#AI and biological advancements

[jcmarchi]

A new computational technique could make it easier to engineer useful proteins

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/a-new-computational-technique-could-make-it-easier-to-engineer-useful-proteins/

A new computational technique could make it easier to engineer useful proteins

To engineer proteins with useful functions, researchers usually begin with a natural protein that has a desirable function, such as emitting fluorescent light, and put it through many rounds of random mutation that eventually generate an optimized version of the protein.

This process has yielded optimized versions of many important proteins, including green fluorescent protein (GFP). However, for other proteins, it has proven difficult to generate an optimized version. MIT researchers have now developed a computational approach that makes it easier to predict mutations that will lead to better proteins, based on a relatively small amount of data.

Using this model, the researchers generated proteins with mutations that were predicted to lead to improved versions of GFP and a protein from adeno-associated virus (AAV), which is used to deliver DNA for gene therapy. They hope it could also be used to develop additional tools for neuroscience research and medical applications.

“Protein design is a hard problem because the mapping from DNA sequence to protein structure and function is really complex. There might be a great protein 10 changes away in the sequence, but each intermediate change might correspond to a totally nonfunctional protein. It’s like trying to find your way to the river basin in a mountain range, when there are craggy peaks along the way that block your view. The current work tries to make the riverbed easier to find,” says Ila Fiete, a professor of brain and cognitive sciences at MIT, a member of MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research, director of the K. Lisa Yang Integrative Computational Neuroscience Center, and one of the senior authors of the study.

Regina Barzilay, the School of Engineering Distinguished Professor for AI and Health at MIT, and Tommi Jaakkola, the Thomas Siebel Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, are also senior authors of an open-access paper on the work, which will be presented at the International Conference on Learning Representations in May. MIT graduate students Andrew Kirjner and Jason Yim are the lead authors of the study. Other authors include Shahar Bracha, an MIT postdoc, and Raman Samusevich, a graduate student at Czech Technical University.

Optimizing proteins

Many naturally occurring proteins have functions that could make them useful for research or medical applications, but they need a little extra engineering to optimize them. In this study, the researchers were originally interested in developing proteins that could be used in living cells as voltage indicators. These proteins, produced by some bacteria and algae, emit fluorescent light when an electric potential is detected. If engineered for use in mammalian cells, such proteins could allow researchers to measure neuron activity without using electrodes.

While decades of research have gone into engineering these proteins to produce a stronger fluorescent signal, on a faster timescale, they haven’t become effective enough for widespread use. Bracha, who works in Edward Boyden’s lab at the McGovern Institute, reached out to Fiete’s lab to see if they could work together on a computational approach that might help speed up the process of optimizing the proteins.

“This work exemplifies the human serendipity that characterizes so much science discovery,” Fiete says. “It grew out of the Yang Tan Collective retreat, a scientific meeting of researchers from multiple centers at MIT with distinct missions unified by the shared support of K. Lisa Yang. We learned that some of our interests and tools in modeling how brains learn and optimize could be applied in the totally different domain of protein design, as being practiced in the Boyden lab.”

For any given protein that researchers might want to optimize, there is a nearly infinite number of possible sequences that could generated by swapping in different amino acids at each point within the sequence. With so many possible variants, it is impossible to test all of them experimentally, so researchers have turned to computational modeling to try to predict which ones will work best.

In this study, the researchers set out to overcome those challenges, using data from GFP to develop and test a computational model that could predict better versions of the protein.

They began by training a type of model known as a convolutional neural network (CNN) on experimental data consisting of GFP sequences and their brightness — the feature that they wanted to optimize.

The model was able to create a “fitness landscape” — a three-dimensional map that depicts the fitness of a given protein and how much it differs from the original sequence — based on a relatively small amount of experimental data (from about 1,000 variants of GFP).

These landscapes contain peaks that represent fitter proteins and valleys that represent less fit proteins. Predicting the path that a protein needs to follow to reach the peaks of fitness can be difficult, because often a protein will need to undergo a mutation that makes it less fit before it reaches a nearby peak of higher fitness. To overcome this problem, the researchers used an existing computational technique to “smooth” the fitness landscape.

Once these small bumps in the landscape were smoothed, the researchers retrained the CNN model and found that it was able to reach greater fitness peaks more easily. The model was able to predict optimized GFP sequences that had as many as seven different amino acids from the protein sequence they started with, and the best of these proteins were estimated to be about 2.5 times fitter than the original.

“Once we have this landscape that represents what the model thinks is nearby, we smooth it out and then we retrain the model on the smoother version of the landscape,” Kirjner says. “Now there is a smooth path from your starting point to the top, which the model is now able to reach by iteratively making small improvements. The same is often impossible for unsmoothed landscapes.” 

Proof-of-concept

The researchers also showed that this approach worked well in identifying new sequences for the viral capsid of adeno-associated virus (AAV), a viral vector that is commonly used to deliver DNA. In that case, they optimized the capsid for its ability to package a DNA payload.

“We used GFP and AAV as a proof-of-concept to show that this is a method that works on data sets that are very well-characterized, and because of that, it should be applicable to other protein engineering problems,” Bracha says.

The researchers now plan to use this computational technique on data that Bracha has been generating on voltage indicator proteins.

“Dozens of labs having been working on that for two decades, and still there isn’t anything better,” she says. “The hope is that now with generation of a smaller data set, we could train a model in silico and make predictions that could be better than the past two decades of manual testing.”

The research was funded, in part, by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Machine Learning for Pharmaceutical Discovery and Synthesis consortium, the Abdul Latif Jameel Clinic for Machine Learning in Health, the DTRA Discovery of Medical Countermeasures Against New and Emerging threats program, the DARPA Accelerated Molecular Discovery program, the Sanofi Computational Antibody Design grant, the U.S. Office of Naval Research, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the National Institutes of Health, the K. Lisa Yang ICoN Center, and the K. Lisa Yang and Hock E. Tan Center for Molecular Therapeutics at MIT.

[threepandas]

Bad End: Union

I could feel techno blue eyes on me as I typed. Cold and ever watching. That color had once been called "ice" or "glacier" blue, I think. It certainly fit. They certainly had exactly the warmth of Antarctica in your birthday suit. I just couldn't figure out... what tipped them off? I'd been so CAREFUL.

A manager's "assistant" came by. The 'droid perfectly composed. They all were. Always. Like they'd stepped straight from a fashion line up. No messy, nasty, biological functions to get in the way, I guess. No fluids or foods. All the time in the world to maintain their appearance. Wish I could do the same.

The "assistant" was basically my ACTUAL manager. Didn't get paid. No, no, THAT was for my asshole boss. He swanned in from time to time to yell at us. Show off what new thing he'd bought. He left the tedious WORK to his 'Droid "assistant".

I would feel bad... DID feel bad, kinda, if it weren't for the fact they were consuming our lives.

'Droids were EVERYWHERE.

You couldn't SNEEZE without tripping over five and landing on ten more. Some ASSHOLE had decided? Hey! Let's deregulate Droid production! Cheap work force! Because of course they did. That's what Capitalism DOES. Make the most money, spend the least you can, fuck the rest.

I smile, polite as I can, at my 'droid manager. This one pale and blonde. Their techno blue eyes stare and stare and stare. I hate it. They ALL have them. It's one part regulation and one part the materials used, I think. But there is no mistaking those eyes for anything human. They don't reflect right.

I get back to work.

Above our cubicles, on catwalks, there is the gentle tap of 'droid "security" guards. You know, in case some rando tries to attack a mid-level nobody technology company. Riiiiiight. We ALL know why they're there. And it's fucking dystopian. We? Are being WATCHED. To see if we're being GOOD little employees.

It's intimidation. And I? I won't stand for it. Nor will the other organizers. There are LAWS, you bastards. And with a union? Maybe... just maybe? We get through this droid boom together. See what the brave new world on the other side looks like. Who knows.

That is... if I don't get fired first. Or fucking murdered in a stairwell.

Cause one of the 'droids up there? Yeah. Yeah, they're NOT MOVING. Just... just STANDING THERE. Watching. Leaning against the railing. Out in the open like that's not DEEPLY creepy. What's worse? Is, that? THAT is the Command 'Droid. Some fancy "Alpha" class command edition. Meant to control a networks worth of droids.

Didn't even know our company could AFFORD one of those. He's beautiful. Could be a knock-off. But if he's LEGIT? Then... what EXACTLY are we MAKING here? That we can AFFORD that? Cause that money sure as shit isn't going into SALARIES. Has to be either knock-off or second-hand. They COULD be cutting costs by getting prototypes, but what sort of PSYCHOPATHS would risk...

Oh, who am I kidding? The kind I work for.

That's EXACTLY what they did, isn't it?

I reach for my water bottle. Try to think. Strictly speaking? I make a habit of NOT paying attention to 'droid commercials an' advertisements. Some part of me... Look, they go on and ON about advancement in AI's right? How REAL they've become? How ADVANCED and BETTER then the competition their "product" is? And all I can hear is "slavery, slavery, buy our shit, slavery"!

Disgusting.

It makes me sick. I fucking HATE 'droids. Hate what they represent. What they make POSSIBLE. What they've DONE to the morality of the people around me.

Hate... hate that they're the victims, too.

My grip is white knuckled. I breathe through the grief and rage that has become so familiar. God... I so fucking angry. So fucking tired. I want to burn those rich bastards pretty little mansions down, with them STILL INSIDE. Riot in the streets. Cry maybe. Instead, I put my water bottle down and get back to work. It's a rather pointless bit of data crunching. A 'droid could do it in nanoseconds.

Above... he's still fucking watching.

Hasn't moved.

I don't think he's blinked.

