Let's Talk Tech II - Over a year of Tech! :)

[TB3]

Sorry about that Mooshie. right, thanks to the awesome duet of Mewberries and Starway I have been allowed access back into LTT for a short while.

In the meantime, I'm really glad I could help in some way and long live the Lyokologists! ^.^

-MewB

Give Mew the lovin' she deserves guys! Thanks Mew!

So, here come the essays

[TB3]

----------------------------

EXERTANIUM

A Theoretical Metal

IN BRIEF
Exertanium is an artificially created element developed under the leadership of physicist Franz Hopper during his period with the Carthage Project. Though precise dates are currently unknown due to the secretive nature of the project and the daunting bulk of Hopper’s diary (as yet only a few entries have been read), it is logical to suppose the discovery was made somewhere between 1974 and 1994.

PROPERTIES
Exertanium, in its ‘neutral’ state is very boring, displaying no particularly interesting characteristics except for a slight natural fluorescence. Processed into its purest state it is a dull grey metal.

However when energised the metal begins to display unusual properties. Most notably, Exertanium is the long-sought Room Temperature Superconductor – capable of conveying energy with zero energy loss, and of storing current with no applied voltage. When energised it also noticeable glows brightly, though this is from the intake and exhalation of latent energy rather than wasting current within it – energised Exertanium in a sub-zero environment would not glow at all, but if transported to the Sahara might well be seen from space!

Other superconductors in the world require extreme cold to function, and as of 2005 the only substance to come close to replicating Exertanium’s superconductivity is Mercury-thallium-barium-calcium-copper-oxide (Hg0.8Tl0.2Ba2Ca2Cu3O8.33), which superconducts at 138 K

Exertanium’s other great trick is that it makes interaction with ZPE-Space an easy task.

HOW IT IS MADE
The fact that Exertanium was never developed outside of Carthage, and testimony to the genius of Franz Hopper is that it is impossible. Though designable on paper and theoretically possible, no manufacturing techniques exist which would allow the creation of such a complex artificial element.

Hopper’s stroke of brilliance was that if one was to build a ZERO-POINT-ENGINE (or scanner) from conventional superconductors, one could ‘space-construct’ small amounts of Exertanium (small as in individual grains of powder).

This task proved slow, and daunting. Extremely high power was required to open a ZPE anomaly, and all operations had to be performed at absolute-zero (-265C), but eventually Hopper and his team were able to generate enough Exertanium to smelt, process and manufacture into a small scanner.

From this point the project became essentially self-sustaining. Using this tiny scanner, Hopper and his team were able to test some of his theories on Exertanium and its unique uses, and eventually use it to generate an entire Exertanium panel at a fraction of the cost and power required for the original engine. This in turn was used to build a larger scanner, which in turn produced even larger samples, and ad anon.

In relation to Lyoko, this same technique was used to construct most of the hardware, from the scanners to the supercomputer and the STM.

USES
Exertanium is used in almost every aspect of Lyoko. Without it the supercomputer would have none of its advanced power, and virtualisation, materialisation, posession and time-reversal would all be impossible. Indeed if the metal had never been created, Hopper and his family might have lived happily ever after, and his daughter Aelita would at this time be a young woman in her mid-twenties.

If applied to civilain life, Exertanium would revolutionise the world. It’s superconductive properties and cheapness would ensure it’s use in all electrical devices leading to massive savings in energy and cost, and it’s ZPE-interactive properties would make it an ideal candidate for use in transport, medicine, manufacturing, communications, space-exploration, video-games, almost any subject one could bring to mind!

The dark-side of the discovery though is how easily it could be perverted in miltary circles. ‘Exertanium-Weapons' could wipe communties off the maps, detonate nuclear warheads in their silos, kill a base’s personel while leaving material and reasources unharmed and easily usable. In short, a device with the potential power of a nuclear bomb, with terrifying flexibility.

To Franz Hopper therefore, the discovery of Exertanium, initially a Godsend, may increasingly have been seen as Pandora’s Box unwisely opened.

-------------------------

[TB3]

ZERO POINT ENERGY – ITS ATTRIBUTES AND USES

Zero Point Energy, also known as ZPE, is one of the more curious phenomena to arise from the relatively new field of Quantum Physics, which deals with phenomena on the atomic and sub-atomic level.

The name Zero Point Energy was coined to describe unusual electrical phenomena that were not explained by conventional physics. For example, the curious appearance of electrically charged particles in a perfect vacuum. Since this was an environment where 0.0 energy should exist, the phenomenon was termed Zero Point Energy.

Another experiment proving the existence of ZPE is the Casimir Effect, discovered in 1948 by Hendrik BG Casimir. Two metal plates with no electrical charge are placed close to each other in a vacuum, and are observed to develop interlinking electrical fields.

Quite where this energy was coming from is currently believed by conventional physicists to be an undetectable energy field. Free-thinking physicist and genius Franz Hopper however had another theory as outlined in a paper he published in 1973;

‘The Zero-Point-Energy phenomena associated with the Casimir Effect can be attributed to a reality parallel to our own composed of pure matter and energy, which I term Zero-Point-Space. This dimension, indeed universe overlays our own, and under the right circumstances an exchange of energy may take place, as the Casimir Effect demonstrates. In theory, one could build a Zero-Point-Engine to interact with Zero-Point-Space by elaborating on the Casimir Effect, thus allowing a massive extraction of energy to supplement the planet’s dwindling fossil-fuel resources.’

Zero-Point-Space, It’s Discovery and Applications, Franz Hopper, 1973

In 1973 the concept of parallel universes was deemed science-fiction as opposed to science-fact, and Hopper’s paper was mostly scoffed at. Indeed more than 30 years later it has all but been forgotten. However it seems that this document was what drew the eyes of Project Carthage’s leaders to the unappreciated Hopper.

