A belated genetics dump

[Originally written August 18 2020]

As indicated in my previous entry, I’ve decided to do a genetic examination of all my C1 Norns. Aaron, of course, is a standard PMN, so I’ll skip him. I’m starting with the three deceased Norns, as they may have passed mutations on. Angela’s genes checked out – a completely unmutated Norn. 

Bill, on the other hand, had a few alterations.

Lobe

Gene 121: Attention lobe

D1 Dynamics

Relax susceptibility: 0 (max to 0 instantly), Relax STW: 0 (max to 0 instantly). LTW gain: no.
Susceptibility: <end> <end> <end> <end> <end> <end> <end> <end>
Reinforcement: <end> <end> <end> <end> <end> <end> <end> <end>

Relax susceptibility: 0 (max to 0 instantly), Relax STW: 0 (max to 0 instantly). LTW gain: no.
Susceptibility: 1 <end> <end> <end> <end> <end> <end> <end>
Reinforcement: <end> <end> <end> <end> <end> <end> <end> <end>

Since lobe genes are really long and complicated, I’ve divided my template up into sections and will cut the irrelevant parts. Truth be told I’m not sure what the implications of this are. If I understand what I’ve read about these genes correctly, the susceptibility is a scale from 0 to 255, where the higher the value, the more susceptible the dendrite is to being reinforced. In this case, it’s normally undefined and therefore I assume it’s 0 by default, but in Bill it was always 1.

Lobe

Gene 122: Concept lobe

D0 Growth

Source Lobe: Perceptible i/ps. Min: 1, Max: 3. Spread: waS. Migrate: all loose.
Initial config: Fanout: 2, LTW between 128 and 129, Strength between 0 and 10.

Source Lobe: Perceptible i/ps. Min: 1, Max: 1. Spread: waS. Migrate: all loose.
Initial config: Fanout: 2, LTW between 128 and 129, Strength between 0 and 10.

Yikes. If I understand this, it means the concept lobe can only take 1 input at a time from the perception lobe, where it should be able to take 3. That would mean Bill was incapable of forming combined concepts like “I’m hungry AND I see food.”

Bill also had a half life change in chemical 123 that got rounded out anyway, a minor receptor change for coughing where the gain was reduced from 255 to 254, and a reaction mutation where glycotoxin poisoning would cause him slightly more pain than a standard Norn. 

We’ll cap off the deceased Norns and begin the second generation with poor Cathy, who died too young. I’m not going to bother tracking whether inconsequential mutations are inherited or not, but I’ll check on the notable ones. In this case, Cathy had inherited the Lobe mutations, as well as having a very minor change to the half-life of Progesterone and getting slightly more bored when resting.

Now we can get to the still living Norns! We’ll start with Beth, the eldest. In fact, come to think of it, she’s over 10 and a half hours old, but shows no sign of – well, I would say graying, but as a PMN she was born gray! Oddly, I don’t see anything in her genome that would cause this – or maybe it’s normal in Creatures 1; I’m not as familiar with the timescale here as in C3/DS.

I also hoped to find some explanation of her consistently high life force, perhaps confirmation of her being a Highlander. She’s not, it turns out. At any rate, Beth certainly does still have some interesting mutations to look at.

Receptor

Gene 155: Receptivity (F)

Organ: “Creature”, Tissue: “Reproductive”, Locus: “Receptive to sperm if > 0”. Chemical: “Sex Drive”.
Analogue: Output = 44 + ((Signal - 0) * 255).

Organ: “Creature”, Tissue: “Reproductive”, Locus: “Receptive to sperm if > 0”. Chemical: “Anger”.
Analogue: Output = 44 + ((Signal - 0) * 255).

In other words, she’s more likely to get pregnant if she’s mad. If that’s not classically Beth, I don’t know what is.

Reaction

Gene 145: Glycogen -> Glucose

1 Glycogen + 1 <NONE> = 3 Glucose + 1 Hunger.
Rate: 64 (max to 0 in 80 seconds)

1 Glycogen + 1 Need for Pleasure = 3 Glucose + 1 Hunger.
Rate: 64 (max to 0 in 80 seconds)

While Beth isn’t a Highlander, this might possibly explain her high life force. I’m not super familiar with how much Need for Pleasure a Norn generates under typical circumstances, but if it’s not very much, the fact that Beth needs it in order to break down Glycogen into Glucose explains why her life force remains high (and did so even when she was sick).

Reaction

Gene 231: immune response

2 Antigen 5 + 1 Glucose = 1 Antibody 5 + 1 Hotness.
Rate: 80 (max to 0 in 5 minutes)

2 Antigen 5 + 1 Glucose = 0 Antibody 5 + 1 Hotness.
Rate: 80 (max to 0 in 5 minutes)

Finally, we have a rather ominous and worrying reaction. First of all, I don’t know if this mutation actually kicked in, as it gets autocorrected in the Genetics Kit. Secondly, I’m not sure exactly how sickness works in Creatures 1, so I’m not sure how necessary the antibodies are to fighting off antigens. But if this mutation does affect Beth, and antibodies are necessary, then this effectively leaves her unable to fight off Antigen 5. Yikes!

We’ll finish our look at the second generation with Carlos. His only new mutation was a slight increase in how afraid he has to be before he slips into the fearful gait. However, it turns out he, too, inherited Bill’s lobe mutations, including the one that prevents him from forming complex concepts, as his concept lobe neurons can only have one dendrite to the perception lobe. 

The more I think about it, the more this seems like a potential explanation of his poor eating habits. The decision lobe is linked to the concept lobe, which in turn is linked in multiple places to the perception lobe, which draws its values from various other parts of the brain. While Carlos can parse “push food” into the noun “food” (which does make it to his attention lobe and get him to look at the food) and the verb “push,” and his perception lobe does register both the verb and the fact that he’s now looking at food, I would imagine the limited connections would mean his concept lobe can’t tie those together, and thus can’t influence his decision lobe based on it. Similarly, he wouldn’t be able to process that he has food AND is hungry. Egads, what a horrible mutation!