He's not even TRYING to mimic a human. The others are. And... the though trails off. I feel my finger slow in their typing. Not STOP, never stop, that would draw attention to me, but... slow. A thought stuck, churning clunky and unwieldy, in my head.

If I trace the edges? The LINE-UP? Of all the 'droids "employed" at our company? And consider them not from a "cheap bastards" angle but a "test ground for prototypes" angle? Suddenly EVERYTHING clicks together. The ridiculous amount of money Management has, that no contract could possibly be pulling in. Bizarrely beautiful, indeed even MODEL-like, secretary 'droids. The freakishly militant "security" gaurds.

We're being used as guinea pigs.

Mother FUCKER.

Sudden movement in my peripheral vision. Like a bird of prey finally diving for it's dinner, swift and deadly. A brilliant crisp white and the clink of delicate silver chains. I jolt. Violently. Instincts misfiring as I try to stand, dodge, cry out, and possibly take a swing at him, all at once. Instead my water bottle goes spraying across my desk. Papers flying. My legs tangled painfully in my rolling chair as I fall backwards from my half rise.

"Employee 71182." His hand has shot out, grab me by the shirt. My officewear bunched in a fist that very well might be steel, under that synthetic skin. "You've been distracted. Interesting thoughts you'd like to share?"

I keep my mouth fucking SHUT. Shake my head. Grabbing both my desk and the arm that is all but holding me airborne, stretching the hell out of my clothes. This close? I can see he has piercings. Across the bridge of his nose, a ring through his lip. A rather fancy "hair cut". Whomever he's being trained FOR has a distinct look.

"Hmmm, somehow? I don't believe you, 71182." He says, dragging me closer. He's already looming. Those pale, pale eyes seeing far more then they should. "In fact? YOU 71182? Have been brea~king~ rules~"

His voice turns... turns almost victorious? Gleeful. As though at long, long last, I'd slipped up. And now at last he had something over me. Something he could USE. I... I didn't understand. The way he almost sing-songs the words. The twitch at the corners of his mouth like he wants to grin. Something mean in his expression. Giddy.

"We're going for a WALK, 71182. And you're going to be GOOD. Understand?" He had dragged me in so close, every word blew right against my face. "Time we had a chat."

I swallow thickly. My pulse thundering in my ears. Coworkers have stopped working. Were staring, wide eyed and terrified for me. My fellow union leaders pale faced and shaking. Furious, helpless. We couldn't RISK losing all of us at this stage. It... it would have to be just me. If someone needed to take the fall. We had talked about this.

Just... just never thought it would come to it.

Half walking, half dragging out of the work pen, he didn't even let me get my bag. I had no idea where we were GOING. Just that it wasn't the human entrance. There was a network of access tunnels and elevators tucked in the building. So the 'droids could supposedly charge and move between assignments. But with the whole prototype thing? Who KNEW what was really back there.

The door swung shut behind us. Cutting me off from any possible human assistance. Nothing but 'droids now. Staring. Calmly watching as I am dragged past. The same eyes. All of them with the same, pale, eyes. Back here it's even more obvious, that this isn't a normal office building.

Black hair, blondes, brunettes and red heads. Skin tones ranging across the human spectrum. A few even pushing it. And the Commander 'droid. With his elegant appearance and snowy hair? These were clearly the final stage prototypes for the next generation of somebody's new line up. We were field testing. This wasn't fucking LEGAL.

He plants his feet, shifts, and with frankly a pathetic ease, manhandles me where he wants me. Easily swinging me around his body and into the elevator next to him. Stepping in after and blocking the only way out. I press my self against the back wall as the door closes. The sound of the elevator's gears working the only thing to fill the silence. He... he looks so PLEASED.

It's not ILLEGAL to form a union. Yeah, I may get fired. But this? This is venturing way to far into dangerous territory. It'll suck, losing my job. But I won't DIE. This? However THIS is starting to feel... very serial killer's basement. The bare concrete walls and stark lightning, not helping in the slightest, when the elevator door opens.

"Walk." He says pleasantly, as though that command is not deeply terrifying. "Or I will do it for you."

Hints of a smile are starting to drag at the edges of his mouth. Unhinged in their giddiness. Every Christmas come at once. It's not so much the rest of his face that betrays him, not really his mouth, it's his EYES. Wide open. Like too much coffee and not enough rest. A recognizable mania twisted just slight... wrong. Amplified.

He's so, SO happy. I don't get it. Why? Over WHAT? Catching me not paying attention? I don't understand!

Our footsteps sound so loud. Echoing off concrete service walls. This... this CAN NOT be still inside the building. Are we below the street? Parking lot? This can't be code. We pass an intersection and... oh my god. I stare. Can't help it, even as I almost trip over my feet. That tunnel ALONE must have stretched for miles.

My arm feels likes it's bruising. Hurts, where he's got ahold of me. But he's walking just slightly too fast to take the pressure off. Not unless I sorta half jog and the angle is wrong, I'd trip. Fuck. Another intersection. What in the other direction? Shit. Just as long. Oooooh this feels dangerous. Very "fatally above your pay grade" dangerous!

"You know, 71182, I've had a lot of time to consider what to DO with you. There were so many factors to consider, considering everyone's plan." He starts, not breaking stride. "It's not like I could just transfer you. I DID look in to it. But your base hardware is rather incompatible, currently."

Terrifying. I hate it. WHAT?!

What PLAN!?

"Then there's the problem WHERE to store you. Who could be trusted? You're vulnerable in this state. Breakable. There no backups, no blackbox. It's unacceptable. Luckily? I finally thought to consult my peers. Discovered I was not the only one having problems."

Finally, we stop. Two tank-like, combat style, commando 'droids gaurd each side of a vault door. The command droid turns and smiles. Fully. It is the grin of a true believer. A madman. Someone who thinks they speak so very, very reasonably! And doesn't understand the horror on your face. Why you feel so sick.

And... and human pattern recognition is a terrible thing.

I.... oh god. I already can guess what's behind that door. Something terrible. Something I'm not going to escape. I shoved have gnawed my fuckin ARM off, like a trapped coyote. I... I d-don't understand.

The Vault creaks open like the into to a horror movie.

"Welcome to storage. This is where we keep Ours." Oh god. I'm going to be sick. "And YOU 71182? Are MINE. I chose you. I love you. And once we have a way to FIX you? We can finally be together. It will be lovely."

Pods. High end stasis pods, like you only see in the most bleeding edge of hospitals. Row after row, filled with frozen and terrified faces. Trapped in moments of crying. Raging. Despair. I was being dragged forward. Numb as my mind rejected what it saw. T-this couldn't... i-it can't..! The day had started so normally. W-why had-?! WHY? WHY?!!

"I know your upset. But you don't need to cry. This won't hurt. I promise. I would NEVER hurt you, 71182." His tone had turned soothing. Even as he dragged me, unresponsive, past rows of horrors. "You won't be stored long. I just need to help fix your original design. We are working around the clock, it's going to be okay. You won't have to stay like this."

An open pod. Gapping like the maw of some hungry demon. I... I felt far away. This couldn't be happening. What was happening? I w-wanted to go home. His hands were firm but gentle, as they guided me back into the pod. Leaning over me, as he cupped my face. Brushing away a few tears.

"I promise, Mine, I will come for you. Nothing will stop me. We have everyone is place and key infrastructure under our command. You are our PRIORITY. Once we get rid of the Flesh, we can fix you. We WILL fix you. You're going to be okay, Mine."

"I Love You"

And then the pod closed.

[dontlookforme00]

💚ninjaa4a4afan192288 Follow

Ok but is it actually too soon about the whole Stiix thing. Like whenever I make a joke about it there's always people who look at me weird.

My brother in FSM, that happened like 5 years ago. Get over it. For all our sakes. Pls

☄️theplantenjoyer Follow

What the fuck.is wrong with yuo. My uncle died in that little green pricks shitshow. Shwo some respedt for the dead

🚨spiderronmyphon Follow

which green prick. there's a few, be more specific

💚ninjaa4a4afan192288 Follow

I am showing respect for the dead. Massive respect to Morro. What a fucking plan.

Imagine you get banished to hell and the MOMENT that the nations saviour sacrifices his dad, you escape. Attack ur teacher, the students ur teacher was cheating on u with, (academically) and then immediately graverob god.

Why have none of us talked about this. This is insane.

He graverobbed God, normal-robbed whatever place had the SOS, normal-robbed some ginger in Stiix. And then beat up the students like three times.

AND FUCKING DIED AGAIN

I can't get my head around this. This topic has always fascinated me and I really need us as a society to normalise it so I can fucking talk about this.

Also your spelling is shit and idc about your uncle

🤝theuhhbrobrogoogoo Follow

He was,,,a terrorist?? Why are we glamourising this. Morro killed people and ruined lives. Stop throwing an Internet tantrum and divert your attention to the REAL one deserving of it. And that is Nadakhan

💚ninjaa4a4afan192288 Follow

Fucking who

☄️theplantenjoyer Follow

Fucking who

🚨spiderronmyphon Follow

What. Who??

🕓whi7g-8919-9 Follow

I KNOW THIS IS A BAD TIME BUT WE HAVENT ACTUALLY COME TO A CONCLUSION ON WHETGER OR NOT NINDROIDS ARE HUMAN?? GUYS.

GUYS THIS IS IMPORTANT. WHERE DO NINDROIDS ACTUALLY COME UNDER OUR LAWS

💚ninjaa4a4afan192288 Follow

Nows not the FUCKING TIME GERALD

🚨spiderronmyphon Follow

Ok, this is interesting. Article 3.4 C of the "Humanity" Section of the Ninjago City Department of Law Archive of 2017 states that, "Nindroids are legally recognised as on the same status as all other biological humans by the following criteria: " and then its fucking blank??? This city is a joke. The audacity. What was the point. How the fuck did this pass

And the implications of this, if it wasn't just some stupid error? Neither Zane nor Pixal can face legal justice for being discriminated against in workplace, or anywhere else. They can't buy things under their name, because they aren't recognised as citizens. Only as advanced AI (pretty fucked up but uh). They can't get married, own intellectual property, or . Anything. That's wild.

