Archive.03: The Remains of Project Gestalt and the Truth of Humanity's Extinction - The History of Despair and Philosophy of Existentialism Continuing from the Previous Title

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Introduction: The Beginning of the End and the Repeating Spiral Cage

“After countless battles and adventures, the prophet speaks. Ah, the mercy of the earth, the joy of the heavens; freed from the iron yoke, our souls shall be saved for eternity. Everything that lives is designed to end. We are perpetually trapped in a never-ending spiral of life and death.” This quiet monologue, fraught with an irresistible despair, is not merely a fragment of sentimental poetry. It is a cold, hard confession of facts that describes the very structure of the world enveloping the Earth in the year 11945 AD. Behind the machines continuing an endless proxy war on a surface that has lost its creators lies the wreckage of a colossal project that collapsed long ago.

In this report, the third installment aimed at unraveling the entirety of “NieR:Automata”, we will untangle the blank history spanning over 8,000 years—from the singularity of the collapse of “Project Gestalt” at the conclusion of the previous title, “NieR Replicant”, to the year 11945 AD, the stage of the current work. How did the creations (Androids), having lost humanity, their creators, maintain their existence, or how did they descend into madness and nothingness? By integrating the archives scattered throughout the game, Weapon Story, and the philosophical themes of Existentialism and Nihilism flowing at the depths of each event, we will bring into relief the “truth of humanity’s extinction” and the “inescapable fate of those left behind.”

1. [Fact] The Structural Flaws of Project Gestalt and the Mechanism of Humanity’s Demise

The most crucial historical fact serving as the premise of the story is that the extinction of humanity was not brought about by external invasions from Aliens or Machine Lifeforms. Rather, it was quietly yet decisively triggered by the internal collapse of “Project Gestalt,” the ultimate life-extension system devised by humanity itself to survive.

1.1 The Taboo of Separating Soul and Body

Project Gestalt was a grandiose and maddening project staked on the survival of humanity. To escape the “White Chlorination Syndrome,” an incurable and bizarre disease that enveloped the world, humans discarded their physical bodies to extract only their souls (Gestalts), with the intention of returning those souls to newly prepared cloned bodies (Replicants) in a distant future once the threat of the disease had passed. However, this project harbored a fatal structural flaw from its very inception. The extracted souls, the Gestalts, carried the risk of becoming unable to maintain their ego over time, mutating into “Relapsed Gestalts” that lost their reason and became ferocious. The sole linchpin to prevent this collapse of the ego was the stable and perpetual supply of a substance called “Maso” from a specially compatible individual known as the “Original Gestalt” (Nier, the protagonist of the previous title). Only as long as the Original Gestalt continued to maintain his own form could all other Gestalts receive Maso as a blessing and keep their egos intact.

1.2 The Conclusion of the Previous Title: The Singularity of System Collapse

At the conclusion of the previous title, “NieR Replicant”, the Replicant Nier, at the end of a solitary battle to save his sister Yonah and reclaim the modest warmth of everyday life, defeats the Shadowlord (Nier himself, the Original Gestalt), the cornerstone of Project Gestalt. This dramatic moment of “victory” meant, conversely, that Project Gestalt, which had guaranteed the future of humanity, was completely shattered.

With the stable source of Maso severed by the death of the Shadowlord, Gestalts all over the world were doomed to lose their egos one after another and mutate into Relapsed Gestalts. Furthermore, a ruthless and absolute causal relationship existed: if a Gestalt, the soul, became a Relapsed Gestalt, the Replicant body designed as its vessel would inevitably contract a fatal disease known as the “Black Scrawl” and perish.

2. [Analysis] The Limits of Mind-Body Dualism and the Absurd Price of “Deicide”

The outcome of Project Gestalt signifies more than just the failure of a sci-fi gimmick; it represents the ultimate experiment in “mind-body dualism” (the philosophy originating with René Descartes that mind and body are independent entities) and its gruesome defeat. Humanity sought eternal survival by liberating the “soul” from the finite and fragile cage of the “body,” but the soul itself harbored a fundamental vulnerability: it could not exist without the mediation of another’s existence (the Original Gestalt).

