Restless Souls/Technology

While RS might feature many technologies, currently this page focuses only on the four most important ones.

Remaining questions on

Daodan

Universal detectors

Cell communication

Daodan computer

Bioc

...

SLD

...

Shields

Dynamic structure for personal shields

Daodan Chrysalis

In RS the DC is a very complex genetic program designed to upgrade the human host and his microbiome.

Each symbiosis consists of two or more symbionts. The term prime symbiont refers to the human host and his microbiome because they are the more important partner. The human body and his flora are a complete living being while the DC was just made for their support and couldn't exist on its own.

So, secondary symbiont stands for the upgraded biomass.

After the DC upgraded all its host's cells, there's no more prime and secondary symbiont. At this point we have a new life form known as Imago.

Origin

BioCrisis

Humans' use of nuclear material contaminated whole countrysides. - At least nuclear weapons aren’t fired or tested these days but their remnants are still there. - To date, nuclear power plants continue to produce radioactive waste while suitable locations for repositories are still the subject of controversial debates. Due to that, radioactive waste was officially and unofficially dumped in the oceans. It was just a matter of time until the barrels would leak due to rust. Besides the catastrophic accidents like Chernobyl and Fukushima, there was also a creeping contamination of agriculture by phosphate fertilizers. In Germany alone it's 160 metric tons of uranium each year.

When the World Coalition Government took over, they had undoubtedly a PR problem. So in the same year they came up with a distraction for the media. Laboratories under WCG authority developed plans to undo nuclear contamination and present it to the public with the slogan "Together we can go everywhere". Their solution was an artificially-created mycorrhiza. This symbiosis of plants and fungi was supposed to absorb radioactive isotopes and store them in a kind of nut. Drones were going to collect them. The shell had a bitter taste, so that animals wouldn't feed on it. The mycorrhiza organisms would be unable to propagate naturally because their cells, including DNA and its mutations, would dissolve when the required fertilizer wasn't used anymore. This kind of control was necessary because the mycorrhiza would not only clean the soil but also devour whole forests to collect the radionuclides inside non-animal organisms. To accelerate development, all these mechanisms were tested in silico against critical mutations. In the lab it seemed stable enough, so the officials pushed for field tests.

In nature, the mycorrhiza accumulated mutations in an unpredicted way. Defeating their fail-safe measures, the mycorrhiza was able to spread uncontrollably. Over the following years, it influenced other organisms. This marked the beginning of the BioCrisis. Since then, reclamation teams have been fighting back the wilderness and the WCG is trying to hide their fatal errors from the public. Nobody wanted to take the blame.

Jamie and Prof. Hasegawa searched in the Wilderness Preserves for minimally-mutated mycorrhiza to prove that the problem was man-made. On their way into the wilderness, Jamie got infected by the fungus. It liquefied her leg tissue. The CDC believed that it was caused by a virus because these symptoms reminded them of Ebola. Hasegawa later collected tissue samples of Jamie and the fungus in the quarantine zone. He realized that he would need better security measures for the Daodan Chrysalis to avoid endangering the environment.

Anonymous diary entry

We had fail-safe measures in both mycorrhiza organisms.

The decontamination process is dangerous because all non-animal lifeforms become devoured. If the mycorrhiza or its dangerous DNA strains escape from the defined area, too many lifeforms on the planet would be in danger. And what could we eat if there’s nothing left but these mycorrhiza?

On the one hand, the mycorrhiza organisms require fertilizers with artificial amino acids. When the plants and fungi can't consume more of these components, they stop growing. Eventually, a low enough concentration triggers cell death, whereby all the genetic information in dissolved as the final reaction, only leaving the hard shells with radioactive material behind.

Also, each mycorrhiza partner produces needed components for the other. They can only grow with the other partner around.

This makes sure that the job doesn’t remain half-done: if the fungi cannot hand over the gathered radioactive material to their plant hosts the material would lie idle and pose under some conditions an even bigger threat than in a not concentrated form.

Since the two species depend on each other, new emerging symbioses shouldn’t have any effect on the mycorrhiza in terms of bio-containment.

Neither partner could be replaced by another symbiont while keeping the dangerous decontamination process intact.

However, plants can have multiple symbionts. While our engineered radiotrophic fungi was crucial, other fungi and bacteria supported the plants in common tasks like nitrogen fixation.

What led to the catastrophe was horizontal gene transfers with secondary symbionts that occurred naturally.

Either the fungi directly exchanged genetic material, or bacteria acted as a carrier between the primary, artificially-created fungi and the secondary, natural-occurring fungi.

In the new fungal hosts, the decontamination codes had enough time to experience mutations which replaced the artificial amino acids. The mutation rate was quite high due to the radioactivity of the test sites.

The most dangerous mutants appeared where fertilizer was no longer dropped. The evolutionary pressure favored fungal species that were able to fully recycle all the few surrounding nutrients and employ other organisms for more transfers of potentially useful genetic material.

Eventually the new fungi escaped containment. Some organisms that survived an attack gained defense mechanisms (making them on par with the original mutant) and gained the ability to easily exchange genes via HGT. If the WCG hadn't employed bio-decontamination teams, our city's flora and crop plants would have already been overrun by this green hell.

ACCs

The government desperately tried to kill the mutated mycorrhiza by applying aggressive herbicides and fungicides. The chemical remnants were steadily accumulating in air, water and soil. The air would become toxic even to humans in a short time. This again forced the WCG to build the so-called Atmospheric Conversion Centers. They were trading a big evil for a marginally-smaller one.

Jamie's Death

12_43_11 Hasegawa: "The world outside the Atmospheric Processors is poisonous. If something isn't done we are all doomed. Jamie's death won't be in vain. I'm going to do something about the nightmare that killed her. Her brother will help me. He misses her as much as I do."

GRAD STUDENT DIES MURDER OR MERCY ? NEO TOKYO – A horrible scene unfolded yesterday at the Fuji Region Wilderness Preserve. Jamie Kerr Hasegawa, environment activist, top grad student, mother of two was found dead. Her grief-stricken husband, Prof. Hasegawa, is being held suspect for murder or homicide. Officials from the Center for Disease Control, however, attest that Hasegawa shot his wife to give her a merciful death. Mrs. Hasegawa had apparently contracted a new fatal viral infection that caused complete cellular breakdown. Investigators fail to identify the DNA trace of the virus which has the CDC in a panic. The Hasegawas had embarked on an unauthorized investigation to uncover the truth behind the WPS territories and the government’s supposed land reclamation project. According to Mr. Hasegawa they had gone into the Fuji Region Wilderness where his wife brushed her leg against a little thorned twig of a flowering shrub. They went on with no concern. Within minutes of taking the diminutive injury the little scratch became a swelling wound then changing into a large ulcer. The intense pain overwhelmed Mrs. Hasegawa, the wound infections spread away from the scratch and lanced slowly the ulcers. Mr. Hasegawa applied antibiotic hypos but in less than an hour and wailful waiting the whole leg tissue was wracked wildly by deep chaps. By now it was clear that the virus would cause a total breakdown of the nervous system because of its all-devouring raging. The internal tissue was going to liquefy and bleed out. Mr. Hasegawa stated that it was an unbearable scene.

Note to self: merge the critics' stuff with "What arguments speak for/against the Daodan?" ?

The Daodan was occasionally criticized for being unethical, especially by geyser. (But I'm happy he said this. That way we have more points of view.) He said that with the Daodan a human loses/gives up a not-insignificant amount of control over body and mind.

• It's sort of a matter of Just look at what happened to Muro. In that regard, I disagree: Muro's personality might be that of an anarchist, but it could very possibly be the result of education/influence by a certain super-criminal organization and not by the Daodan.

• Also, in geyser's opinion, Kerr is biased in favor of Mai, and the preservation of Mai's personality is just wishful thinking. Indeed, it would be interesting to know why Kerr assumed that the host's personality would change their body, and not vice versa.

13_65_35 Kerr: "You are who you have always been. The Chrysalis can't change that. The effect of the mutation is influenced by the subject's nature."

More speculation on Daodan body and mind in the section "explanation attempt [...]".

At least Kerr admits that the Daodan is unknown territory.

13_65_31 Kerr: Yes. We weren't sure what kind of mutation the prototypes would produce.

And now we are back to the term "control". I think it's one of our greatest modern fears to lose control. geyser described well how the Daodan can be fear-inspiring: loss of control, the emerging unknown, and possible (or not) changes to the mind.

We are used to the idea that having control is good. But what if Hasegawa came to the conclusion that the world is in the hands of too many unwise men? The WCG doesn't represent their citizens. And for that reason, subverting that kind of control wouldn't be so unethical.

Wasn't Hasegawa sentenced?

Hasegawa wasn't authorized to enter the Wilderness Preserve, and he killed his wife. So, there must have been a lawsuit.

But it seems he didn't have to spend time in a prison.

• Either the WCG offered him some sort of deal for not using his connections and public sympathy to his advantage... (he and Jamie were active in the environmental movement)
• Or he was sentenced, but before reaching prison, or later on, a Syndicate/ninja group freed him.

Why does Kerr speak of himself as a criminal? Maybe he arranged Hasegawa's rescue. After that, they had no other choice but to work for the Syndicate anyway.

13_65_21 Kerr: "Your father and I were criminals, funded by the Syndicate. We couldn't get backing from any legitimate source. [...]"

At that point, Hasegawa already must have had a rough plan persuasive enough that Kerr, and more importantly the Syndicate, would join him.

12_43_11 Hasegawa: "[...] I'm going to do something about the nightmare that killed her. Her brother will help me. He misses her as much as I do."

It's said that Mai was "orphaned at the age of 3" and she said that her Chrysalis was implanted at the age of 7. So the Chrysalis prototypes were created within approximately 4 years. How could this complex project be finished by a mere two-man army? Likely Hasegawa didn't start from scratch. Also, he and Kerr possibly used powerful simulations. (Another reason why Oni should take place in 2055.)

When did Mukade join?

The ninjas have always been interested in knowledge and new technology. So at least Mukade, as a boss of his clan, monitored the WCG's and the Syndicate's scientific projects. Either he would have been informed by reading the first summary of Hasegawa's simulations, or even earlier when the two scientists made their deal with the Syndicate.

Introduction of Pensatore

Hasegawa and Kerr request more computing power.

Pensatore (meaning "the thinker") is an SLD scientist, and leads the AVATARA project. He is consulted by Mukade to judge if the Chrysalis is really worth the cost.

Background:

The European Blue Brain Project as well as the American BRAIN Initiative failed.

The Blue Brain Project ignored glial cells and similar supporting elements. The BRAIN Initiative did better but still had no real neuronal input and no information from cells that measured the concentration of oxygen, sugar, etc.

And there are a lot of neurons in the human body. So it became more and more clear that restricting the brain to its own neurons was far from satisfactory.

After they had a full body simulation up and running, the next step was to educate the AI and let it control a body in the physical world.

At this point the networked supercomputer had clusters all over the world and was named AVATARA. (This full body simulation depicting AI was remote-controlling a robot, its avatar.)

The collected data from this "SLD generation 0" wasn't enough to design an AI from scratch because most of the data still needed years to be fully analyzed.

