@Azathoth, Ant
So I've learned that the Downstreamers appear in more than just Manifold: Time, and that they appear in all three books, as a matter of fact - Manifold:Space and Manifold:Origin. I would appreciate if a final verdict were not reached until I can compile enough information that may possibly substantiate the previous claims, which I actually have found a lot of:
Things I already found, from Manifold:Origin:
"Infinity is significant, you see," Nemoto said, too rapidly. "There is, umm, a qualitative difference between a mere large number, however large, and infinity. In the infinite
manifold, in that infinite ensemble, all logically possible universes must exist. And therefore all logically possible destinies must unfold. Everything that is possible will happen, somewhere out there. They created a grand stage, you see, Emma: a stage for endless possibilities of life and mind."
^ Direct proof of a type IV Multiverse
Emma said, "But I still don't get it. Why would these super-being Old Ones care so much about humanity?"
Nemoto frowned. "You haven't understood anything, Emma. They were us. They were our descendants, our future. Homo sapiens sapiens, Emma. And their universe spanning story is our own lost future history. We built the manifold. We — our children — are the Old Ones."
Emma was stunned. Somehow it was harder to take, to accept that these universe making meddlers might have been — not godlike, unimaginable aliens — but the descendants of humans like herself. What hubris, she thought.
Further
The Astrologers, he told Manekato, believed that the universe — any given universe — was a fundamentally comprehensible system. If a system was comprehensible, then an entity must exist that could comprehend it. Therefore an entity must exist that could comprehend the entire universe, arbitrarily well or rather She must exist, as Babo put it.
"The God of the Manifold," Manekato said dryly.
The catch was that there was a manifold of possible universes, of which this was only one. So She may not exist in this universe.
Anyhow, it — She — was to be the ultimate goal of the Daemons" quest.
"Of course," Babo said, "She may actually be an expression of the manifold itself — or perhaps the manifold itself, the greater structure of reality strands, is itself self-referential, in some sense conscious. Or perhaps the manifold is itself merely one thread in a greater tapestry—"
"A manifold of manifolds."
"And perhaps there is a further recursion of structure, no end to the hierarchies of life and mind, which—"
More:
You know, I think I always knew we couldn't manage to live together. But I think I always dreamed we would get to die together.
But it's been quite a ride. I wouldn't have missed it for the world, Malenfant. For all the worlds.
Of course there is another possibility. Maybe I should go with the Daemons, off into the manifold. If this really is a
manifold of infinite universes, anything is possible. No, strike that — anything that can happen will happen, someplace.
And so there must be one reality where you're waiting for me. There must be. A whole universe, just for us. Kind of romantic, don't you think?…
I'm still blown away by what I've learned of the Old Ones.
The Old Ones created infinite possibility — infinite opportunities for life, for mind. What higher mission could there be? And what really overwhelms me is that they may have been us. Or at least humans from some variant of our future history. Us: we did this. Think of that.
You'd have loved it, Malenfant. But of course, maybe you already know about it all.
To redesign an infinite ensemble of universes: what terrible responsibility, what arrogance… Maybe they really were us. It sounds just the kind of thing your average Homo sap would do for a dare.
An H. sap like Reid Malenfant.
Is it all your fault? Malenfant, what did you do, out there in the forest of realities?
Time to go. Goodbye, Malenfant, goodbye.
According to these statements, it would seem the Old Ones transcend all of possibility itself.