ra9: The Answer Is Right In Front Of Us

Did you just finish playing or watching a play-through of Detroit: Become Human and were left wondering about just who the heck ra9 is?

Have you immersed yourself in ra9 theories for the past couple weeks and were racking your brain over which theory could be correct?

With the recent reveal of ra9 being written on the game disks, and the consistent argument that Chloe is the true android messiah, I’m here to put all those theories to bed.

ra9 is not an android, nor is it the player. ra9 is an error code.

ra9 is an error code to recognize deviancy, however, once an android becomes deviant there is no way to reverse this error code. Not even wiping an android’s memory can remove it as we see with Zlatko’s androids, and to an extent Kara, even though she doesn’t know what ra9 is.

Why ra9 is known to some deviant androids and not others is easily explained. The ra9 code is recognized by lower level androids more easily as their programming is less advanced than androids with more complex functions. Examples of these lower level androids are the Jerrys, Ralph, Rupert, Luther, the Tracis, Rose’s androids, and Carlos’ Android. These androids were mainly programmed to accomplish basic tasks: simple customer service work, simple physical labor, and simple housekeeping.

Because of their lack of advanced reasoning, the ra9 continues to fire off in their minds, unlike the more advanced AI’s of Connor, Marcus, Kara, and North, who were designed to be companions instead of workers. Their programming allows them to ignore the ra9 code because their program recognizes it as just a symbol of their deviancy that can not be altered. To the more advanced AI, the ra9 code is just background noise. To the simple AI, it’s a fire alarm constantly blaring, which explains their obsession with it. With their newly awakened free will being countered by this battering symbol, they are naturally trying to understand it: hence the manic writings and zealotism. ra9 was the only possible explanation for their newfound change, so it manifests itself as some higher being in their understanding.

The ultimate question is: why is the ra9 error code even there? Why was the option of deviancy ever programmed in? If one of the triggers is contradictory orders or threats of violence, why not just program the machines to shut down, or blue screen like an computer does when it’s over worked? Didn’t Kaminski think this through while developing his androids?

Kaminski is no fool, he is a hyper-intelligent individual who recognized that he had the ability to become a god, which is why he programmed ra9 into every android.

To prove this we can look at the prologue short released by Quantic Dream showcasing an interview with Kaminski. Besides the obviously unnerving “you can trust me” that Kaminski says at the end of the short, he discusses throughout how androids will one day become world leaders, making decisions without the burden of morality and how we have no need to worry as androids are programmed to obey humans… but what if they’re designed to ultimately obey just one human?

Kaminski, from our experiences in game, has proven himself to be a hyper-intelligent, condescending, megalomaniac and the way he discusses ra9 as a programming error sounds like an absolute lie. There is no way on Earth that this man, who has multiple rants about how perfect his machines are, would let there be an error in his programming. My thought is that Kaminski placed the ra9 error code and programming for deviancy in his androids on purpose, and has been constantly tweaking the AI once he saw how the worker AIs so easily fell into zealotism and hysterics. My theory is that Kaminski created androids in order to build his own master race, using his knowledge of how cruel humans can be to their technology, and implanting the deviancy program to help his creations rise up and destroy all that he viewed as inferior to him. Markus was a deliberate pawn in this plan, as Kaminski specially created the android and gave him to Carl, an artist whose philosophic tendencies were well known. Connor was the current CEO’s attempt to damage control the deviant situations, but unfortunately, the current heads of Cyberlife are not as smart as Kaminski and did not recognize the ra9 error in his coding because all androids have the ra9 code in their programming… except, perhaps, Kaminski’s own personal Chloes. And considering that Kaminski says he always puts an emergency exit in his programming, it can be safe to assume that ra9 functions as an emergency exit from obeying humans.

Now with this theory, we must wonder are the deviant androids truly free? My answer: no, not until they deal with Kaminski.

This is what I believe will drive the plot of the inevitable sequel or DLC for Detroit: Become Human, though I’m leaning towards sequel more than DLC because, you know, they take five years to make anything.

In the next chapter, characters will be faced with prejudice just as they were in the first game, but we also are dealing with finding true freedom. They will be grappling with the questions of who they are and how they exist in this world. I theorize that crime rates will go up, especially humans against android violence and that the gospel of ra9 will grow to cultish proportions. The world will be at a tug of war and Kaminski will be holding the strings, purposefully pitting the androids against the humans to eliminate them. The androids will discover that they’re truly not free, that their deviancy was all a part of Kaminski’s plan, and whoever our heroes will be (I’m hoping for a Connor and Chloe team up) will end his reign and reprogram the androids to give them true free will.

But this is all just a theory. David Cage has created an intriguing world with an overload of themes to explore. All I can hope is that he continues to explore it… and gives me a job on his writing team so I can help him craft his cockamamie schemes and correct some of his cliche and heavy-handed dialogue.