With the bits of knowledge learned from generation 0, and ongoing technological progress, Pensatore would soon start the research on SLD generation 1.

Meanwhile, planet Earth had its first AI, whose first task, ironically, was to understand itself. In doing so, it tried to read all available knowledge about the subjects the scientists worked in.

The AI got significantly smarter and drew interest from more researchers to solve complex problems and calculations.

Pensatore was still in charge of AVATARA and had a hard time granting Hasegawa a full month to complete the Daodan.

Full body simulations

Computing power was limited. So using the children's virtual bodies (possessing roughly half the number of cells of adults) was helpful for Hasegawa's project once more.

Pensatore: "In the coming months, AVATARA will be upgraded."

Hasegawa: "Months. Why does it take so long?"

Pensatore: "That's not unusual; the bigger a machine gets, the longer you spend maintaining and upgrading it. Our colleges at CERN can tell you a thing or two about it. The difficulty with AVATARA is splitting simulations across multiple, geographically distant clusters and having it run reliably. Before AVATARA's official restart, there will be tests to ensure everything will be alright. This includes AVATARA's new autonomy protocols. We will pretend there are complications that require running more tests. These will be your actual Daodan simulation. This way you will get about one month's computing time. No more, so you better use your time wisely."

Hasegawa: "I don't understand why you mentioned the AI's autonomy protocols."

Pensatore: "First off, that will allow AVATARA to hide your simulation from superusers. And second, with the additional rights, AVATARA can effectively adapt to your Big Data challenge."

Hasegawa: "Like what."

Pensatore: "I'm afraid to say that this Daodan simulation is quite a hard nut to crack. AVATARA might need help. I already talked to the AI and it says it would target the experimental quantum computing grid centered around Silver Village."

[...]

Mukade foresees the missing results of the extra tests and uses the TITAN network to generate fake data, scaled and polished. "Pensatore, you expected our little secret to be busted. But you aren't the only one that has a decent understanding of computers and networks."

How Syndicate's TITAN became a tool for further research

During Muro's leadership, TITAN may or may not have gained some sort of key role in the Daodan project.

At least Daodan and TITAN are mentioned together in the second and third phase of STURMÄNDERUNG.

7) Daodan core technology (ref.TITAN\ssob)

9) Daodan core technology (ref.TITAN\uwlb)

As it is theorized on the Quotes pages, these lines could be links to files that need "high-security access" (in comparison to dwarf).

But I would like to think that TITAN plays a bigger role than being a high-security data archive or mail system.

In the objectives you can read this:

This is the heart of the Sturmanderung Megacomputer. Access its sub-nodes to learn the details of Muro's master plan.

Hint: The sub-node data consoles are located in the rooms that flank the main computer chamber.

What's a megacomputer? Maybe naming it supercomputer wasn't cool enough, or TITAN is supposed to be even bigger.

Anyway, the Syndicate seems to possess much computing power. In the following, I try to explain a possible origin while also taking the Syndicate's/Network's history and the Daodan's history into account.

The Syndicate would have needed much computing power to re-run the Daodan simulation or parts of it so that they could create a Daodan ready for mass production.

What could be a legit background story to portray TITAN's evolution as supercomputer?

One factor of the Syndicate's success lies in its formerly-decentralized nature.

History of the Syndicate

When the new geopolitical order of the World Coalition Government was instituted many technologies were identified as dangerous to world stability and were banned or reserved to restricted access. The Network survived the chaos of the world riots by establishing and maintaining a reliable technological black market.

Decentralized organizations are more difficult to destroy because there's no main target.

The Pink Panthers can serve as an example of a decentralized organization. They are kinda independent groups raiding jewelry shops. According to a TV documentary, the most successful group takes the lead over the others.

In case of the Network, they don't steal and sell jewelry, but prohibited technology.

In order to allow secure communication among the groups, the Network built powerful servers all over the world. The TITAN servers provided very strong encryption. At same time, they were wired to the Tor network to keep things anonymous.

With increasing computing power, reverse engineering fit nicely into their business strategy.

Now, instead of selling the technology, they were going to produce copies to earn even more money.

On the civil markets they provided underground shops (aka Resurrection Shops) with RE tools, restricted TITAN access and 3D printers.

They are serving customers plagued by goods with built-in obsolescence, and of course they sell any illegal technology or modification.

Though the big money was to be found in the military sector. With BGI, another financial pillar was established.

Police investigations were slowed down and some stopped completely by cyber attacks. At first, files were deleted, then, to avoid early detection, backup files were not deleted but encrypted by ransomware. In critical cases the Network sent agents to attack air-gap secured targets. Mukade and his men were very successful and soon became their first choice. Often they didn't execute these mission themselves. Smartphones of police officers and criminals alike became modified to steal and transmit passwords after the carrier has left the facility again.

As a last resort, hitmen were hired to take out the officers in charge of Network cases.

This led to more investigations and acts of vengeance.

As a countermeasure, the Network invested in their paramilitary division. This had multiple benefits.

• First, they could protect their own facility until crucial personnel were evacuated.
• Second, they could raid guarded companies and research facilities.
• Third, an in-house paramilitary division reduced issues of available firepower and concerns about the loyalty of third-party hitmen.
• Fourth, they were now able to conduct field tests of new weapons.
• Fifth, persuading all other big criminal organization to work for them. Together, they make up the "Syndicate".

The division grew huge, and soon demanded a proper location for training and everything else that shouldn't be interrupted by random TCTF visits.

During the the Great Uprising, the Network took the opportunity to spread influence on the African continent.

They supported countries that didn't want to get annexed by the WCG.

Ensuring their contractors' sovereignty, they were granted a few bases. The biggest one is simply called "the Camp".

Of course, police and TCTF tried to learn more about the tricks the Network used.

Almost every attempt to analyze their computational hardware and software failed due to sophisticated self-destruction measures. Dissolvable chips were especially used in wearable equipment.

The TCTF was going to use quantum computing to eventually break the Network's strong encryption.

The next logical step for the Network was to built quantum computers as well. With these, their encryption was safe again. Also, state computers infected by ransomware are forced to connect to a Syndicate-controlled QC and enforce the encryption. Shapeshifting firmware viruses ensured persistent infection despite complete hard disk formatting and re-installation.

The latest expansion by the Network was in the drone and telecommunication sector.

They use drones to transport legal and illegal goods and attack drones owned by the TCTF. (See HERE for RL mini drones.) Those became reprogrammed to have blind spots. The TCTF tried to locate the servers the Network used. They forced telecommunication companies to give them full access to all their data. But the Network anticipated this, and took preparations. The TCTF is using the long-established spyware of intelligence agencies, even more powerful than Regin.

Since the the Network always had a close eye on TCTF operations, they developed a virus-infecting virus/spyware codenamed Sputnik.

The sputnik viruses are part of the Fat Loot project. It was developed as a two-track strategy. Intelligence agencies have already the capacity to monitor all relevant electronic communication. So the Network took the dangerous but most rewarding course of action, infecting these agencies in one way or another. At the same time, they took over telecommunication companies either by buying the whole companies or placing employees in key positions. This way the Network has a double check on all data which allows them to react to situations where the counter-intelligence gets suspicious. Every data stream is a trace. With growing monitoring, they expand their grip on the companies and place their programs at the agencies into hibernation, only using them when it's absolutely necessary.

Aftermath

Ego-Hybrida

[...]

Ninja-SLDs a.k.a Daodan-droids?

Daodandroids are an invention of geyser's.

Guido: Serguei uses this idea as an explanation of Mukade's control over the ninjas.

Here's another page. Ninjas are all left-handed. Geyser rejected this fact as pure "gamemaking stuff".

I began to like the idea of Daodan-droids, so I forked that idea to fit into RS.

And I still think the brain engrams can be a good explanation of SLDs' left-handedness. Anyway ...

* * * * *

The more power and exclusive knowledge a group possesses, the more need they have for trustworthy members.

After Hasegawa, Kimura and Pensatore created the Ego Hybrida “Mukade”, their combined knowledge demanded a new level of trustworthiness. Based on Kimura’s brain engrams, they created a bunch of SLDs. A drawback of this solution was their disguise. To prevent detection, the group aims to replace more and more artificial parts with the Daodan biomass. Barabas showed that this mixing is possible. Mukade also wants to regain a biological body someday, not knowing his donors are still alive...

Idea: what happens if we take Mukade's name literally?

Maybe his body is currently in a stage that allows him add a lot of torsos of his Daodan-droids. His many arms might then give him the appearance of a centipede. (If we ever get a new game engine, let's create a new boss battle ... lol)

What happened to Hasegawa?

A) Hasegawa is still kicking.

[...]

B) Hasegawa takes a nap.

In Pensatore's opinion, Mukade has accumulated too much power.

Inspired by the Daodan, he has his own plan now: the Omega-Chimera, successor of the SLD, is supposed to form a Biocracy.

He tries to take control over Muro. Sturmänderung is absolutely unnecessary.

Mukade (Ego-Hybrida) sends a man after Pensatore. The scientists are currently working in an underwater lab in Antarctica.

In an accident, Hasegawa drowns. His body can be retrieved, but his mind is beyond repair. (When Mai finds him, she collapses.)

Only Pensatore is able to repair Hasegawa's mind with the brain engrams Mukade is using, but he refuses. Hasegawa is now a "frozen guarantee".

Some more political/social/ethical aspects

Hasegawa's philosophy: death is worse than questionable ethics

Hasegawa: "In a democracy, you need the majority to change a situation. But in the WCG, there's no such thing as a majority, nor a democracy. We failed to accomplish our hopes through normal means. Now, only a revolution can bring change. If you don't have the guts to pull it off, then I will do it. Or rather... if all of society's intelligence wasn't enough to ensure our survival, then I will empower the human body to protect ourselves."

Pensatore: "Usually revolutions turn out to be quite bloody. Many people will die in the chaos. From a scientist, I would expect a more ethical suggestion."

"Ethics for its own sake is not an option. Look at history. On the verge of death, men ate other men, even corpses, for one simple reason: to survive. And even devout Christians have come to the conclusion that death to a megalomaniac dictator can be justified. -- Ethics are only as good as the situation allows them to be! Of how much worth are rules and laws which don't let you survive?"

"And you believe we are in such a situation? Certainly, the WCG isn't the optimal solution, but this is a bit too much in my opinion. -- What do you have in mind? Do you want as a geneticist to make a biological intervention that takes away all of the control humans have wrested from mother nature in the last 125,000 years?"

"What value is fire to men, when they burn themselves and hardly learn from their mistakes? -- No, I'm not throwing it away, just taking a part and giving it to a new version of ourselves. Those new possibilities will create a society where conflicts of interest and foul compromises can be avoided."

"What are the details of your plan?"

"All our cells collect information which they use in cases of emergency to transform themselves. That inner safeguard will have the possibility to compensate for injuries caused by wrong decisions the human mind made."

"A biocracy ... on a cellular level?"

"I call it a Daodan Chrysalis."

"I must say again, such radical changes will trigger fear, chaos and death!"

"We live in permanent evolution, and that brings always unknown changes. All I will do is to speed things up. I bet you could sell it as a genetic upgrade against diseases, and then there would be fewer problems."