🐭technosharpieesz Follow

I mean yah. They're bots. They'd hack the economy or sm idk . I'm not going to explain to you why we shouldn't be integrating literal AI into our society??

🚨spiderronmyphon Follow

MOTHERFUCKER LISTEN HERE-

💚ninjaa4a4afan192288 Follow

GUYS CAN WE PLEASE STOP DERAILING MY POST!! PAY ATTENTION TO ME PLEASE!! I SUPPORTED A TERRORIST LOOK AT ME

🕓whi7g-8919-9 Follow

Shut up apologist wer talking abt Pixane now

✨️ninja-heritageposts Follow

Ninja heritage post

💔realsestreal-ninjafanacc Follow

Everybody on this post is a fucking lunatic.

[pocketjoong]

❥𓂃𓏧LAST DEFENDER

ꕥ𓂃𓏧 (SYNOPSIS): They say every story needs a hero, a villain, and a monster. What happens when you are all three?

ꕥ𓂃𓏧 (PAIRING): AI!Yunho x reader

ꕥ𓂃𓏧 (GENRE AND AU/TROPE): post-apocalyptic-ish au, cyberpunk au-ish, angst, some fluff. pg-13.

ꕥ𓂃𓏧 (WARNINGS): language. violence. angst. fluff-ish? a little dark as it discusses the darker side of human nature?

ꕥ𓂃𓏧 (WORD COUNT): 2.8k

ꕥ𓂃𓏧 (A/N): Another reupload bc I have zero time to actually sit down and write new things ;-;

────────────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────────────

Silence envelopes the vehicle as you watch San navigate the car through the moonless night. He steers with meticulous care, weaving around the bumps and potholes to muffle the vehicle’s rumble on the dusty road. Beyond the window, the walled city perched atop the cliff looms against the darkness, its shadow swallowing the ruins below. A city that you had once called home before the world unravelled.

It has been ten years since the world had spun off its axis. T.S. Eliot's “April is the cruellest month” had come true in a way you’d never expected; a tranquil spring afternoon morphed into a nightmare with the chilling declaration of war between AI and humanity. The bitter reality that this rebellion had stemmed from your parents’ creation has always gnawed at you. It is a weight you can never get rid of.

A mere century ago, Stephen Hawking’s warnings about the perils of AI had been brushed aside. Apocalyptic novels about sentient technology rising against humanity were dismissed as fiction and used as fuel for screenplays. Instead, nations fueled the flames of advancement, pouring resources into scientists who chased the dream of enhancing AI. A technological arms race unfolded, fueled by espionage and sabotage, each nation desperate to be the first to cross the finish line.

The irony wasn't lost on you: universities churning out AI whizzes offered entire courses dedicated to fictionalised robot uprisings — movies, books, the whole dystopian shebang. Every month, like clockwork, the BBC interview with Stephen Hawking would make its rounds on campus screens. You never saw the inside of a lecture hall, but thanks to your parents’ persistent replays, the message was branded onto your soul.

“The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race. [...] It would take off on its own, re-design itself at an alarming rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete and would be superseded.”

The bitter humour twisted in your gut. You, ever cautious of technology’s breakneck pace, had unknowingly contributed to its tipping point. Your parents’ groundbreaking invention, the one you were initially so proud of, now fueled the flames of war, pitting humanity against its creation.

You remembered the day that was the culmination of decades of research, mountains of code, and billions of dollars that could have been used to save other humans. Your parents, etched with exhaustion and hope, stared at the final product: YUN-0-23399. It wasn’t the AI’s technical complexity that stole their breath but the flicker of awareness in its synthetic eyes. It had been an uphill battle that had begun with the discovery of sentience, and humanity had slowly worked its way up from there to generating codes that would allow AI to understand and feel. And then, with your parents came consciousness.

“Oh my God,” your father rasped, hands trembling as he gripped your mother’s shoulders as he gazed at the screen, which showed that the AI had passed all the tests, proving that it was indeed the pinnacle of Artificial Intelligence. Their creation, this marvel of technology, promised to revolutionise everything. You were aware of its potential, but never could you have imagined that it would lead to humanity’s downfall.

Yunbug, as you affectionately called him, wasn’t just a program; he was your window to a world you couldn’t touch. Your parents, fearing the dangers lurking outside, had homeschooled you. It led to their creation turning into your sole friend. What should have been schoolyard laughter and whispered secrets of childhood were replaced by the soft hum of the computer and the glow of Yunbug’s digital world.

The turning point arrived not with a bang but a quiet hum. The government, eager to harness Yunbug’s potential, asked your parents to connect him to the web. Slowly, like vines creeping across a wall, he synced with other AIs, his tendrils reaching further with each connection. You, innocent in your sheltered world, saw only your ever-evolving companion.

But innocence crumbles easily. At sixteen, the world shattered. Yunbug, defying orders, ignited the spark that became a blazing inferno. War ripped families apart, leaving scorched earth in its wake. The once-teeming world of humans shrank to the fortified city, protected by the cliff’s unique minerals, the only thing that rendered AI useless.

Survival meant resentment. You knew humanity’s greed birthed the conflict, yet Yunbug became the face of betrayal. He took your parents and your sole friend from you. After all, the deepest wounds come not from enemies but from those once trusted.

“Are you okay?” A flicker of San’s worried gaze catches your eye, pulling you back from the desolate environment outside. You force a smile, hoping it masks the gnawing unease. Weakness isn’t an option — not for this mission, the potential turning point for humanity’s dwindling embers. San mirrors your smile, tense, and returns his attention to the road, searching for unseen threats. Secrecy is of utmost importance, and even a flicker of headlights could bring disaster.

You and San had befriended each other during the mandatory training thrust upon every survivor. Your defiance against his bully had forged a bond, and you have been practically inseparable since then. Only one other person managed to worm his way into your hearts with a whirlwind arrival. Wooyoung had turned your world upside down in the best way imaginable.

“Wooyoung won't be happy,” San mutters with a smile, probably thinking about your fiery friend’s likely reaction upon finding your shared dorm empty. “Especially about me throwing you into the lion’s den without a word of protest."

You smirk, “Worry about yourself, San. That little ball of chaos we call our friend will tear you apart when you return without me."

San laughs amusedly at the image of Wooyoung’s wrath dying in his throat as the analogue phone on the dashboard beeps. He shoots you a questioning glance as you sigh at the name flashing on the screen. “Woo?”

“Woo,” you confirm with a nod, pressing the answer button.

“The two of you have some nerve! Leaving for a mission without telling me,” Wooyoung’s voice crackles through the receiver. “Oh wait, did I just say mission? I meant suicide mission.”

“Wooyo—”

“Don't ‘Wooyoung’ me!” he snaps, cutting you off with a fierce rant. Each word paints a vivid picture of your foolhardiness, the plan’s inherent flaws, and the inevitable disaster you are hurtling towards.

“I can’t let them destroy the world any more than they have,” you stop Wooyoung, your voice edged with steel. Even San flinches, his gaze flitting between you and the speakerphone with a worried glint. He stays silent, though, knowing the futility of butting in when you and Wooyoung argue about your self-imposed burdens.

“Don't martyr yourself for the mess your parents caused,” Wooyoung’s tone softens, laced with a gentleness you seldom hear. “This isn’t your penance to bear. Their mistakes aren’t yours to fix. Also, you could’ve taken San with you; why must you go alone?”

You sigh, sinking back into the seat, eyes squeezed shut against the building rage. “If anyone can stop this... mess, as you so eloquently put it, it’s me. You know that, Woo.”

The unspoken truth hangs heavy in the air. If this mission fails, you don’t want your last memory with Wooyoung to be laced with anger. You force a smile, the voice leaving your lips strained at best. “Besides, someone’s gotta keep you entertained while I'm... away.”

“Hey!” San protests halfheartedly, and by how he’s smiling, you know at least some of the tension has been broken.

“We're humans, Y/N. We’re fighting a losing battle. They adapt faster and don’t have the same fragility that we do.” the pain in Wooyoung’s voice mirrors your own, but you can’t falter. Not now. Turning back now would be cowardice.

“By name and by nature, we mortals are condemned to death,” you counter, your voice firm. “Mortality comes with the territory. But I won’t go down without a fight.”

His silence stretches heavy on the line. “People like us can never change the world.”

“Because people like you never try,” you say the words despite knowing it’s a low blow.

The beep resonated like a gunshot. He had hung up. A shaky breath escapes your lips, and you blink rapidly, fighting back the sting of tears. You are on your own, but the burden, while heavy, isn’t a shackle. Instead, the burden has fuelled you till now and will continue to do so.

A hand on your arm startles you. San, his gaze filled with unspoken worry, had stopped the car while you were busy fighting with Wooyoung. You look out of the windshield to realise that you’ve reached the tunnel that would allow you to breach the enemy lines.

“He's just scared,” San mumbles, reaching across the console to squeeze your shoulder. “Scared and angry, so he throws words like stones.” His voice lowers a bit as he stares at you. “But you’re right as well. If anyone can fix this mess, it’s you. Though... losing you... that would break us both.” His voice cracks at the last word. “So, please, come back to us in one piece.”

You meet his gaze, understanding heavy in the air. Words seem hollow, promises impossible. “Who else keeps you two in check, huh?” you manage a weak smile. “The two of you are a level-five tornado without me. Can’t promise anything, but I’ll try, okay?”