Under the funding of Carthage and with free-reign to do as he wished Hopper soon verified his theory, though kept the discovery to within the Project, and turned his attention to the study of the properties of ZPS, some of which he later re-recorded in an early entry of his diary;

‘I soon discovered that it was impossible to freely draw energy through the Casimir Effect – aside from that minimal charge discovered in 1948 the only way one could draw energy from Zero-Point-Space was to exchange matter for an equivalent amount of energy. Much like Archimedes found with his bathtub Zero-Point-Space is full and adding further matter displaces energy into our world. Likewise one could input energy and draw through matter, and suddenly a new world of possibilities was opened to my eyes. Eureka (laughter).

One could use such a matter/energy exchange to create a 100% efficient nuclear reactor, a device capable of not only converting harmful particle emissions to electricity and deadly radiation to harmless powder, but also to destroy the vast amounts of nuclear and toxic wastes that contaminate the planet.

At the same time, the ability to exchange energy for matter raised the possibility of new manufacturing techniques and the creation of new materials previously thought impossible…’

It was through these discoveries that Hopper began to focus on creating his Zero-Point-Engine, and soon found that although the Casimir Effect was not the solution, it was the starting point;

‘Superconductive plates – placed close together or arranged in a double-helix coil formation and charged with a high amount of power – hundreds of thousands of volts – could open and maintain the desired rift between normal space, and Zero-Point-Space…’

Running with this theory, Hopper designed and brought about his other great invention – the superconductive metal Exertanium with which he built his envisioned Zero-Point-Engine, later renamed a ‘scanner’ when the concept of transferring physical objects to an artificial reality surfaced.

Along with Exertanium, ZPE is the bedrock of Lyoko’s technology – the scanners, the space-time-manipulation-device and the power-drive nestled within the supercomputer could not function without it. Further discoveries by Hopper also allowed the transmission of power, matter and data through ZPS, as exploited by XANA in his possessions, and as is used in every Return to the Past (see SAPs and TAPs).

These devices and applications however only showcase a limited amount of the potential of Hopper’s discovery – and were ZPE exploited militarily by Carthage along with Exertanium, the chances of disaster would have mountainous.

[TB3]

THE SUPERCOMPUTER

Also known as ‘The Supercalculator’, the Supercomputer is the driving force behind all of Lyoko’s functions.

The Supercomputer externally resembles a super-sized version of the supercomputers developed by Samuel Cray’s ‘Cray Research’ company between the 1970s and 1990s, the same period that Project Carthage was active. Given the curious coincidence of the dates, it is likely that the Supercomputer had it’s genesis with Project Carthage as well.

It is likely that Hopper was not at the outset involved with this project which most likely sought to create a competitor to Cray’s best supercomputers of the time, the Cray-1 (most powerful in the world 1976-1982) and Cray X-MP (most powerful 1983-1985). Cray was also at the time developing his next generation Cray-2, which ruled the market from 1985-1990.

If this is the case then no-doubt some ‘industrial espionage’ was carried out in order to ‘obtain’ blueprints and specifications of Cray’s machines in order to reverse-engineer them.

Hopper most likely became involved with the project after he invented Exertanium, and Project Carthage’s leaders realised the potential of a room-temperature-superconductor for supercomputer applications. In all the Cray machines, liquid cooling was required in order to remove the vast heat generated by the processors, but if constructed from Exertanium a supercomputer would generate near to no heat at all.

At this point, possibly around 1982/3, Hopper would have been split between his own work and the supercomputer project, explaining why development of the scanners took so long. However to Lyoko this division of labour was essential – without it Hopper, a physicist, would never have become a skilled computer technician and programmer, and could never have built the programming of Lyoko.

Cray’s pirated technology, coupled with the superconductivity of Exertanium would have produced an incredibly powerful machine, but this power was boosted still further by a stroke of genius which was probably not Hopper’s. Sometime between Hopper joining the group and his leaving the Project, the supercomputer was reconfigured as a Quantum Computer. It must be said though, if Hopper didn't think of this idea, his genius as a Qauntum Physicist probably contributed to it's sucess.

It would seem likely that when Project Carthage became focused on military applications the team developing the computer left with Hopper (who must have seen the potential of the computer for operating his Zero-Point-Engine). As for where they are now, and whether or not they helped physically construct the factory complex, remains to be seen. It also raises the question of whether Carthage retains any of their work, indeed, any of the fantastic technologies developed both by this group and Franz Hopper...

==========================

Hardware

In the Cray 1 and X-MP supercomputers the central tower of the computer housed the ‘logic-boards’ in horizontal formations – these are circuit-boards housing all the processors. The lower ring around the tower housed the cooling systems, and separate hard-drive banks were used for memory space. The Cray-2 went on to retain the tower configuration, but removed the lower ring for a larger, external cooling unit.

In some ways the Supercomputer copies the first configuration – the tower is still the actual ‘Processor’ and the lower ring contains a small cooling system, but also the hard-drives which compromise the entire complex’s memory space, as well as the Power Drive and the modems/connections that link the computer into the local netowrks, internet, phone-lines, TV recievers etc.

The processors of the Supercomputer are based on Vector-Processors. These are CPUs capable of running multiple elements simultaneously, and though not new innovations have been mostly forgotten. The majority of computers nowadays are Scalar Processor (single element processors) with some limited Vector capacity. However IBM, Toshiba and Sony have recently developed a multiple-vector CPU known as the Cell Processor, which forms the basis of the Playstation 3. As they are so similar, we will henceforth refer to the Supercomputer’s processors as Cell Processors.