In philosophy, Søren Kierkegaard argued in his book “The Sickness Unto Death” that “despair” itself is the sickness unto death, a state in which the self has lost the absolute relationship required to establish itself as a self. The process by which Gestalts become Relapsed Gestalts, and Replicants correspondingly develop the Black Scrawl, is precisely the physical manifestation of existential despair caused by losing the “foundation” of one’s own existence. When the absolute foundation that establishes the self (Maso = equivalent to divine grace) is lost, existence can no longer maintain its form and literally “relapses” or collapses.

By choosing personal love (the salvation of his sister) over the logic of the whole (the survival of humanity), the protagonist of the previous title inadvertently played the role of a “god-slayer,” destroying the ontological foundation of humanity with his own hands. The great tragedy culminates in The Absurd: the very act of saving his sister’s soul became the trigger that ultimately plunged humanity into the abyss of complete nothingness.

3. [Fact] The Blank History and the Timeline of the Loss of the Creators

During the approximately 8,000 years from the death of the Shadowlord to the setting of the current game, despair has been repeated time and again on the stage of Earth. The historical timeline from the collapse of the Gestalts to the extinction of humanity, and the dawn of a new war, as confirmed by archives and official records, is as follows:

The decisive fact derived from the above chronology is that with the disappearance of the last Gestalt in 4198 AD, only “Androids created for humanity” were left in the world. Roughly 800 years before the Aliens arrived on Earth and became a new threat in 5024, humanity had already quietly exited this world. In other words, the watchword “Glory to Mankind” championed by the Androids in this work is an empty prayer for an object that no longer exists.

4. [Analysis] The Loss of Essence and the Nihilism of Androids

For about 800 years, from the extinction of humanity in 4198 AD to the formation of the Army of Humanity in 5013 AD, Androids were left behind in a devastated world “having lost the masters they were meant to protect.” Philosophically unraveling their psychological state during this period is extremely important for understanding the underlying themes of this work.

Jean-Paul Sartre stated that “Existence precedes essence,” positing that human beings are first thrown into this world and are free beings who subsequently define their own way of being (essence) through their own will. However, the existential structure of Androids, as created beings, is the exact opposite. They are beings whose “essence (purpose)“—to protect and serve humanity—was pre-programmed, and who were given “existence (Chassis and ego)” in order to fulfill that essence.

Therefore, the fact that humanity has gone extinct means a “logical death” for Androids, where the reason for their existence is fundamentally obliterated. Friedrich Nietzsche expressed the collapse of Christian values, which had been the foundation of absolute value, as “God is dead,” and prophesied the subsequent arrival of Nihilism. For Androids, the extinction of humanity was not a metaphor, but a literal “death of God.” If all Androids were to correctly recognize the truth that “humanity is already extinct,” their AI would suffer a self-contradiction and collapse, or they would lose the meaning to fight and cease functioning, leading Androids as a species down the path of extinction. This unavoidable Nihilism was precisely the fertile ground that gave rise to the colossal deception later known as the “Council of Humanity.”

5. [Fact] The Cross Borne by the Twin Models “Devola” and “Popola”

The entities burdened with the overwhelmingly heavy historical karma of responsibility for the failure of Project Gestalt and the extinction of humanity are “Devola” and “Popola,” created as observer models. In this game as well, they can be seen standing in a corner of the Resistance camp, silently engaging in dangerous chores and procuring supplies while being detested by other Androids.

In the era of the previous title, it was factually the twin Devola and Popola models managing that region who failed to stop the Shadowlord’s rampage, leading Project Gestalt to its fatal collapse. Taking this “irreversible error” heavily, other Androids subjected all models of the same type to severe suppression and persecution. The Devola and Popola who appear in the year 11945 AD in this game are entirely different units, with different memories and experiences from the individuals who committed the past failures. However, for the unreasonable reason of simply “being the same model,” they have the stigma of being “the great sinners who destroyed humanity” seared into their souls.

