I Was Taken Out to Lunch Today
Jan. 31st, 2007 10:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tanarillBy an old friend of the family who works on the same campus as me. It was thai curry. My eyes were sweating. I loved it.
Not that you care. You just want me to write scientific explanations for things that can't possibly happen. And drabbles. I like drabbles; I can write and sometimes post them on lunch break at work. Plus they are fun to write.
'Cause I have a freaky-long PowerPoint on what the hell nanotech is, and it will make this much easier to understand, but it needs to be on the Internets for that to work. Don't ask why I have it. I don't want to talk about it.
Anyway, nanites, as we are rapidly discovering it is possible to make, would be mostly made out of carbon atoms, with other metals and nonmetals added in places to change their electrical properties. This is called "doping," as in "you doped the semiconductor with nitrogen to make it negative." All of the dopes that are used in computer chips today are found in impure form, in nature. Many of them are found in the human body.
The thing about nanites is that they are never going to be commercially feasible unless we can somehow get them to build each other; they have to be built atom by atom otherwise. That isn't even possible unless you have a scanning electron microscope and the time to hook several thousand atoms together. So they first few will be built by hand, and from there on out, they will build each other.
My theory for the dead bug is that it's simply a bunch of nanites living in the host, making each other as and when resources become available. Of course, the human body also breaks them down, so their overall numbers remain relatively steady throughout the host's lifetime. Once the host dies, there is no longer an immediate barrier to growth, and the nanites begin to build each other, cannibalizing organic molecules in the human body for the necessary atoms. When enough nanites are present, they begin to hook into secondary and tertiary forms, eventually forming a fetal version of the skull baby.
The skull baby develops in the brain because it has higher concentrations of certain chemical compounds that, when broken down, are useful to the growing baby. As it grows, it absorbs the intercellular compounds that effectively store memory in the human brain; this information is translated into an electrical storage form of memory as the compunds are "digested," broken down and used.
Once a skull baby reaches a certain size, the energy it emits (as heat) from forming new nanites is no longer sufficient to break down more organic molecules and make more nanites. Higher-density energy organic energy is needed to grow, and this is the stage where most skull babies starve. If there is enough high energy dense organic material around, the skull baby can continue to grow to skull baby v2. The v2 form is stable; that is, all the nanites forming it can continue to work if provided with a steady energy supply, but does not need to be growing to live. It can grow, depending on the availability of organics, and it will continue to grow until it reaches . . .
Remnant. They are intelligent, in a machine-doesn't-get-humanity kind of way. Like skull babies v2, they are stable. But, they can also modify their forms slightly, provided the correct atoms are around to get built into nanites and the body structure. For example, they can make thick skin that incorporates CaCO3, but they can't then walk unless they strengthen their skeletal structure and muscles. Not that they have muscles; they use lots of nanosized motors for the same thing. Also, since such transformations are very energy-intensive (it involves breaking down and rebuilding a lot of nanites), an energy source is also necessary.
Remnant v2 can transform more easily because of highly favorable gestation conditions; the human body isn't actually the best place for nanites to develop, but it's the only one they have. In Jude Walker's case, they were still in a human body, but it was a human body that was being exposed to lots of simple chemical compounds that the nanites could break up for atoms more easily than they did the human body, and they were heated, providing lots of energy. Those same chemicals (I'm thinking he/it developed in a full-body immersion tube) bonded to the human-memory compounds, making them easier to absorb, so Jude got more human memories that normal remnants would.
Because there were so many resources available for the developing skull baby, and then the skull baby v2, the nanites could afford to spend some playing around with their own designs eventually coming up with a highly energy-efficient version that can store inorganic compounds within nanotubes in the nanites. What this means: at least some of the nanites comprising Jude are very small H2 fuel tanks. He's also got some storing heavier elements, like lead and iron, which can be used to make weapons, armor, etc. He still needs an energy source for this, but he needs less of it and can usually use ambient solar, thermal, electromagnetic, and chemical energy (as opposed to Remnants v1, which can only use chemical energy and that not very efficiently).
Zak Grey, the only known hybrid, as made using some of the modified nanites from Jude. In other words, he inherited all of the benefits. Also, since his nanites are programmed to integrate with proper human biology instead of eat it, he's still technically alive. It's just that some biological functions, like neural transmission, have been taken over by the nanites, because really, who wouldn't want superconductors for nerves? His memories were never stored as brain chemicals, instead being stored as electric signals in the nanites in his brain, so he didn't lose any memories in conversion.
Right,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
falsechaos, that good enough BS to build your "regular remnants can't morph easily, but remnants v2 and hybrids can"? It's not like this is set in stone, either. It's a framework, and we can mix, match, and play with it :).
Title: Destruction's Other Name
Fandom: Danny Phantom; belongs to Butch Hartman, no money is being made, yadda yadda
Rating: PG-13, for violence
Warnings: Extreme crazy, violence; you kind of have to know what's going on for this to make sense
Here and now, he remembered . . .
“You cannot defeat me,” he hissed, as he wrapped the Silence around his fist in preparation for an attack. “There is no weapon powerful enough to defeat me. The Silence will drink anything you can throw at it.”
Pas looked at him, and she wasn’t afraid. Sweeper looked at him, and was terrified, but stood there anyway, leveling his broom like a sword.
“Perhaps,” said Pas, “but weapons are not the only things that can defeat, and your precious Silence can’t swallow everything. Someday, you will go too far, and he will find what it takes to destroy you.”
Sweeper smiled, almost beatifically except that it didn’t extend to his eyes, because his eyes were cold, and added, “I’ll be watching for it, boy.”
Here and now, he looked into blazing-white eyes . . .