Multiple Cell Processors are contained in each logic-board (how many could range from two, to a dozen, or to any reasonable number), and then hundreds of these boards are racked in vertical formations inside the tower, which contains little else but the logic-boards, the internal clocks and all the required connections. With little space given over to cooling systems and empty-space, this makes the Supercomputer Tower pound-for-pound the most powerful CPU in the world.

The multiple CPUs in each Logic-Board, and the Tower as a whole, are arranged, configured and programmed to exploit Parallel Processing – allowing multiple CPUs to tackle a single problem. This replicates the processing functions of a brain, bringing the ‘thought’ processes and structure of the supercomputer closer to that of a human-brain than to an artificial construct, with all the benefits that entails.

Each Logic-Board also contains some memory-space – this allows greater flexibility as a set portion of the computer can be assigned to specific tasks, permanently running programs which are located elsewhere. In ‘Routine’ XANA corrupted several of the logic-boards in a bank assigned to the Virtualisation/Devirtualisation process. Jeremie tried to rectify this by swapping out the logic-boards and replacing with uncorrupted ones from elsewhere in the computer. Had he been able to finish this task it would have worked, as each board is identical and the computer would have quickly reprogrammed the new boards to do the tasks of the old ones.

The other advantage of giving each board memory space is that it also allows vital or urgently-needed programs and data to be kept close to hand, speeding the recovery time should it be needed. For this to work the Tower employs a NUMA-system (Non-Uniform-Memory-Access) in all of its logic boards. Should for example, Odd have only 10 life-points left and is likely to need a sudden Devirtualisation, his data is automatically moved from the hard-drives to some of the logic-boards in preparation for a rapid upload to the scanners.

The main memory space of the computer however is located in the lower ring, and is comprised of several hundred hard-drives. In theory one could just use conventional PC hard-drives here and they would work well, but in so doing you would invoke Amdhal’s Law. Where applied to computers this states that improvements to one part of the system will only give a minimal improvement to the rest. i.e. using slower, weaker hard-drives would cancel out the amazing processing power of the CPU Tower.

In order to solve this problem, the lower ring also contains a number of logic-boards, with the Cell Processors’ functions split among the hard-drives in order to speed the upload and download of data.

The memory banks extend right around the ring, and are segmented into ‘sections’ – for example a large section is given over to the storage of Lyoko’s data, as well as sections for XANA, the monsters, the kids etc. There are also segments of memory dedicated to the scanners (where Jeremie was trapped in Fronteir), vacant space, and the infamous ‘Restricted Access’ sections where Jeremie stores Franz Hopper’s diary and all of the programs he created himself.

Finally, within each section the data is split over the hard-drives. For example, a single file could be spread over several drives in order to allow the supercomputer to have faster access to it (instead of one disc taking 10 nano-seconds to upload a single file, 10 drives could each upload a tenth of the file in the same nano-second, a tenfold reduction in time). This is called Data-Striping.

The computer however also gains speed and power from other techniques, employing Quantum Physics in areas outside of it’s programming;

The hardware, every piece of circuitry, is not based on conventional hardware – none of the circuit switching is transistor based, instead employing Rapid-Single-Flux-Quantum hardware – these do not use voltage levels to convey data, as do conventional computers – instead they use tiny electrical impulses (the smallest electrical pulses known to man as a matter of fact, the lowest Quanta of energy), effecting a massive saving in electrical consumption.

The bedrock of this technology is made up of tiny electrical devices known as Josephson Junctions are used to switch the pulses, much like transistors switch current – we will return to these devices when we move onto the scanners.

Throughout every system, from the logic boards to the hard-drives, the Josephson Junctions and all the interconnecting wires, Exertanium is used. Its superconductivity allows incredibly precise calculations to take place, and it speeds the flow of data to phenomenal levels and allows more hardware to be crammed together as the heat emissions are reduced to negligible levels.

Of course any mechanical system generates heat despite the use of Exertanium, and in the Supercomputer most of the heat generated is in the memory-banks, due to the moving parts in the hard-drives. A small internal cooling system is used to keep the temperature stable.

The affects of heat on computers is however exploited by The Supercomputer – in many supercomputers the processor often runs at a speed the rest of the system can’t keep up with – wasting power. The Supercomputer however, when not running at full speed, is held below floor-level in a tank of lukewarm water – the heat creates resistance in the Exertanium and slows the processor to efficient levels for normal operations (obviously all components are waterproof) while not raising the temperature in the memory-banks high enough to damage them or their cooling system.

================================

Software

The most note-worthy element of the Supercomputer’s programming is that it is not written in conventional computer coding.

All computer programs to-date are written in Binary, a series of 1s and 0s. These stand for ‘bits’ of data which are either ‘on’(1), or ‘off’(0). From these the computer performs all its tasks.

The Supercomputer however is the first ever ‘Quantum Computer’ – where the bits can be either on, off, or both at the same time. This phenomena is based on Quantum Physics and is known as a Qubit. Curiously, a Qubit can be in several different Quantum states at a time, and if one can assign numerical values to each state one can program a computer in Qubits rather than bits and bytes.

In short, this is what Project Carthage did – for the whole of Season 1 the computer was encoded in the numerical form 0-9 as opposed to 0-1. The increase in processing speed and power this meant was phenomenal, and ensured that two decades after first designed, the Supercomputer is the most powerful computing device made by human hands.

Moreso in fact, for in the episode ‘A Great Day’ the computer autonomously reached an unforeseen threshold – from continual number-crunching of data it gained the ability to recognise an eleventh Qubit. XANA sped this process by infecting the RTTP program and triggering off several time-wipes in order to cram as much data as possible through the CPU. Once done it would seem XANA rewrote all of the programming he could to include the new Qubit, thus condensing data in the computer and boosting overall processing power. With surplus processing power, he was finally able to possess human beings.