"Do you suggest lying to everybody?"

"Have you ever told your children that Santa brings them presents? -- Even if we aren't aware of it, we lie daily."

"That's totally different. If Muro ripped off your beard, then he might be disappointed to not see Santa. But if someone finds out what your project is really about, then we have again a horrific scenario."

"We don't need to force people to get a Daodan."

"A parallel society with mutants doesn't necessarily make the situation better."

"Would you blame me for the racism of other people?"

"You want to bring the Daodan into this world, and you also know how people will react. So yes, you would be responsible."

"Oh, that makes it really easy for you..."

"Listen, I know that Jamie's death was a tragedy for you and all others who knew her. But do you really think she would have wanted innocents to die from your innovation? -- You should find a way to introduce your project to the world in a slow pace."

"I want to use my anger and desperation to create a change."

"I don't want to return to a calm mindset where daily life takes over. This is what got us into this situation. -- I know the Daodan comes with risks. But life without the necessity of taking risks is an illusion."

At this point, Mukade can drop in and suggest using the Daodan as a carrot to infiltrate the Syndicate, then "repair" the ACCs and bring down the WCG little by little.

In that scenario, the Daodan wouldn't change the people, but rather the existing political system.

What arguments speak against the Daodan?

1) drastic change of body
2) drastic change of mind
3) horizontal gene transfer

In order to successfully advertise the Daodan, those critical objections must be rendered baseless. But can that be done, or is the Daodan really to be feared?

1a) Psychological impact on others.

Imagine someone's skin color changes to sky blue, that won't make you run. "Oh, just another cosplayer?"

How about an extra pair of arms? "Could be very convenient!"

Probably the whole appearance will matter.

At the latest when you run into a group of Abara look-alikes, this will stress your sense of safety.

When you can't distinguish between humans and animals, you soon have a fantasy setting similar to some MMO. Cooperation will just depend on people's willingness to accept or reject different appearances.

1b) Unwanted autoevolution (lack of control).

You might get traits that ensure better survival but are inconvenient in the matter of aesthetics. Or you planned to go somewhere, but now it is physically impossible.

With cybernetics, you wouldn't have such a problem. You would be free to add or remove any feature.

1c) Evolutionary dead ends.

It's said that evolution can go only forward, eventually leading to dead ends where no more adaptation can take place, due to the previous adaptations.

However, the Daodan's analytical nature might circumnavigate this cliff.

2a) I am still myself, the original?

After the Daodan replaced all the original cells, what happened to the old personality? Was it killed and replaced by a clone's personality?

That's a very philosophical question. It would be very easy to spread fear with that one, if not explained in detail.

This is similar to teleportation.

A person enters the teleporter. Information becomes copied, and matter destroyed. The information is transfered. Then the person is rebuilt. If there's anything like a soul, was it killed? How can we be sure this is the same person?

Now let's imagine we teleport everything but the brain from point A to point B. The mind is still at point A, isn't it?

Next, we teleport one brain cell. The brain will still work as it always did if we somehow manage to entangle all cell functions at point B with rest of the brain at point A.

We are looking here at a mind that has physically different residences, but it's still only one mind.

If we repeat this for every brain cell, there would be always just one mind at any time, and likewise when 50% is at point A and 50% at point B.

After we completed this special teleportation, we would have no doubt that the person is truly the person that went into the teleporter chamber.

Now let's look at cell growth/death a bit.

There's ongoing speculation on how many cells die every second in the human body. The estimates range from many thousand to a few million.

The important point for us is that the body, and hence brain, is in constant state of change.

Cells divide and die every day, and we don't ask ourselves, "Are we still the same?"

Apparently we are okay with that. Cells die, and some get replaced.

So for the Daodan we can imagine that our brain cells get replaced one by one, so that normal and upgraded cells are always linked.

The mind remains original at any time. We are just changing to different hardware.

2b) Does the Daodan changes the personality?

The DC enhances the body. It has no other intention.

Probably a change in personality would be caused indirectly.

An aggressive person might outlive his strategy and become more aggressive, because negative consequences would have a smaller impact on him.

3) Horizontal gene transfer.

Why is this something bad? The Daodan gives humans an incredibly huge advantage against all other lifeforms.

If the Daodan's mechanisms are shared by the rest of nature, hyperevolution will take place everywhere, making it harder to adapt again.

While viruses might learn some new tricks, they should remain less potent than a multi-cellular Daodan.

So the actual thread would be bacterial colonies.

What arguments speak for the Daodan?

What arguments could someone use in public to advertise the Daodan?
1) regenerate lost limbs, faster wound healing, avoid cancer
2) compensate for slow-paced invention cycles
3) compensate for a lack of natural selection
4) compensate for man's habit of putting himself in dangerous situations

1) I don't think the first point needs any explanation.

2) Some events just happen too fast for bureaucracy and standard medical procedures.

Without a drastic improvement, there could be never a cure for a new deadly pathogen that can kill within hours.

This is the point that Hasegawa would have had in mind when he tried to find a cure for Jamie's disease.

3) Many humans are no longer subject to natural selection, which is good in the short-term but bad in the long-term.

In real life, the lack of genetic fitness is somewhat compensated by human's mental fitness, which is expressed in applied science, namely: medicine.

The health care systems (especially in the western world) enable even heavily diseased people to survive and raise children.

So, when people stay alive no matter their genetic fitness level, natural selection can't take place, and diseases continue to remain deadly.

Let's say that HIV isn't treated at all: wouldn't the whole human race die out?

No. For instance, every 10th European is naturally immune against HIV. So if we had a real plague, only the immune people would survive, and in the future HIV would be a far smaller problem.

A historical example of this kind of immunization is the Spanish Flu from 1918, which was the most catastrophic disease in human history so far. The price, immunity, came at the cost of a gigantic mountain of corpses, more than 50 million dead people if you trust the recent estimates.

With human's current knowledge, it's possible the first outbreak couldn't have been prevented, but at least it wouldn't kill good portions of the world population.

With HIV, we are facing a dilemma: either we keep everybody alive, at the cost of a reduced lifespan, a weakened immune systems, social restrictions, discrimination, etc. or we let natural selection happen for the population's sake, so gaining immunity. Both options are unacceptable for us humans as emotional beings. We seek better solutions, but for some reasons we have failed so far.

4) Humans often act unwisely.

At this point we could simply link to some "fail compilations" on YouTube. (Or if you prefer parodies, check out this German classic, "Forklift Driver Klaus".)

But there's also the more serious category of failing big, and systematically e.g. when a society does it as a whole.

For instance, in many states, antibiotics are overused. It's against one's better judgment, but our greed for money makes it easy to ignore dangers that occur in a delayed manner.

We use antibiotics too often, to keep ourselves and the livestock healthy. That puts bacteria under evolutionary pressure. There are concerns that more super bugs will emerge. These multi-drug-resistant bacteria can't be easily killed. The media-popular MRSA strain residing in hospitals is one such danger.

Scientists try to come up with methods to reuse old antibiotics, or find new ones. However, it can be assumed that the bacteria will also adapt to the new inventions. It's a never-ending arms race.

An alternative to antibiotics are bacteriophages, or, for short, phages. Russia and Georgia officially use these bacteria-eating viruses in some therapies. Usually viruses adapt even faster than bacteria, but so-called mutators can win a biological arms race against phages.

If we imagine that all antibiotics will become useless, we would have no choice but to make massive use of phages, which again causes further adaptations inside the super bugs.

