geNorNics Norn-GNO

A GNO file is a hex file that is used within the genetics kit to hold 'notes' about individual genes (Gene NOtes = GNO?). There are basically two default files - norn.gno and grendel.gno - that contain the original notes written by Cyberlife. Genetics kit owners may add to or alter the contents of the 'notes' for a gene from the 'edit gene' page, but must then save the new GNO file and tell the kit to use that file rather than the default.

The notes provide some interesting tidbits of information about how the genes work, as well as a small glimpse into the mind of the programmers during development (i.e., some notes are obviously meant for use during development and are either no longer valid or just represent the decision-making process that went on).

On this page, I've collected the notes in the default norn.gno file. Not every gene has a note - I think I've caught all the ones that do, but if you find out I've missed one, let me know.

The notes are grouped by gene subtype. Two additional groupings at the end list the genes that are marked as either changed or added by SJGL (slink) in August of 1997.The gene numbers are in decimal, and all the names of genes, contents of notes, and British spellings <g> have been left unedited.

Lobes

001 perception lobe

Must have at least 146 neus!

005 decision lobe

This lobe learns relationships between concepts and appropriate/ inappropriate actions. It sums the excitory & inhibitory recommendations from concept space. It's an interneurone lobe, because its outputs have to be combined with spoken verbs - the creature decides what he wants to do, but this may be overridden by what the speaker wants him to do.

NOTE: Even though Decision Lobe is WTA, this one must be WTA too, because that's crucial for the assessment of susceptibility to reinforcement.

007 concept lobe

Chemical receptors

CHEM0 responds to Reinforcement chemical and is used to increase den strengths.

EM1 responds to ConASH (Concept nei Atrophy Suppressing Hormone), which suppresses further dendrite atrophy when enough loose dendrites exist to provide for future concepts.

Reinforcement Atrophy

Cells get stronger if they fire when reinforcement is present - this is not really good enough - they should be made SUSCEPTIBLE by firing and stronger when susceptible and reinforcement is present, otherwise, they'll not be strengthened if reward comes after the situation has changed!!!!!

NEEDS CODE CHANGE

Cells get weaker when ConASH chemical is NOT present, i.e. when there are no loose cells available for forming new concepts. Given low initial strengths, large numbers will come loose simultaneously, thus providing a long-term stock without weakening valuable memories unduly.

However, given a lack of weak neus, good memories will become weakened until a stock of loose cells is available again. Thus the brain never runs out of learning power.

Receptors

001 drive

This is the first of 16 receptors that respond to drive levels and reflect those onto the outputs of the DRIVE brain lobe. These drive neurones are then available for the brain and peripheral circuits - for example for lobes that use drive levels to control attention for goal-seeking.

013 drive

This receptor will probably be sensitive to a sex drive eventually, so I've set it up for drive12 - currently called not_allocated1.

Note: I haven't added any receptors for the other 3 unallocated drive chems, but they can be added on the same pattern if and when those drives exist.

014 reward reinforct

This receptor connects to the Chem0 locus on the Decision Layer lobe. It responds to the presence of the reward chemical and is used by the lobe's reinforcement rule to cause learning.

015 punish reinforct

This receptor connects to the Chem1 locus on the Decision Layer lobe. It responds to the presence of the punish chemical and is used by the lobe's reinforcement rule to cause learning.

016 inhibit con atrophy

If there are ANY loose CON neus, then this emitter's o/p will be reduced from the nominal 1 to zero, and so atrophy will be prevented (because a zero result from the "atrophy if..." SVRule prevents den strength from decrementing. This receptor combines with the ConASH chemical and an emitter to provide a negative feedback path, to ensure that a small number of concept cells is always loose and available for new concept memories.

018 strengthen con dens

Attached to the CHEM0 locus on concept lobe - signifies that reinforcement (of either polarity) is present, and is part of the condition for strengthening concept dendrite strengths, to reward useful memories.

020 oestral cycle (f)

Sex-linked to female. Switches on at puberty. Controls fertility cycle in females - they become fertile if oestrogen levels are high, and become infertile again when they drop low. The cycle is controlled by an emitter which produces oestrogen only when the creature is NOT fertile, thus producing a thermostat effect.

021 receptivity (f)

Probability that a female will conceive when inseminated, depends on the level of this receptor. It is controlled by the female's sex drive. The sex drive will be raised by observing courtship behaviour from the male. Set a nominal value to allow some chance of fertilisation even if males never learn how to do their courtship ritual.