==============================

Processing Power

Just what kind of processing power the supercomputer can put out is questionable – developed in the 1980s on Cray technology by all rights it should be laughably low, and yet it daily handles the phenomenal data of multiple human DNA strands, as well as it’s own complex operations and those of the scanners, STM and maintaining human consciousnesses in an virtual environment, as well as supporting XANA, Lyoko and all that is contained therein.

This fantastic processing power can be attributed to all of the unusual technologies employed in the computer’s design and building upon Cray's tested and established framework, in summary the following;

Exertanium Components
Multiple-Vector or ‘Cell’ Processor CPUs
Paralell Processing
Rapid-Single-Flux-Quantum hardware and Josephson Junctions
NUMA (Non-Uniform-Memory-Access)
Data-Striping
Quantum Encoding

Your modern Personal Computer with a Penitum 4 Processor will achieve a processing power of a few Gigaflops (10 to the power of 9 ‘Floating-point Operations Per Second’). In comparison Sony’s new Playstation 3, employing a Cell Processor, has a total system performance of 218 Gigaflops.

To date, the fastest supercomputer in the world is the Blue Gene/L prototype developed by IBM. Composed of 32,768 silicon and binary-based processors it achieved a speed of 280.6 Teraflops (10 to the power of 12) on March 25th 2005. Its successor, Blue Gene, will contain 131,072 processors.

With this is mind, it is likely that the Supercomputer works at a higher rate than the Blue Gene projects, possibly pushing out of the high Teraflop range and into the hereto undreamed of Petaflop range (10 to the power of 15).

=================================

Functions

The Supercomputer is the most vital part of all the complex – one could destroy the scanners, STM and console and not do one iota of damage to Lyoko or those contained therein. In its memory banks the computer houses all of Lyoko and Carthage, XANA, Aelita for 12 years, Franz Hopper, the kids’ data and back-up files, as well as all the mundane programs needed for the operation of the complex.

The computer also runs most of the operations in Lyoko – supporting the kids, terrain, monsters etc, as well as running and supervising all scanner procedures, returns to the pasts and possessions. It is the impartial army that drives both sides of the conflict.

The computer is also mostly autonomous, capable of supporting its own functions, diagnostics etc with very little human or AI involvement. It should be noted however that neither the kids nor XANA ‘control’ the computer – it is a resource both sides have access to that they exploit if they can to get the upper-hand in their fight.

Of course the different sides can exploit this power in various ways – through the control console the kids can utilise the computer to operate external hardware – like the scanners and the STM, and some internal hardware like the restricted access memory. XANA on the other hand has influence over Lyoko, and can thus exploit the computer within that virtual realm.

Whatever goes on in their struggle the supercomputer will continue to hum and click away, constantly processing data and becoming more and more powerful, meaning a continual escalation of the conflict as the computer freely supplies memory-space and processing power to whoever needs it.

[TB3]

ZERO POINT ENGINES I. THE POWER DRIVE

Contained in the outer-ring of the supercomputer this little gem of a device is perhaps the part of the computer best described as being ‘Hopper’s’, stemming from his Zero-Point-Energy/Space research and coupled to his Exertanium discovery rather than the project to create a competitor to Cray Research's computers.

As Hopper said in his diary, with the discovery of the ZPS Matter/Energy exchange he had laid at mankind’s feet the opportunity to dispose of the harmful wastes contaminating the Earth in exchange for plentiful energy. Though this tiny reactor alone is not up to the task, it is certainly a sign of how Hopper’s inventions may one day benefit mankind instead of smiting it.

=================

Hardware

This serves as an excellent point to introduce the crucial piece of hardware required to interface with ZPS – the Exertanium Coil, which comes in two versions, ‘ambient’ and ‘focused’.

An ambient Extertanium coil resembles a tightly wound spring or DNA strand, composed actually of two coils making up a double-helix. When installed correctly these coils draw on the Casimir effect and if energised emit what is known as a ZPE-Field, weakening the ‘boundaries’ between normal space and ZPS. Enough ambient coils in close proximity would elevate the area covered by their interacting fields to ZPS level.

A focused coil, is identical to the ambient model with one alteration – an Exertanium filament is inserted down the open space at the centre of the coil, much like the element from an electromagnet. Unlike the magnet however, this focuses the ZPE-Field into a powerful, atom-thick beam that projects from both ends of the magnet. Two of these beams converging open a tiny ZPS rift at their point of convergence.

The Power Drive makes use of both coils, in a configuration similar to this schematic;

POWER DRIVE SCHEMATIC (NOT TO SCALE)

\\= SHEILDING
A = AMBIENT COILS
F = FOCUSED COILS
R = REACTOR CHAMBER

SIDE ELEVATION
----------l
----------l
----------l-----------\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
----------l---_____\\l___A__l__A___l__A___l__A___l__A__l__A__l\\
----------l\\l___F___l-------------------RRRRRR-------------------------l\\
----------l\\l___F___l-------------------RRRRRR-------------------------l\\
----------l\\l___F___l-------------------RRRRRR-------------------------l\\
----------l\\l___F___l-------------------RRRRRR-------------------------l\\
----------l\\l___F___l___________________________________----l\\
----------l---------\\l__A__l__A___l__A___l___A__l__A___l__A__l\\
----------l-----------\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
----------l
----------l

FRONTAL/BACK ELEVATION
-------_______
------/OOOOO\
----/OOOOOOO\
--/OO---------OO\
lOO-------------OOl
lOO-------------OOl (Where the outer ring represents Ambient Coils)
lOO-------------OOl (And the inner ring represents Focused Coils)
--\OO---------OO/
----\OOOOOOO/
------\OOOOO/

The best way of explaining this configuration is that the reactor chamber consists of a hollow Exertanium cylinder, sealed at one end with rings of ambient coils surrounding the cylinder, all horizontally orientated. Wrapped around these in turn is a layer of shielding to contain their ZPE-Fields to the unit.

