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new questions on how the Daodan is transplanted and what its purpose is
(→‎What are the Daodan Chrysalises, really?: moving the blurb on transplanting the Daodan into its own section)
(new questions on how the Daodan is transplanted and what its purpose is)
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But to spice things up there was to be a much bigger problem: remember the phase technology that humanity has been developing? Well, it just so happens that the entities on the other side of the 'phase veil' had started to notice US. And since they feed on our lifeforce, they decide that the Earth looks a lot like a gigantic buffet. Think the Screaming Cannon entities were a bitch? Wait'll you saw their mother...}}
But to spice things up there was to be a much bigger problem: remember the phase technology that humanity has been developing? Well, it just so happens that the entities on the other side of the 'phase veil' had started to notice US. And since they feed on our lifeforce, they decide that the Earth looks a lot like a gigantic buffet. Think the Screaming Cannon entities were a bitch? Wait'll you saw their mother...}}


===What is on the other side of the "phase veil"? Where did the Wilderness come from?===
===What is on the other side of the "phase veil"? Where did the Wilderness come from?===
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:Fictional scientists have been known to accidentally open gates to worlds with dangerous life forms, so this is possibly what Hardy was thinking when he introduced phase technology. The interesting question is, If a scientist one day opened a portal to another world, and bad stuff came through, wouldn't he have closed it? Wouldn't it have eventually ceased functioning if the lab got overrun by ET wildlife? If so, is life continuing to come through the phase veil on its own, and by what means? Or is the spreading Wilderness simply reflecting the success that this foreign life that came from a single point of introduction is having in invading our biosphere and reproducing quickly?
:Fictional scientists have been known to accidentally open gates to worlds with dangerous life forms, so this is possibly what Hardy was thinking when he introduced phase technology. The interesting question is, If a scientist one day opened a portal to another world, and bad stuff came through, wouldn't he have closed it? Wouldn't it have eventually ceased functioning if the lab got overrun by ET wildlife? If so, is life continuing to come through the phase veil on its own, and by what means? Or is the spreading Wilderness simply reflecting the success that this foreign life that came from a single point of introduction is having in invading our biosphere and reproducing quickly?


===How bad is the pollution and how is the world dealing with it?===
===How bad is the pollution and how is the world dealing with it?===
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:D. The governments may be working on a biological weapon to kill the Wilderness.
:D. The governments may be working on a biological weapon to kill the Wilderness.
:E. Send it back to where it came from. As mentioned above, if there is a plant in the Wilderness that allows transportation through the phase veil, then perhaps there is a way to re-train this plant to target its brethren and send them back through the veil.
:E. Send it back to where it came from. As mentioned above, if there is a plant in the Wilderness that allows transportation through the phase veil, then perhaps there is a way to re-train this plant to target its brethren and send them back through the veil.


===Does the general public get Chrysalises? How does society change?===
===Does the general public get Chrysalises? How does society change?===
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::Pros: Preserves the mystery of the Daodan, especially if it's even more low-level than a virus. Cf. [[wikipedia:viroid|viroids]], [[wikipedia:plasmid|plasmids]] (rolling circles, electroporation and replicons, oh my!), [[wikipedia:prion|prions]], [[wikipedia:transposon|transposons]].
::Pros: Preserves the mystery of the Daodan, especially if it's even more low-level than a virus. Cf. [[wikipedia:viroid|viroids]], [[wikipedia:plasmid|plasmids]] (rolling circles, electroporation and replicons, oh my!), [[wikipedia:prion|prions]], [[wikipedia:transposon|transposons]].
::Cons: It's complicated! Much easier to just say that the Daodan is a special plant. Also, if the Daodan is transferred on the genetic level, might it be contagious? That would run counter to Hasegawa's notion of the Daodan needing to be implanted, person by person. This would have story-changing implications.
::Cons: It's complicated! Much easier to just say that the Daodan is a special plant. Also, if the Daodan is transferred on the genetic level, might it be contagious? That would run counter to Hasegawa's notion of the Daodan needing to be implanted, person by person. This would have story-changing implications.


