As someone who just finished my systems programming course last semester, I can't help but think that some of the terminology used in the game can shed some light on the story; specifically the argument that the game takes place in a digital world inside of a computer (i.e., Cloudbank is entirely digital).
"Cloudbank" - "Cloud" and "bank" both suggest data storage, for obvious reasons.
"The Process" - processes are programs that run on your computer. Your operating system has the task of allocating memory and time to each of these processes, essentially juggling the different programs and making it seem like all of the programs on your computer are running simultaneously, even though your processor is constantly switching back and forth between executing instructions for different programs. Your operating system gives out your computer's memory to different processes; so maybe Cloudbank is one program running on a computer, but "The Process" represents a different program that is trying to use the memory currently storing Cloudbank. Generally, processes interfering with each other (i.e., using the same memory or a process using memory not allotted to it by the OS) is pretty damn catastrophic. Kind of reflects the apocalyptic "segmentation fault" which strikes Cloudbank during the events of Transistor.
"Process terminated" - standard terminology for an operating system halting the execution of a program. Used when Red wins a battle; she's "fighting off" processes attempting to use the memory which holds Cloudbank.
"Read/write access" is displayed on the memory blocks at the end of the game after the duel with Royce, before Red writes to them with the Transistor. This further supports the theory - memory blocks can only be read or written to by the process which has ownership over them. Once Red beats Royce, she has ownership over the memory which is storing Cloudbank, so she can do with it as she likes. For instance, rewriting the entire city's memory.
"Return to shell" - shown at the end of the game. I'd argue this is a double meaning. Return to "shell" - i.e. vessel/body, but more than that, when I saw the phrase I instantly thought of a shell in systems programming. It's basically a command prompt or terminal window from which you can execute different programs. Well, returning to shell here "steps out" of the game Transistor, essentially terminating the process on YOUR computer which is running Transistor. This suggests that even in the Transistor universe, Transistor is just a computer process. Why else would there be an in-game canonical message saying that ending Transistor is "returning to Shell" - terminology used for ending the running of a computer program?
"Transistor" - one of the key inventions which allows digital computers to exist in the form they do today. Without transistors, we would have no digital computing revolution and the world would be insanely different. Transistors are essentially the most basic building block of a computer. Well, what eponymous game tool allows for the rewriting of an entire city, no, the entire world? Yep, the Transistor.
"Current" - shown after the process has taken over, transporting Red from place to place. What do transistors do as electrical components? They allow a small electrical current to trigger a larger one. Electrical currents flowing are what allows a computer to run. Not sure exactly how this fits in, but it's obviously related to a transistor.
"Abyss. Depth: NaN" - shown in one of the upside down scenes after the process takes over (and "wipes the memory" of Cloudbank). NaN, or "not a number" is used in many programming languages to represent the concept of infinity. Not sure if this is relevant to the theory, but it further contributes to the Process's aesthetic of "stripping away" fancy stuff and showing the more raw, low-level bits of the machine that Cloudbank obscured with its pretty scenery.
I feel like this terminology is all there for a reason; it's all tightly linked to the idea of an operating system controlling memory allocation among different computer programs. It strongly suggests that even in-universe, Transistor takes place in a digital world - specifically a single process running on a computer, competing for memory with other processes in the way that your internet browser is currently competing with Spotify or whatever else you're running. The Transistor itself allows for the rewriting of the universe in the same way that transistors allow for computers to function - the rewriting of the digital universe inside of a computer.
Thoughts?
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