At one end of the chamber is a cap shaped like a ring doughnut consisting of multiple focused coils aimed into the reactor chamber and shielded at the outside end to block ZPE Field-beams.

The entire unit is then inserted longitudinally into the side of the computer’s lower ring and the fuel-rod inserted.

===============================

Operation

This model of ZPE-Engine is as said, a Nuclear Battery, designed to convert the harmful physical emissions of nuclear material into usable energy. These emissions are known as Alpha and Beta particles.

To bring the battery online, the system first needs to be jump-started using an external power-source. The electricity is used to bring all the Exertanium coils, both ambient and focused, online.

The ambient coils begin to emit ZPE-Fields in all directions, but due to their shielding these fields are contained to the reactor chamber. Working at nominal levels, the ambient coils thus reduce the ZPS/Reality boundaries in the chamber to almost non-existence. The chamber could thus be said to be multi-dimensional, with one foot in our universe and another in ZPS.

At this point the focused coils come into play. By firing focused ZPE-fields continuously into the chamber they create a barrier around the fuel-rod, and due to the actions of the ambient coils, this barrier actually becomes a doorway both into and out of ZPS.

Thus, any matter emitted from the fuel-rod will pass into ZPS and displace an equal amount of energy out the other side. This energy conducts into the Exertanium lining of the chamber and is then channelled away to power the complex, as shown below;

l------------::::-ZPS-::::
l ~~~~~~::::-ZPS-::::---<-o---<-o---<-o------O
l------------::::-ZPS-::::

The exact amount of energy released per particle is calculated in Einstein’s most famous equation, E=mc(squared), or in English, Energy Released = Mass x The speed of light squared.

===========================

Fuel

In theory the Power Drive could handle a fuel-sample from any radioactive material imaginable, from the luminous fluid in a digital watch to weapons-grade plutonium. However the more dangerous the material becomes, the more stringent safety measures become.

In the case of the factory’s Nuclear Battery though the fuel is an isotope of Uranium known as Lead 210 – conventionally this is used in scientific laboratories. It is this fuel rod of Lead 210 that is reffered to as the 'Nuclear Battery.'

DIAGRAM OF A LEAD 210 NUCLEAR BATTERY

F=Fuel Rod
P=Plexiglas sleath
SS=Seam

-------__S_____________P___________________
//===l--l---l---------------------------------l--------l
ll------l--l==l========F========l---l--------l METAL BASE
ll------l--l==l========F========l---l--------l AND PLEXIGLAS
ll------l--l==l========F========l---l--------l UNSCREW
\\===l__l__l___________P___________l______l
---------S

Lead 210 is produced during the mining of Uranium and emits only Beta-particles over a 100 year period, though its half-life is 22 years. This low radioactivity level brings an advantage in that it can be handled casually and one only needs to wear a radiation suit when reloading the system in case of breakage of the fuel-rod or contamination from the reactor chamber.

The fuel-rods used in the factory complex though are a concentrated fluid of Lead 210 particles, and also a small amount of green luminescent liquid. This allows for a constant and strong source of Beta-particles. The green liquid also emits light based on the strength of the Beta-emissions as a visual guide of the potency. This fluid is contained in a Plexiglas cylinder which acts as shielding – when inserted into the reactor chamber a magnetic clamp removes the Plexiglas allowing the emission of Beta-particles.

Quite where Hopper obtained this radioactive material from is unknown, but it was possibly provided for him during his tenure with Project Carthage. As seen in ‘Common Interest’ the nuclear power-plant near to Kadic still manufactures these rods for shipment elsewhere. During this episode XANA hijacked a small armed convoy delivering four of the Lead 210 rods, as the factory’s own fuel-rod had been depleted (assuming Hopper received his fuel rod sometime in the 1970s, its half-life would have expired long before 2006 and so it was only a matter of time before it ran flat).

================================

Support Systems

The Power-Drive is almost in near permanent operation, continuously supplying the power requirements of all the high-end gear contained in the factory. There are however a few other systems linked into it in case of a crisis.

Both systems can be found on a level between the Scanner and Supercomputer rooms called the Ancillaries level, and the first is the diesel generator used to prime the system before it can be turned on – when the computer began to loose power in ‘Common Interest’ this generator would have chugged into life automatically in order to keep the system primed and ready for a restart and also to power some of the complex systems – the elevator and the lights for example.

The second is a large bank of capacitors also held in the Ancillaries level – these are constantly in action storing charge for moments when a sudden flood of energy is required – triggering an RTTP or a Virtualisation/Devitalisation cycle (as well as storing the energy released by the virtualisation of a body in the scanners) – some of these capacitors however are dedicated to an emergency situation. Much like on some models of PCs, should power fail in the supercomputer these capacitors kick in and keep the memory banks and CPU ticking over long enough to save all active data and prevent the loss of anything vital.

===========================

Design Limitations

Now refuelled and running at full steam the Power Drive should continue to efficiently power the factory complex for another 20-30 years. This design of Zero-Point-Engine however does not fulfil all of Hopper’s dreams.

Were a different fuel-source to be used to Lead 210 (for example Plutonium), the Gamma radiation emitted by the fuel-rod would not be converted to energy, as it itself is an energy wave. Instead it would convert to harmless powder and gather in the bottom of the reactor chamber, effectively wasting it's potentital energy.

