Daodan

This page is about Oni's plot concept of the Daodan Chrysalis; for the Daodan DLL patch, see HERE.

Chinese origin of the term Daodan
捣	蛋
DǍO (attack, beat or disturb)	DÀN (egg or origin)
T R O U B L E M A K E R N.B.: DǍO 捣 should not be confused with the better-known DÀO 道 ("way")
Nova from StarCraft: Ghost meets Oni's Konoko – a pun on the Japanese word ONI 鬼, understood to mean "ghost" when Oni began development. (Actually, the Chinese GUǏ (same kanji) means "ghost" more literally; see Oni (myth).)

"The Chrysalis is the hyper-evolved clone of its host body. As the host experiences stress or harm it grows to reinforce or replace the body's damaged systems." --Dr. Kerr, Chapter 12

"Warning: target neutralization failed. Daodan symbiote organism present. Engaging Omega security mode." --Shinatama, Chapter 13

Facts

Daodan latency

The subject of latency is repeatedly mentioned by Shinatama, Kerr, and the rest of Griffin's scientific crew, from Chapter 1 on. While not very informative for the player at that stage, the unfamiliar term suggests something out of the ordinary, i.e. more exotic than regular biometric data.

According to the game's dialogue, high Daodan latency is bad, low latency is good: dialogue in the first chapters suggests that 27.1 is normal and 29 is a bit alarming (also mentioned are "bioplasmic waveforms", which are expected to be "stable"). However, it gets a bit more complicated than that, as consoles at the TCTF Science Prison (this one and this other one) both present lowered latency as the danger, not heightened latency.

How can we reconcile this contradiction? First, the notion of "latency" is closer to virus latency (a dormant, inactive state, the opposite of "patency"), rather than the more common usage where "latency" means delay or lag (as in engineering and telecommunications). Instead, latency can be seen as an "at-rest state". A fully latent Konoko is one whose Chrysalis lays low and doesn't manifest itself. It is natural to describe this calm situation with a low range of values, and reserve high values for a dangerous/uncharted range. However, the phenomenon, and the quantity describing it, is still called "latency" because the "other end" is completely unknown.

So, somewhat counter-intuitively, a higher latency figure corresponds to a less latent Chrysalis that manifests itself more. A lower latency figure corresponds to a Chrysalis/host symbiosis that is more latent, i.e., closer to the "at-rest state" represented by "full latency".

Progress

"An android? Interesting. They must be using it to monitor her progress." --Muro, Chapter 5

The neural link between Konoko and Shinatama allowed the TCTF to gather precise biometric data on the gradual integration of Konoko's Chrysalis with her body. Unfortunately for the TCTF, the interpretation and reporting of this information was dependent on Shinatama, who it was believed would always be truthful. It turns out at the end of the game that Shinatama had been falsifying her reports in order to protect Konoko.

Aggressiveness

Going by this console, the Daodan not only amplifies physical performance but also affects one's personality: one becomes more headstrong, and easily aggressive.

Daodan spike

Starting with her second encounter with Barabas, Konoko experiences a dramatic surge of power after every boss fight (with the notable exception of Mukade).

Looked at another way, the major spikes only happen in three places: after beating Barabas a second time, after beating the room of bad guys at the end of Chapter 7, and after beating her brother at the end of the game. Three times is hardly a large enough sample from which to assume that it's only major fights that do this to her, especially since a Fury and a couple of Strikers are hardly a boss fight, and the real boss fight with Mukade triggers no such reaction. This leaves some uncertainty as to what specifically causes the major spikes.

The experience takes the form of a violent spasm, during which Konoko raises her arms in the air. A blue glow appears all over her body, accompanied by a soft whistling sound like a breeze. The fly-in panel of her face shows glowing eyes. The corresponding voiceover sounds ecstatic or even orgasmic. Compare to the ecstasy of Saint Teresa.

