Daodan: Difference between revisions

Apparently the notion of "latency" is closer to [[wp:virus latency]] (i.e. the attribute of a dormant, inactive state, and the opposite of "patency"), rather than the more common usage where "latency" means delay or lag (that's the meaning it has in engineering and telecommunications). In Oni, a "latent" Chrysalis is ''not'' one that runs out of "bandwidth/framerate" and therefore starts lagging and glitching. Instead the figures of 27.1 and 29 quoted by the scientists correspond to a kind of "inverse scale". More like an "anamoly level", and a "distance to full latency", than a measure of latency itself.

In other words, latency can be seen as a "zero state". A "latent" Konoko is one whose Chrysalis lays low and doesn't manifest itself. It is natural to describe these "calm" situations with a low range of values, and reserve high values for a dangerous/uncharted range. However, the phenomen, and the quantity describing it, is still called "latency", because the "other end" is completely non-descript and ominous (we have no way of knowing what a "fully non-latent" Chrysalis is like and, you know what, let's not even think about it).   

So, somewhat counter-intuitively, a ''higher'' latency figure quoted by the sci-goons corresponds to a ''less latent'' Chrysalis, that manifests itself ''more'' (well, slightly more than not at all). And a ''lower'' latency figure corresponds to a Chrysalis/host symbiosis that is ''more latent'', i.e., closer to the "zero state" that is full latency.