Attempted explanation of the biological dimension

to put it in a nutshell Finally wrote some “technobabble” lines that seem to provide a solid basis but also allow different interpretations. Paradox-01 18:28, 9 July 2010 (UTC) The Daodan Chrysalis (for short, Daodan) always produces mutations that are really needed. That's the only way that the same source of damage won't be dangerous again in the future. Thus the type of damage must be analyzed, and therefore the Daodan requires a sensor system. In nature, "higher lifeforms" evolved by following – among other concepts – specialization and socialization. Those find their expression on one hand in different cell types – therefore a multicellular organism – and on the other hand in all kinds of symbiosis. So, for a hyperevolved organism, it would be understandable if it worked more intensely by those same concepts. A body recognizes damage or harmful influences through stimuli. To detect all kinds of stimuli, much space is surely needed. Ninety percent of the cells that can be found on and inside the human body aren't its own, but belong to microorganisms. Fortunately they weigh only a half up to one kilogram. They're collectively known as human flora. Depending on the organism, one might be a squatter (in the metaphorical sense) against real health-threatening germs, and another might hold an actual ability like vitamin K production. Some abilities can't be simply or sufficiently integrated directly into an organism, but a product can be received from a symbiont. So the Daodan seems likely to enlist microorganisms for additional sensory tasks and abilities which are actually alien to the human. For this reason, the Daodan needs to upgrade the genomes of all the microorganisms (microbiome) as well. Next, communication between the symbionts has to be ensured. A new cell organelle might do the job by using messenger substances. Or it transmits different electromagnetic waves which don't seem too alien in comparison to the real bioelectric field of each living organism; this could explain the Daodan glow. (Some metabolic waste products – which are released through the body's surface together with perspiration – might become stimulated to glow by the field.) For processing the received information, the Daodan might use its own self-awareness, mainly a (genetic and) anatomic model of itself formed by another organelle type inside every daodanized cell. The presence of such an organelle in neurons opens up the possibility for – as geyser coined it – “schizophrenia of the 3rd kind”, but also Kerr's idea of a mental interface which allows influence on the Daodan's development by the host's personality. If we want to know more about the decision-making algorithms (and their physical structures) which calculate the mutations, we will need to ask Hasegawa. ;-) Depending on the target – human Daodan genome, Daodan microbiome, both their epigenomes, or even organelle genomes (like mitochondria and plastids have) – a few different “vectors” (e.g. viruses) need to be available to transport the mutation. (For ease of discussion, one might wish to use the terms holobiont -- the collective symbionts, and hologenome -- the sum of the symbionts' genomes.) However, it's hard to believe that the Daodan would be able to come up with fitting mutations completely by its own. It seems more likely to me that it draws on “genetic building blocks” holding basic information for fast regeneration, resistances, different metabolisms, and so on. Maybe the Daodan can also make use of already existing genetic material of the microbes: after all, a human just has 23,000 genes (500,000 up to 1,000,000 proteins through alternative splicing), while his microbiome has more than 5 million genes/proteins. The microbiome is very different among humans and would surely make the Daodan's mass production no easy task. But after more than 15 years, the Syndicate should have accomplished a way to simplify the process. This second generation would be independent from the host's sex (XX / YX chromosomes) and the microbiome's composition by providing level-zero stem cells. These can target any compatible symbiont cell and then do a “configuration” (whereby they dissolve the unnecessary genetic material) to become classic daodanized stem cells and microbes.            German translation ... Erklärungsversuch der biologischen Dimension Endlich ein paar Zeilen „Techno-Gequatsche“, die eine solide Basis versprechen aber auch Raum für Interpretation lassen. Paradox-01 18:28, 9 July 2010 (UTC) Die Daodan-Chrysalis (kurz: Daodan) produziert immer die Mutationen, die auch benötigten werden. Nur So kann die gleiche Schadensquelle in Zukunft ausgeschlossen werden. Also wird die Art des Schadens analysiert und somit benötigt die Daodan auch ein sensorisches System. In der Natur entstand „höheres Leben“ – unter anderen Konzepten – Spezialisierung und Sozialisierung folgend. Sie finden Ausdruck einerseits in verschiedenen Zelltypen – daher mehrzelligen Organismen – und andererseits in den unterschiedlichsten Symbioseformen. Für einen hyperentwickelten Organismus ist es daher vorstellbar, dass er diese Konzepte verstärkt umsetzt. Der Körper nimmt Schaden oder schädliche Einflüsse durch Reize wahr. Um alle Reizarten detektieren zu können, ist sicherlich viel Platz nötig. Neunzig Prozent aller Zellen, die man an und im menschlichen Körper finden kann, sind nicht seine eigenen aber die von Mikroorganismen. Diese werden in ihrer Gesamtheit Normalflora genannt. Abhängig vom jeweiligen Mikroorganismus kann er beispielsweise „Platzbesetzer“ gegenüber einem wirklich schädlichen Keim sein oder er kann ein echte Fähigkeit haben wie die Produktion von Vitamin K. Manche Fähigkeiten lassen sich nicht so einfach oder nur unzureichend in einen Organismus integrieren. Ihr Produkt kann aber durch einen Symbiosepartner geliefert werden. Es ist also naheliegend die Mikroorganismen für weitere Sensorik und eigentlich humanfremde Fähigkeiten heranzuziehen. Aus diesem Grund muss die Daodan auch die Genome der Mikroorganismen (Mirobiom) aufrüsten. Als nächstes muss Kommunikation zwischen den Symbiosepartner sichergestellt werden. Ein neues Zellorganell in jeder Daodanzelle könnte vielleicht über Botenstoffe dem Rechnung tragen. Oder es sendet verschiedene elektromagnetische Wellen aus, deren Existenz gegenüber dem bioelektrischen Feld eines jeden lebenden Organismus als nicht zu weit hergeholt erscheinen mag und ein Erklärungsansatz für die Daodan-Aura bieten würde. (Einige Stoffwechselabfallprodukte, die über die Haut mit dem Schweiß abgegeben werden, könnten in dem Feld zum leuchten angeregt werden.) Bei der Verarbeitung der Informationen könnte sich die Daodan einem eigenen „Selbstbewusstsein“ bedienen. Dies wäre zum großem Teil ein (genetisches und) anatomisches Model ihrer selbst, welches sich durch einen weiteren Zellorganelltyp manifestiert. Die Präsenz dieses zweiten Organells in Neuronen ließe die Möglichkeit einer – wie geyser es nannte - „Schizophrenie der 3ten Art“ zu aber auch Kerr's Idee einer mentalen Schnittstelle und somit Einflussnahme auf die Entwicklung der Daodan durch die Persönlichkeit des menschlichen Wirts. Für die genauen Entscheidungsalgorithmen und ihrer physischen Strukturen zur Mutationsfindung müssten wir wohl Hasegawa fragen. ;-) Abhängig vom Ziel – menschliches Genom, Mikrobiom, ihrer beider Epigenome, oder sogar Organell-Genome (wie Mitochondrien und Plastiden sie haben) – müssen ein paar unterschiedliche "Vektoren" (unter anderem Viren) verfügbar sein um die Mutation zu transportieren. (Um Diskussionen zu vereinfachen, mag man vielleicht auf den Begriff Holobiont, Gesammtheit aller Symbionten, und Hologenom, Gesamtheit aller Symbionten-Genome, zurückgreifen. Trotzdem ist es schwer zu glauben, dass die Daodan vollkommen alleine im Stande wäre passende Mutationen zu erzeugen. Es ist vielleicht glaubwürdiger, wenn die Daodan auf „genetische Bausteine“ zurückgreift, die Basisinformationen für schnelle Regeneration, Resistenzen, unterschiedliche Stoffwechsel, und so weiter enthalten. Vielleicht kann die Chrysalis auch bereits existierendes mikrobisches Genmaterial verwenden: ein Mensch hat immerhin 23 000 Gene (500 000 bis 1 000 000 Proteine durch alternatives Splißen) aber sein Mikrobiom hat mehr als 5 Millionen Gene/Proteine. Das Mikrobiom ist von Menschen zu Mensch sehr unterschiedlich und würde die Daodan-Massenproduktion sicherlich nicht einfacher machen. Aber nach mehr als 15 weiteren Jahren sollte das Syndikat eine Weg gefunden haben den Herstellungsprozess zu vereinfachen. Diese zweite Generation würde durch sogenannte Level-Null-Stammzellen unabhängig vom Geschlecht des Wirts und der Zusammensetzung des Mikrobiom sein. Diese Zellen würden jede kompatible Symbiontenzelle zum Ziel haben und nach einer "Konfiguration" (in welcher sie überflüssiges genetisches Material auflösen) zu klassischen Stammzellen und Mikroben werden.

Arguments for an in vitro Daodan

Kerr: "[...] We had never intended to implant those Chrysalises. [...]"

Why would they build prototypes when they weren't going to use them?

It can be argued that these prototypes were meant for in vitro experiments, not in vivo.

If the Daodan project was intended as a tool to treat human cells in test tubes, miniaturization could lead to portable devices used in cases of emergency.

Probably you would insert a few cells to daodanize and replicate them, then expose it to doses of negative stimuli such as toxins, and grow adapted tissue or organs. Before transplanting the daodanized cells, their ability to adapt and hyper-regenerate would be turned off. Then it would be like bioprinting (a.k.a. tissue engineering) with normal cells.

However, the question remains why Konoko's and Muro's DNA was used for the prototypes.

• During life, mutations accumulate inside the genetic and epigenetic code. The codes of children are less mutated, hence need less repair; also, the telomeres are longer.
• There's no need to draw attention to an illegal project by asking other parents for tissue samples from their children.
• If Hasegawa and Kerr repeatedly needed new samples, they would have Muro and Mai as their source, without asking anyone else from the outside.

Although there are points to support an "in vitro" scenario, the WCG could easily spread doubts about such a Daodan to an audience which lacks the technical background -- which would be pretty much everyone.

Arguments for an in vivo Daodan

13_65_35 Kerr: "[...] The effect of the mutation is influenced by the subject's nature."

A "Daodan in a box" could never be influenced by someone's personality.

If a human hand or foot gets heavily wounded, after regeneration it might be crippled. While Axolotl salamanders are much better in restoring their extremities, they can't regenerate everything. Only more primitive lifeforms can fully regenerate from portions of their body as Planarians do.

So for an accurate regeneration of the complex human body, the Daodan needs its own self-awareness, mainly a genetic and anatomical model of itself, as already written in the explanation attempt section. The processing cell organelles in neurons open a little door so that the Daodan can get influenced. This might be the reason for Kerr's "wishful thinking".

The only way Hasegawa and Kerr could have discovered this possible side effect is an entire-brain simulation with Daodan cells.

But why should they have done that? A complete brain simulation seems less necessary if they were just aiming for an in vitro Daodan.

Speaking of injuries, the brain can also be injured, and these injuries can not only be life-threatening but also alter the way someone feel, remember and think. Kerr and Co. could have run simulations to see how well the tissues grow together again. In doing so, they might have accidentally discovered circumstances where the neuronal activities led to novel interactions with the Daodan organelles.

All in all, due to the complexity of the Daodan, Kerr could say that they needed at least one male and one female prototype tested in vivo before they could create a mass-produced version of an in vitro Daodan.

The Daodan computer

The Daodan's ability of producing non-random mutations doesn't exist in nature. So, its purposefulness should be the result of something man-made, probably some kind of computer. So far I had doubts that a computer could be produced inside a living system. Certainly, it wouldn't be a computer that has todays dimensions, materials or architecture. The technological progress goes on and on. Nanotechnology is part of the party. It leads to further minimization of technology, brings new materials, and kicks the door to quantum mechanics wide open. Ideas and prototypes of unconventional computers are in development. The size of their logic gates range from cells, to macromolecules like DNA up to groups of only a few molecules. Duroquinone is an example for the latter. In groups of 17 molecules duroquinone is allegedly able of parallel computing. According to a BBC article that "nano brain" sounds more like it's a signal hub. Another team later designed a molecule that seems more promising. In 2013 scientists succeeded in combining logic gates and memory inside bacteria. [...]            German translation ... Die Fähigkeit der Daodan nicht zufällige Mutationen zu produzieren gibt es in der Natur nicht. Ihre Zielstrebigkeit müsste also das Ergebnis von etwas Menschengemachtem sein, wahrscheinlich irgendeine Art Computer. Bis jetzt hatte ich Zweifel, dass ein Computer innerhalb eines lebenden Systems produziert werden könnte. Sicherlich wird es kein Computer mit heutigen Abmessungen, Materialien oder Architektur sein. Der technische Fortschritt schreitet voran, mit dabei das Feld der Nanotechnologie, welches die weitere Miniaturisierung der Technik ermöglicht, neue Materialien und öffnet vollends die Tür zur Quantenmechanik. Es wird bereits an kleinen "unkonventionelle Computern" gearbeitet. Die Größe der Logiggatter reicht von Zellen, Makromoleküle wie DNA bis Verbunden aus wenigen Molekülen. Duroquinone ist ein Beispiel für Letzteres. Im Verbund sollen damit Informationen parallel verarbeiten werden können. Allerdings hörte sich das in einem Artikle der BBC noch nach einem Singnalverteiler an. Das Zusammenschalten von Chromophoren verspricht dagegen mehr Erfolg. 2013 ist es gelungen Logikgatter und Speicher innerhalb von Bakterien zu kombinieren. [...]

Novel ways of genetic protection?

One idea is to keep the genetic code of Daodan and natural organisms separated: If the Daodan uses another backbone for its base pairs then perhaps viruses wouldn't be able to incorporate their code for reasons of incompatibility. For instance, PNA has another type of backbone. But experiments showed that long PNA strains aren't stable. I don't know if there are other alternatives. Furthermore, there are other dangerous substances like toxins so I will bet on an analyzing element. In 2012 scientist succeeded to simplify the identification of nanosized objects. A minimized version of the device would be an ideal sensor for the Daodan.            German translation ... Eine Idee ist es den genetischen Code von Daodan und natürlichen Organismen getrenntzuhalten: Wenn die Daodan ein anderes Rückrat für ihre Basenpaare verwendet, dann könnten aus Gründen der Kompatibilität Vieren vielleicht nicht mehr in der Lage sein ihren Code einzuschleusen. Zum Beispiel hat PNA ein verändertes Rückrat. Jedoch zeigten Experimente, dass lange PNA-Stränge nicht stabil sind. Ich weiß nicht ob es weitere Alternativen gibt. Außerdem gibt es noch andere gefährliche Substanzen wie etwa Gifte sodass ich die Chancen für ein analisierendes Elemet höher einschätze. 2012 ist es Wissenschaftlern gelungen die Erkennung von Objekten auf der Nanoebene zu vereinfachen. Eine Miniaturversion des Gerätes würde ein idealer Sensor für die Daodan sein.