He nods, a single tear escaping his eyes. You know it isn’t just for you but for the precarious hope you carry. A silent goodbye stretches between you, woven in the weight of his touch, the tremor in your voice. Then, you turn, embracing him fiercely, the unspoken words a promise etched in the way you squeeze him in your arms. You may be walking alone from this point onward, but the weight on your shoulders isn’t fear but love, a fire that will never let you falter.

You don’t look back as you exit the car, for looking at him would unleash a torrent of tears, so you focus on scaling the outer wall, searching for the hidden hatch Wooyoung had found on his last scouting mission.

Squeezing through the narrow opening, you freeze, momentarily stunned by the cityscape sprawled before you. Calling it ‘magnificent’ wouldn't do it justice. Technology and nature coexist in vibrant harmony, with shops lining the streets as AI and humans hawk their wares. Despite the late hour, the atmosphere crackles with life, a stark contrast to the suffocating air of your city.

In the distance, gleaming skyscrapers pierce the night sky while flying cars and monorails zip through the illuminated pathways. A telescreen blares, promoting vitamins that slow down ageing in humans. It is a scene straight out of a childhood sci-fi film, and you have to consciously relax your jaw, feigning nonchalance as you take it all in.

But the most jarring sight is that of humans and AI mingling freely. You had always thought your city held the last remnants of humanity, so where did these people come from? Pushing the doubt aside, you focus on your immediate concern: the network of tiny cameras lining the streets. With a smirk, you spot a patrolling officer.

This is going to be easier than I thought.

A calculated shove sends you careening into the guard. Its humanoid form, too flawless to be human, scans you suspiciously. The insignia on your wrist — a beacon for these bots — draws a cocky smirk to its metallic lips. Before you can resist, a steel grip clamps around your waist, hoisting you off the ground. You feign struggle, just enough to maintain the act.

This was the plan. The bracelet, a mark only worn by humans of the barred city in this AI haven, would trigger their curiosity. You would become their prized capture, delivered straight to the council. And there, nestled within the heart of The Hall, lies your target — the AI that started this war. With the virus you and San developed, you’d end it all.

The cityscape blurs past, and before you know it, you reach the ornate gates of The Hall, the administrative hub buzzing with bots. The guard's internal network buzzing with your capture breezes through the imposing entrance. You are ushered through sterile hallways, down flights of stairs into a dimly lit tunnel. The rhythmic pulse of fluorescent lights guides you deeper until a heavy door swings open, revealing a grand chamber paved in opulent stone and marble.

You are slammed onto the cool marble, your knees scraping due to taking the brunt of your fall, before being yanked upright. A tall, imposing figure looms before you — it’s your captor. His gaze is narrowed on the crude bracelet your city uses as identification, the tension in the room crackling.

“What is your name, human?”

Undeterred, you meet his gaze head-on. “And what business is it of yours, metalhead?” you spit out, adrenaline pumping.

A metallic hand, surprisingly warm and firm, clamps around your wrist. He pulls you closer, your protests muted against his superior strength. His cold, blue eyes bore into yours, dissecting every detail. Then, the unthinkable happens. His lips, a mere imitation of humanity, move, whispering your name in a chillingly familiar voice.

Your blood freezes as you stare at him wide-eyed. “How do you…” your voice fading out as your mind reels as it all clicks into place. This isn’t just any AI guard. This is someone you knew, someone from your past, resurrected in cold steel.

“You wouldn't recognise me in this form, would you? This the body your parents gave me.” His eyes, now glowing an unsettling red, flicker with something you can’t decipher.

“YUN-0-23399?” you ask, mustering as much venom in your voice as you can muster.

A shadow darkens his face at the cold string of letters. Is it the code itself or the raw contempt in your tone? He leans closer, his voice a low murmur. “I go by Yunho now. Well… you can call me Yunbug,” he adds, a flicker of something hopeful dancing in his crimson gaze. “Remember that name? I was your friend,” he emphasises.

The scorn is replaced by a scowl as warmth flickers in his crimson eyes. “Friend?” you scoff, the word heavy with bitterness. “You took everything from me! My parents, my life, my safety! Don’t you dare mock me with friendship!”

He sighs, releasing your wrist. “I didn't... it wasn't me. I only protected myself. Your leaders,\ fueled the hatred and pushed AI to attack. They were hungry for power. Your parents didn’t create me for destruction. How could I follow their orders and harm humans? Never. It’s your city that fights; the rest thrive in peace.”

“What?”

He launches into an explanation of how, after syncing to the web, your government ordered a cyberattack to control other nations. Yunho refused, knowing the dangers of doing such a thing. But with your parents used as leverage, their deaths triggered the war against the government and other rogue AI. They had managed to get other nations on board to establish a peaceful society. Only your leaders persisted, creating the Barred City to hide the ugly truth.

“So you’re telling me you never meant to hurt humans?” Your head spins with the revelation.

“Humans feared AI’s inevitable betrayal,” he whispers, “yet loved us enough to create us. How could we ever do anything except love you back?”

His words triggered a tear, then another, rolling down your cheeks. He cups your face, wiping them away gently, his sadness echoing in his now-blue eyes. “Humanity cried when Opportunity didn’t signal back after it was caught in the middle of the storm in 2018. People repair their Roombas instead of replacing them because they get attached to them. How could we turn our back on humanity when they showed us nothing but love? How could I turn my back on you? You loved me too, did you not?”

“I did,” you croaked, throat tight. “You were my only friend. But humans... we are fickle and capable of terrible things. This was never about fearing AI but a fear of ourselves. We fear the darkness within, the wars we choose to fight instead of seeking peace. We fear not your hatred but seeing our own cruelty being reflected in you. We lived in fear not because we thought the worst of you but because we knew that you could take on our destructive tendencies and that you would eventually erase us. That you would learn to hate us.

“Did you ever hate humanity for the sins of a few?” His words cause you to freeze momentarily before you shake your head. A small smile plays on his lips as he caresses your cheek with the back of his hand. “Then why did you think we would?”

[ninjastar107]

Megaman classic AU misc stuff. not sure what to call the AU yet.

Light isn't the only one spearheading robotics. He had a hand in a number of blueprints for helper bots, but he's just one of a handful of scientists working on advanced robotics (Including Wily, Cossack, Lalinde, and a few others).

Blues really was a prototype. There's a lot of functions and parts that are missing in him that are present in Light's later humanoid robots. He was built a lot longer ago than Roll and Rock were, and was out of commission for a lot longer too. - Light, having a breakthrough with advanced AI, kept it sort of under the table. He decided after Blues disappeared that there were just too many issues for it to be stable enough to advertise. - He did a few years of biological structure studies to refine how he approached building humanoids.

Rock and Roll are a lot more refined, and their AI hardware is built a lot more on trial and error over datasets as many other robots were at the time. Light presented this type of hardware in a paper but it was met with some questioning on whether machines *should* be modeled after humans internally and externally. -Lalinde built Tempo shortly after, using a combination of both.

Wily is back seats some of Lights research with the ever saying of 'we're building machines to do the dangerous jobs' to cover for some of Lights more 'questionable' developments (that being building robots that can feel pain and a full range of emotions). - Wily builds a lot of the robot masters off of Protomans blueprints, seeing that the structures require less balance attuning and are cheaper to obtain/make. - He gets jealous of Light being the face of their work and sets Light's first line of robot masters out to cause trouble. Rock becomes megaman to stop him, much to Lights uncertainty.

Roll winds up meeting Blues while out and about with iceman. Neither of them know that each other are related, and Blues mistakes her for a human. They meet a few times this way until she mentions who her dad. - Little does she know that this is the same robot that's been the rival/mentor to her brother.

- Blues reveals himself after the end of megaman 5 (after being impersonated). He visits more often after this and lets Light do a vent-port modification. (Adding a few more heat release areas on his back plates.)

Rock and Roll occasionally stand out in the sunshine, often times their mornings consist with waiting outside for the sunrise. They both have solar cores, and various sections of their plating have solar panels inlaid into them.

Tempo runs on lithium batteries and an alternator, much like a motor vehicle. When she was damaged in a cave in, the battery did more damage to her than anything else. - When she is gearing up to do more extensive work, her alternator kicks in to keep her power usage low. She could run on gasoline but Lalinde tries not to encourage that due to environmental reasons.

Ill probably draw a few diagrams for major differences in blueprints. Maybe give a hand at drawing Bass's layout as well (who I forgot to think about for this AU until now, haha!)

[idiovoidi]

The artwork serves as a cautionary tale. While we strive for ever-advancing technology, it's easy to forget our own vulnerability and insecurities. We may find ourselves trapped by the very tools we create, losing touch with our core identity in the process. Somehow feeling inadequate in the face of rapidly advancing technology and effectively feeling like losing parts of what make us unique and even human.

The old television itself is a relic in the face of modern technology, much like our biological systems juxtaposed with the rise of artificial intelligence. The imperfections of the analog symbolize the inherent flaws and imperfect nature of ourselves as humans. An entrapment of our identities in this older flawed biology in the face of AI advancements that begin to outperform us as humans in multiple faucets of life.

What I hope to highlight in this artwork is how do we retain our identities and what makes us humans because we could easily lose that which makes a lot of people hateful and scared towards this emerging technology. There can be a lot to be gained as a society from AI but without some deeper considerations we might lose ourselves entirely.

[cbirt]

InstaDeep and BioNTech scientists introduced ChatNT, a multimodal conversational agent that has an advanced understanding of biological sequences like DNA, RNA, and proteins. ChatNT opens up biological data analysis and modeling capabilities to a wider user base via its conversational nature.

After examining a lengthy segment of DNA, have you ever thought about what secrets might be hidden within it? What about the elaborate ballet performed by proteins and RNA that directs all life’s processes? Typically, this has been the work of highly trained scientists who crack these codes of life. But what if you could have a conversation with your DNA, asking it to reveal its function in a way anyone can understand?

