Changing of the guard

[Originally written September 6 2020]

Everything was ready. I had a naming scheme. The COBs had been updated. The cheese tray was on the table. The butterflies were dancing around the garden and in the kitchen. Greg crouched near the fireplace, keeping a watchful eye on the incubator and its precious contents as one by one, each egg was loaded in, hatched, recorded, and exported. After all, the intent is to modify the genomes to include the old age fix and inject the new Norn into the world via the Genetics Kit. Technically, that means the Norns we follow won’t be exactly the same ones as those I’ve just hatched… but I like to think they are.

As I recorded them, I noticed something strange… all but one of them were fathered by Damien (the last was fathered by Carlos)! I was a bit disappointed by this at first, but looking them over, there’s good visual variation in the population, and a wide selection of mothers. Furthermore, Damien is one of the few Norns who did not inherit that potentially-crippling lobe mutation, so hopefully it won’t dominate the population anymore. But there’s only one way to find out!

We begin with the child that waited longest to hatch, Cathy’s second and last child, Erika’s brother, a handsome little fellow named Tiberius. I am pleased to report a lack of brain lobe mutations in this one!  As a matter of fact, he didn’t inherit grandma Beth’s reproductive or glycogen breakdown mutations either, and has only one mutation of his own… but it’s potentially a nasty one.

Emitter

Gene 288: stress from excess anger

Organ: “Creature”, Tissue: “Drive Levels”, Locus: “ANGER”. Chemical: “Adrenaline”. Sample every 11 ticks.
Analogue: Output = (Signal - 164) * 33. 

Organ: “Creature”, Tissue: “Sensorimotor”, Locus: “Crowdedness”. Chemical: “Adrenaline”. Sample every 11 ticks.
Analogue: Output = (Signal - 164) * 33.

In other words, the stress output that would normally occur when a Norn is angry will happen to poor Tiberius whenever he senses other Norns around him (regardless of whether he actually feels crowded or not).

Next is Beth’s daughter, Verania. She was guaranteed to inherit both the reproductive and glycogen conversion mutations, but she didn’t get the scary (but potentially not enacted) inability to produce antibody 5. She was in the clear for lobe mutations, as neither parent had them, but she managed to produce one of her own. However, it’s not the crippling low minimum connections issue we’ve seen so much of. 

Lobe

Gene 121: Attention lobe

Lobe #7. Position: 44, 30. Size: 5 x 8. Data copied to Perception Lobe: Yes.

Lobe #7. Position: 44, 30. Size: 21 x 8. Data copied to Perception Lobe: Yes.

She has a much bigger attention lobe than normal! I’m not sure if this will actually have any effect, though.

Edit: Oh boy does it ever. It effectively renders her unable to focus on most things.

She also has a reaction mutation.

Reaction

Gene 059: drive raiser

1 Hunger Increase = 1 Hunger + 1 Punishment.
Rate: 8 (Max to 0 in 0.4 seconds)

1 Hunger Increase = 1 Hunger + 1 Reinforcement.
Rate: 8 (Max to 0 in 0.4 seconds)

Basically, she won’t learn that things which raise her hunger are bad (not that events you’d want her to learn that from are very common), but the reinforcement will amplify whatever other lessons she’s learning at the time.

Twins aren’t really a thing in Creatures 1, but Verania’s brother Quintus certainly looks the part! Genetically, however, he’s not the same. For one thing, he did inherit Beth’s 0 Antibody 5 mutation. That doesn’t necessarily mean that it had an effect in the game, but it does mean it didn’t get autocorrected in her, since she was able to pass it on to him. It won't matter for him, though, because going through the genetics kit will autocorrect it in Quintus. The good news is, he doesn’t have any mutations of his own.

Gaius may look a bit like Tiberius, but he’s actually Angela’s son. He inherited both of grandma Beth’s mutations that passed to Damien, but has none of his own.

Despite Erika and Damien’s nasty lineup of mutations, Flavia inherited none of them. She has only one mutation of her own, and it scared me something awful when I first saw it in the mutation report, because it has to do with laying eggs! But, it turns out, it’s just that “modulate using sensory signal” got turned on, which shouldn’t have any effect because there’s no sensory neuron to modulate associated with this gene.

Despite looking nearly exactly like him, little Lucius is the only one of these Norns not fathered by Damien! He’s actually Carlos’s child. Unfortunately due to his parentage he was guaranteed to inherit those lobe mutations that dominated the previous population. But he didn’t get the unallocated locus problem from Erika, at least. He has three mutations of his own, one of which was autocorrected by the Genetics Kit, and as such, won’t actually be appearing since I’m going to make genetic modifications.

Reaction

Gene 061: drive raiser

1 Hotness Increase = 1 Hotness + 1 Punishment.
Rate: 8 (Max to 0 in 0.4 seconds)

1 Hotness Increase = 1 Sleepiness + 1 Punishment.
Rate: 8 (Max to 0 in 0.4 seconds)

While mutations are random, this one actually makes a degree of sense – Lucius will get drowsy when warm!

Instinct

Gene 304: avoid overcrowding

When… “Drive i/ps” “OVERCROWDEDNESS” and “General Sensory i/ps” “IT is a creature” …and you “Retreat frm it”: +255 Reward.

When… “Drive i/ps” “FEAR” and “General Sensory i/ps” “IT is a creature” …and you “Retreat frm it”: +255 Reward.

This one also makes sense! Running away is just as valid a response to fear as to overcrowding.

Augustus is Angela’s last child – born from the egg she passed away curled up next to soon after laying. He inherited both of the mutations Damien had in turn inherited from Beth. He has an inconsequential brain mutation (a 0 tucked away in the middle of a string of ENDs in a state rule), and one reaction mutation: he won’t be able to produce Antibody 2 until childhood.

The last one is Sidonia, daughter of Erika. She did not inherit any of the major mutations from either side of the family. 

She does, however, have one mutation of her own, and boy is it a doozy.

Lobe

Gene 120: Decision lobe

Cell Body

Nominal: 0, Leakage rate: 24 (max to 0 in 3 seconds), Rest state: 80, Input gain lo-hi: 128. WTA.
State rule: state:PLUS:type 0:MINUS:type 1

Nominal: 0, Leakage rate: 24 (max to 0 in 3 seconds), Rest state: 80, Input gain lo-hi: 128. WTA.
State rule: state:PLUS:anded 0:MINUS:type 1

The normal state rule can be read as: the new state of the neuron is what it was before, plus the sum of the type 0 neurons (positive concept associations), minus the sum of the type 1 neurons (negative concept associations). In other words, each neuron in the decision lobe (corresponding to a potential action) is weighted according to what concepts the Norn has learned are either particularly good with that decision (which make the decision more likely) or particularly bad with it (which make it less likely). For example, a Norn who is hungry and sees food should get some positive weight on the Push neuron, while a Norn who has been stung a few times and sees a bee would likely get some negative weight on the Push neuron.

Sidonia’s mutation changes this so that instead of the sum of the type 0 neurons overall, it’s only the sum of the type 0 neurons when all of them are firing – otherwise, it’s a 0. In other words, she’ll probably be able to learn how to avoid bad decisions but won’t know how to make good ones unless the stars align and all of the positive associations are relevant.