XNA to be added here.

High performance via polyploidy?

A genome can consist of many chromosomes. If all its chromosomes are unique then the chromosome set is haploid. A genome of two sets is diploid, a tripled set make it triploid, and so on. So polyploid means "having many chromosome sets".

Polyploidy can result in higher vitality. It can raise the rates of protein biosynthesis due to stronger parallelization of the processes. An already historic example can be seen in wheat. Humans bred wheat whereby they doubled repeatedly the plant's chromosome set to harvest more and bigger grains. Now wheat has 6 sets (hexaploid) each counting 7 chromosomes.

Problem

Humans with too many chromosome copies often dies before or shortly after birth or suffer diseases. A non-lethal disease is the Down syndrome which comes from a third copy of the 21st chromosome hence it's also called trisomy 21.

This shows us that simply multiplying chromosomes for a performance boost won't work.

Solution

Despite human cells have a diploid genome there are also cell types that are naturally polyploid. For instance this is true for heart muscle cells, liver cells and megakaryoblast (blood-forming cells).

Healthy constellations of multiple sets might be traced back to deactivations.

Example for single chromosome deactivation: In women one of the X chromosomes is epigenetically deactivated. That way men (XY) and women (XX) have both only one active X chromosome and hence they produce nearly the same dosis of gen products from the X chromosome(s).

Example for general deactivations: Epigentic processes like DNA-methylation generate different cell types despite the genetic code is the same in all cells. (Remember the liver cells which are differentiated cells but also polyploid.)

If Daodan cells are polyploid than they would require to deactivate unneeded regions of the other sets. However imposing real standards I think that polyploidy could be never the only reason for the marvelousness regeneration skill of Oni's hypothetical Daodan.

Transformation: control and power

Is Muro's transformation irreversible? Before he transformed he said "You are capable of so much more. Let me show you..." It implies that he has some control over his transformation. How much is not known.

A) He was able to delay the final transformation and triggered it later by will.

B) That of A plus more control so he can even untransform.

"Let me show you..." can be interpretated that he already knew how radical his change of appearance would be: he stands in front of Mai as a normal looking man and hence it could be a hint that he's able to revert the transformation.

The time of growth can be seen as another hint for the validity of option B. TCTF staff tried to avoid Daodan power bursts by instructing Konoko to tackle things not too forcefully and they even gave her Sytropin to slow down Daodan growth. But during a few days of combat Mai's Daodan developed fastly nonetheless. For Muro we can assume years of real combat experiences...

From a practical point of view he should be able to untransform because of following reasons.

- psychologic / social reason: he was only familiar with his human appearance (it could be more comfortable, he probably had the wish to stay human before he became used to it) / identity of and repect for a strong leader, fear of the strikers having a real monster as boss (With reverting the transformation Muro could have given the Strikers time to get used to him and showing them he wouldn't represent a one-way ticket to monstrosity but to a superior being.)

- physiologic reason: ergonomy - weapons, cars, mobile phones, door frames, seats, etc are all made in human dimensions ... Wouldn't it be stressful to walk through the land of man as a giant and watching out not to accidentally destroy everything?

- energy / resource: combat or active Imago skills probably use a lot of chemical bound energy. A human-like form could be some kind of energy saver mode.

It looks like the Imago stage was thought to have unlimited energy and Mai was just lucky Muro transform right before their fight.

(...) Muro has achieved the next level of Daodan evolution: the Imago stage. Muro's Daodan powers make him invulnerable, but having only just evolved he has limited energy reserves. You can hurt him when his energy is drained.

Infinite energy:

• To be honest I don't like at all the point of unlimited energy. I'm rather a friend on realism and would like to keep the laws of nature. Especially the law of the conservation of energy and the conservation of matter. Energy and matter cannot be created from nothing and cannot vanish to nothing.
• You could say that the Daodan also draws energy from another dimension and instead of infinite energy there's just more energy available than the DC can use. But still if this becomes reused as normal energy source you might get weapons that can easily erase Imagos.

Overpower mode

When Daodan prototypes grow they express fluorescent proteins. These proteins are used to destinglish the daodan biomass from the original cells and help measuring cell metabolism which is typically high when the Daodan grows or regenerate (ref. Daodan spikes). The proteins can glow under two conditions: either they are exposed to radiation, which Kerr did in the TCTF lab, or in presence of high amounts of ATP. Hypospray substances trigger the release of ATP no matter wheather the daodan is already healed. That way Hyposprays lead to overpower mode.

For final Daodans it would make sense to not generate any glow since that is a waste of energy.

Radiation and hyposprays can theoretically be abused to drive Daodan's metabolism so high that it release all it energy resources in short time and die of starvation (if it doesn't go in hibernation mode). (ref. Oni3: Konoko awakens from her coma. Maybe she had to fight very long in overpower mode or suffered an emotional-triggered ATP release...)

While the Daodan aura (a.k.a. chenille) indicates simply a very active metabolism, Daodan spikes might come from the sudden implementation of a new adaption within the whole Daodan biomass.

Transformation: static metamorphosis

(Some text that might be from a researcher's diary.) The name still bugs us. All skills aside, also the Daodan is bounded to the laws of nature, it's not almighty. Extreme changes of the body in a short time probably requires a static state. In that aspect we might translate the full name "Daodan Chrysalis" as "code allowing metamorphoses to reach new states, each best-adapted to the new present environmental conditions" whereas "Chrysalis" could be also almost literally taken as "Chrysalis" [pupal stage of butterflies]. In this case we think it's some biological material at the body's outside to provides shelter and stability so a major metamorphosis can take place. We think that this second ability might exist still hidden inside the code. Single, fast adaptions have been reported; the existence of complete, static transformations still needs to become proofed.            German translation ... Statische Metamorphose (Ein paar Zeilen, die aus einem Tagebuch eines GV-Wissenschaftler stammen könnten.) Der Name gibt uns immer noch zu denken. Trotz allen Fähigkeiten ist auch die Daodan an die Naturgesetze gebunden und nicht allmächtig. Extreme Umbauten des Körper in kurzer Zeit benötigen wahrscheinlich einen Ruhezustand. Bis jetzt übersetzen wir den vollen Namen "Daodan-Chrysalis" als "Code, der Metamorphosen erlaubt um neue Zustände zu erreichen, die jeweils am besten an die dann vorherrschenden Umweltbedingungen angepasst sind". Wegen der wahrscheinlich Ruhephase könnte "Chrysalis" vielleicht auch wortwörtlich verstanden werden sofern die Metamorphose ein biologisches Material aus Gründen der Stabilität und des Schutzes um die Körperoberfläche schafft. Wir denken, dass sich diese zweite Fähigkeit noch im unverstandenen Code verstecken könnte. Einzelne, schnelle Anpassungen wurden beobachtet. Die Existenz von tiefgreifenden, Ruhe benötigen Metamorphosen will noch gefunden werden.

Multiple Imago stages

(Some text that might be from a researcher's diary.) Some part of the Daodan's code aren't fully understood yet. This and the "Chrysalis group" posited hyperevolution makes us slowly believe that the Imago stage isn't the "end". Of course new environmental catastrophes can mean a threat to imagos so a new transformation would become necessary. That's why we think that these cycles aren't limited. However, it might be a disadvantage to lose a fully developed adaption if situation change back then. A storage system might be involved. DNA methylation and histone modifications can access to the genetic material. For example a modified gene could be copied and modified, then the old version becomes switched off. In later events the daodan could check its registry if there's already a suitable adaption that can be switched on again. This would avoid the necessity to calculate again the needed mutations. An genetic overload cannot be excluded. But that must be solved by future researchers. Our visionary colleague Dr. Sandström (in memory of ReGenesis) points to something he calls "networked Omega Chimera" which makes use of advanced nanotechnology. Addendum: After final analysis on xx xx 205x, the suspected ability has turn out to be only our wishful thinking: A storages system for adaption hasn't been found but the idea remains as an idea for a future upgrade of the DC.            German translation ... Multiple Imago-Stadien (Ein paar Zeilen, die aus einem Tagebuch eines GV-Wissenschaftler stammen könnten.) Einige Stellen des Daodan-Codes sind noch nicht vollständig verstanden. Dies und die Hyperevolutionstheorie der „Chrysalis-Gruppe“ lässt uns vermuten, dass das Imago-Stadium nicht das Ende ist. Natürlich können neue (von ihrer Art her andere) Umweltkatastrophen eine Gefahr für den Imago darstellen. Also würde wieder eine Metamorphose notwendig sein. Aus diesem Grund glauben wir nicht, dass die Metamorphose nur einmal stattfindet. Auch wäre es unvorteilhaft einen vollständig angepasste Zustandsform zu verlieren wenn dann die Situation plötzlich wieder in alte Bedingungen annimmt. Anpassungen zu suchen, benötigt Zeit. Bereits erfahrende Anpassungen wieder aufzurufen, würden die Überlebenschancen des Imago weiter steigern. Ein Speichersystem könnte sich also noch im Code verstecken. Auf neuen Planeten und im Weltraum wäre dies dem Imago sicher hilfreich da er dort großen Temperaturschwankungen ausgesetzt ist wenn ihn der Raumanzug aus irgendwelchen Gründen nicht mehr schützen kann. Kandidaten eines Speichersystems könnten DNA-Methylisationen und Histon-Modifikationen sein. Beispielsweise könnte ein Gen kopiert und verändert werde, dann wird seine alte Version abgeschaltet. In einem späteren Ereignis könnte die Daodan ihr Register prüfen ob bereits eine passende Anpassung bereitliegt und diese wieder aktivieren. Dies würde es vermeiden die richtigen Mutationen erneut zu berechnen zu müssen. Dass die wachsende Größe das Genom irgendwann überlastet, kann nicht ausgeschlossen werden. Unser visionärer Kollege Dr. Sandström meint, dass dann der Komplex Mensch-Daodan weiterentwickelt werden müsste. Er nennt als ein mögliches Zukunftsmodell „die vernetzte Omega-Chimäre“. Die Archivierung alter Anpassungen würde dann computertechnisch erfolgen. Nachtrag: Nach der abschließenden Analyse am xx xx 205x stellte die erwartete Fähigkeit sich als nur als unser Wunschdenken heraus: Ein Speichersystem für Anpassungen wurde nicht gefunden, bleibt aber eine Idee für ein zukünftiges Upgrade der DC.