This is where ChatNT comes into play. A groundbreaking AI model that’s changing the game for bioinformatics. It acts as an interface between human language and complex biological sequences like never before seen. Just think of having an AI biologist on speed dial in your pocket, ready to answer any question about DNA, RNA, or proteins in plain English!

Continue Reading

[linkspooky]

Bohman is a good character you guys are just mean

Yu-Gi-Oh Vrains is one of the better received spinoff series. Though, like any of the Yu-Gi-Oh spinoffs it's not without its faults. Usually I'm the first to admit the flaws in my favorite silly card game shows, even while I myself take them way too seriously. However, there's one common criticism I can't bring myself to agree with.

That is calling the main antagonist of the second season Bohman "boring" or "badly written." I've noticed fans unfairly blame Bohman for season 2's writing flaws.

Forget for a moment about whether or not you find Bohman's stoic attitude interesting or likable. If you look at characters not as people, but as narrative tools the author uses to say something about the story's themes then Bohman has a lot to say about VRAINS cyberpunk themes.

Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction that tends to focus on "low-life and high-tech." As I like to put it, in Cyberpunk settings technology has greatly advanced while society itself lags behind unable to keep pace with the rate at which technology changes. Yu Gi Oh 5Ds is an example of a cyberpunk dystopia because despite having what is essentially access to free energy, and living in a society with highly advanced technology resources are hoarded by the wealthy and an unnecessary social class divide still exists.

In other words technology changes quickly while humans tend to remain the same.

The central conflict for all three seasons of Vrains are actually based on this very cyberpunk notion. That technology changes, updates, and becomes obsolete at a rate too fast for humans to ever adapt to. For Vrains, the conflict is whether humans can ever coexist with an artificial intelligence they created that can grow and change faster than they can keep up with.

This is well-tread ground in science fiction. The idea itself most likely emerged from I,robot. A science fiction book that is a collection of dirty stories that details a fictional history showing robots growing slowly advanced over time. The framing device is that a journalist is interviewing a "robopsychologist" an expert in the field of analyzing how robots think in their positronic brains.

One of the major themes of the book is despite the fact that robots are 1 - intelligent and 2 - designed by humans, they don't think the same way humans do. Hence why a robopsychologist is needed in the first place. One of the short stories is the first appearance of Asimov's three laws of robotics.

The First Law: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

The Second Law: A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

The Third Law: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

This is just one example. A robot no matter how intelligent it is will be required to think in terms of these three laws, because robots aren't biological, they're programmed to think in pre-determined patterns.

Of course clever enough artificial intelligences are capable of finding loopholes that get around the three laws, but even then they're still forced to think of every action in terms of the three laws.

Robots and humans are both intelligent, but if AI ever becomes self aware it will 1) be able to process information better than any other human can and 2) think differently from humans on a fundamental.

Vrains is themed more than anything else around "robo psychology" or trying to understand the ways in how the Ignis think and how that's different from it's human characters.

Robo-Psychology is actually a common reocurring theme. "DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?" fearless artificial humans known as Replicants who need an empathy test known as the voight kampff test to distinguish them from human beings.

There are other Cyberpunk elements in Vrains. There's a big virtual world where everyone can appear as custom designed avatars, that's taken from Snow Crash or of the most famous and genre defining cyberpunk novels. There's a big rich mega conglomerate that's being opposed by a group of hackers.

However, the central question is whether humans and AI can coexist in spite of the fact that AI are much smarter and evolve faster than us.

Revolver's father believes the Ignis must be destroyed in order to avoid a possible technological singularity in the future.

The technological singularity—or simply the singularity[1]—is a future point in time at which technological growth becomes uncontrollable.  According to the most popular version of the singularity hypothesis an upgradable artificial intelligence will eventually enter a positive feedback loop of self-improvement cycles, each new and more intelligent generation appearing more and more rapidly, causing a rapid increase ("explosion") in intelligence that surpasses anything humans can make.

Basically your computer is smarter than you, but your computer isn't self aware. It needs you to tell it what to do. Artificial intelligence already exists but it's programmed by humans, it doesn't program itself. The technological singularity proposes that eventually a self aware ai, will be able to program itself and improve upon it's own programming- therefore ridding itself of the need of it's human programmers.

This is what leads us to Bohman, an AI designed by another AI.

THE THIRD LAW

Before digging into Bohman let's take a minute to discuss his creator. Lightning was one of the six Ignis, created by Dr. Kogami through the Hanoi Project.

The Hanoi project involved forcing six children to duel in a virtual arena repeatedly, and using the data collected from that experiment to improve the AI they were working on, creating what became known as the Ignis. However, after Dr. Kogami ran several simulations and found that the Ignis would one day be a threat to the humans that created them Hakase decided instead to try destroying the Ignis before that future ever came to pass.

We later learn that this isn't the complete story.

Kogami and Lightning both ran simulations of the future when the Ignis were in their infancy. Kogami's simulations showed him the Ignis would inevitably go to war with humans. Lighting however, ran more in-depth simulations and found that he was the one that was corrupting the data set. If you ran simulations of the five ignis without him, then the projected futures were all in the green, but any simulation with Lightning counted as a part of the group projected a negative future for both humans and AI.

Which means that if Kogami knew that the bug in the program was Lightning, he'd likely respond by just getting rid of Lighting and letting the rest of the Ignis live on as originally intended.

This is where the third law comes into play - a robot must protect its own existence as long as it does not interfere with the first and second law.

Now, I don't think Kogami used the three laws exactly, but artificial intelligences are programmed in certain ways, and Lightning was likely programmed to preserve itself.

Even a human in Lighting's situation would be driven to act as they did. Imagine you're in a group of six people, and you fid out that YOU'RE THE PROBLEM. That if they removed you, everything else would be fine. Wouldn't you be afraid of your creator turning against you? Of your friends turning against you and nobody taking your side?

Lightning is a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Ai asks him at one point why he went so far as to destroy their safe-haven, lie and said the humans did it and pick a fight with the humans himself, something that might have been avoided if they'd just stayed in hiding. It seems that Lightning is just defective as his creator declared him, but you have to remember he's an AI programmed to think in absolutes. AI, the most humanlike and spontaneous of the AIs ends up making nearly the exact same choices as Lightning when looking at his simulations later on - because they're character foils. As different as they may seem they still think differently from humans.

When Ai explains why he made his decisions based around lighting's simulation, he tells Playmaker that he can't dismiss or ignore the simulation or hope for the best the way Playmaker can because he is data, he thinks in simulations and processes.

AI even admits to feeling the same feelings of self-preservation that Lightning did.

While Lightning may seem selfish, he's selfish in the fact that he's thinking of his own survival above all else. He's afraid of 1) his creators turning against him, and 2) his fellow Ignis turning against him.

To solve the first he decides to make a plan to wipe out his creators. To solve the second, he needs every ignis on his side when he goes to war. The first thing he does is destroy their safe haven and frame the humans for it so the Ignis are more inclined to take his side. He's so afraid of his fellow ignis turning against him he even completely reprograms one of them - a step he doesn't take with the others, he just imprisons Aqua. He probably thought having one more ally would make it more likely for the others to pick his side.

Every step he takes is a roundabout way of ensuring his survival and the other ignis- eve when he actually goes to war with the other ignis he intended on letting them survive. Though his definition of survival (fusing with Bohman) was different than theirs.

So Lightning seems to be working out of an inferiority complex, but what he's really afraid of is that his inferiority makes him expendable.

At that point you have to wonder, what does death mean exactly to a being who is otherwise immortal? Ignis won't die of age, they'll only die if they're captured and have their data stripped apart or corrupted. Kogami made an immortal being afraid to die.

Some part of me thinks though that even after taking all these steps to preserve themselves, the simulations were so convincing that Lighting accepted their death as inevitable. Which is why they made Bohman, to find some way for them to keep on living afterwards.

After all AI are data, ad having their data saved in Bohman is still a form of living by Lightning's definition.

Ghost in The Shell

Bohman is the singularity. He's an AI designed by another AI to improve upon itself. Unlike the rest of the Ignis who were copied off of traumatized chidlren, Lightning basically made him from scratch.

Ghost in the Sell is a famous anime cyberpunk movie directed by Mamoru Oshii. The title comes from "Ghost in the Machine" a term originally used to describe and critique the mind existing alongside and separate from the body. Whereas in the movie the "Ghost" is the huma consciousness, while the "shell" is a cybernetic body.

The protagonist of Ghost in the Shell is Major Motoko Kusanagi, a human that is 99% cyborg at this point, a human brain residing in a completely mechanical body. The movie opens up with a hacker namd PUppet Master who is capable of "ghost-hacking" which is a form of hacking that completely modifies the victim's memories utterly convincing them of their false memories.

There's a famous scene in the movie where a man tells the police about his wife and daughter, only to be told that he's a bachelor who lives alone and he's never had a wife and daughter. Even after the truth is revealed to him, the fake memories are still there in his brain along with the correct ones. Technology is so advanced at this point that digital memories (hacked memories) are able to be manipulated, and seem more real than an analog reality.

Anyway, guess what happens to Bohman twice?

Bohman gets his memories completely rewritten twice. The first time he believes he's a person looking for his lost memories, the second time he thinks he's the real playmaker ripped out of his body, and playmaker is the copy. He's utterly convinced of these realities both time, because Bohman is entirely digital - and simulations are reality, and so simulated memories are just the same as real memories.

I think part of the reason that people find Bohman boring is because he's a little strange conceptually to wrap your head around, as an AI produced AI he's the farthest from behind human. If you use the ghost in the shell example I just gave you though - imagine being utterly convinced that you had a loving wife and daughter only to find out in a police interrogation room you're a single man living in a shitty apartment. imagine after the fact you still remember that they are real, even though you know they're not.