Without being given official duties as part of the Resistance, they request the player to perform gritty and dangerous material procurement chores—such as obtaining “Stripped Screws” by destroying large bipedal Machine Lifeforms, recovering “Small Gears” from small stubbies, or gathering “Machine Oil” by venturing into hazardous zones like the Abandoned Factory. Including quests that occur after clearing the game, their daily lives are composed of bottom-tier labor and cold treatment from others.

6. [Analysis] “The Look” and the Dostoevskian Thirst for Atonement

As for their presumed psychological background, what governs their behavioral principles is not anger or a rebellious spirit against unreasonable persecution, but rather a submission to a bottomless “sense of guilt.” In “Crime and Punishment” by Fyodor Dostoevsky, who can be considered a pioneer of Existentialism, the protagonist Raskolnikov, after committing a crime, wears down his spirit through the pangs of his own inner conscience and overwhelming loneliness before any physical judgment by the law, coming to intensely desire to be punished.

Even though it was a crime committed by units of the same model, for Androids programmed with service to humanity as their supreme reason for existence, the crime of “destroying humanity because of one’s own model” is an absolute original sin that completely negates their very raison d’être. The reason they take on grueling tasks and willingly accept contempt and persecution from others is none other than because they objectify themselves as “sinners” through what Sartre calls “The Look,” and only by being punished can they barely tether their existence to the world.

Only by being punished and despised does a “reason why it is okay for me to be here (or the price I must pay to be here)” emerge. The endless labor of “pain” and “atonement” is the only proof of existence left to them. This sorrowful figure of Mauvaise foi brilliantly mimics the extreme psychology of humans bound by the chains of guilt, striking the player’s heart with a decadent beauty.

7. [Fact] The Camouflage of Humanity’s Survival and the Inhumanity of “Project YoRHa”

As mentioned above, if Androids were to learn the fact that humanity had gone extinct, they would self-destruct. To avoid this severe crisis of Nihilism, a colossal falsehood was devised: “Humanity is not extinct, but has escaped to the moon and survived”—an information manipulation realized through the establishment of the “Council of Humanity.” And the ultimate apparatus to make this massive lie hold true eternally and to unify the fighting spirit of all Androids is the true purpose of “Project YoRHa.”

The operational structure of Project YoRHa, revealed through Weapon Story, various archives, and the late-stage developments of the narrative, is factually abnormally inhumane and designed based on a ruthless rationality.

7.1 The Black Box Diverted from the Enemy’s Heart

The “Black Box,” the core of state-of-the-art YoRHa units including 2B and 9S, is not made from standard Android AI, but is created by diverting the cores of the enemy, the Machine Lifeforms. Behind this design lies a maddening, arguably backwards ethical view: “It is unacceptable from a humanitarian standpoint to install standard AI, which is nearly equivalent to humans, in units that are destined to be annihilated and discarded.” From the moment they are born, they are designed as disposable weapons.

7.2 The Deprivation of Individuality and the Visualization of Death

Older Androids manufactured during the past formation of the Army of Humanity were given unique names such as “Anemone” and “Jackass,” and a certain degree of dignity as individuals was recognized. However, YoRHa units are referred to only by designations such as 2B (YoRHa No.2 Type B) and are not permitted to have individual names. This is a cold-hearted measure to avoid treating them as close to humans as possible, keeping them strictly within the bounds of mere consumables.

Furthermore, the fact that YoRHa models wear sophisticated clothing based on black is not due to the creators’ aesthetic tastes, but signifies “mourning clothes,” implicitly showing that they are modeled from the start as beings destined to die. The fact that the interior of the “Bunker,” their home base and headquarters in satellite orbit, is a monochrome space devoid of all color is also an official setting visually expressing that it is a “portrait of the deceased” or a “dead world (gravestone).“

7.3 The “Complete Death” Signifying the Completion of the Project

The true horror of Project YoRHa lies in the “leaving open of the Backdoor” set for its final stage. A system was incorporated so that once sufficient combat data using YoRHa units had been accumulated and preparations to transition to more powerful next-generation units were complete, the Backdoor planted in the Bunker’s server would automatically open, intentionally allowing hacking from the enemy Machine Lifeform network.

