geNorNics
GenKit Help File
"How Creatures Works"
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geNorNicsGenKit Help File
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The following information is taken from the Genetics Kit Help File, and is therefore © Cyberlife, Inc. 1997. HTML conversion by elemkay, 1998.
Norns' brains are divided into several 'lobes,' or groups of Neurons with similar properties. Each lobe connects to the outside world via sensory organs or motor organs (muscles, etc.), or makes connections to one or more other brain lobes. The most interesting brain lobes are as follows:
These receive data from the creature's senses, such as vision, hearing and touch. Certain kinds of data go to certain sensory lobes, where they become involved in specialized brain activity, for example information about the source of a sound or movement goes to a series of interconnected lobes concerned with directing the creature's Attention. Much of this low-level activity is 'subconscious,' however, much of the data is also collated and sent to a single, large, sensory lobe feeding Concept Space where a creature's main perceptive and memory mechanisms reside.
By far the largest region of a norn's brain is used to store memories of the events that occur over its lifetime. This region is called Concept Space, and seems to be involved in the collation and organization of a norn's perceptions and experiences. We know that the neurons in this region are very mobile, and are constantly reconnecting themselves to the main sensory lobe in response to new experiences. Artificial stimulation of these neurons can trigger outward behavior, but it is not certain what the relationship is between a given neuron and the behavior it produces.
This small region of highly dendritic (many input fibers) neurons receives impulses from Concept Space and seems to be implicated in the forming of decisions about a course of action. Sufficient stimulation of a given decision neuron always invokes a single action, for example one decision cell seems to control a creature's desire to approach the object he is attentive to.
This lobe controls the creature's attention, and is fairly straightforward. Signals enter this region whenever a nearby object makes a sound, or is seen to move, and the object which makes the most fuss over a period of time is likely to be the one which the creature focuses on. This lobe also seems to be involved in goal-directed behavior, such as the seeking out of food when hungry, however this mechanism is not well understood.
As well as the wiring of the brain, several biochemicals are involved in the regulation of memory and decision-making, and particularly the drives and reward/punishment mechanisms.
The principal source of energy in Albian food is Starch. Norns convert Starch slowly into Glucose, which is made available for use by muscles and other energy-consuming systems. Low levels of Glucose in the blood make norns weak and tired. Because the Immune System consumes energy, low Glucose levels can also increase susceptibility to disease.
Although Glucose can be directly converted to energy (producing Carbon Dioxide and Water as waste products), norns also need a long-term means of storing energy. This is performed by the chemical Glycogen (another form of Starch). Upon eating starchy food, Glucose is produced. If this is not immediately used up by muscles etc., it gets converted slowly into Glycogen. On the other hand, when Glucose levels are low, Glycogen gets broken down to produce more Glucose. Glycogen is therefore a long-term energy store.
Without Glycogen or Starch to produce Glucose, a norn will die. The level of Glycogen in the blood is therefore an extremely important indicator of the general state of a norn's health. Never allow your creature to run low on Glycogen - always ensure that he has a ready supply of starchy foods (by actively growing carrots, if need be).
Even though Starch is the principal energy source in food, a norn's hunger level is actually decreased, not by intake of Starch, but by consumption of Saccharin, another common constituent of Albian edibles. Some foodstuffs in Albia are therefore little more than 'junk food,' since they contain little energy-giving Starch, but large quantities of hunger-reducing Saccharin. A norn who eats these foods will think himself to be less hungry, and so will not want to eat again for a while, and yet he will not have taken in sufficient nourishment. A wise norn-keeper will therefore keep his creature away from junk food and concentrate on genuine nourishment!
Some diseases interfere with digestion, so if your norn appears to be ill, keep a careful eye on his Glycogen levels and supplement his diet with Starch-rich foods.
When norns start to grow up, they become able to reproduce. In males, this process is fairly straightforward, and males are fertile at most times. Females on the other hand, have an ovulation cycle, and are only fertile at certain times.
The female ovulation cycle is controlled by the levels of the hormone Estrogen. While the level of Estrogen is rising, females are not fertile. As it reaches a peak and starts to fall, however, an egg cell is produced. If this is fertilized before Estrogen falls to its lowest level, then the norn will become pregnant and the egg cell will start to divide and become a fully viable hard-shelled egg. Assuming the pregnancy progresses smoothly, the female will eventually lay this egg, and the final maturation of the embryo will continue outside the female's body.
The egg absorbs moisture and gases from the air and swells gradually during this incubation period as the embryo grows. Eventually the egg cracks and a new norn emerges. Hatching is temperature-dependent, and so raising the temperature of an egg by placing it in an Incubator can greatly speed the process.
Like most other animals, norns are conceived by the joining together of an egg, containing the mother's genes, and a sperm, containing the father's. These genes combine to produce an offspring that is related to, but different from its parents. See Genetics for a detailed explanation of norn heredity.
Estrogen levels are not the only factor controlling conception. Both males and females possess a 'sex drive.'
Albia contains various disease-causing bacteria. Occasionally, a norn may become infected from the environment or from the sneezes of another ill norn. However, whether your norn becomes ill depends on the state of his immune system.