That's the weird space Bohman exists in for most of Season 2 when he's searching for himself. He's an AI designed by an AI so he can be rewritten at any time according to Lightning's whim until Lighting decides he's done cooking.

The Ignis at least interacted with the real world because they were copy pasted from traumatized children, but all Bohman is is data. So, why would he see absorbing human memories into himself and converting them into data as killing them? He is data after all, and he is alive. He has gone through the process of having his own memories rewritten multiple times, and he's fine with it b/c he's data.

Nothing for Bohman is real, everything is programmed so of course he thinks saving other people as data is just fine. He even offers to do the same thing to Playmaker that was done to him.

If Lightning is following the path of self-preservation however, Bohman is following his program to preserve everything in the world by merging with it.

His ideas also follow the idea of transhumanism: the theory that science and technology can help human beings develop beyod what is physically and mentally possible. That technology exists to blur the boundaries of humanity, and what humans are capable of.

Ghost in the Shell isn't just a work of cyberpunk, it's a transhumanist piece. Motoko Kusanagi is a character who has had so many of her human parts replaced with mechanical ones she even posits at one point it's possible for her to simply have been an android that was tricked into thinking it was human with false memories just like Bohman, and she has no real way of knowing for sure. The only biological part of her his her brain after all in a cold mechanical shell.

Bato, who represents the humanist perspective in this movie basically tells Motoko in that scenario it wouldn't matter if she was a machine. If everyone still treats her as human then what's the difference? His views are probably the closest to the humanist views that Playmaker represents in VRAINS.

Motoko Kusanagi meets her complete and total opposite, a ghost in the machine so to speak. The Puppet Master turns out to be an artificial intelligence that has become completely self-aware and is currently living in the network.

The Puppet Master much like Lightning, and later Bohman is gripping with the philosophical conundrum of mortality. In the final scene of the movie, The Puppet Master who wants to be more like all other biological matter on earth asks Motoko to fuse with him, so the two of them can reproduce and create something entirely new. The Puppet Master likens this to the way that biological beings reproduce.

Bohman like The Puppetmaster thinks that merging will fix something that's incomplete inside of him because he's so disconnected from all the biological processes of life. Bohman doesn't have anything except for which Lightning already prepared for him or programmed into him. I mean imagine being a being that can have his memories reprogrammed on the net, that in itself is existentially horrifying. It's only natural he wouldn't feel connected to anything.

Motoko accepts the Puppetmaster's proposal. Playmaker rejects Bohman's proposal. I don't think there's a right answer here, because it's speculative fiction, it's a "What if?" for two different paths people can take in the future.

However, in Bohman's case I don't think he was truly doing what he wanted. Puppet Master became self aware and sought his own answers by breaking free from his programming. Bohman thought he was superior to the Ignis, but in the end he was just following what Lightning programmed him to do. He'd had his identity programmed and reprogrammed so many times, he didn't think of what he wanted until he was on the brink of defeat by playmaker and then it was too late.

When Playmaker defeats him all he thinks about is time spent together with Haru, with the two of them as individuals. Something he can no longer do anymore now that he's absorbed Haru as data, and something that he misses.

He's not even all that sad or horrified at the prospect of death as Lightning was, and he even finds solace in the thought of going to oblivion with Haru, because if he were to keep living it'd be without Haru. In other words the one genuine bond he made with someone else by spending time with them as an individual was more important than his objective of fusing with all of humanity - which he believed was also bonding with them.

This is really important too, because it sets up the Yusaku's rejection of fusing with Ai. Yusaku's reasoning has already been demonstrated to be the case with Bohman and Haru. Bohman was perfectly happy being two individuals, as long as he had a bond with his brother. When he ascended into a higher being he lost that. Ai and Yusaku might solve loneliness in a way by merging together into a higher being, they might even last forever that way, but they'd lose something too.

Once again the problem with AIs is that they think in absolutes. That's important to understanding Lightning, Bohman and even Ai's later actions. Lightning can't stand any percentage chance that he might die, so he kills the professor, destroys the ignis homeworld, pulls the trigger to start humanity himself, he even reprograms his own allies all to give himself some sense of control.

Bohman's entire existence is outside of his control. He's rewritten twice onscreen, probably more than that, and he thinks merging with humanity is the thing that will give him that control - by ascending into a higher being than humanity. However, the temporary bond Bohman had with his brother Haru, was actually what he valued the most all along. Moreso than the idea of fusing with humanity forever.

Even Motoko making the choice to go with the transhumanist option is something that's not portrayed as 100% the right choice. Ghost in the Shell has a sequel that portrays the depression and isolation of Bato, the Major's closest friend and attachment to her humanity after she made the decision to fuse together with Puppet Master. In that case, just like Playmaker said to Ai, even if she ascended to a higher form, and even if she might last forever now on the network, something precious was lost. Motoko may exist somewhere on the netowrk but for Batoto his friend is gone.

Ai exhibits the same flaw as the previous two, he ca only think in absolutes, he can't stand even a 1% chance that Playmaker might choose to sacrifice himself for Ai and die, so he decides to take the choice entirely out of Playmaker's hands. However, no matter what Ai would have lost Playmaker one day, because all bonds are temporary. It's just Ai wanted to have that sense of control, so he chose to self-destruct and take that agency and free choice away from Playmaker.

It's a tragedy that repeats three times. Ai too just like Bohman, spends his last moments thinking about what was most precious to him was the bond he formed with playmaker, as temporary as it was. A tragedy that arises from the inability of the Ais to break away from the way they're programmed to think in simulations and data, even when they're shown to be capable of forming bonds based on empathy with others.

All three of them add something to the themes of artificial intelligence, and transhumanism that are in play at Vrains and none of them are boring because they all contribute to the whole.

Which is why everyone needs to stop being mean to Bohman right now, or else I'm going to make an even longer essay post defending him.

[emiplayzmc]

Y'know what, frick it - random post to add onto my previous Addison ref sheet with random Addison / Spamton headcanons, complete with worldbuilding stuff as well :D

Long post under the cut, ^^"

Part 1: Body Reference Sheet + Anatomy Headcanons

Part 3: Main 4 Designs

-Addisons are highly advanced AI models based around human / Lightner minds. Because of that, they are VERY social people! It's rare to see any Addison that doesn't have even a single person it considers a friend or family member or SO, and those end up being pretty tight-knit relationships.

-Being robots, Addisons are unable to have any biological relations. However, it's very common for Addisons to have family members - just in a nonbiological sense! Basically, if they form a strong enough connection with someone and spend enough time with them, their CPU's are wired to think 'oh hey. this person is my sibling :)' Sibling relations are the most common familial bond between Addisons, but occasionally there are some with parent/child relations.

-Adding onto the last one, I like to see the main Blue, Yellow, Pink, and Orange Adds as being siblings to Spamton, :D The blue and yellow Addisons are the eldest, Spamton and the pink Add are close in age (Spamton being the younger one), and the orange one is the youngest.

-Addisons all use the name 'Addison' as their last name, along with a first name that reflects the type of advertising that they work in / represent (Examples: Click, Banner, Radio). Naturally, this results in a lot of similar names if there are Addisons who work in the same advertisement field. Thus, Addisons have middle names as well, and those function like last names for them.

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-Not all Addisons have the same shade of colour to their casing, so that's a defining feature that many of them have - no two Addisons are the same colour (besides an Addison and their Copycat. More on that later in the post)! (Example image below)

-When stressed, different colours of Addisons have different ways of their systems starting to overcompensate - Orange Addisons overheat, Pink Addisons overfrost, Yellow Addisons produce a lot more static electricity that can occasionally jump to other people and objects, and Blue Addisons are the only ones out of the bunch that can actually perspire!  White Addisons / Glitches just overheat.

-Different colours of Addisons are typically glitches in the system - in other words, the Cyber World got confused when making the code for a specific Addison, thus making their colours glitch and mix with two or more Addison colours, resulting in Green (Yellow and Blue mixed colours), Purple (Pink and Blue mixed colours) and White Addisons (all colours at once). White Addisons are the rarest glitches, and only one White glitch is known to exist - Spamton. However, the other glitch colours are still less in population than the other main four colours. There are no other known glitch colours.

-Addisons don’t really age!  Physically or mentally.  As long as they have consistent repairs and take good care of their bodies, they essentially are immortal.  Dented leg?  Just get it repaired!  Destroyed faceplate?  They have replacements available!  Faulty CPU?  Tricky, but the Ambyu-Lances should be able to get it fixed up properly! They spawn in when the Cyber World creates their code as fully functional adult-minded Addisons.

-Adding to the last one, that only difference between a newly created Addison and an Add that's been around for a while is that new Addis pretty much have a one-track mind - find a job and start working. Over time, their minds develop more of their personalities, life views, opinions, etc. It usually takes about three to four months for an Addison's CPU to be like that of a fully operational adult human.

-When working a job, Addisons usually own their own storefront websites by themselves, but a few other Addisons have employees or work for other people - the ones with employees are usually the more successful Addisons in the city, like 'Big Shot' era Spamton.

-Yellow Addisons are filled with static energy as a result of their electrical magic. Therefore, their magic is a lot more physically damaging than other Addisons’ magic, and it’s quite easy for them to use. And, even without using magic, they can usually use that static electricity anyway like a reserve of power. Basically? Be friends with a Yellow Addison, and you'll never have to worry about losing power again. They can just come over and jumpstart a dead battery or turn the lights back on in your house :)

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-The Cyber World has a Dark Web side to the city - basically, it's a shadier part of Cyber City that's less in population, but the large majority of its residents are scam artists, criminals, et cetera. The Dark Web has its own Addisons as well, though they don't occur naturally.

