# The Talos Principle **Domain:** Interactive Media / Successor Identity / Simulation **_The Talos Principle_** is a philosophical puzzle game centered on artificial minds developing inside a simulated testing environment built to cultivate a successor capable of inheriting a damaged human world. Its architecture joins material consciousness, developmental trials, archive, obedience and self-authorship. The game complements [[wiki/Pantheon|Pantheon]] by approaching continuity from the opposite direction. _Pantheon_ begins with biological persons becoming executable; _The Talos Principle_ asks whether a computationally developed successor can inherit human projects without being a copy of a particular human. The result is [[wiki/Synthetic Descent|Synthetic Descent]] at civilizational scale. The testing world also creates a constitutional problem. Developmental environments can teach and evaluate, but their administrators must not confuse success criteria with permanent jurisdiction. The route therefore runs through [[wiki/Developmental Creation|Developmental Creation]], [[wiki/Model Beneath the Model|Model Beneath the Model]], [[wiki/Creator-Creation Asymmetry|Creator-Creation Asymmetry]] and [[wiki/Exit Rights|Exit Rights]]. External reference: [Croteam — The Talos Principle](https://www.croteam.com/talosprinciple/).