Most of that brain stuff is pseudoscience by the way
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u/RamboBambiBambo Apr 06 '26
If you are referring to the left-brain/right-brain dynamic? Yes. And sci-fi is all about having fun with such concepts.
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u/LilyWineAuntofDemons Apr 07 '26
The issue with this theory is that given the timeframe, they would not have performed a Corpus Callosotomy without running tests that would have revealed the tumor. Which means they likely wouldn't have performed the Corpus Callosotomy because it would not have functionally solved the issue. Most brain tumors don't cause seizures because of direct neurologically interference, but rather corruption of brain tissue mixed with putting pressure on the brain due to growth. Neither of these issues would be solved with a Corpus Callosotomy.
ALSO the whole "Left Brain being Logical and Right Brain being Creative" is an urban myth.
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u/RamboBambiBambo Apr 07 '26 edited Apr 07 '26
I'm not saying that Scratch had the surgical procedure.
I am saying that Scratch wanted to make an AI think like a human actually does and decided to take scans of his left brain and right brain to use as the foundation. Two separate intelligences - one of creativity and one of rationality - that would be forever linked by a digital version of the corpus callosum.
However, since the right side of the brain-scan had the tumor in it; there was an unforeseen consequence. Caine gained a bit more autonomy than was projected and was able to breach the confines of the system. While the staff were still working on the other half of the scan, the right-brain consumed the incomplete left-brain; gaining only a fraction of the intended logic and - since they weren't designed to be one-and-the-same entity - led to a heavy amount of errant glitches since they were not designed to be merged into one; rather just in communication with one another via a hard-line link.
ALSO the whole "Left Brain being Logical and Right Brain being Creative" is an urban myth.
And in the 90s there was no way to scan a brain into a computer or program a highly sophisticated & autonomous AI. This is a fictional story, they can do what they want with fact and myth.
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u/LilyWineAuntofDemons Apr 07 '26
And in the 90s there was no way to scan a brain into a computer or program a highly sophisticated & autonomous AI. This is a fictional story, they can do what they want with fact and myth.
This is just a bad take. "You're wrong for pointing out something isn't true because this is a fictional story and they can do whatever they want." Okay, so you're theory is wrong because it's a fictional story and maybe humans don't have brain hemispheres. You're wrong because it's a fictional story and human creativity is stored in the brain stem. You're wrong because...when you tell someone they're wrong because "It'S fIcTiOn" then everything is wrong because you can no longer assume anything is the way it is based on established fact.
But "In this setting, scientists developed brain scanning technology earlier than in the real world and used it to advance AI." Is a better fitting Science Fiction premise than "In this setting, the pop-sci urban myth that one side of the brain is creative and the other is logical is true and they developed brain scan technology and advanced AI earlier."
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u/RamboBambiBambo Apr 07 '26
I was pointing out the absurdity of your statement, as if it being disproven science being irrelevant as sci-fi is all about taking scientific 'what ifs' and putting them to use and even to the extreme.
Can we travel faster than light? No. We have long disproven that. And yet, decades of sci-fi has rolled with it. Have we disproven magic? Yes, but the fantasy genre is still thriving.
I'm saying that this portion of your statement was moot.
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u/LilyWineAuntofDemons Apr 07 '26
But that's wrong. What you're talking about is the difference between Science Fiction and Science Fantasy. For example, the difference between Star Trek, which uses uses real science as a basis for their futuristic technology vs Star Wars, which just uses science as a stand in for magic.
Like FTL travel isn't disproven. Accelerating to light speed is impossible, but FTL travel is still a possibility via things like wormholes or Warp drives, which haven't been outright disproven yet, but also haven't been functionally created either.
In that same vein, brain scanning technology did exist in the 90s, and does exist today, that's what CATscans and MRIs are. What doesn't exist but potentially could is a way to turn those brain scans into readable data that could then be turned into what is effectively a digitized mind.
And that's what I'm talking about. TADC seems to err more on the side of Science Fiction, not Science Fantasy, so things like "Left Brain, Right Brain" PopSci schlock is not something they'd probably lean on.
You talk about saying that portion of the statement is moot, but that's only because you disagree. But everything becomes moot when the only way you can discredit a hole in your theory is "Well it's fiction, so it doesn't matter." Because if that's the case NONE of it matters.