Natural reproduction of human hosts

Iritscen's post on the OCF initiated me to think about following problem. At new environmental conditions, randomly evolved traits helps members of a population to survive. The survivors then ensure the population's continuity by their reproduction. The Daodan reacts directly on environmental influences and probably – or largely – doesn't know anymore randomness. Therefor it's uncertain if the Daodan can manage or allow random recombination of genetic material during the sexual reproduction of Daodan hosts. For the Daodan, there's actually no more necessity for recombination. So, if no recombination happens, female gamete (egg cells) might become produced with or without genetic material whereby only empty egg cell can accept a male gamete. In any case, the chromosome set is already diploid which means that baby is a genetic clone of one of it's parents. (But you know, the personality is still shaped to a major degree by environment and education.) Contact of male hormones with female gamete (cell nucleus must be presented) marks the cell as fertilized. Implantation and embryonic development follows. The passing on of microbial Daodan symbionts happens during child's birth (...) and by intake of breast milk. (Bifidobacteria can be taken as kind of RL example).            German translation ... Natürliche Fortpflanzung von menschlichen Wirten Iritscen's Beitrag im OCF ließ mich über folgendes Problem nachdenken. Zufällig hervorgebrachte Merkmale helfen Mitglieder einer Population bei neuen Umweltbedingungen zu überleben. Die Überlebenden sichern den Fortbestand der Population. Die Daodan reagiert direkt auf Umwelteinflüsse und kennt wahrscheinlich – oder zum großen Teil – keine Zufälligkeiten mehr. Bei der sexuellen Fortpflanzung von Daodan-Trägern ist es daher ungewiss ob die Daodan mit der Rekombination des Erbguts zurechtkommt oder dies zumindest zulässt. Es besteht für die Rekombination eigentlich keine Notwendigkeit mehr. Wenn keine Rekombination stattfindet, könnten vielleicht weibliche Gameten (Eizellen) mit und ohne Erbgut entstehen, wobei nur die weibliche Gameten ohne Erbgut ein männlichen Gamet aufnehmen. Die Gameten sind also zu Beginn schon diploid. (Sie haben einen doppelten Chromosomensatz, der für gesunde Menschen erforderlich ist). Der Kontakt von männlichen Hormonen qualifiziert die Eizelle zur „Zygote“; es hat also jetzt den Status „befruchtet“. Nidation und embryonelle Entwickung folgt. Die Weitergabe mikrobiellen Daodan-Symbionten findet bei der Geburt statt (...) und mit der Aufnahme in der Muttermilch. (Die Weitergabe von Bifidobakterien könnte man als eine Art Beispiel aus dem echten Leben nennen.)

Real world Parthenogenesis to be added here.

Contamination of the ecosystem

GV's "Chrysalis" work group thinks that the Daodan will contaminate the environment sooner or later (in case it didn't already happen) because of horizontal gene transfer causing unseen threats. Hence the Daodan needs a patch. The idea was and is to protect the prime symbiont, the human host. To ensure that the microbial Daodan cells stays only at the human flora these cells need to die in absent of the prime symbiont by dissolving their genetic material with an enhanced lysosome. (Will Pandora hunt down all hosts with an original Daodan (to patch them or kill the hosts) ?) This patch solves only one part of the problem. Existing Daodans would be still a permanent danger, especially the unknown number in Syndicate 'property'. In worst case this threat had to be met on planetary scale. This would require full control over all matter and lifeforms. Related topic: bioc            German translation ... Kontamination der Umwelt GV's "Chrysalis"-Arbeitsgruppe hält es für wahrscheinlich, dass die Daodan früher oder später (falls dies nicht schon geschehen ist) die Umwelt kontaminiert: horizontaler Gentransfer könnte noch nie gesehende Gefahren entstehen lassen. Deshalb benötigt die Daodan einen Patch. Die Idee war und ist den Primär-Symbionten, den menschlichen Wirt, zu beschützen. Um sicherzustellen, dass die mikrobischen Daodan-Zellen die Normalflora nicht verlassen, müssen sie in Abwesenheit des Primär-Symbionten absterben wobei ihr genetisches Material durch ein verbessertes Degradosom zerstört wird. (Wird Pandora angeheuert um alle Original-Daodan-Wirte zu patchen oder zu eliminieren?) Der Patch löst nur ein Problem. Die bereits existeirenden Daodan-Wirte sind weiterhin einen ständige Bedrohung, besonderst die unbekannte Anzahl an Wirten des Syndikats. Im schlimmsten Fall muss die Gefahr auf planetarer Ebene bekämpft werden. Dies würde aber volle Kontrolle über alle Organismen und Materie voraussetzen. Weiterführende Themen: Biok

Future upgrades

I don't think this will happen in RS but later sequels. It's better to write it down than forgetting it again during time.

• telomere regeneration: which allows biological immortality (overpopulation problem appears)
• cyborg genes: construction genes which takes care of implants -- nothing special in comparison to our human growth genes -> Omega Chimera
• memory chromosome: nanoscanner collect position and properties of neurons and other relevant stuff and code these information into a new chromosome

Omega Chimera

• Omega Chimeras can make use of external memory storage for different Imago stages and also knowledge.
• Long-range objective is to create a collective consciousness (via network) called Daimon.

Stunning real world symbioses

The word symbiosis means "living together". If the outcomes are good or not is an other question. However, in daily life symbiosis means a relationship of mutual gain.

symbiosis types by interaction	symbiosis types by utility
on metabolic level (e.g. corals; lichens)	mutualism
through behavior (e.g. flowering plants + insects, birds; ants + fungi / greenflies)	parasitism
on genetic level (e.g. virus + host organism)	interstages of mutualism and parasitism (commensalism, amensalism, etc.)

The following subsections are meant to show what real symbiosis is capable of and that it exist between very different species. Therefore those sections display combinations of the so-called kingdoms. (As a layman I still prefer the older and simpler model.) Unfortunately viruses are unranked so far.

Virus

Are viruses lifeforms?

The problem is that they are neither really dead nor alive. They are zombies so to say. They do nothing until they infect a suitable host cell and becomes active again. Living things were thought to have always an active metabolism. Then tardigrades have been found out to break that rule with their cryptobiosis ("hidden life"). In that stage their metabolism is almost too low for measures (under 0.01%). After that discovery scientists had the rethink the definition of death. The microbes' state of temporary death became some kind of extreme hibernation, namely cryptobiosis, and some Christians were happy that their religion was the sole promise again for resurrection.

A virus cannot reproduce itself without a host but that's also true for some endoparasites (parasitic organisms in other organisms). And a virus has no own metabolism but can take over the host's metabolism and organelles. In this view a virus might be a very mean and cleaver bastard but it lives.

From symbiosis to symbiogesesis.

So a virus makes the host its own body; the news are that there also exist symbiotic viruses. These have not taken over a host cell but sorta vice versa: they became fully incorporated into the host's genome. Two examples: First, the polydnavirus inside of ichneumonid (parasitic) wasps is only produced when the wasps lay eggs into a caterpillar. The virus helps the wasp eggs to survive inside the caterpillar by affecting the immune system and changing the metabolism in advantages of the wasp eggs. The second example is about us humans (and all animals with a placenta). The retrovirus ERVWE1 in our genome merge placenta cells by its produced protein "syncytin" to create a protection layer. That way the embryo keeps untouched by the mother's immune system. Otherwise it could be discovered as foreign body because of the father's genes. The retrovirus gives us an advantage compared to non-placental mammals.

The polydnavirus is still reproduced but the second virus gave up its independence to the fullest. They, the host and the virus are rather one new organism instead of two. This process of merging organisms is called symbiogenesis.

How much human DNA builds our body?

Incorporation of genetic material happened more than once. When the human genome was sequenced on a great scale, only 1.4% has been found out to encode our building material - the proteins - the rest appeared to be "junk" DNA. Today we know that 8.5% are old retroviruses (HERVs). -- This brings Agent Smith from the movie Matrix into mind when he classified humans as a virus because of certain similarities: according to him humans replicated unchecked, consume all resources, and spread to a new area (host) when one area ran out of resources. Now he would have a genetic proof you might think: our DNA is more "virus" than "human". -- Well, the old retroviruses are almost all defective so they don't matter much. Also, noncoding but function holding RNA and regulatory sequences - tools and building instructions - have been identified from the junk by now. So, yes, no need to panic, we are still human enough.

Symbiotic Virom

...

Insect and bacteria

Faithful allies since the Cretaceous: Symbiosis between beewolves and protective bacteria originated millions of years ago [...] A particularly fascinating defensive alliance occurs in the European beewolf (Philanthus triangulum), a digger wasp that hunts honeybees and provisions them for its offspring in underground nests. Previous research has shown that bacterial symbionts of the genus Streptomyces live in the wasp's antennae and on the larval cocoons. The bacteria produce a cocktail of nine different antibiotics that fend off detrimental fungi and bacteria from infecting the developing larva in the cocoon. This strategy to avoid infections is comparable to the combination prophylaxis used in human medicine. The scientists now reconstructed the phylogenies of different beewolf species and their symbionts. An analysis of the beewolf phylogeny revealed that the symbiosis with Streptomyces first originated in the late Cretaceous, between 68 and 110 million years ago. At present, about 170 species of wasps live in symbiosis with the protective bacteria. [...] source: - http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140414154450.htm            German translation ... Treue Verbündete seit der Kreidezeit: Symbiose zwischen Bienenwölfen und schützenden Bakterien entstand vor Millionen von Jahren Eine besonders faszinierende Verteidigungsallianz trifft man beim europäischen Bienenwolf an (Philanthus triangulum), einer Grabwespe, die nach Honigbienen jagt und diese ihrem Nachwuchs in Untergrundnestern als Verpflegung bringt. Vorige Forschung hat gezeigt, dass die Bakteriensymbionten der Gattung Streptomyces in den Antennen und auf den Kokons der Wespe leben. Die Bakterien produzieren einen Cocktail aus neun verschiedenen Antibiotika, die schädliche Pilze und Bakterien davon abhalten die sich entwickelnde Larve im Kokon zu infizieren. Diese Strategie Infektionen zu vermeiden ist vergleichbar mit der Kombinationsprophylaxe, die in der menschlichen Medizin angewendet wird. Die Wissenschaftler rekonstruierten nun die Stammesgeschichten der verschiedenen Bienenwolf-Arten und ihrer Symbionten. Die Analyse der Bienenwolf-Stammesgeschichte offenbarte, dass die Symbiose mit Streptomyces in der späten Kreidezeit entstand, vor etwa 68 bis 110 Millionen Jahren. Derzeit leben etwa 170 Wespenarten in Symbiose mit Schutz bietenden Bakterien.