The term "Daodan spike" is not used to describe this spasm. Rather, these surges are described as "consistent with the waveforms of a Daodan spike, but far more powerful." Probably a regular Daodan spike is like an adrenal spike, but "far more powerful" already.

Chrysalis

The Chrysalis is first named by Shinatama during her revealing monologue in Chapter 8: "They used me to monitor the growth of the Chrysalis inside you". It was later elaborated on by Kerr and his colleagues in Chapter 12, as seen in the leading quote in this article. The Chrysalis' growth process takes on dramatic proportions in a later description: "Konoko is closer to full transition than we ever suspected. Rough projections estimate that the Chrysalis will have infiltrated more than 80% of her body and will have replaced somewhere between 40 to 56% of her original organs."

It is mentioned one final time in-game by Mutant Muro: "I am very impressed with what you have been able to accomplish without drawing on the full power of your Chrysalis."

This optional encounter aside, the very last mention of it is in Konoko's short outro: "Mankind as we knew it is doomed: the Chrysalis will change us all. Let's hope it's for the better."

Mukade

Mukade doesn't name the Daodan explicitly during his encounter with Mai, but his allusions bear close resemblance with the descriptions of the transformation process occurring in Chapters 12 and 13:

"Does your blood burn when you kill? Mine does. [...] We writhe inside as we are torn apart to make way for what we will become. Surrender to it. Let the bliss of oblivion free you of all your doubts and fears..."

Hasegawa

In his diary, Professor Hasegawa alludes to the Daodan project as something that he will do to "excuse his survival" after Jamie's death, saying, "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."

Chrysalis removal

TCTF's researchers could not determine how to remove the Daodan tissue without killing the host. They name two reasons:

• The Daodan tissues are actually replacements for their originals, so the researcher cannot rip them out without having compatible tissue as replacements.
• The Daodan tries to repair damaged tissue almost instantly, making incision and exploratory surgery difficult.

Other ideas are:

• To communicate with the Chrysalis somehow to guide its development.
• To inject cell clusters which would attack the Daodan cells only. (It's unclear how the Daodan could react to this threat.)

Sytropin

A medicine to slow down Konoko's transformation, though with decreasing effectiveness, mentioned in this console.

Transformation

The concept of a physical transformation was first briefly mentioned by Griffin, and later stressed as alarming by TCTF scientists in Chapter 13: "We must hope that Konoko was destroyed when she fell into the biomatter disposal vats. [...] If not then she may be even closer to her final evolutionary stage: what form that might take, and what the presence of such a creature might portend for humanity we cannot know." After we see Mutant Muro, we can understand their concern!

Imago stage

The only mention of this stage by name is in the last chapter's objectives in the killed-Griffin scenario, where it is explained that "[Mutant] Muro's Daodan powers make him invulnerable, but having only just evolved he has limited energy reserves."

Wikipedia defines "imago" as the "last stage of development of an insect", the completion of a metamorphosis; in other words, the adult stage. There also exists a sub-imago stage in one order of insects — mayflies.

True nature

Kerr says that the physical transformation cannot change the symbiote's personality, but rather vice versa. He claims that the final form will be an expression of the person's "true nature".

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Added value

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).

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 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...

Efficiency 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.

Point is : with the Daodan, one should always expect the unexpected. The fact that the theory itself denies any kind of accurate control and prediction is what makes the Daodan so different from any other prototype technology. Whatever widget comes up in sci-fi, even if it never served before, one always knows what it's supposed to do. With the Daodan, one doesn't have such luxury.

And so the very notion of "competence" doesn't really apply : Kerr is the most competent guy we see, and just what diagnoses and forecasts does he make?

What comes closest to competence is the awareness of the theory's self-imposed limitations. What comes closest to incompetence is the overlooking thereof. Rather than the overlooking of a particular element of a hypothetical control/confinement scheme, it's the illusion that control/confinement schemes are at all viable which is irresponsible. And that's pretty hard to overlook.