022 start laying (f)

Initiate involuntary action1 to cause female to lay an egg. This is caused when Pregnancy Hormone 2 reaches high concentration, thus signifiying that the female has reached full term.

023 sperm prodn (m)

Testosterone controls sperm production in males. Produces a recovery time effect after mating, which zeroes testosterone.

030 death!

Kills creature if glycogen level falls to near zero. Receptor is inverted - o/p is 0 while glycogen > threshold.

033 walk when in pain

Change walking gait in response to pain.

038 limp when weak

Respond to low glycogen level by limping instead of walking. Limping becomes likely when glycogen level reduces below given THRESHOLD level.

042 languish when very weak

Programmed to switch on when glycogen level gets very low.

Emitters

001 signal loose con dens

Emits a chemical whenever there are loose concept neus. This chemical is then used to suppress further atrophy of con dens.

004 become bored

Makes creature more bored whenever it is awake - stimuli usually reduce boredom.

Note: produces Boredom chem directly, not Boredom++. Therefore doesn't punish you as boredom increases. This is probably right, but maybe not!

005 become in need of tittilation

Increase need for titillation while awake.

012 oestrogen (f)

Sex-linked to females. Switches on at puberty. Overwritten by an ineffective emitter at menopause. Controls fertility cycle in females. I am NOT fertile, produce Oestrogen. This will cause me to become fertile (via a receptor attached to the loc_ovulate locus), and will thus stop oestrogen production. The net result of this is to produce an oestral cycle. The cycle's period is determined by the rate of oestrogen from this emitter, and the half-life of oestrogen.

(Note: OVULATEON & OVULATEOFF constants in code detemine the hysteresis thresholds of this emitter locus

013 testosterone (m)

Sex-linked to males. Switched on at puberty. Produces Testosterone always. Notcyclic like female oestrogen, but is reset to zero by sex.

014 sex drive (f)

Sex-linked to female. Increase sex drive whenever fertile.

015 sex drive (m)

Sex-linked to male. Increase sex drive whenever fertile.

016 gonadotrophin (f)

Produces pregnancy hormone 1 in large quantities immediately a female becomes pregnant. This hormone can take part in reactions that eg. suppress the normal menstrual cycle, thus preventing further pregnancies. It might also reduce sex drive and have other effects.

017 progesterone (f)

Produces Pregnancy hormone 2 in pregnant females. This chemical is produced slowly, and when it reaches a certain threshold, it triggers a receptor to cause the creature to lay an egg (via an involuntary action).

025 fade oestral cycle (f) (old)

Slower eostrogen rate when old - never reaches feretility threshold.

Reactions

001 drive raiser

This reaction responds to a drive-raising chemical by producing more of that drive and also producing the punishment chemical. Stimuli should produce the drive+ chemicals in order to raise drive levels, thus causing reinforcement to occur. There are up to 16 of these reactions, one per drive raiser. There are equivalent drive-lowering reactions that induce reward.

025 reward --> reinf

Removes reward chemical from bloodstream, and replace it with another short-life chemical that denotes reinforcement of either kind (punishment chemical produces this too). The product can then be detected by eg. concept space dens, so that they grow stronger whenever either form of reinforcement occurs.

026 punish --> reinf

Removes punishment chemical from bloodstream, and replace it with another short-life chemical that denotes reinforcement of either kind (reward chemical produces this too). The product can then be detected by eg. concept space dens, so that they grow stronger whenever either form of reinforcement occurs.

028 glucose --> glycogen

Increased this one a bit.

031 preg kills oestral cycle (f)

Uses Pregnancy hormone 1 to prevent ovulation in pregnant females by removing oestrogen. A side effect of this is to kill the sex drive, which is only raised when fertile.

034 glycotoxin poisoning

Glycotoxin poisons by destroying Glycogen and produces terrible pain.

044 sleeping sickness

Respond to bacterial toxin by becoming sleepy.

043 fever

Respond to bacterial toxin by becoming feverish.

047 stress reduces energy

Adrenaline level (mean stress) lowers glucose levels and therefore indirectly reduces efficiency of immune system (rate of antibody production).

050 stress reduces life-span

Adrenaline slowly increases Ageing chemical and so hastens old age. Doesn't switch on until adolescence, otherwise it would tend to speed maturity, which isn't right.

Half-Lives

001 decay rates at birth

PAIN decays rapidly, though repeated bursts can be induced during illness etc. to give chronic pain.

LONELINESS decays as a counter to the rise induced by lack of company. Adjust the tension between the emitter and half-life to get sensible loneliness.