===How did Hasegawa discover the power of the Daodan organism?===
===How did Hasegawa discover the power of the Daodan organism?===
:A. Could it have been the plant that killed Jamie? Hasegawa was a man of science. Even in his grief, he would have thought to take a sample of the plant that killed Jamie back to a lab, where he could analyze it and find an antidote so no one else would have to die. He would have found that the plant resisted all hostile pathogens, developing immunity almost instantly. This would have started his Daodan Project. (Cf. [[:Image:Dream_7_dying_Jamie.jpg|this image]] of the infected Jamie, who is displaying colored veins similar to the Imago effect seen in Muro and Barabas.) This is a rather unlikely coincidence, though. Surely there's a ton of different things that are harmful to humans in the Wilderness.
:A. Could the plant that was killing Jamie have been the Daodan? Hasegawa was a man of science. Even in his grief, he would have thought to take a sample of the plant that killed Jamie back to a lab, where he could analyze it and find an antidote so no one else would have to die. He would have found that the plant resisted all hostile pathogens, developing immunity almost instantly. This would have started his Daodan Project. (Cf. [[:Image:Dream_7_dying_Jamie.jpg|this image]] of the infected Jamie, who is displaying colored veins similar to the Imago effect seen in Muro and Barabas.) This is a rather unlikely coincidence, though. Surely there's a ton of different things that are harmful to humans in the Wilderness.


:B. Or was it serving some significant role in the Wilderness that drew Hasegawa'a attention to it? If we just make the Daodan a regular plant in the Wilderness that has miraculous properties for humans, it seems to be missing the point. One could surmise that if the Daodan is that powerful, it must be a key part of the Wilderness. If the Wilderness is really composed of alien life, something that Oni is not clear on, then perhaps the Daodan is what allows this life to adapt to Earth. It could be that the Daodan has "infected" every one of the foreign plants in the Wilderness, and perhaps also the plants of Earth that it comes into contact with, making them dangerous for humans in the process. Since we're told that the level of pollutants continues to rise outside the reach of the ACCs, then the question is what's driving this increase in pollution. One answer is the expansion of the Wilderness. Any measures the WCG takes to destroy the Wilderness will not be effective as long as all the plants are Daodan super-powered. This gives us an all-or-nothing twist: either we get rid of the whole Wilderness before it over-runs us, or we yield to the power of the Daodan as the key to our own survival.
:B. Or was it serving some significant role in the Wilderness that drew Hasegawa'a attention to it? If we just make the Daodan a regular plant in the Wilderness that has miraculous properties for humans, it seems to be missing the point. One could surmise that if the Daodan is that powerful, it must be a key part of the Wilderness. If the Wilderness is really composed of alien life, something that Oni is not clear on, then perhaps the Daodan is what allows this life to adapt to Earth. It could be that the Daodan has "infected" every one of the foreign plants in the Wilderness, and perhaps also the plants of Earth that it comes into contact with, making them dangerous for humans in the process. Since we're told that the level of pollutants continues to rise outside the reach of the ACCs, then the question is what's driving this increase in pollution. One answer is the expansion of the Wilderness. Any measures the WCG takes to destroy the Wilderness will not be effective as long as all the plants are Daodan super-powered. This gives us an all-or-nothing twist: either we get rid of the whole Wilderness before it over-runs us, or we yield to the power of the Daodan as the key to our own survival.
===Is the Daodan dangerous for humans? How is it being transplanted, exactly?===
:Because the Daodan is foreign to our biosphere, perhaps haphazard contact with it proves lethal to our life. If Jamie was killed by the Daodan, as considered above, then we would have an answer to this question, but in fact Jamie died by Hasegawa's gun. Was she really going to die, slowly and in agony? Or was she being transformed? We can't say from the facts given, and it's hard to figure out if Bungie was placing any significance in the Imago-like veins that she is shown to have developed, or if those simply represent an infection in her bloodstream. Jamie could simply have been infected by a plant that defended itself with substances harmful to animals that might try to eat it, or else it was just minding its own business, but its alien chemistry was highly inimical to human bodies. Think of how some people have allergies to common plants like ragweed or poison ivy, and you realize that a totally foreign "flowering shrub" could very well kill someone without "meaning to".
:The only fact we have to go on with the Daodan is that it had to be grown along with human tissue in a controlled environment. Later, this Chrysalis was able to be implanted in Muro and Mai. So either Hasegawa and Kerr had to "train" the Daodan to get along with human DNA, or else there was no training needed and they were simply being cautious and ethical in trying to study the Daodan on tissue instead of real people. As to <u>how</u> the Daodan organism is isolated and introduced to human tissue, this largely depends on the nature of the Daodan. The process is probably simplest if the Daodan is a genetic process, as considered above under "What are the Daodan Chrysalises, really?" in the Enigmata section. Then one would simply have to place some Daodan-infected cells from the Wilderness into human cells. Any specifics of the process aren't terribly important from our perspective, except for the question of whether the Daodan needs to be coaxed into new tissue/DNA, or if it takes to it easily.
:One would tend to think that if the Daodan easily acclimates to any new genetic home, then the Daodan would be contagious. This is never indicated in Oni, and tends to take us in a direction we don't want to go, where the Daodan could easily spread to everyone in the world and lose its specialness. Better to keep it as something that needs to be deliberately implanted. If that's the desired situation, then we can ask, Why would the Daodan perform so well in a human host when implanted properly, and yet not spread contagiously without human aid? Perhaps the answer lies, not in the Daodan, but in our own immune system. If a sample of human tissue is allowed to be infected by the Daodan while it is separated from the subject's body and its immune system components, then the Daodan could replace the cells in that sample with its own improved versions. The tissue could perhaps then be re-implanted without triggering an immune response.
:Considering how potent the Daodan is, it's quite convenient if our immune system can defeat the Daodan if coming into casual contact with it. One almost wonders if that was the intention....
===What is the role of the Daodan organism? Was it designed?===
:One could simply assume that the Daodan is an alien life form like the other biota that are invading Earth from across the phase veil. If that's all we wish to make of it, then we can simply say that the Daodan is just minding its own business like any other species, doing what it needs to in order to survive. We don't ask why viruses do what they do, or even rabbits. They reproduce because that's the most basic drive of all life -- to perpetuate its genes.
: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.
: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.
:Humans do not simply accept the existence of deadly diseases, shrugging and hoping that we eventually evolve immunity to them in a million years. We try to use medicine and science to eliminate them. Even if an expensive operation is needed to keep a single human alive, we will perform it. This sort of emphasis on the preservation of individual lives might be a natural outcome in any species that develops sufficient intelligence to be able to do something about our own health problems. Perhaps the Daodan simply represents the culmination in medical technology of this alien race.
: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.


