More C1 genetic analysis

[Originally written August 19 2020]

Before returning to gameplay, I have four more Norns to analyze, two third generation and two fourth generation.  I’ll start with Derek, the son of Carlos and Beth. I was quite shocked to look at his genome and find that he has also inherited the concept lobe mutations, as he’s always at least seemed to be a good eater and doesn’t appear to have any problems understanding commands. That certainly throws a wrench into my theory of why Carlos is such a bad eater.

Additionally, Derek’s inherited his mom’s unusual reproductive mutation, though it doesn’t affect him since he’s male. He also got her glycogen-to-glucose mutation, and has a couple mutations of his own.

Receptor

Gene 305: sleep when v. sleepy

Organ: “Creature”, Tissue: “Sensorimotor”, Locus: “Involuntary Action 5(fainting)”. Chemical: “Sleepiness”.
Analogue: Output = 0 + ((Signal - 230) * 255). 

Organ: “Creature”, Tissue: “Sensorimotor”, Locus: “Involuntary Action 5(fainting)”. Chemical: “Sleepiness”.
Digital: Output = 0 + 255 if Signal > 230.

Well that’s certainly interesting! But it actually doesn’t change a whole lot. The output is restricted to values in the 0-255 range, so in a normal Norn, a signal equal to or less than 230 will produce a negative output that gets capped to 0. In Derek, the if statement will come back false if the signal is equal to or less than 230, so the output would still be 0. Likewise, in a normal Norn, a signal of 231 or higher will immediately get multiplied by 255 so it’ll go out of range and get capped to 255. In Derek, the if statement will come back true and return 255. Same result.

Reaction

Gene 230: immune response

2 Antigen 4 + 4 Glucose = 1 Antibody 4 + 1 Hotness. Rate: 80 (max to 0 in 5 minutes)

2 Antigen 4 + 4 Glycogen = 1 Antibody 4 + 1 Hotness. Rate: 80 (max to 0 in 5 minutes)

The good news is he didn’t get his mother’s worrying immune system mutation. The bad news is he got a new one instead, and it’s a doozy. Instead of using up glucose (which can be produced from glycogen at a rate of 1 glycogen to 3 glucose, although in Derek’s case it’s capped by his inherited mutation that requires NFP to trigger this conversion), his immune response to Antigen 4 eats directly into his glycogen stores, effectively using up three times the energy.

Moving on to Derek’s half-brother Damien, we finally get a break from the concept lobe mutations! Technically, Damien does have a lobe mutation, in gene 121, but it’s just the last <END> on a state rule being swapped out, which affects nothing, because nothing after the first <END> flag matters.

He has no other mutations of his own, but like Derek he inherited his mother’s female-only reproductive mutation and her glycogen-to-glucose conversion mutation.

With that, it’s on to generation four, the youngest two Norns in Albia. Erika is currently the only living female besides Beth, and is Damien’s daughter with the tragically deceased Cathy. She brings us back to Bill’s concept lobe mutations, because she also inherited them. With so many Norns running around carrying this mutation, and apparently not having problems, I’m forced to conclude that’s not Carlos’s problem, and with the rest of his genetic analysis coming up empty, I’m forced to conclude that he’s just really stubborn and/or dumb. But anyway, back to Erika.

In addition to the brain mutations, she inherited Bill’s mutation (through Cathy) that causes extra pain when suffering from glycotoxin poisoning, and Cathy’s slight reduction in how bored she gets while resting. She also has two mutations of her own.

One of them was a small change to her coldness drive reduction reaction, which was altered to not kick in until the Youth life stage. This didn’t seem to have made much difference. The other mutation, though, looks quite scary!

Receptor

Gene 127: inhibit dec0 atrophy

Organ: “Creature”, Tissue: “Decision o/ps”, Locus: “Chemical 2”. Chemical: “DecASH1”.
Analogue: Output = 16 - ((Signal - 0) * 255). 

Organ: “Creature”, Tissue: “Decision o/ps”, Locus: “NOTALLOCATED4”. Chemical: “DecASH1”.
Analogue: Output = 16 - ((Signal - 0) * 255). 

Uh, what? I couldn’t make heads or tails of this. But as luck would have it, Jessica of Discover Albia had a similar mutation on the same gene in her Norn Arnes, necessitating an explanation of what this gene actually does:

“This receptor is related to decASH1, which stands for decision layer atrophy suppressing hormone emitted from loose decision dendrites of type 0. … Dendrites are the links between different neurons and lobes, and there are a fixed number of them in the brain. DecASH1 keeps type 0 decision dendrites from… losing their effectiveness, over time. In essence, this allows creatures to learn new concepts over time, rather than losing the ability to learn over time. DecASH1 keeps a certain number of unallocated dendrites at any one time so that new associations can be made. ...From my understanding, chemical 2 corresponds with conASH… the concept layer atrophy suppressing hormone. Long name, but it is very similar to decASH1! The only difference is that it is related to concepts, rather than decisions.”

While Arnes had Chemical 2 swapped for Chemical 1 (presumably also linked to learning), Erika has it swapped for an apparently unused slot. I am not sure whether that’s better or worse; on one hand, this receptor isn’t linked to something unrelated that it shouldn’t be messing with, but on the other hand, it’s still gotten disconnected from conASH. For what it’s worth, Erika seems to be doing just fine, though.

Last but not least, sneaky little Edmund, who hatched when I wasn’t paying attention! The son of Beth and Derek, he only has one mutation of his own, but hardly needs more, having of course gotten the infamous concept lobe mutations, as well as Beth’s weird reproductive gene and glycogen-to-glucose mutation, and unfortunately Derek’s scary vulnerability to Antigen 4.

On the bright side, his one mutation is that his decision lobe neurons can have one additional type 1 dendrite, which may help him learn when not to do things – assuming his concept lobe doesn’t cripple him.