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Daodan: Difference between revisions
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==Speculation== | ==Speculation== | ||
=== | The Daodan concept is easily the most original and powerful in all of Oni. It neatly maps onto society, technology, personality etc, and it can also be considered on its own, as an appealing sci-fi concept and the embodiment of not-so trivial dilemmas (ethical and other). | ||
The key idea of the Daodan is that in order to achieve outstanding performance (efficiency, power), you have to ''give up control''. | ===Autoevolutionary process=== | ||
The Daodan is designed so as to ''run free'' : to come up with an adapted response to complex or unforeseeable challenges, to "react as it sees fit". There are virtually no limits imposed to that "hyperevolution" by the designer. Rather than making the "patched" humans able to withstand certain types of toxins, they idea is to provide a dynamic cure for any toxin there will ever be. Which sounds very nice, but brings about a few disturbing aspects... | |||
===Mender and catalyst=== | |||
The Daodan can either "reinforce" existing bodily structures, or "replace" them with radically new ones. This dual selection process is mainly triggered by externally applied "stress or harm". The overall, long-term effect is to "distill the quintessence" of the host, to express its "true nature" as Kerr puts it. | |||
Practically, though, the "patch" is gradually extending throughout the host, redefining the "nature" of the host organism as it does so. That's quite close to massive cyborgization of a human body : enhancing it with synthetic patches until the body is one big patch surrounding a vanishingly small human core. | |||
===Smart cancer=== | |||
Nanotechnological medecine, in cyberpunk and such, often features smart, hyperminiaturized robots that deal with diseases at cell level. Those robots, however, are specialized for a specific type of activity, as they are, from A to Z, the product of human designers and engineers. | |||
The Daodan is essentially different in that it is 100% biological : it's even different from 3rd-party grafts and implants, because the tissue is originally that of the host himself. That, and the fact that both tissues ''do'' end up very different, makes the Daodan readily identifiable as an extreme form of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancer cancer]. Basically, the Chrysalises implanted to Muro and Mai were comparable to ''tumors'' (aggregates of cancer cells), and the different growth processes occuring then are equivalent to direct invasion and metastasis. | |||
Cancer disrupts the fundamental equilibrium between cell division and cell death, and thus affects the organism's integrity. The Daodan does pretty much the same (note the connection of the aforementioned equilibrium to the "stability" of a host/[[Daodan]] "symbiote"). However, the initial mutation isn't random, and the process is considerably different from a proliferation of tumors, and does not result in death the way regular cancer does. | |||
The Daodan is ''smart'' about its progression through the organism. Its core "hyperevolutionary" design is an autoadaptive upgrade of the host, which results in assimilating, "reinforcing and enhancing" existing structures, rather than going for any vital space it can get. A sort of dynamic integrity is thus maintained (if things go well, that is), and then it results in increased resilience and preservation of the host, rather than its death. | |||
The Daodan ''serves its host as best it can''. Which is more or less the altruistic goal claimed by Hasegawa. | |||
So, is everything fine? Not really... | |||
===Efficience and loss of control=== | |||
The key idea of the Daodan design is that in order to achieve outstanding performance (efficiency, power), you have to ''give up control''. | |||
That's what [[Kerr]] and his colleagues keep talking about, that's what [[Muro]] and [[Barabas]] and [[Mai]] illustrated, each in their own way : Muro escaping the [[Syndicate]]'s control in pretty much the same way as Mai escaped [[Griffin]]'s, [[Barabas]]'s more complicated case being a forced (and failed) conciliation of power and control. | That's what [[Kerr]] and his colleagues keep talking about, that's what [[Muro]] and [[Barabas]] and [[Mai]] illustrated, each in their own way : Muro escaping the [[Syndicate]]'s control in pretty much the same way as Mai escaped [[Griffin]]'s, [[Barabas]]'s more complicated case being a forced (and failed) conciliation of power and control. | ||
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As for [[Muro]], he's aware of the problem, but doesn't care much about control. [[STURMANDERUNG]] is supposed to bring about eternal life ''and'' anarchy for the survivors. | As for [[Muro]], he's aware of the problem, but doesn't care much about control. [[STURMANDERUNG]] is supposed to bring about eternal life ''and'' anarchy for the survivors. | ||
===Alienation=== | ===Alienation and loss of humanity=== | ||
The "power VS alienation" dilemma is best illustrated by the [[Barabas#Speculation|Barabas]] experiment. | The "power VS alienation" dilemma is best illustrated by the [[Barabas#Speculation|Barabas]] experiment. | ||
Alienation as such is best explored through the characters of [[Mai]] and [[Muro]]. | |||
====Hyperevolution of Man==== | |||
Effectively, there's a hell of a gap between a thoroughly upgraded (hyperevolved) human being and a regular human, both physiological and psychological. Actually, there's no well-defined limit or goal to the Daodan process. | |||
So much of a difference that the Imago can be regarded as another race, another species... which is close to the basic concept of ET intelligence, no matter if the Daodan's origin is entirely human or not. | |||
====Inner struggle==== | |||
At any given moment, the upgraded (hyperevolved and hyperevolving) biomass and the still-completely-human cells are distinguishable. There's the human host and its hyperevolved clone, the Chrysalis. | |||
There is no ''merging'' between the "tumors" and the intact organs. As the process progresse, the human host loses its integrity as organs are "hogged" by the Daodan biomass. There's an invader, an invaded and a front line, rather than a transformation occurring uniformly over the whole organism. | |||
Given enough time, the process extends to all of the host's systems (again, there is ''no'' limit to the field of action of the "patch"). That means the nervous system and the brain will be subject to an upgrade, too. | |||
The biological struggle at cellular level (the host's immune response to that strange invader : an upgraded copy of itself) is a bit tedious. Once the smart cancer begins to upgrade the host's brain (who said it doesn't need uprading? sure does!), the picture gets much more juicy. | |||
Basically it's the old clon'o'phobic dilemma (what happens if your clone or double kills you and usurpates your identity?), except the killing and usurpation happens inside one single body. | |||
====Love==== | |||
Transiting to the Imago stage has been compared to falling in love. Passion dramatically enhances the sense of power, while dulling things such as common sense. In a way, "true lovers" don't belong to this world : they're beyond the community, beyond reason, etc. | |||
===Goal=== | |||
The process has no declared goal other than a relentless mending of defects and catalyzing of resources. This results in a constant evolution towards "something" (perfection?). | |||
One can then wonder what the finality is, if any. Is it the Imago stage (whatever it is?)? Can one ''avoid'' transiting to the Imago stage? If so, could ''that'' be the goal : balancing between human and Imago? | |||
===Meaning=== | |||
Different people with different backgrounds and motivations will likely fail to consider the Daodan concept from a philosophical or scientific point of view, and will attribute a very practical value to the entity and process, depending on what the Daodan means to them in the context. | |||
A Daodan can thus be regarded as a tool, a weapon, a cure, an antidote, a threat, insurance, sacrilege... | |||
===Symbiotes=== | ===Symbiotes=== | ||
====Mai==== | ====[[Konoko|Mai]]==== | ||
====Muro==== | ====[[Muro]]==== | ||
====Barabas==== | ====[[Barabas]]==== | ||
====Mukade==== | ====[[Mukade]]==== | ||
===Imago=== | ===Imago=== | ||
====Muro==== | ====[[Muro]]==== | ||
====Barabas==== | ====[[Barabas]]==== | ||