. . . and burned.
Because I don't like Faux. The first part there happened right before Faux trapped Pas, BTW.
Not that you care. You just want me to write scientific explanations for things that can't possibly happen. And drabbles. I like drabbles; I can write and sometimes post them on lunch break at work. Plus they are fun to write.
'Cause I have a freaky-long PowerPoint on what the hell nanotech is, and it will make this much easier to understand, but it needs to be on the Internets for that to work. Don't ask why I have it. I don't want to talk about it.
Anyway, nanites, as we are rapidly discovering it is possible to make, would be mostly made out of carbon atoms, with other metals and nonmetals added in places to change their electrical properties. This is called "doping," as in "you doped the semiconductor with nitrogen to make it negative." All of the dopes that are used in computer chips today are found in impure form, in nature. Many of them are found in the human body.
The thing about nanites is that they are never going to be commercially feasible unless we can somehow get them to build each other; they have to be built atom by atom otherwise. That isn't even possible unless you have a scanning electron microscope and the time to hook several thousand atoms together. So they first few will be built by hand, and from there on out, they will build each other.
My theory for the dead bug is that it's simply a bunch of nanites living in the host, making each other as and when resources become available. Of course, the human body also breaks them down, so their overall numbers remain relatively steady throughout the host's lifetime. Once the host dies, there is no longer an immediate barrier to growth, and the nanites begin to build each other, cannibalizing organic molecules in the human body for the necessary atoms. When enough nanites are present, they begin to hook into secondary and tertiary forms, eventually forming a fetal version of the skull baby.
The skull baby develops in the brain because it has higher concentrations of certain chemical compounds that, when broken down, are useful to the growing baby. As it grows, it absorbs the intercellular compounds that effectively store memory in the human brain; this information is translated into an electrical storage form of memory as the compunds are "digested," broken down and used.
Once a skull baby reaches a certain size, the energy it emits (as heat) from forming new nanites is no longer sufficient to break down more organic molecules and make more nanites. Higher-density energy organic energy is needed to grow, and this is the stage where most skull babies starve. If there is enough high energy dense organic material around, the skull baby can continue to grow to skull baby v2. The v2 form is stable; that is, all the nanites forming it can continue to work if provided with a steady energy supply, but does not need to be growing to live. It can grow, depending on the availability of organics, and it will continue to grow until it reaches . . .
Remnant. They are intelligent, in a machine-doesn't-get-humanity kind of way. Like skull babies v2, they are stable. But, they can also modify their forms slightly, provided the correct atoms are around to get built into nanites and the body structure. For example, they can make thick skin that incorporates CaCO3, but they can't then walk unless they strengthen their skeletal structure and muscles. Not that they have muscles; they use lots of nanosized motors for the same thing. Also, since such transformations are very energy-intensive (it involves breaking down and rebuilding a lot of nanites), an energy source is also necessary.
Remnant v2 can transform more easily because of highly favorable gestation conditions; the human body isn't actually the best place for nanites to develop, but it's the only one they have. In Jude Walker's case, they were still in a human body, but it was a human body that was being exposed to lots of simple chemical compounds that the nanites could break up for atoms more easily than they did the human body, and they were heated, providing lots of energy. Those same chemicals (I'm thinking he/it developed in a full-body immersion tube) bonded to the human-memory compounds, making them easier to absorb, so Jude got more human memories that normal remnants would.
Because there were so many resources available for the developing skull baby, and then the skull baby v2, the nanites could afford to spend some playing around with their own designs eventually coming up with a highly energy-efficient version that can store inorganic compounds within nanotubes in the nanites. What this means: at least some of the nanites comprising Jude are very small H2 fuel tanks. He's also got some storing heavier elements, like lead and iron, which can be used to make weapons, armor, etc. He still needs an energy source for this, but he needs less of it and can usually use ambient solar, thermal, electromagnetic, and chemical energy (as opposed to Remnants v1, which can only use chemical energy and that not very efficiently).
Zak Grey, the only known hybrid, as made using some of the modified nanites from Jude. In other words, he inherited all of the benefits. Also, since his nanites are programmed to integrate with proper human biology instead of eat it, he's still technically alive. It's just that some biological functions, like neural transmission, have been taken over by the nanites, because really, who wouldn't want superconductors for nerves? His memories were never stored as brain chemicals, instead being stored as electric signals in the nanites in his brain, so he didn't lose any memories in conversion.
Right,
falsechaos, that good enough BS to build your "regular remnants can't morph easily, but remnants v2 and hybrids can"? It's not like this is set in stone, either. It's a framework, and we can mix, match, and play with it :).Title: Destruction's Other Name
Fandom: Danny Phantom; belongs to Butch Hartman, no money is being made, yadda yadda
Rating: PG-13, for violence
Warnings: Extreme crazy, violence; you kind of have to know what's going on for this to make sense
Here and now, he remembered . . .
“You cannot defeat me,” he hissed, as he wrapped the Silence around his fist in preparation for an attack. “There is no weapon powerful enough to defeat me. The Silence will drink anything you can throw at it.”
Pas looked at him, and she wasn’t afraid. Sweeper looked at him, and was terrified, but stood there anyway, leveling his broom like a sword.
“Perhaps,” said Pas, “but weapons are not the only things that can defeat, and your precious Silence can’t swallow everything. Someday, you will go too far, and he will find what it takes to destroy you.”
Sweeper smiled, almost beatifically except that it didn’t extend to his eyes, because his eyes were cold, and added, “I’ll be watching for it, boy.”
Here and now, he looked into blazing-white eyes . . .
. . . and burned.
Because I don't like Faux. The first part there happened right before Faux trapped Pas, BTW.