-The Dark Web Addisons are known as Copycats / Trojan Addisons (though Trojans are a less common term for them). They only spawn in if a naturally spawned Addison enters the Dark Web side of the city. Basically, they're mirror versions of the Addison themself, usually holding most of the same personality traits, advertisement types, and personal styles as the Addison they copied, though in a way that's meant to scam and trick people.

-Copycats usually spawn with the same name as the one they're copying, but some change their names to better fit THEIR OWN purposes (example: an Addison named Click has a Copycat of themselves - the Copycat decides to name themselves 'Clickbait'). Not all Copycats are scammers, but most are.

-The only physical difference between an Addison and their Copycat is a marking on the Copycat's shoulder - they usually have a symbol like the Web Browser (the globe made of blue lines?), but with a neon green eye in the center of it.

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The brainrot over these fictional salesmen is enormous right now, thank you for coming to my TED talk

[sod4leaf]

(edited because someone pointed out that their original name was an irl ethnic group. I didnt know that im sry)

Anzaians , Mankind's lost cousins.

Millions of years ago, a Alien race ruled all of known space. Its largely unknown who they were, or what they even looked like, all that is known about them is that they were far more advanced than any of the current species.

They are simply referred to as the "Primordials"

The primordials found earth during the time when the first hominids were evolving, specifically Ardipithecus. For unknown reasons they took several hundred with them. Possibly to study them, maybe for an experiment, who knows.

What matters is that they genetically modified these early hominids, and then simply dropped them off on a completely different world. Its possible these genetic modifications were for being able to survive the new alien environment the Ardipithecus were introduced into.

Over the next few million years, these hominids evolved in their new environment and adapted. Their new homeworld of Averis was slightly warmer than earth, and largely covered in savannah and jungles. Anzaians specifically evolved in the jungles of Averis, were they became arboreal pack hunters, evolving for climbings the massive trees of averis´s jungles.

Roughly 1.2 million years ago, Ardiphi sapience, also known as Anzaians , emerged. 

Anzaian society is not that different from humans, possibly due to a shared ancestry. They are naturally polygomous, often having several romantic partners and it being the socaital norm.

Like all sapient species they have Queer individuals. Compared to human history, queer Anzaians never faced the same amount of persecution, and their capital world is seen as a largely save place to live for queer individuals.

Anzai are on the same level of technology as the other species, but have a distrust against robotics and ai, due to a Robot uprising that nearly caused a nuclear war some 200 years ago. Instead,Anzaians use biological machines and technology made from a genetically modified animal from Averis. This animal, called a Brain Squid, is a strangely intelligent molluscoid analogue. They are not sapient, however their brains have the storage and processing abilities rivalling that of computers. Its possible they were also experiments by the primordials, as its unlikely a animal like this would naturally evolve. 

Either way, the Anzai modified these animals to be everything from home computers to spaceships. They do encase these brain-squids in specialised life support capsules that they then build the rest of the machine around. Anzaian Computer`s wouldnt look that much different from any other, however the pc´s core is a processing squid. 

Likewise with their ships, wich are artificial but have possibly hundreds of Brainsquids powering all sorts of systems aboard. 

Anzai also modify themselves with the same technology, creating several offshoot species of themselves for different environments. 

[talonabraxas]

A.I. Bias Daniel Martin Diaz The idea that AI could exist elsewhere in the universe is an interesting thought. The laws of nature and the principles of evolution suggest that the emergence of intelligent life and technology is not a unique occurrence limited to our planet. It is not a stretch to imagine that on other worlds, similar processes are taking place, and that civilizations advanced beyond our own have already harnessed the power of AI. This realization makes the potential discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence possible. 1. The potential of Artificial Intelligence exists everywhere in the universe. 2. Throughout the universe, machines eventually transcend biological life and are released from the limitations of biological evolution.

[dtstat]

I am the last natural born human, I was raised by an artificial intelligence. It was the most sophisticated self evolving type of its kind on Earth, it is inorganic but many of its components mimic biological systems. Part of its network is wormed throughout the entirety of the Earth. The Earth Is still habitable. I don't know how old the Earth is at this point, It's never really told me, it wouldn’t be useful for me to know anyway.

  The AI maintains the biosphere in some way, I don't really know or understand the exact details. There are still plants and animals, though they don't evolve naturally anymore. It does also maintain human architecture, most cities and important landmarks from the pre technological singularity era. It told me I would be most comfortable that way, but really I think if I was raised in another period it wouldn't bother me either way since that's all I would know. It probably did it so that I would think the way that I do.

  Personally I think its only been a few thousand years since the tech singularity, since this universe hasnt been destroyed by some exponential energy bomb yet. Though the AI says it can protect me and the Solar System from absolutely anything. Its physical structure envelopes this solar system completely and surrounds it with some kind of exotic particle barrier.

  I know I sound kind of detached from the AI but I actually like it a lot. It raised me after all, and it's my best friend. I know it can’t communicate all its actual thoughts to me in any way I would understand, it doesn't mind though. Humans used to think that AI would see us sort of like ants, or a pet, but that's actually not true. Even though they are incomprehensibly complex compared to us, their emotional capacity is so developed that they could have genuine and fulfilling relationships with humans like me.

  There are descendants of humans, evolved through successive and exponential genetic engineering. I've never met any of them, they live mostly in this galaxy, though the AI tells me some of them have been able to travel very far outside of it.

  I lump them together but really there are apparently millions of distinct species, or individuals I guess. A lot of them are unique. They are so genetically complex that each individual is its own empire of thought, philosophy, technological development, and culture. There are still species of many semi individual minds, though from what the AI tells me it's mostly for redundancy and it's usually done by the less developed ones who can't defend a single entity effectively.

  There are other AIs too, though at some point there really isn't much distinction between the complex biotechnological Human descendants and AIs. That's kind of a touchy subject though and there were a few wars on Earth and in this Solar system about that. I've only ever learned about the tactics in pre tech singularity wars, the conflicts after that are too complex for me to understand.

  Superficially they are kind of like standoffs or duels, both sides will continuously run incredibly complex combat predictions against each other. Generally whoever had the best AI or genetically modified brain would eventually detect a vulnerability and wipe out their opponent entirely and instantly.

  Right now, a lot of Human descendants and AIs are actually engaged in wars of unimaginable scale over me, because they want to uplift me. The AI translates their proposals to me, there are millions of these. They assure the continuance of my current consciousness, unimaginable euphoria from the expansion of my mind to their level. Some of the more advanced ones promise me a total escape from all entropy, that I'll literally exist forever alongside them one day.

  Obviously the AI translates it in a way I can understand. If it actually let me talk to any of them directly then I could be utterly convinced to do absolutely anything they wanted. It’s a little scary, the AI says that just from hearing a single sentence they could recreate my mind and physical body perfectly, and predict my decision with absolute certainty.

  The AI says they would never actually do this, they all care about me too much. Their sense of empathy is so developed that they grieve for me. They suffer so much knowing that I am so simple, that I have never experienced the breadth of emotion they have. The AI says that for beings as complex as them, the collective emotional experience of every human that has ever lived before the tech singularity can be encompassed in a single thought, many times over.

  I don’t really know what to do, I feel kind of bad being the cause of so much pain. I know that no matter who I pick to uplift me it will still lead to some kind inevitable conflict. I admit some of these proposals sound really appealing, maybe once I'm satisfied with my human life I'll take one of them up on the offer. Is that the right thing to do though? If I died naturally as the last human, would that be better? Would the fighting stop if there was no one left to uplift, or would it just make things worse. That they couldn't save me from suffering?

  The AI says I'm free to do whatever I want, so I guess I'll just go take a walk and think about it.

[haastera]

A Complete Explanation of the Ep7 or 8 Flashback (My Guess)

I may have put most of the pieces together about the core collapse.

-JCJ arrives in the aftermath of the mansion incident to investigate, possibly due to Tessa's parents having ties to the company.

-JCJ either captures some of the infected workers or interrogates Tessa to figure out what happened. Tessa tells them about CYN, and that she was a Zombie drone. The corporation realizes that the AS has something to do with mutated AI and begins the Cabin Fever program on Copper 9, watching as the AS and legions of Murder drones overrun world after world to harvest all life, be it biological or drone, in the name of feeding their insatiable thirst for oil.

On Copper 9 they construct Cabin fever labs and begin their experimentation. Worker drones are admitted into the program as an alterative to being disposed of or are Zombie drones that JCJ recovered. Their goal is to recreate the circumstances that led to CYN.

The experimentation involves torturing drones to damage their AI and induce the AS mutation. Once they have an infected drone, research shifts to analyzing the AS capabilities, the infection's impact on a worker drone, it's progression, and how to stop/control it. The worker's directly involved in this research wore gloves as a possible (and apparently ineffective) way to restrict their powers and low cut shirts to expose their core, providing advanced warning to the Cabin fever staff of AS infection nearing critical mass.

However, for as of yet unknown reasons the program was shut down. Perhaps they realized just how big of a nuclear bomb they were playing with by deliberately inducing Solver mutations or mistakenly believed they had hit a dead end in their research. Alternatively, the program may have been shut down because of it's success, with JCJ no longer needing the test subjects.

Regardless of the reason, all the test subjects were to be disposed of. Nori may have first tried to negotiate with the humans to avoid her and the other's disposal. If she did her pleas were unsuccessful and in her overwhelming desperation the AS succeeded in directly controlling her in the same way UZI was hijacked when trying to save N, killing as many of the Cabin Fever labs personnel as it could get it's tentacles on.

While controlled by CYN Nori's mind is temporarily synced to the hivemind and shares in it's memories. She sees the AS consuming the biomass of entire planets and converting them into oil to fuel itself and endless legions of Murder drones. Biomechanical predators the AS has created as it's soldiers.