Just as in our world, Albian bacteria are coated in a type of chemical known as an antigen. There are several kinds of antigen, and different bacteria come in different 'flavors.' When a norn's immune system recognizes the presence of an antigen, it starts to make antibodies - molecules especially tailored to that kind of antigen. These antibodies attach themselves to the antigen molecules on the bacterium's surface and eventually smother it and kill it.
Producing the right kind of antibody in response to a new infection takes some time, and in the mean time the bacteria multiply and your norn becomes poisoned by the various toxins produced by them. These toxins may simply cause irritation and make your norn sneeze and/or cough. On the other hand, they may be more dangerous and cause fever and a rapid loss of food energy (glucose).
However, if you look after your norn properly and keep it warm and well fed, it will eventually build up enough antibodies to wipe out the cause of the disease and so will make a full recovery. For some considerable time afterwards, the antibodies will remain in his system and he will thus be immune to that class of bacteria. Be warned, though, that excess stress or poor nutrition can deplete this immunity quite quickly.
If that were all there was to it, most norns would succumb to various diseases in their childhood but would then (given good care by you) develop immunity and not suffer again. Unfortunately for the norns, the Albian bacteria do not remain static, but can evolve. New, mutant forms of bacteria, covered in unfamiliar antigens and maybe emitting different or more virulent toxins can arise. Bacteria which survive longest or increase the rate of infection (by causing sneezing, for example) will be favored and will build in numbers compared to the weaker or less infectious kinds. You should be particularly careful about norns which you import from elsewhere - these may introduce diseases to which your own norns have not developed an immunity. You may wish to consider a period of quarantine when importing norns from elsewhere.
Newborn norns tend to have an in-built immunity to most diseases (although genetic variations do occur). During childhood they become more susceptible, but develop specific immunity very quickly. Children are also quite strong and do not suffer too badly unless stress or poor nutrition put them at risk. The ones to watch are the old norns, however, since their immune systems are slow and weak, and their metabolisms are poor and easily disturbed. Frequent illnesses may also be a sign of overcrowding.
Sick norns should be isolated, if possible, and kept warm and well-fed. Disease is a serious issue for norns and you should take great care to look after the sick and prevent an epidemic.
You can use the Science Kit to monitor the biochemistry to watch the generation of antibodies. There are also a selection of chemicals you can inject directly into your Norns bloodstream. The Health Kit gives you a selection of herbs which may also help ill Norns recover quickly.
Every norn carries with it the recipe for how to make more copies of itself. This information is encoded into a 'chemical,' very much like our DNA, but with a simpler structure and a somewhat larger 'alphabet' (DNA can code for up to 64 different 'building blocks' (amino acids), although only about twenty are needed; a norn's genetic material can code for up to 256 different 'instructions').
The whole information needed to construct a norn is combined onto a single, long molecule of this chemical, forming a single 'chromosome' or 'genome.' Humans contain two copies of every one of their genes (one inherited from each parent). Norns are somewhat simpler than this, carrying only a single set of genes.
During conception, the genetic material from one parent is 'crossed' with that from the other: the two molecules intertwine, split and recombine at various random points along their length. This produces two new strands, each containing a selection of the genes from each parent. Only one of these strands then goes on to construct a new embryo norn. This norn therefore inherits a complete set of genes, some from his father and some from his mother.
Of the two strands produced during conception, one will have obtained its 'sex' gene from the mother and so will be a 'female' genome; the other will be capable of producing a male, as it got the alternative copy of the 'sex' gene from its father. Only one of these genomes goes on to create a baby, and so the sex of that baby is randomly determined at this point.
Certain genes in the child will 'switch on' or not depending on which sex the child ends up being. The genes for ovulation, for example, only switch on in females. However, each child contains the full set of genes for making both sexes, and can therefore pass down some of his mother's or her father's sex-linked genes to his or her future offspring.
Most of the genes 'switch on' immediately after conception and control the development of a norn's brain wiring, physical appearance, biochemistry and so on. Other genes do not switch on until later in life, when they initiate changes such as the development of a reproductive system in puberty. A few 'rogue' genes switch in late in life and are the main cause of senile decay in old norns (since these genes do not harm a norn until after he/she has reproduced and passed them to offspring, they have not been 'evolved out' of the system (a similar thing has happened in humans)).
Because every norn child inherits some genes from each parent, he will be genetically unique (there are many, many millions of potential genetic arrangements). This mixing of genes leads to simple changes in some areas, such as physical appearance (a baby may have his mother's face and his father's legs). In other areas, however, more profound variation may occur (for example if parts of a complex series of interlocked chemical reactions are inherited from different parents). Every norn is therefore different, and those differences may be harmful or beneficial.
During the copying of genes from parents to child, certain errors may also creep in. For example mutations in the genetic code may lead to random changes in some later biochemical or physical structure. Alternatively, a gene may get lost in the splicing process and not be inherited at all by the child. Finally, a gene may get duplicated - a copy inherited from both parents. Usually such a duplication will have no significant effect. However, future mutations may cause the two copies to diverge and take on different functions, leading to the potential for new structures to arise.