A redesigned Power Drive however would be able to convert this solid matter to energy, along with the conversion of other waste material – from un-recyclable household wastes to toxic chemicals and expired nuclear fuel-rods.

Even other materials can be used for the matter/energy exchange – imagine a portable Power Drive delivered to a small African village which has no electricity – a simple bucket-load of sand a day would provide enough clean electricity to power the community.

Hopefully this is one invention of Hopper’s that can soon be released safely to the world, as it would both help save our ecosystem and also solve mankind’s escalating energy needs.

[TB3]

ZERO-POINT-ENGINES II – THE SCANNERS

The second type of ‘Zero-Point-Engine’ used in the factory complex, and certainly the best known, are the scanners.


The Scanners


HARDWARE
The scanners are each vertical chambers, about eight/nine feet high and two/three feet in diameter. Like ships, they have a multiple-hull construction, or three skins with tiny gaps in between (tiny as in measured in milimeters). The inner gap is filled with microscopic ambient Exertanium coils, and the outer gap is an area of empty-space for the doors to retract into, and also to put data and power transmission lines, as well as the moderate cooling system;

CROSS SECTION OF A SCANNER WALL

Where;
|| = walls
|-| = empty space
// = coils

||-||
||-||//||
||-||//||
||-||//||
||-||//||
||-||//||
||-||//||
||-||

The two outer walls act as shielding to contain the ZPE-Fields, and are thus composed of heavy metals and not Exertanium – though in certain lighting conditions they might appear to have the same rich glow, this is actually light emitting from the other scanners, as the screenshot below shows. The same goes for the walls of the scanner room itself. The shot also shows that the inner walls and floors of each scanner are composed of pure, seamless panels of Exertanium.



The ‘scanning’ ability of a scanner, which other ZPEngines do not possess, is derived from an Hopperian take on two pre-existing technologys;

SQUIDS


A simple diagram of a SQUID, showing the Josephson Junctions at X and W.. Look familiar?

SQUID is an anacronym for Superconduction Quatum Interferance Device – their function in conventional physics is to detect extremely small magnetic fields.

As the diagram shows, a Squid is simply a loop of superconductor interspaced with Josephson Junctions. Magnetic fields passing through the loop cause a fluctuation in the superconductors, which is picked up by a measuring device attatched to the SQUID.

This is an AC (Alternating Current) SQUID, which possesses only two junctions and consequently has limited sensitivity. The scanners however utilise DC (Direct Current) SQUIDS that have multiple junctions and so have a far higher degree of sensitivity. Couple this to the perfect superconductive properties of Exertanium and you quickly produce a SQUID unit capable of detecting the infinitesimal electrical charges of individual atoms and the signals of a human brain.

COMPUTER TOMOGRAPHY SCANNING



Though the name sounds exotic and complex, most of us are familiar with Computer Tomography Scans, also known as CAT Scans.

In brief CT scans serve as highly advanced X-Rays of the human body. The concept is simple – the body to be scanned is inserted into a chamber where an X-Ray projector orbits the body projecting low-level radiation in a fan-shape – this is picked up by detectors on the opposite side of the body and by comparing fluctions in the energy levels, constructing a 2D ‘slice’ of that body. Enough slices can be composited together into a 3D model of the human body.


A 2D CAT-Scan of a human brain


The scanners combine both of these concepts into a single core ‘unit’ – the scanner ring.


The Scanner-Ring

(It must be noted that in the show the scanner ring itself has changed shape a few times, but we’ll put this down as a continuality error – the same with the fact that sometimes the kids levitate and spin inside the scanners, other-times the floor rises and physically rotates them).

The scanner ring itself is a very versatile unit, being a CT-Scan unit, a Zero-Point-Generator, and a hyper-SQUID.

It’s made up of multiple layers of tiny nano-devices, consisting of a focused ZPE-coil, with a DC-SQUID fitted over the protruding armature;

=////=ll=

As mounted in the ring, the coil (on the left), is to the outside and the SQUID is to the inside. In this formation millions of units compose the ring, like spokes on a bike wheel. Like a wheel, the ring can also rotate.

The ring can also move vertically in the chamber, and though not in contact with the walls the gap between them is small enough to be crossed by electrical pulses, allowing the conveyance of data and power.

In screenshots of the scanner ring we have to assume that for the camera to take that angle part of the scanner wall has been removed.

The walls of the scanners themselves also have a limited scanning ability – after all being a cylinder composed of superconductive metal they ARE a gigantic SQUID.

SUPPORT SYSTEMS
In order to operate, the scanners possess their own CPUs, which are located in the caps on top of each chamber and control the operations of the scanner. They function as smaller models of the supercomputer processors, with Cell Processors, Quantum Hardware and encoding. They are not wholly autonomous however as each of the CPUs is slaved to the supercomputer, but with all commands and data-feeds routed through the Control Console as a security feature.

One problem that arises with this is the roundabout route that data from the scanners takes to reach the computer and vice versa – from the scanners, up the stalk to the control console, back down the stalk, through the scanners and finally down through Ancillaries to the supercomputer.

Virtualisation data is not affected – the scanner CPUs, operating at a high process rate upload the data to the supercomputer quickly. However on the return trip the faster supercomputer is feeding back data faster than the scanners can process it – coupled with the long run of wires this creates a bottle-neck effect.

The solution is that the scanners share an isolated area of memory-space in the supercomputer – data on the return trip is briefly held in this buffer-space and then the scanners download it at their own leisure – hence why a devirtualisation takes longer than a virtualisation. It was in this memory-space that Jeremie got trapped once.

