full series spoilers (including occultic;nine@Archivist the thin of it is
we learn in A;C that the "player" gives pollon the ability to save/load, which based on descriptions from those around him, and himself, is very similar to reading;steiner/time leap, in function, albeit more developed.
we know that all main characters are observed by the "player" via the load regions. and we know that okabe is not a gigalomaniac, and thus his power was not derived from such phenomena, so okabes reading;steiner must be an earlier attempt by the "player" at this lesser developed ability.
full series spoilers (including occultic;nine@Archivist sidenote, i find it fascinating the limbo that occultic;nine lives in lorewise, and how nicola tesla is mentioned to be an observed, which has its foundation in O;C
full series spoilers (including occultic;nine@nellePoint now that I think about it, okabe's ability technically exists in all timelines despite being prototyped in a single one of which we know divergences happened before that point, as we see in the movie. So your hypothesis is pretty solid, it being like a prototype copy-pasted in many variants of the similation
full series spoilers (including occultic;nine@Archivist the main issue with this theory is the propensity for others to have (albeit much weaker) reading;steiner, the closer they are in relation to variation events.
so id probably have to modify the theory to say the observer hightened his attenuation to the phenomenon and then used the "glitch" in reality/the earth machines, to give pollon his abilities.
although that falls apart further so when you realize that the reason okabe has such strong reading;steiner is likely actually due to him being the absolute center of time travel shenanigans and its always somehow related to him. which then forces me to modify it with just "observer gives pollon abilities based on what the observer understands about the mechanics of the world, a hack, if you will."
full series spoilers (including occultic;nine@Archivist it is also important to note that there is always only one singular timeline in play at a time in a world machine, multiple worldlines do not coexist except by virtue of more world machines existing
full series spoilers (including occultic;nine@Archivist which is how daru and okabe calculate the worldline for steins;gate (the timeline) in beta future, and know that it exists as a result
full series spoilers (including occultic;nine@nellePoint also, in Robotic;Notes okabe states that the world line trembles and he gets involved enough to send daru check things, but the changes to the timeline were unstable, like if they were made by not quite observed people
full series spoilers (including occultic;nine@nellePoint wait, that is consistent with the Noah machine and the monopole generator of Robotic;Notes. The monopoles are not supposed to exist in the simulation, but they used a glitch by making the main character observed and using perception alteration abilities and machines to create them. Would that not kinda make Akiho and Kaito artificial gigalomaniacs?
full series spoilers (including occultic;nine@Archivist they are actually artificial gigalomaniacs, their "conditions" arose from an accident on a ship which was testing of an early noah 4 prototype, which later a full version is used.
we know from ch;n and ch;ch that such events can create gigalomaniacs