CROWDEDNESS as loneliness.

FEAR decays in the absence of fear-inducing activity. Change this half-life to create brave & cowardly norns?

ANGER subsides slowly.

PAIN⁺⁺ etc. must decay fairly rapidly. If they don't, they'll hang around the bloodstream in the absence of the appropriate drive chemical, since the reaction that normally converts them into Reward will not happen. Thus they must be naturally removed so as not to create spurious rewards some time later.

PAIN^-- has to decay at the same rate as PAIN++, to balance reward with punishment.

CO₂ levels act as a moving average of activity levels and can be used to drive a heart monitor (pretend heart rate). Adjust half life as reqd for this.

REINFORCEMENT decays by itself, fairly quickly. It is used to reinforce unipolar dendrite strengths.

CONASH/DECASH hormones control atrophy of dendrites and must be removed from the blood instantly, else they'll delay atrophy.

REWARDECHO / PUNISHECHO are mainly there only to show the existence of reinforcement in a less transient manner, for monitoring tools etc.

HEXOKINASE metabolises glucose to produce CO2 and water, in response to energy demands from muscles.

OESTROGEN controls fertility cycle in females. The faster the half-life, the shorter fraction of her cycle a female will be fertile.

PREGNANCY HORMONE 1 suppresses ovulation and suchlike during pregnancy. It should decay after egg laying, so that ovulation starts up again. Half-life determines how long that takes to happen.

Initial Concentration

001 glycogen

This is the initial energy supply for a creature, until he's had his first meal.

003 boredom

Ensure newborn gets fidgety quickly!?

004 ageing

Start off with a lot of Ageing chemical. As it decays it switches on the ageing receptors.

005 infantile immunity

Provides some immunity against diseases with a certain antigen, for a while after birth.

Stimuli

022 response to laying

Self-stimulate when laying egg.

Appearances

004 Arms

Without this gene, creature will have no arms!

Poses

013 appr1 (child)

Normal walk after baby crawling stage.

039 dead

Vary these among genotypes so that norns don't all look the same when they die.

084 appr1 (baby)

Babies walk on all fours (note: all special gaits are turned off until childhood, so only normal gait and wander poses need crawling styles).

089 wander1 (baby)

Babies walk on all fours (note: all special gaits are turned off until childhood, so only normal gait and wander poses need crawling styles).

Instincts

008 mating instinct (m)

Sex-linked to males. Switch on during (late?) puberty. Encourages males to mate when sex drive is high and they see opposite sex.

009 courting instinct (m)

Sex-linked to males. Switch on during puberty. Encourages males to 'court' females when sex drive is high.

Changed 22/Aug/97 SJGL

006 feel the heat - Emitter
007 feel the cold - Emitter
008 get sleepy in the dark - Emitter
009 get lonely - Emitter
010 get claustrophobic - Emitter
011 energy consumption - Emitter
001 drive raiser - Reaction
002 drive raiser - Reaction
003 drive raiser - Reaction
004 drive raiser - Reaction
005 drive raiser - Reaction
006 drive raiser - Reaction
007 drive raiser - Reaction
008 drive raiser - Reaction
009 drive raiser - Reaction
010 drive raiser - Reaction
011 drive raiser - Reaction
012 drive raiser - Reaction
029 glycogen-->glucose - Reaction
030 glucose-->energy - Reaction
032 drive raiser - Reaction
050 stress reduced life-span - Reaction (24/Aug/97)
054 IV adrenaline - Reaction
001 decay rates at birth - Half-Lives
003 creature pats me - Stimulus
021 travelling - Stimulus
025 response to shivering - Stimulus
026 travelling (old) - Stimulus

Added 22/Aug/97 SJGL

051 hunger reaction from PM Norns - Reaction
060 geddonase/glucose from PM Norns - Reaction
061 geddonase/glycogen from PM Norns - Reaction
062 80/need for pleasure from PM Norns - Reaction
063 80/boredom from PM Norns - Reaction
067 necromold #1 - Reaction
068 necromold #2 - Reaction
064 adrenaline is reduced by activity - Reaction
065 flight to fight when cornered - Reaction
066 fight to flight when retreating - Reaction
069 ageing remover for testing - Reaction - Reaction
070 excessive drive raiser sleepiness - Reaction
071 excessive drive raiser loneliness - Reaction
020 herbs smell good - Instinct
021 weeds smell bad - Instinct
022 food smells good - Instinct
023 rest when sleepy - Instinct