The scanners also have a vast capacitor bank in the Ancilaries level. These will be discussed later but suffice to say the energy generated by a virtualisation is stored here in anticipation of the return trip in order to save on overall power-consumption.

VIRTUALISATION:

While posing as Franz Hopper, XANA stated that the process of virtualising a human being was extremely dangerous. While lying at the time on the issue of cellular degeneration, he is still correct in his implication.

The purpose of a scanner is two-fold. One, to make an molecule-accurate scan of a body and covert that to quantum coding. Two, to destroy the original body. Therefore anyone who enters into a scanner runs the risk of permanent alterations to their body should their data be damaged during or after the transfer.

That said, the process is designed to be as safe as possible – employing numerous failsafes to try and ensure corrct encoding of physical data. Since this is a multiple stage process, let’s analyse them individually.

(Note: This section is devoted to the physical operations of the scanners during the Virtualisation process – for details of the actual data handling and program aspects, see ‘Processes’)

FIRST STAGE – TRANSFER!

This ‘New Order’ screencap shows the elevation of the chamber to near ZPS

This is the initial stage of the virtualisation process. First the scanner doors seal, isolating the chamber. Jeremie then begins the actual program, declaring ‘Transfer’ as the unit activates. From here on, the program runs nearly autonomously, Jeremie only having to enter PROCEED/ABORT commands at the various stages..

First, like in the Power-Drive, the ambient coils in the wall elevate the chamber to a level of existence near equal to ZPS, thus allowing the finer work of the focused coils. The elevation process has a visible effect in that white flecks flood the chamber as the various energy levels are passed. These are actually fleeting glimpses into ZPS, but not actual ‘rips’ between realities.

Once the process is complete, the power levels stabilise and the air clears. The chamber and its subject are now in a ‘multidimensional’ state, in a quantum position of being located in both reality and ZPS.

The scanning process can now begin.

SECOND STAGE – SCANNER!

The SQUIDS and CT scans pool their data and upload them to the supercomputer.

First the scanner confirms that it is processing the correct person – using their capacity as a giant SQUID the scanner walls make a quick scan of the subject’s energy fields and match them to the individual transfer protocols and the subject’s stored back-up profile. Satisfied it begins to levitate and rotate the subject using Exertanium electromagnets in the floor-panels (superconductors generate a perfect magnetic field and thus can levitate near anything).

At the same time the scanner ring descends from the roof of the chamber on it’s own magnetic fields and makes a thorough analysis. Several circles of coils on the ring fire a weak ZPE-beam, which passes through the subject and is detected by the SQUIDS on the opposite side. By monitoring energy fluctuations a hyper-accurate CT scan of the body is achieved.

At the same time the remaining SQUIDs monitor the electrical fields projected by the subject, extrapolating molecular data to supplement the CT scan, and crucially to copy brain activity.

This data is uploaded in ‘real-time’ to the supercomputer and once Jeremie confirms it he triggers the final stage.

THIRD STAGE – VIRTUALISATION!

The point of no return – the point where the body is destroyed.

The scanner ring, now at the bottom of the chamber, reverses direction and switches all of its coils into high-power mode. As millions of powerful ZPE beams intersect the ring takes on the appearance of the Stargate, a portal into ZPS, and quickly it sucks the subject in, ripping the atoms apart and exchanging them for a vast energy discharge, which quickly is sent to the capacitors.

Quite why the scanner destroys the body is questionable – with some modification it would be possible to keep the body intact with the consciousness contained within it, but connected to Lyoko, much like the procedure utilised by cyber-warriors in the Matrix Trilogy. This would be considerably safer than the current process.

However, this would limit the scanner’s capacity, as they would be unable to process more than one person each – external operators would not be able to add extra users without removing the body from the scanners and ripping the mind from Lyoko. The process of destroying the body allows for multiple users to go through the same unit, crucial for the team now that they have a 4th member in the form of Aelita.

Also, we should recall that Hopper desired for Lyoko to be a sanctuary for himself and his daughter. By destroying their bodies and removing the consciousness to Lyoko he removed the threat of his pursuers discovering the complex and simply removing him and Aelita from the scanners. From inside Lyoko however they could remain safe, and use their ‘keys’ to prevent external tampering with the system. XANA however intervened…

The other downside to destroying the body is the delay between the upload of data to the computer and the point of virtualisation - XANA has been able to exploit this twice in ‘St. Valentine’s Day’ and ‘Revelation.’

In the first, he had possessed Aelita using an external device – a necklace. However this should not have continued to affect her while on Lyoko (for info on bio and non-bio data handling see Proceedures). The only other option would be that the necklace outputted a data-string which was picked up by the scanners and incorporated into Aelita’s data.

Had this extra data been outputted during the ‘transfer’ stage the computer would have picked it up and Jeremie could have halted the process. XANA however waited for the gap between Jeremie’s final ‘go’ command (virtualisation!) and the body’s destruction. At that point the necklace added the extra data via the scanners and the computer picked it up, but at this point was committed to finishing the procedure.

A variation on this also happened in ‘Revelation’ – XANA had created a polymorphic clone of Odd, but had the clone’s mind differed from Odd’s in any large way the scanners would have refused to accept him. Therefore the clone initially mimicked Odd closely (albeit with a bit of a temper), and once the final command had been given, the clone outputted another data-stream connecting it to XANA within Lyoko. Again the bug was picked up but the process was unstoppable.

MATERIALISATION:

(This covers the physical operation of the devirtualisation/materialisation process – for data-handling please read ‘Proceedures’)

Unlike the Virtualisation process, the Devirtualisation procedure is a lot less glamorous and thus is covered in a lot less detail. However from it we can deduce some elements of the scanner’s operation.