Confidence in the upgrading process is another delusion, more comfortable and easier to overlook. Thus it is more suitable for a global-scale altruist such as Hasegawa or Kerr. Assuming that the Daodan can do no wrong is just as irresponsible as claiming full control of the consequences, be they good or bad. But in the first case, the false belief is more irrational, and thus interferes less with objective reasoning.

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.

          

German translation ...

Der Grundgedanke des Daodan-Designs ist, dass man Kontrolle aufgeben muss um eine herausragende Leistung (Effizienz, Stärke) zu erreichen. Das ist worüber Kerr und seine Kollegen ständig reden, und es ist das was Muro und Barabas und Mai darstellen - ein jeder von ihnen in seiner Weise: Muro befreit sich aus der Kontrolle des Syndikats ganz ähnlich wie Mai von Griffen befreit. Barabas ist ein etwas komplizierterer Fall. Er stellt eine erzwungene (und gescheiterte) Eingrenzung der Stärke zu Gunsten der Kontrolle dar.

Der Punkt ist, dass man mit der Daodan immer das Unerwartete erwarten sollte. Der Fakt, dass die Theorie an sich jede Form der genauen Kontrolle und Hervorsage verneint, macht die Daodan so anders von jeder anderen Prototyp-Technologie. Welches (widget) Wunderding auch immer im Science-Fiction auftaucht, sogar solche, die es noch nicht gab, man weiß immer wozu es gut ist. Bei der Daodan hat man diesen Luxus nicht.

Und so trifft "Kompetenz" hier auf gar keinen Fall zu: Kerr ist der kompetenteste Typ, den wir kennen, und welche Diagnosen und Pronosen trifft er?

Was am ehestens "Kompetenz" nahe kommt, ist das Wissen über die der Theorie selbst auferlegten Grenzen. Was am ehestens "Inkompetenz" gleichkommt, ist das Übersehen derselben. Zu glauben, dass Kontroll- / Beschränkungssysteme vollkommen verlässlich seien, ist noch unverantwortlicher als das Übersehen eines wichtigen Elementes eines hypothetischen Kontroll- / Beschränkungssystems. Und das ist schwer zu übersehen.

Vertrauen in den Upgrade-Prozess zu haben, ist eine weitere Illusion - zumindest ist es leichter und angehemer zu übersehen. Dies passt eher zu einem global wirkenden Altruisten wie Kerr und Hasegawa es sind. Anzunehmen, dass die Daodan nichts falsch machen kann, ist genauso unverantwortlich wie die Behauptung über eine totale Kontrolle der Konsequenzen - seien sie nun Gute oder Schlechte. Aber der falsche Glaube an Ersterens - absolut verlässliche Kontrollsysteme - ist immer noch irrationaler, und damit geht er weniger mit einer objektive Argumentation einher.

Was Muro angeht, so ist er sich dem Problem bewusst, schert sich aber nicht viel um Kontrolle. STURMÄNDERUNG ist dafür ausgelegt den Überlebenden Ewiges Leben und Anarchie zu bringen.

Alienation and loss of humanity

The "power VS alienation" dilemma is best illustrated by the 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 extra-terrestrial 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 progresses, the human host loses its integrity as organs are "hogged" by the Daodan biomass. There's an invader, an invaded and a front line between the two, rather than a transformation occurring uniformly over the whole organism.

Given enough time, the process extends to all of the host's systems (because, by design, there seems to be 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. But once the smart cancer begins to upgrade the host's brain (who said it doesn't need upgrading? 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 usurps 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?

Repeated Imago

The Imago theory, upon reflection, brings up some unusual points. If the purest Imago state is acheived, then the Chrysilis has nothing more to adapt from. Does it simply die, or could it survive? If it lived, could it possibly be inserted with another Chrysilis?

If so, then one must wonder at the monsters that may occur...

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...