===Where does the Daodan gets its energy from?===
===Where does the Daodan gets its energy from?===
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:C. Rival implants. If the Daodan organism has enemies in the Wilderness, implant one of them alongside the Chrysalis to inhibit its growth. Obviously this interaction could lead to unforeseen results, which could also be a part of the plot if we so choose.
:C. Rival implants. If the Daodan organism has enemies in the Wilderness, implant one of them alongside the Chrysalis to inhibit its growth. Obviously this interaction could lead to unforeseen results, which could also be a part of the plot if we so choose.
:D. Block energy reception. Per my idea above that the Daodan needs to draw outside energy for its more impressive feats, if something could be done to prevent the Daodan from receiving this energy, you could avoid mutant Imago rampages by the general populace. Since humanity is clearly learning how to harness phase technology, this should not be out of the question. But obviously it can't be something like requiring people to wear a wristband, because that is bound to go awry. It needs to be a method that people can't avoid... something that is an unavoidable part of living in the city, like [[wikipedia:Water fluoridation|treated water]] is today. ''Hmm....''
:D. Block energy reception. Per my idea above that the Daodan needs to draw outside energy for its more impressive feats, if something could be done to prevent the Daodan from receiving this energy, you could avoid mutant Imago rampages by the general populace. Since humanity is clearly learning how to harness phase technology, this should not be out of the question. But obviously it can't be something like requiring people to wear a wristband, because that is bound to go awry. It needs to be a method that people can't avoid... something that is an unavoidable part of living in the city, like [[wikipedia:Water fluoridation|treated water]] is today. ''Hmm....''


===What was up with that [[Quotes/Consoles#Picasso_Island|Bertram Navarre]] guy?===
===What was up with that [[Quotes/Consoles#Picasso_Island|Bertram Navarre]] guy?===
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===If still alive, what is Mukade doing?===
===If still alive, what is Mukade doing?===
:After being broken at Konoko's hands, Mukade's body was retrieved by BGI and he recuperated in a well-hidden safe house, even as the WCG stormed the facilities they knew about. Now free of his masters, Mukade doesn't even hold a grudge against Konoko. He has given himself a new mission -- experimenting with [[Oni2:Slaves of War/Neo-Biology|new agricultural methods]] in order to figure out how to control the Wilderness or live alongside it. He is likely to want to avoid violence, so it doesn't bring back his 'bad tendencies'.
:After being broken at Konoko's hands, Mukade's body was retrieved by BGI and he recuperated in a well-hidden safe house, even as the WCG stormed the facilities they knew about. Now free of his masters, Mukade doesn't even hold a grudge against Konoko. He has given himself a new mission -- experimenting with [[Oni2:Slaves of War/Neo-Biology|new agricultural methods]] in order to figure out how to control the Wilderness or live alongside it. He is likely to want to avoid violence, so it doesn't bring back his 'bad tendencies'.


===What would Mai be doing as the Cataclysm happened?===
===What would Mai be doing as the Cataclysm happened?===
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