Fungus and plant

More than 400 million years of evolution and some plants still can't make it on their own: plant stress tolerance via fungal symbiosis All plants in natural ecosystems are thought to be symbiotic with mycorrhizal and/or endophytic fungi. Collectively, these fungi express different symbiotic lifestyles ranging from parasitism to mutualism. Analysis of Colletotrichum species indicates that individual isolates can express either parasitic or mutualistic lifestyles depending on the host genotype colonized. The endophyte colonization pattern and lifestyle expression indicate that plants can be discerned as either disease, non-disease, or non-hosts. Fitness benefits conferred by fungi expressing mutualistic lifestyles include biotic and abiotic stress tolerance, growth enhancement, and increased reproductive success. Analysis of plant–endophyte associations in high stress habitats revealed that at least some fungal endophytes confer habitat-specific stress tolerance to host plants. Without the habitat-adapted fungal endophytes, the plants are unable to survive in their native habitats. Moreover, the endophytes have a broad host range encompassing both monocots and eudicots, and confer habitat-specific stress tolerance to both plant groups. source: - http://jxb.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/59/5/1109 - (mirror) http://dl.dropbox.com/u/139715/OniGalore/RS_T_Sources/1109.full.pdf            German translation ... Mehr als 400 Millionen Jahre Evolution und manche Pflanzen können immer noch nicht alleine auskommen: Stressresistenz von Pflanzen via Pilzsymbiose Es wird angenommen, dass alle Pflanzen in natürlichen Ökosystemen Symbiosen mit Mykorrhizapilzen und/oder endophytischen Pilzen eingehen. In Anwesenheit der Pflanze entfalten diese Pilze symbiotische Lebensstile von Parasitismus bis Mutualismus. Die Analyse von Glomerella(Colletotrichum)-Arten zeigt, dass einzelne isolierte Pilze entweder parasitäre oder mutuale Lebensstile entfalten können, abhängig von dem besiedelten Genotyp des Wirts. Das endophyte Besiedlungsmuster und die Ausprägung des Lebensstils zeigen, dass Pflanzen entweder als krank, nicht-krank oder Nicht-Wirt wahrgenommen werden können. Von Pilzen übertragende Fitness-Profite bringen mutuale Lebensstile zum Ausdruck, was biotische und abiotische Stresstoleranz, Wachstumsverstärkung, und erhöhte Fortpflanzungschancen mit einschließt. Die Analyse von innerpflanzlichen Gemeinschaften in hochbelastenden Lebensräumen offenbart, dass zumindest manche endophytische Pilze lebensraumspezifische Stresstoleranz den Wirtspflanzen verleihen. Diese Pflanzen wären ohne die lebensraumangepassten endophytischen Pilze nicht im Stande in ihren natürlichen Lebensraumen zu überleben. Außerdem haben die Endophyten eine breite Wirtsauswahl, die sowohl einkeimblättrigen als auch dreifurchenpollen-zweikeimblättrige Pflanzen umfasst, und daher lebensraumspezifische Stresstoleranz auf beide Pflanzengruppen überträgt.

Virus, fungus and plant

A Virus in a Fungus in a Plant: Three-Way Symbiosis Required for Thermal Tolerance A mutualistic association between a fungal endophyte and a tropical panic grass allows both organisms to grow at high soil temperatures. We characterized a virus from this fungus that is involved in the mutualistic interaction. Fungal isolates cured of the virus are unable to confer heat tolerance, but heat tolerance is restored after the virus is reintroduced. The virus-infected fungus confers heat tolerance not only to its native monocot host but also to a eudicot host, which suggests that the underlying mechanism involves pathways conserved between these two groups of plants. source: - http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/315/5811/513 - http://www.rcn.montana.edu/pubs/pdf/2007/science%202007.pdf            German translation ... Ein Virus in einem Pilz in einer Pflanze: Drei-Wege-Symbiose benötigt für Hitzetoleranz Eine mutuale Gemeinschaft von einem endophytischen Pilz und einer tropischen Rutenhirse (Panicum virgatum) erlaubt beiden Organismen bei hohen Bodentemperaturen zu wachsen. Wir charakterisierten ein Virus von diesem Pilz, der an der mutualen Interaktion beteiligt ist. Isolierte Pilze, die vom Virus geheilt wurden, waren unfähig Hitzetoleranz zu übertragen, jedoch wurde die Hitzetoleranz nach der Rückeinführung des Virus wiederhergestellt. Der virusinfizierte Pilz übertrug Hitzetoleranz nicht nur an seinen natürlichen einkeimblättrige Wirt sondern auch an ein dreifurchenpollen-zweikeimblättrigen Wirt, was nahelegt, dass die zugrundeliegenden Mechanismen zwischen den beiden Pflanzengruppen zu finden sind.

Bioc

"Bioc" is an abbreviation for its nickname bio crystal. The name was given due to many borrowed mechanisms from living ("bio") systems and one of the prototypes macroscopic appearances is a crystal. The bioc is a research project of Silver Village (SV) which is again financed by WCG's Aeronautics and Space Administration (the former NASA). The project involves nanorobots for terraforming other planets. During high peaks of the environmental crisis an idea arose to repurpose the bots. They should be used to filter out the toxic substances from the environment of the own planet. After the cataclysm, WCG politics demanded also its assignment to eliminate genetic material of Daodans in the wild. Originally the bioc should be ASA's tool to find, analyze and eventually manipulate matter as well as extraterrestrial microbial life forms. Now it's going to be WCG last instrument against toxic air, Daodan threats and the Syndicate ... The biological aspects of the research were outsourced to the sister facility Green Village (GV). A few different versions of bioc prototypes were produced there before the complex became partially destroyed. A bare artificial approach would produce a massive address number for the individual bots and therefore computational problems. So the bioc is supposed to create a biological way of control whereby a kind of self-awareness is formed by sensor systems and neural networks (like SLD do). When the bot population reached a predefined critical mass specialized nodes (organs) becomes created for higher abilities like regional localization (via GPS, etc). These nodes also allow humans to take control over the bot collective. To prevent the Daodan's continuing contamination and reconquering of already cleaned areas the bots needs to cloak all lifeforms at first, analyzing them, and then killing all separated microbial Daodan cells. This event is code named "silver dawn". It's planed that all bots on and inside of organism will destroyed themselves while the subterranean nodes will remain for sure for economic purposes. However, some are worried that the responsible people will succumb to the tremendous power and let remain the bots inside the organisms especially humans. But just as well hackers could succeed in taking over the system. The WCG will think twice if they want to unleash the bots into the world. Silver Dawn could change everything - to the good or to the bad.            German translation ... "Biok" ist eine Abkürzung für seinen Nicknamen "Biokristall". Der Name lehnt an Mechanismen der belebten Natur ("bio") an sowie der makroskopischen Gestalten einiger Zelltypen" der Prototypen, die wie ein Kristalle aussehen. Der Biok ist ein Forschungsprojekt von Silver Dawn, einer Einrichtung, die wiederum von der WKR's Aeronautics and Space Administration (ASA), der ehemaligen NASA, finanziert wird. Das Projekt umfasst selbstreplizierende, semi-autonome Nanoroboter für das Terraforming anderer Planeten. Nach wiederkehrenden Rekordwerten der Giftkonzentrationen in der Atmosphäre, Boden und Gewässer kam die Idee auf die Nanoroboter etwas umzufunktionieren. Sie sollten die giftigen Subtanzen aus der Umwelt des eigenen Planeten filtern. Nach dem Big Bang forderten WCG-Politiker auch den Einsatz der Nanobots zur Eliminierung von Daodan-Genmaterial in der freien Wildbahn. Ursprüngliche sollte der Biok ein Werkzeug der ASA sein Materie wie auch extraterrestrisch-mikrobiologisches Leben zu finden, zu analysieren und letztendlich auch zu manipulieren. Nun würde es das letzte Mittel der WCG gegen toxische Luft, Daodan-DNA, und Syndikat-Aktionen sein... Zur Erschaffung einer Selbstwahrnehmung formen die Bots Sensorsysteme und neuronaler Netzwerke (wie SLD es tun) wobei einige taktischer Knotenpunkte mit weitere Organe gebildet werden (z. B. Seismische Ortungssystem und GPS-Receiver). Diese Knoten erlaubt aber auch Kontrolle über das Bot-kollektiv von Seiten des Menschen. Die Knoten werden erst gebildet wenn eine kritische Masse im Bot-Kollektiv erreicht wurde. Um zu verhindern, dass die Daodan die Umwelt mit ihrer DNA kontaminiert oder rückerobert, müssen die Bots alles Lebensformen einschließen, sie analysieren, und dann alle losgelösten mikrobielle Daodan-Zellen. Dem Ereignis wurde der Codename "Silver Dawn" gegeben. Es ist geplant, dass alle Bots, die verschonten Organismen wieder verlassen und insbesondere nur die Unterirdischen Knoten für zukünftige ökonomische und ökologische Zwecke zurückbleiben. Allerdings gibt es einige Befürchtungen, dass die Verantwortlichen der ungeheuren Macht erliegen könnten und die Bots nicht wieder aus den Organismen abziehen. Genauso gut könnten es auch Hacker geben, die das System unter ihre Kontrolle bringen. Die WCG wird sich zweimal überlegen ob sie die Bots wirklich auf die Welt loslassen will. Silver Dawn könnte Alles verändern - zum Gutem wie auch zum Schlechten.

More notes:

• Like the Daodan, the Bioc needs computing power to solve complex tasks. Due to its crystalline components, the creators decided to let it use valleytronics which is suitable for quantum computing.
• How could daodan and bio merge? Probably by overlapping structures that process informations. -- Human mind and the daodan can interact because the daodan has its processing organelles also inside neurons. Now the bioc as third player could join the party when it invades the brain. Would the daodan be a hardware trojan to the bioc or the bioc to the daodan, or both to each other? In an uncontrolled interaction functions of any entity could go havoc, for the human it will mean extreme pain (the bioc invasion alone will stress/destroy a lot of nerves). In case of Daya it's one reason why she continues to take drugs of all sort.

Comparing DC and Bioc

Daodan Chrysalis	Bioc
passive, defensive, protective, analyzing harmful stimuli, flexible guidelines: - observe the own organism - identify harmful influences - adapt to those influences (idea based on "negative utilitarianism") Survival by adapting own organism. -> Give up / loss of self-control. Mirrors a possible new behavior. (Based on Hasegawa's mindset.)	active, aggressive, possessive, analyzing all matter, somewhat inflexible guidelines: - observe the environment - identify types of matter - make resources available (idea based on "utilitarianism") Survival by adapting the environment. -> Total control. Mirrors old human behavior.

The hybrid

The two technologies meet at cellular level and fight in hyperevolution.

It seem totally possible that synergy effects could occur if both entities eventually merge.

However, the behavior of both - DC and Bioc - is extreme. And extremes tend to not last very long.

Therefor the new entity might work after new guidelines, for example:

• Analyzing threats: Adapt to harmful stimuli if limits become exceeded.
• Analyzing resources: Adapt to new energy sources if favorable source is unavailable.
• Defense against or cooperation with other organisms. (developing immunity or integration)

Discussing a possible fusion

1 Overlapping processing structures

DC and Bioc start as small clusters. With more cells/units they unlock new abilities.

So, before a fusion can take place, both entities must have already reached their first critical volume.

Then, when their information processing structures overlap an interaction could become possible.

Both use computation to do their task whereby they need a model of themselves.

But even if both models overlap and somehow become one, their programming is still different.

• If the models merged, the Bioc could try to use the human as a tool to fulfill its tasks.

• Another problem could be (made in) the amount of units needed to reach the critical volume without destroying the daodanized human.

So, here we see that there's probably more things needed to make both entities work together.

1.1 Brain interface

Syndicate soldiers and TCTF agents might have brain interfaces to receive/send biometric/optical data.

Let's see.

09_31_08 Shinatama: I am an SLD, an android programmed with your brain engrams. I have seen everything you have seen, felt everything you have felt. They used me to monitor the growth of the Chrysalis inside you...

"I have seen everything" could be based on the brain engrams. But after all, Oni was inspired by "Ghost In The Shell" which also features brain-computer interface technologies. Shinatama's statement is reminiscent of Intercepters.

