Oni2:Slaves of War/Polylectiloquy: Difference between revisions

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→‎What is the role of the Daodan organism if it was designed?: wording

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 :If, on the other hand, we want to develop the notion that the Daodan is really crucial to the story and to the Wilderness, we might have to wonder how something so powerful, which can infect any kind of life, could possibly have come about by chance. The fact is that we have no idea what is on the other side of the phase veil. Why assume it's just plants? There could be, not just animals, but thinking animals like ourselves. These aliens might not look like us, or think like us, but if they are sufficiently advanced, then they might well have developed the Daodan on purpose.
-:Much speculative sci-fi agrees that, although circuits and silicon and neat-o, the "final frontier" of technology is organic, not mechanical.  The near-future world of "Ghost in the Shell" represents a natural extrapolation of current technology like robotics and computers, whereas the organic frontier is something much further out. After all, living things can repair themselves, adapt themselves, and reproduce themselves. That's the magic of life, and our silicon-based inventions are pathetically primitive by comparison. Sure, we could eventually develop nanomachines that self-replicate, but they're likely to feel like a pale imitation, an inefficient attempt at recreating what living cells have been doing for eons.
+:Much speculative sci-fi agrees that, although circuits and silicon are neat-o, the "final frontier" of technology is organic, not mechanical.  The near-future world of "Ghost in the Shell" represents a natural extrapolation of current technology like robotics and computers, whereas the organic frontier is something much further out. After all, living things can repair themselves, adapt themselves, and reproduce themselves. That's the magic of life, and our silicon-based inventions are pathetically primitive by comparison. Sure, we could eventually develop nanomachines that self-replicate, but they're likely to feel like a pale imitation, an inefficient attempt at recreating what living cells have been doing for eons.
 :So perhaps this hypothetical race that lives on the other side of the veil developed the Daodan on purpose. What purpose would it have? Well, consider the effects of the Daodan: it makes living things stronger by adapting in "real-time". Currently, life forms take generations to adapt and improve. Sometimes a distinction is made between [[wikipedia:macroevolution|macroevolution]] and [[wikipedia:microevolution|microevolution]]. Macroevolution is said to take place over thousands or millions of years; microevolution, also known as adaptation or natural selection, takes place over a much smaller scale, perhaps a couple centuries. By contrast, the Daodan enables instant adaptation within the lifetime of a single organism -- nanoevolution, if you will.
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 :A couple objections might come to mind. One: The Daodan needs to be implanted in someone carefully, so how is this a convenient cure-all for the aliens? Well, we can't assume that Hasegawa was "doing it right" when he developed his Daodan implantation process. It could be much simpler for the creators of the Daodan to implant it (picture someone administering a shot of medicine to a pouting child, then giving them a lollipop; "There, all done"). What's more, we don't know what happens when two Daodan hosts have a child, but if the Daodan truly inhabits all of our cells, then one could reasonably expect that the baby would automatically become a Daodan host as well. If so, then the aliens didn't even need to implant Daodan cells in anyone after the first generation. One wonders if even a child of this race would have phenomenal powers, since they have lived with the Daodan their entire lives.
-:Secondly, and more importantly, doesn't the Daodan have the potential to transform people into hideous, all-powerful monsters? Why design something that works that way? Well, again, Hasegawa only saw the Daodan as a great way to adapt people to the growing pollution. He probably had no idea of the extent of its transformative powers, and it certainly didn't come with an instruction manual. Thus, it could be that the Daodan is not being implanted/grown properly in hosts. A better explanation, at least for Mai's sake, might be that the Daodan host requires some training or education in order to handle their Daodan abilities properly. It's a case of "mind over matter", and if a host fails to control their Daodan mentally, then they end up like Muro. The stage of development called "Imago" by the characters of Oni could well be a false or undesired result, brought about by allowing the Daodan to run rampant.
+:Secondly, and more importantly, doesn't the Daodan have the potential to transform people into hideous, all-powerful monsters? Why design something that works that way? Well, again, Hasegawa only saw the Daodan as a great way to adapt people to the growing pollution. He probably had no idea of the extent of its transformative powers, and it certainly didn't come with an instruction manual. Thus, it could be that the Daodan is not being implanted/grown properly in hosts. A better explanation, at least for Mai's sake, might be that the Daodan host requires some training or education in order to handle their Daodan abilities properly. Then it becomes a case of "mind over matter", and if a host fails to control their Daodan mentally, they end up like Muro. The stage of development called "Imago" in Oni could well be a false or undesired result, brought about by allowing the Daodan to run rampant.
 ===If it wasn't designed, is the Daodan helpful or harmful?===