Many of the above genetic changes may be harmful, and lead to genetic diseases. It is just possible that the occasional error (or an accumulation of smaller changes) might turn out to be beneficial to that creature and some or all of his descendants. Harmful changes are more likely to lead to creatures who die young, or are unable to reproduce. These will therefore tend to die out. On the other hand, beneficial changes may enhance the creature's survival or reproductive ability, and so are more likely to continue to subsequent generations. This is Survival of the Fittest, and leads eventually to Evolution.
We have no control at all over what errors may occur during reproduction. Thankfully, mutations and cutting errors are fairly rare, and most births should lead to healthy, 'normal' norns. However, occasionally it will go wrong, and we apologize that many of you will have to contend with defective creatures who suffer from some genetic disability. We recommend that you avoid breeding from these creatures, because some of their offspring may also inherit the trait. Also, do not trade these norns across the Internet, or you may be responsible for the spread of a mutant disease across the world's norn population!
The most startling possibility, though, is that you will discover beneficial mutations arising from second or later-generation norns! Suppose, for example, that the gene which codes for a particular brain lobe got accidentally duplicated at conception. That norn would now have an extra brain lobe, which performs essentially identical functions to its copy, and may even go unnoticed through several generations. Suppose that this extra lobe now accumulates small mutations, particularly to the way it wires itself up to other lobes. It is possible that this new lobe may go on to perform a new, valuable function that was not performed (or even invented) before! This is, admittedly, not very likely (although such a mechanism may well explain a lot about the development of our own brains!). However, a much simpler change in the genes for an aspect of biochemistry might well turn out to be useful. Maybe you will discover a norn who can metabolize Saccharin, and thus finds junk food as nutritious as starchy food (see Digestive System).
The point is this: Nobody knows what might happen, or even where the limits are! If you were the only norn-keeper in the world, the chances are not high, but taken across hundreds of thousands of users, each sharing genetic material across the Internet, the potential development of the norn species might be substantial.
A complex set of chemicals and chemical reactions underlies each of a norn's bodily systems. Some chemicals have an effect on the brain, and control or modulate behavior; others control reproductive cycles, pregnancy, disease resistance and digestive processes. You can use the Science Kit Biochemistry Page to view the chemical make up of each of your Norns. Be aware that this reference is for 'Generation One' Norns. As evolution progresses, new chemical processes may arise, and the existing ones could change.
This chemical reduces the perception of pain. Some natural substances contain Endorphins and can be used as analgesics or anesthetics.
These chemicals encourage / discourage the growth of neural connections in several regions of the brain and cause learning.
Atrophy Suppressing Hormones. These control the atrophy (decay) of neural connections in certain brain regions. They are implicated in memory formation and may be involved in certain brain diseases.
The levels of these chemicals indicate a creature's drives and needs. A high level shows that a need to reduce the chemical is urgent. Falling levels indicate that a need is being satisfied. Drive levels are controlled by the direct production of these chemicals due to stimuli from the environment, but also from Drive Raisers and Drive Reducers. For example, production of the chemical Hunger Decrease is produced when food is ingested. A chemical reaction then occurs in which Hunger is broken down (reducing the drive), and produces Reward (promoting learning). Likewise, Pain Increase is generated in response to physical damage, and then reacts to produce more Pain and some Punishment.
Starch comes from food and is converted to Glucose and/or stored as Glycogen for long-term use. Glucose is broken down to produce energy by the enzyme Hexokinase, secreted by muscles.
See also: Digestive System.
Carbon Dioxide is the end product of energy production. Its level signifies the amount of energy being consumed.
Controls fertility in males.
The female's ovulation cycle is controlled by Estrogen level. While the level is falling, the female is fertile. If she becomes pregnant, Gonadotrophin levels rise steeply, while Progesterone rises slowly. These two hormones control the various aspects of pregnancy, for example by suppressing further ovulation. As Progesterone reaches a certain threshold, the pregnant female becomes ready to lay an egg.
Ingested from fermented fruits and other sources. Has much the same effect on norns as it does on us.
Produced by stressful experiences, notably high drive levels. Repeatedly high levels of loneliness, overcrowdedness, hunger, pain and other drives produces a steadily high level of Adrenaline. High Adrenaline means high stress and its effects include increased energy consumption (due to muscle tension), reduced immunity to disease and perhaps suppression of the sex hormones, including potential miscarriage in pregnant females.
Induces irritation. The A form tends to cause nasal irritation and hence sneezing, while the B form provokes a cough. Histamines are produced by some bacterial infections, but also possibly by pollen in allergic norns.
Produced as a defense against infection. Each antibody is produced in response to a given Antigen. High Antibody levels suggest high levels of immunity against certain classes of disease.
Found on the surface of bacteria. Existence of an Antigen in the blood is a sure sign of infection. The higher the level, the more virulent or overwhelming the disease. Falling levels indicate a successful immune response from Antibodies.
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Last updated on 05-Jan-99.www.mindspring.com/~elemkay/creatures/helpfile.htm