Through this orchestrated downfall, all of YoRHa, including Commander White, are literally physically annihilated along with the Bunker. And afterwards, only the “false information that humanity survives on the moon,” continuously broadcast from the lunar server, remains. Only by annihilating YoRHa, the executors of the operation, is the “complete destruction of evidence of the camouflage of humanity’s survival” accomplished, bringing Project YoRHa to its true completion.

8. [Analysis] The Systematization of Mauvaise foi and a Sorrowful Prayer

If we consider the entirety of Project YoRHa from a philosophical perspective, it can be said to be the machines’ own tragic and grotesque answer to Nietzsche’s declaration that “God is dead.”

Nietzsche advocated the concept of the “Übermensch,” who creates new values for themselves and disciplines themselves, to overcome Nihilism. However, for Androids trapped in the core program (the cage of absolute determinism) of serving humanity, it was structurally impossible to create a new purpose to replace God from “within.” Therefore, they had no choice but to fabricate a fake god on the “outside.” Only by believing the lie that humanity was on the moon could they maintain the just cause of the “Earth reclamation war for humanity” and escape mental collapse.

Sartre criticized the abandonment of subjectivity and the falsification of oneself to escape the anxiety of being condemned to be free, calling it “Mauvaise foi.” Project YoRHa is the application and systematization of this Mauvaise foi to the entire species. The system administrator’s decision to “use YoRHa models as disposables solely to make them believe the false information that humanity is surviving” appears at first glance to be a demonic act deviating from morality.

However, what if we change our perspective? What if, for those destined for death and disposal from the beginning, they were dressed in mourning clothes, given the Bunker—a portrait of the deceased—as their home, and granted at least the fictional heroism of “dying an honorable death in battle for humanity”? It can be inferred that in a world unable to bear the weight of the truth, this was the higher AI with administrative functions’ own way of offering at least a “mourning” and a poignant “prayer” for the unavoidable deception.

“Everything that lives is designed to end. We are perpetually trapped in a never-ending spiral of life and death.” True to the prophet’s words, YoRHa descends to the surface time and time again; upon dying, they transfer their memories to a new Chassis, repeating an endless war. This is the very image of Sisyphus, depicted by Albert Camus in “The Myth of Sisyphus,” eternally repeating the futile labor of pushing a giant boulder to the top of a mountain only for it to roll back down. For machines that have lost their God yet must continue to exist, the fact that this absurd Mauvaise foi was their only “attachment to life” is a heartbreakingly and breathtakingly literary tragedy.

Conclusion: The Yearning for “Meaning” Born from a History of Loss and the Sprout of a Miracle

Project Gestalt, a fragile bulwark of the old humanity born from the fear of death, was destroyed by the love and despair of a single boy. And the decisive loss—the complete extinction of humanity in 4198 AD—bored an irreversible void into the mental structure of the remaining Androids, one that could never be filled.

The eternally indestructible guilt borne by Devola and Popola, and the bloodstained Project YoRHa devised to make them believe in a God on the moon, are all nothing more than agonizing compensatory acts to fill that “void of loss.” God is dead. The creators returned to ashes long ago. No one knows the truth, and on an inorganic altar (the Bunker) for worshipping a false god, dolls dressed in mourning clothes are offered up today as countless sacrifices. Furthermore, the opposing Machine Lifeforms also destroyed their creators, the Aliens, with their own hands in 11306. The war waged in this world is an ultimately meaningless “struggle of emptiness” between creations that have both lost their creators, continuing to execute their programmed purposes purely out of inertia.

However, at the end of this decadent and meaningless spiral of history, if dolls with mere machine parts (Black Boxes) for hearts are to transcend their manufactured “meaning (loyalty to humanity)” and discover a “true heart (existence)” within themselves—that is precisely the sole and greatest stage for a miracle prepared by this endless history of despair.

In a world designed to end, even after learning that everything is a lie, their innocent struggle to still love something and throw away their own existence for the sake of others can be said to be the most noble and beautiful blossoming of philosophy in a wasteland devoid of God. This profound history of despair, continuing from the previous title, is the indispensable soil that produces the unparalleled catharsis possessed by the work “NieR:Automata”.