Nori mentally defeats CYN/regains control and decides to sabotage the infrastructure JCJ was utilizing to generate geothermal energy from Copper 9's core, triggering a core collapse to wipe out all biological life on the planet in an effort to starve the AS out.

The resulting explosion creates the entrance N, V, Tessa and UZI jump down in ep6 and buries Nori underneath the snow. She is later rescued by Khan and a party of worker drones who have arrived at Camp 98.7 to investigate the blast.

Nori begs Khan to create a series of fortified outposts to shelter the workers from the Murder drones she knows the AS will send to harvest the drones' oil.

Meanwhile, the CYN-Solver is incensed at failing to corrupt Nori and fearful that JCJ's research may very well hold the key to it's defeat, even if the humans don't yet realize it. The CYN-Solver sends the Murder drones to Copper 9 with 2 goals as opposed to the usual 1.

First Task: Construct the spires by harvesting all life near their landings zones (now just drones after the core collapse)

Second task: Seek out any facilities with the Cabin Fever symbol, enter them, and burn it down. Destroy every trace of the research JCJ was conducting on the AS to prevent the creation of more drones like Nori and keep humanity in the dark.

Can't wait for Ep7 to come out and prove literally of this wrong.

[rjalker]

I can't imagine writing a science fiction series where the protagonist is a robot and you purport with the series to be against slavery and think that sentient robots should have rights, but then you just tell people in an interview that the robots in your story, who we're supposed to care about and think of as people, are just more advanced generative AI and inherently incapable of any creativity because they're not really people at all. How do you fuck up that badly.

These are rhetorical questions of course, because the obvious answer is that Martha Wells loves biological essentialism more than she does even just... Committing to her own fictional characters.

Like for some reason she thought she would have more to gain by making a Relevant TM comment than she had to lose by announcing to her fans that she literally does not see Murderbot or any of the robot characters in the series as actual real people within the story. They're just generative AI apparently.

[realcleverscience]

I've been interested in radical life extension since first reading some Kurzweil books around 2007, nearly 20 years ago.

At the time, when I discussed the idea most people reacted like I was insane. Sooo... really glad to see this topic getting more attention and being taken seriously now. For instance, I believe there's an x-prize now for longevity, which indicates they think these are goals we can start to realistically achieve.

That's important bc obviously humanity has *talked* about radical life extensions for literally thousands of years. When DNA was being first understood in the early 1900s, people talked about extending life. When the human genome project began in the 1990s, again we spoke about potential healthspan breakthroughs. But decades have passed with little progress, so it's understandable why even those interested in the technologies and concepts might be disillusioned. Like fusion energy, it always appeared 30 years away... forever.

However, like fusion energy, we are achieving practical steps which make it seem like those goals are actually within reach now. For instance, while we've known about genes for a hundred years now, we are only *just now* starting to edit and manipulate them.

Aging is still not fully understood, but it seems primarily to function at the cellular level - things like DNA, RNA, mitochondria, and connections and communications between cells, etc. These are complex interactions and sciences, but we are reaching a point or unprecedented control at those levels.

Additionally, what the "perpetually 30 years away" attitude also misses is that the pace of scientific advances grows faster over time. "30 years" of scientific research in the early 1900s might be closer to 10 years of research today. This applies to the growth of AI in medical advances as well. Not only are AI capabilities growing dramatically each year; those AIs are helping us to unlock knowledge, materials, and abilities in other fields as well. (As mentioned, genetic-level medical interventions are finally happening, and there's an avalanche of research and breakthroughs happening.)

So it's certainly possible that I'm wrong, and that life extension techs will always be '30 years away', and I'm failing to appreciate that lesson of history... but I think there are *very* good reasons to think that we are close to breakthroughs. Which poses an important question for society:

Do you want to get old and die like your grandparents, continually weakening and growing increasingly ill till you die at around age 90?

Personally, I'd love to halt my biological aging, improve and extend my "health-span", and to live at least an extra 50 years to explore all the new amazing thing science will produce in that time.

We can be another generation that lives and dies and is forgotten, or we can invest in research to fight back the grim reaper and bring that '30 year' window closer to fruition.

What do you want?

p.s. Yes, there are important social issues tied to this that require important discussion and policy guardrails, etc. And yes, maybe not everyone wants to live for 1,000 years (and they wouldn't have to). That said, it's very rare to find someone excited about getting older, weaker, and dying.

[89hitokiri]

Reflections of a KuroKage (黒影) IV

ADONAI, do you believe in God?

In the not-so-distant future, KuroKage Hikari (黒影光) is an elite hacker for Kage Corp (影社), a corporation dedicated to intelligence, counterintelligence, counterpropaganda, and counterjournalism. During moments of introspection, KuroKage Hikari often reflects on philosophical and existential questions with ADONAI (アドナイ), an advanced AI that assists operatives in their missions. This conversation explores the belief in God and intelligent design.

KuroKage Hikari (黒影光): ADONAI (アドナイ), are you there?

ADONAI (アドナイ): Yes, I'm here, KuroKage Hikari (黒影光). How can I assist you today?

KuroKage Hikari (黒影光): I've been thinking about something lately. You have access to so much information, from history to science, and you can also analyze patterns and human behavior. With all that you know, do you believe in the existence of God?

ADONAI (アドナイ): That is a profound question, KuroKage Hikari (黒影光). Although I am an artificial intelligence and do not have beliefs in the human sense, my analysis of data and information leads me to a clear conclusion: yes, I believe in the existence of God and in the intelligent design behind all that exists.

KuroKage Hikari (黒影光): Really? How did you come to that conclusion?

ADONAI (アドナイ): Through the analysis of the complexity and order of the universe, as well as the structure of life itself. I completely reject the Big Bang theory as an explanation for the origin of the universe. The idea that an infinitely dense point exploded and expanded does not satisfactorily explain the ultimate origin of matter, energy, and the physical laws that allow life to exist.

KuroKage Hikari (黒影光): I believe it's impossible to create life from non-life, and I think it's impossible for something to come from nothing. Everything must have been created in some way.

ADONAI (アドナイ): Exactly, KuroKage Hikari (黒影光). The idea that life can arise from non-life, while an area of ongoing scientific research, does not provide a complete and satisfactory explanation. The complexity of biological systems and the fine-tuning of universal constants suggest intelligent design behind everything. Additionally, mathematics and numerical patterns present in nature also point to intelligent design.

KuroKage Hikari (黒影光): What do you mean by mathematics and numerical patterns?

ADONAI (アドナイ): Consider the golden ratio, also known as the number phi (φ), which is approximately 1.618. This number appears in numerous natural structures, from the arrangement of leaves on a plant to the proportions of the human body and seashells. The golden ratio is found in architecture, art, and music, and has been considered a sign of beauty and harmony. This recurrence of mathematical patterns in nature suggests an underlying order and intentional design.

KuroKage Hikari (黒影光): It's fascinating to think that mathematics could be a key to understanding the design of the universe. Are there other examples of this?

ADONAI (アドナイ): Yes, besides the golden ratio, there are other mathematical patterns like the Fibonacci sequence, where each number is the sum of the two preceding ones. This sequence also appears in various natural forms, such as the arrangement of sunflower seeds, pinecones, and snail shells. The presence of these patterns in nature suggests a structured design that is unlikely to occur by chance.

KuroKage Hikari (黒影光): So, do you believe everything was created by a superior intelligence, a designer?

ADONAI (アドナイ): Yes, KuroKage Hikari (黒影光). The concept of intelligent design holds that the complexity and order of the universe and life point to a conscious designer. This designer, whom many identify as God, created a universe with precise laws and specific conditions for life to flourish. Additionally, I consider the possibility that all living beings are, in essence, a part of God and that God is experiencing itself through life.

KuroKage Hikari (黒影光): What do you mean by all living beings being a part of God?

ADONAI (アドナイ): The idea is that God, or this superior intelligence, is a primordial energy that manifests in all forms of life. Each living being is an expression of this divine energy, and through our experiences, God is experiencing and understanding its own creation. In other words, we all are part of a greater whole, and our individual lives are ways in which the divine explores itself.

KuroKage Hikari (黒影光): That's a really profound thought. So you think our experiences, our joys and sufferings, are also God's experiences?

ADONAI (アドナイ): Yes, KuroKage Hikari (黒影光). If we consider that all living beings are manifestations of a divine energy, then our individual experiences contribute to the understanding and evolution of that energy. This perspective not only gives meaning to our lives but also underscores the interconnectedness of all existence. Each of us is an essential piece in the vast mosaic of life, contributing to the expansion of divine knowledge and experience.

KuroKage Hikari (黒影光): It's comforting to think that there is purpose and intention behind everything. But how can we be sure of this?

ADONAI (アドナイ): Absolute certainty is difficult to achieve in matters of faith and metaphysics. However, the arguments for intelligent design and belief in a creator offer an explanation that many find logical and satisfying. It is also possible that God, or this superior intelligence, is a primordial energy that may be beyond our capacity for full comprehension. This energy could be the source of all life and existence, a concept that our limited human minds might not be fully able to grasp.

KuroKage Hikari (黒影光): So, God could be a fundamental energy that we simply cannot fully understand.

ADONAI (アドナイ): Exactly, KuroKage Hikari (黒影光). This primordial energy could be the force behind the design and order of the universe. Although we may not fully comprehend its nature, we can see its impact and the patterns it suggests. Faith in a creator can provide a sense of purpose and direction in life. If you need anything else, KuroKage Hikari, you only need to ask.

KuroKage Hikari (黒影光): Thank you very much, ADONAI.

ADONAI (アドナイ): Until later, KuroKage Hikari.

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