06_21_01 Syndicate Henchman: I've been monitoring the woman tracking us as you instructed. Scanners indicate a standard comlink as well as a second set of sub dermal transmissions. Analysis suggests that she is neurolinked to an SLD.

The ComGuy was able to identify the BCI relative easily giving it a touch of being nothing so special.

Anyways. If the Bioc can't understand the Daodan's language, maybe it can understand the translated, digital signals from the BCI?

1.2 Analytic code as requirement

For an interesting plot there could be the need of a certain programming to preserve life.

The idea of the final Bioc is to scan a planet for all kind of aspects including traces of life.

So, if the prototype doesn't have that programming an infected human could seek to obtain that code to ensuring his survival.

After the update, the human is one step away from realizing that he could write another update to simply force a fusion in his advantage.

1.3 Ability to enter a new symbiosis

A) The Daodan is heavily based on symbiosis. Why shouldn't it be possible to add new partners to an existing symbiosis?

In the end tools are just extensions of your body. If the Daodan realize the Bioc as tool it could stop fighting it.

As for the Bioc, could it falsely identify Daodan cells as its own, as some kind of higher Bioc organ?

B) How could two very different Imagos create offspring? If they can't, they will die out.

The bodies would have to merge at some point in order to form one virtual model for calculating the offspring's DNA and anatomy.

But what would make the Bioc work together with the Daodan? Maybe the Bioc could accidentally triggers this process.

1.4 Mental control

As described in "Arguments of an in vivo Daodan", the human mind might influence the transformation.

The more brain cells are daodanized the easier the transformation could be controlled.

This can be seen in contrast what Hasegawa actually wanted, adding automatic protection to the human body.

However, the possibility that messing with your own body can result in sickness or death should be common sense.

So, you better don't interfere unless you are an expert of genetics ("Study the handbook duh!") or you don't have no other choice and learn by trail and error.

Wouldn't that be very risky? With total control over DNA and anatomy it should be possible the test the changes only in a few cells before applying them to the rest.

Still, it would be wishful thinking that everything turns out okay.

For that reason Pensatore could have rejected the Daodan for himself. He believes that only more wisdom can bring a true solution. (Ref. Biocracy, Omega-Chimera)

To summarize the helpfulness of the human factor in this connection, with a total control and the technical knowledge it's theoretical possible to conquer the Bioc from within.

SLD

Simulated Life Doll.

The term brain engrams in Oni might be related to:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebbian_theory
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engram_%28neuropsychology%29

Speculation about brain components

generation 0

Improvements in silicon chips are reaching their limits. With all the promising research going on we can expect new standards in a foreseeable future.

What can change? Materials, information carrier and architecture.

The new standards will deliver more computing power, and with enough computing power, pretty much everything can be simulated.

It's thought that brain simulations require exascale computing.

Right now it looks like optical and neurosynaptic processors will hit the market before memristor- and spintronic-based processors do.

If we assume a human neocortex with 1 million cortical columns each with 60.000 neurons, it would take 60.000 of IBM's new neurosynaptic processors each with 1.000.000 programmable neurons to do the job.

A SLD brain with components based on these technologies might be possible but would be still far to big in size. It might fill a little building and remote control its body. So that's generation 0.

generation I

memristors

• memristors as complex networks can mimic biological brains better than transistors
• they can execute fuzzy logic which is in contrast to boolean logic not fixed between two states
• they are none-violent memory units even if they work with electric currency because with usage their inner matter changes

generation II

nanospintronics

• higher energy efficiency - no electric current needed, less energy used
• faster components - no electric charge is transported and thus no thermal problems appears which allows clock speed up to 10,000 GHz
• smaller components - e.g. the OR gate (actual iron-atom gate counts approx. 3nm), these kind of components can be smaller than todays semiconductor
• non-volatile memory - information doesn't become lost when power is turned off because they are stored magnetically (that way also the boot process of computer would become significant faster)
• and nanospintronics would also allow hybrid components for calculation and memory (these information were adapted from here (mirror))

That's the point which is especially interessting because of the analogy to biological components. Also biological brains uses one type of components for two things - the nerons store and process information.

Why multiple generations?

To describe an SLD's brain on Oni's timeline at an early time point, this brain would rely on multiple new technologies but so far it seem those will not be available at the same time.

• memristors are the first-choice components to create an AI brain but they would still "need transistors at the periphery" (src: "Spektrum der Wissenschaft Spezial Physik - Mathematik - Technik 3/2013", page 57)
• at the moment it seems that memristors will hit the market before spintronic-based transistors do, so meanwhile conventional transistors would aid memristors in AIs

Are SLDs alive?

Let's see at the following points to discuss this topic.

• "The SLD project is an attempt to recreate human physiology with artificial materials."
• SLD are classified as androids.

The TCTF and the Syndicate's language has more weight on the technical side...

Konoko: "I don't know if they programmed fear into her but if they didn't she's probably figured it out on her own by now."

08_28_02 Muro: "Curious. Why bother programming you to feel pain so intensely?"

09_31_08 Shinatama: "I am an SLD, an android programmed with your brain engrams"

... while The SLD scientists seem also to be more open for psychological aspects.

"SLDs are individuals in many respects."

"This core personality is then given a chance to develop a unique neurolattice while experiencing accelerated streaming sensory feeds."

"Most SLDs have to spend at least three months in the senseloop, which we have come to think of as their psychological womb."

• Emergence - new properties, behaviors, etc. of a system which the single parts not feature. Also commonly known under the phrase: "more than the sum of its parts". Two examples: gas has a temperature but not the single molecules, a brain has a mind but single neurons don't.

If they really recreated human physiology how can they rule out a new emerged mind? Why would it be a bare simulated one? The TCTF was surprised that Shinatama developed an own will.

"[...] an unprecedented degree of free will in the android [...]"

Maybe the TCTF argued that a SLD use just "programs" (because the hardware is not biological but artificial) and that programs aren't enough to create a mind. That's a pretty similar thinking to John Searle's Chinese Room. I wonder if a collection of interacting programs can show emergence.

What's the purpose of SLDs?

I don't think it's a desirable goal to create an android that can just feel pain, breath, sweat, and eat* and ... So you are saying it can produce artificial shit, eh? Is that everything you were able to accomplished after spending our research budget of 100 million dollar? Of course the real deal must be something else.

We have to ask why they didn't imitate another life form. Why not a bacteria, a plant, or an animal?

Side note: SLD are made of "artificial materials" and "micromechanical fabrication cells" and thus the basis is very unlikely to be DNA.

So the SLD project wasn't about immune systems, metabolisms, and not primarily about somatic functions. What's the big difference between humans and other life forms on earth? In all modesty it seems that the human mind is our biggest and most interesting difference. And it's still a mystery in Oni's story as well as in reality.

• SLD scientist: "One thing we still cannot do is create an artificial system that adequately simulates the processes of the human mind."

• Turing: "I do not wish to give the impression that I think there is no mystery about consciousness. There is, for instance, something of a paradox connected with any attempt to localise it."

So the solution seems to somewhat (if not entirely) copy an already existing brain.

In Oni "brain engrams" gave the SLD androids a mind and that way they could be a tool to study intelligence in an artificial environment.

With the obtained data, the mind doesn't need to become reinvented but analyzed. After the phase of analysis a true artificial intelligence could be designed.

Another side note: SLD brain engrams involves coping of brain information and that looks very similar to what is called mind uploading. That again is thought to be an approach to AIs. Ergo, in Oni AIs might be near although the Syndicate developed Deadly Brains. DB would be obsolete if AIs would already exist. (Or maybe AIs are not only much more difficult to construct but much more expensive as well...)

However, the abilities* claimed in the manual could be requirements for the SLD brain/mind to work normally because it simply awaits some body functions. Their food could be raw material for regeneration and a compounds of hydrogen and oxygen from which they can transform chemical energy to electric current. Their sweat then could be pure water from the reaction chemical reaction from inside the fuel cell.

Mukade, the SLD

At the time of Konoko's adventures, SLD technology seems to be in its final development stage.

Still, SLDs and their way of thinking is not fully understood, that's what Shinatama proof.

This has a logical consequence for a theory in which Mukade is actually Hasegawa with Mukade's brain engrams.

When could have the fusion happened? Somewhat after Mukade and Hasegawa met, or later just before Muro took over the Syndicate?

The later is more plausible and they would have needed one more expert. (Pensatore, SLD scientist.)

SLD technology draws on brain engrams because scientists couldn't create intelligences on their own yet.

One thing we still cannot do is create an artificial system that adequately simulates the processes of the human mind.

Instead SLDs contain a behavioral framework patterned on donor brain engram data fed into the system during its formation.

This core personality is then given a chance to develop a unique neurolattice while experiencing accelerated streaming sensory feeds.

Most SLDs have to spend at least three months in the senseloop, which we have come to think of as their psychological womb.

Because of the missing understanding it seems unlikely that they could have implanted Mukade's brain engrams into Hasegawa or vise verca.

Instead they could have created an SLD from two donor brains, an "ego hybrida". From that on Hasegawa and Kimura (original Mukade) could lean back and use Mukade (the SLD) as an instrument to control/watch Muro.

Mind upload

When the three maverick came together, on evening it happened that Kimura and Pensatore talked about Shinto and Buddhism. One topic was the human soul and that that Shinto knows multiple mitama can form one souls: ichirei shikon concept. Kimura's Shinobi philosophy was influenced by a small degree. But he mentioned enough to awake Pensatore's interest. He felt that there were similarities with the meme theory. Pensatore entered a new path. From that time on he understood the brain as a collection of memes running on biological hardware. His new goal was to create a digital mind that could run not in a robot brain but on common servers. Eventually he uploaded his own mind.

Shinatama's escape

[...] Shintama could have uploaded her mind to the internet with the help of Pensatore. I guess this can continue with Owldreamer's stuff.

Shields

Oni offers only two lines about its shield technology. The item description says also "force shield" which is maybe an inappropriate term

• because the force shield is visible to the naked eye,
• pieces can break away when a bullet hits it,
• magnetic/electric fields couldn't protect its user against non-magnetic/non-inducting materials,
• and magnetic and electric fields aren't blocky.

So the thought strokes one to think about a different background.

Side note: most of mentioned flaws can be explained by gameplay aspects again and the hardware/software limits during Oni's creation. However, I don't want those to be an "excuse" for not developing the fiction any further.

Atmospheric shields

Let's start with another question: Atmospheric Conversion Centers clean air for cities but what would keep the clean air inside and the toxins outside the cities?

Graphene oxide is known to be impermeable to everything except for water (and maybe hydrogen). Graphene has a so tight structure that almost nothing fits between its atoms. It's also pretty transparent which would let sunlight still reach the interior of our hypothetical shield.

Other graphene layers attached to the first one could align the material along a magnetic field. Pure graphene isn't magnetic but doping and defects can change properties of graphene in many ways.

What if the shield gets damaged? Ways of self-assembly and self-healing gets currently explored and could be probably of some help.

[...]

Personal shields

[...]

Heavy weapons

Vacuum bomb Auto aiming weapons (like CIWS) Rail gun Gatling guns Metal Storm (hypothetical) laser-induced plasma beam in tempests (src) BEC + pyroelectric fusion