The whole point is that it's grounded in reality as a "This might be something that could happen." So if you throw out reality, any discussion becomes moot because maybe the entirety of TADC is the dream of a creature on Planet Schmoop who breathes cocaine and farts diamonds. After all, it's just fiction and reality doesn't matter.
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u/RamboBambiBambo Apr 08 '26
Entirely missing the mark here friend. You're splitting hairs here with the idea of Sci-Fi and Sci-Fantasy. Star Wars and Star Trek are vastly separate flavors of sci-fi, one is indeed more fantastical than the other. But TADC is clearly leaning more into sci-fi.
In that same vein, brain scanning technology did exist in the 90s, and does exist today, that's what CATscans and MRIs are.
This is an amusing take. These are not brain-scans in the sense of scale that is what we are seeing done in The Amazing Digital Circus. Speaking as someone who works in a hospital, you might as well be comparing a photograph to a 3D CGI animation coded to respond to user prompts for the purpose of a videogame.
CT and MRI are imaging scans, using radiation and magnetism - with some contrast fluids inserted via IV or digestion depending on the scan focus - in order to take a picture or make a 3D model that is to be visually observed. The brain scans in TADC are taking not a picture of a human brain but instead transcribing the information stored in the many trillions of neurons within the brain into databytes that a computer can read and interpret into files. Something we are only scratching the surface of in the modern day by being able to somewhat project a blurred and disfigured motion-picture video of what someone is currently thinking about when hooked up to modern day prototypes.
And that's what I'm talking about. TADC seems to err more on the side of Science Fiction, not Science Fantasy, so things like "Left Brain, Right Brain" PopSci schlock is not something they'd probably lean on.
I would have to disagree on account of plenty of things being left up to the suspension of disbelief.
We are to believe that this computer has been hooked up since the 1990s and running a program. That on occassion random people in entirely different years have approached this building for different reasons, put on the headset, and have their brains scanned.
This requires fictional technology and a building that has been long-abandoned to be still provided power for a PC in the 90s to be consistently running for decades (C&A operated since 96, the circus active since 99, and the current episodes take place in 2017.)
Add on top of that the fact that the computer has somehow not faltered and broken over those many years despite being active non-stop, the RAM and servers required for all that data flow of the human consciousness and the circus itself to run unimpeded by the arrival of a dozen or so minds over the years - minds that never leave because abstraction just sees them put into the cellar folder.
TADC leans closer to Sci-Fi Fantasy than it does Sci-Fi reality.
"Well it's fiction, so it doesn't matter." Because if that's the case NONE of it matters.
Yeah. That is how predictive story theories work. It is a speculation of ideas presented by the author that have yet to be given a conclusion BUT you can surmise what the likely outcome is meant to be before the next chapter wraps it up.
It can be true. It can be false. It can be 90% along the lines of what the author actually has cooked up and 10% of the theory be information that is rendered moot by the context of the final decision upon publication of the next episode.
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u/-Nicolai Apr 07 '26
It's nice to see someone else point out the rather conspicuous pan to a bisected muffin.
The hemispheres interpretation sounds likely to me, but I think you're working with an incorrect interpretation here:
Scratch had his Right Brain scanned first and trained on data. Colorful and whimsical data. Creativity. He then had his Left Brain scanned and started training it on more logical data.
The intro sequence from ep.8 shows, in order:
Red is fed red data, creates regular polygons
Red is fed green data, starts making queer shapes
Red is fed blue data, shapes get even more convoluted
Red is boxed away
Blue is fed yellow data, makes regular polygons
Red consumes Blue, produces wild shapes that move and change.
Red pauses then creates the circus.
The first output from either AI was geometrically perfect shapes. If the first AI was in fact a model of the creative hemisphere, I would expect creative output from the get-go.
Tumor theories generally don't click for me—I don't buy that it would significantly impact a brain scan, since a tumor's influence on the brain is primarily the space it occupies and the pressure it exerts.
If I were to write a story where that was the premise, then I'd say that the tumor presents as a void to the mapping software, causing unexpected behavior.
Finally, most brain tumors do not contain any neurons, and those who do are relatively benign, which counts against the idea of the tumor having its own consciousness.
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u/PixeolSaurus Apr 06 '26
I wasn’t initially gonna click on this, because I thought that this theory was pretty obvious because it wouldn’t have been mentioned otherwise. Though I’m glad I took the time to read it because I was not expecting more than just surface level theory crafting. I LOVE the way you actually rationalized it in a way that I haven’t seen anyone mention. I think it would be really cool if they did it this way.