I Want To Study Him Under A Microscope - Blog Posts

Guys. Listen. I saw the update for Welcome Home, and uhhh

I hate how I already like this little guy. But, like, can you blame me???

Ulrich: The Awakened Ferroliquid is actually based on the research and findings of Alan Turing, the man know for the early concept of the internet and computer.

This will be an analysis of how Ulrich is inspired by Alan Turing, and theorise exactly what Ulrich is planning to do in 2.8 (so this is a discussion on CN patch 2.8 not global friendly)

Alr: the immediate though that came to Ulrich since his appearance in 1.9 was that he was an Awakened from the invention of the ferroliquid, until now this was largely accepted/ considered since we did not know much outside of his job as the Lead Cryptographer.

That was until 2.8 and the reveal as the free 6* in the new gamemode!

Why isn't he based exactly on the invention of the Ferroliquid? That's because the ferroliquid was formerly invented and discovered in its state in 1963 by Steve Papell of Nasa, and yet Ulrich's Era is stated to be 2 decades before.

So why Alan Turing?

Looking at Ulrich's birthday 30th May around the 1940s one of the significant events related to Cryptography was during WW2 Alan Turing alongside Gordon Welchman designated the British Bombes to help decrypt the Wehrmacht Engima machine signals (and yes Engima is based on this cipher machine). Ulrich's character story in 2.4 with him deciphering oscioscope with Engima by the end of the character story could be a reference to this.

One of Turing's inventions was the Turing Pattern, a concept that described which describes how patterns in nature, such as stripes and spots, can arise naturally and autonomously from a homogeneous, uniform state. This can be seen in 1.9 when Ulrich told Ms Radio to "groove to the incantation" in order to transmit the Storm Immunity Incantation to team TK on Aperion without the consquences of the incantation affecting the transmitter and the reciever.

These patterns can be seen in Ulrich's signature and in his ult:

The best way to test Turing's pattern is using ferrofluid, hence why Ulrich is an Awakened Ferrofluid.

Ulrich's role in 2.8

What is Ulrich planning to do in Antractica, and how does it relate to Alan Turing's work?

2.4 and to some extent 2.7 have been alluding to Ulrich's experiments involving Storm Immunity, as in 2.4 he attempts to test if the properties of the Regulus Disk that enabled the Satellite to resist the Storm before it crashed into Regulus' era if it can be replicated by making copies of the disk, down to the same ink and manufacturing of the disk. However the original disk remained perfectly unharmed and the multiple copies were destroyed in the process.

With little information most of us were asking why was Ulrich testing Storm Immunity again even though since 1.9 the Foundation had the Umbrellas? The CN website teasing aspects of 2.8 (credit to Merui for the translations) have revealed exactly what Ulrich hopes to do:

This reveals exactly how the Satellite: (1) remained in orbit following the First Storm since we get told in Ulrich's story the satellite had been put up prior to the First Storm, and (2) made the satellite 'resistant' to the Storm since 2.8 revealed that even space to a degree was affected by the Storm. Its crash likely the result of lack of maintenance and that it wasn't 'immune' but 'resistant', crashing into the 1960s era of Regulus.

(Also this explains why just his head made it out, the disk gave him enough time to ensure his survival via saving is Awakened form)

So therefore: Ulrich plans to replicate the disk's properities over a wider range of area outside just a ship, so I spectulate this is his role in 2.8.

The poster teaser alludes to a big battle between Foundation and Manus forces, and we know since 2.2 Sophia intends to create a Storm rather than accelerate a pre-existing one. From the PV its clear the Foundation loses and Arcana is revived, a Storm is very likely to happen however it is unknown this will happen after or during Arcana's revival.

So Ulrich's role is a trail by fire, test if the disk or its properties can affect a large enough area when the Storm hits to buy Foundation/ others time to evacute from the incoming Storm.

I think we can look at Alan Turing again for what Ulrich is planning to test:

In other words, keeping a certain radius in its intial state prior to the Storm hitting it = putting a pause on the Storm in an area for a brief moment.

Summary: Ulrich is an Awakened based on the Turing Pattern, which is best shown through Ferrofluids. Ulrich's role in 2.8 is likely to create a method to briefly pause the Storm's effect in a radius and ensure more people survive the evacuation of the Storm, that in the inevitable event that Arcana is revived and/ or the Manus is finally able to create their own Storms the Foundation have at least two countermeasures in the from of a Storm delayer and the Equilibrium Umbrella to combat it.