Firstly, data is send from the supercomputer and held briefly in the buffer folder, where it is split into segments.

The ambient coils of the scanners come online and ‘elevate’ the chamber to ZPS level. Possibly if the scanner has recently transferred a person to Lyoko these do not turn off after a virtualisation but are held in a state of instant readiness.


A screenshot showing Yumi’s data being transferred

The data is now streamed in ‘real-time’ from the buffer folder to the scanners. The scanner’s CPU converts this to a molecular pattern and this is uploaded to the scanner ring, which makes a slow pass through the chamber, firing billions of finely calculated ZPE beams off every second. Where these collide a tiny ZPE breach is opened and an atom falls through. In this manner a body is built in seconds. Most of the power for this stage is actually that released in the virtualisation and stored in the capacitors.

Once completed the scanner ring makes a quick pass and confirms that no aberrations have crept in and that the body confirms to what it should be, and then returns to the roof. Through this last stage the chamber has been kept in a primed and readied state should any mistakes need to be corrected, and thus a small amount of energy bleeds into ZPE space and is exchanged for matter. Though not harmful to the subject, once the scanner shuts down this matter is expelled through from the scanner as a cloud of vapour, along with some steam from the cooling systems which come into play during high-power operations.


Not Again! The immediate aftermath of a forced devirtualisation – showing both the retrieved subject and the waste matter and steam expelled by the scanner

In the case of a materialisation the same process is followed as shown in a devirtualisation, as has been seen several times in the show. One of the more interesting cases however was in ‘A Bad Turn’ where XANA materialised a trio of Krabbes. The procedure went through as normal, but once materialised the Krabbes destroyed the scanners as they ‘left’. The reason as to how they fitted into the scanner at all can possibly be attributed to the ‘multidimensional’ properties of the activated scanner, but once the device shut down and doors opened the space would have quickly become single-dimensional around the Krabbes and affairs came down to the case of who had the stronger construction.


A Krabbe emerging from a scanner – note the obvious size difference!


And the immediate results! This shot nicely shows the multiple hulls of several of the scanner sections

CONCLUSION
As this chapter shows, the scanners are very involved and complex machines, but they have even more possible applications than the power-drive. For example, electricity could be converted to water and food to save the Third-World, and as shown in the show, a simple trip through the scanners heals injuries such as damaged limbs (this must be how Jeremie’s sprained ankle was healed between ‘Code Earth’ and ‘False Start’) and hypothermia (Cold War), so the medicinal applications are also phenomenal. People with terminal diseases could also be scanned into a virtual environment until a cure is found, or people who have overdosed on alcohol or drugs could have them purged from their bodies.

Manufacturing applications also apply, as do transportation (one could be ‘teleported’ thousands of miles from one scanner to another), and security (if applied in an airport it would be impossible to conceal devices such as explosives, weapons or Kiwi in luggage).

However the dark-side of these applications exist as well. Forgery for example – the scanners could function as the perfect device for replicating vast sums of money, illegal substances or provide militaristic nations with an infinite supply of weapons.

If any device shows just how much Franz Hopper opened Pandora’s box with his inventions, it is the scanners – all we can trust in is the Hope released from that same box, in this case hope that humanity can someday use these discoveries for good, and not turn them to evil.


END OF ENTRY

[TB3]

ZERO-POINT-ENGINES III - THE SPACE-TIME-MANIPULATOR

[i][b]“I wanted to destroy the supercomputer, and destroy all the evidence of my activities. That’s when I discovered one of its fascinating properties – Returning to the Past. It gave me all the time I could possibly need to perfect my great project, the only thing that would allow me to escape from my enemies.

It took several days to make the physical modifications to the scanners and write the software to allow the supercomputer to return my consciousness to the past. During that time I worked in constant fear of being discovered, but I succeeded in jumping back a few days.

Much as this discovery saved me however I could not go on hotwiring the scanners to do something they were never designed for, the risk of overloading and loosing them was far too high – I made a few more jumps with it while I designed and prepared virtual blueprints, and then I constructed my dedicated unit, my ‘time-machine.’

My, Space-Time-Manipulatorâ€

[TB3]

THE CONTROL CONSOLE

As a recruitment campaign for the Royal Air Force states – ‘A Tornado fighter is one of the most advanced aircraft on the planet – without qualified pilots it might as well be an model kit’ – likewise all of the Ile. Seguin complex, with it’s science-fiction-esque capabilities, is nothing more than wires and circuits without a user interface.

The control console IS that interface, and equally importantly it was from the console that Lyoko, XANA, the team’s avatars and vehicals etc were designed and executed. If the supercomputer is the heart that beats at the centre of the complex, the console is the mind.

HARDWARE


The control console itself is unremarkable – a standard QUERTY* keyboard attached to four LCD screens. The keyboard does frequently appear to change shape, however this can be attributed to ‘flopping’, or ‘reversing’ of the image (such as the one above where the keyboard is clearly a reverse of a conventional keyboard).

The LCD screens and the keyboard compose the entire user interface, aside from a Compact Disc drive mounted in the central monitor.

However the entire console is also attatched to a robotic aramature suspended from a circular track in the ceiling – coupled with the moveable track the control sea is mounted on these allow the user to rotate himself around the holosphere to get a clear view of any particular region of Lyoko, as shown below.



This image also shows the unusual girth of the aramature given the low weight of the unit it is supporting – and also the large number of electrical cables joining with it – therefore it makes sense that this armature also contains the processors and hard-drives for the console.

These components are most likely similar to the units in the scanners and STM and function as the nerve-centre of the console, as we will now see;

FUNCTION
When the factory complex was built, either by design or chance the Console became the hub – as this (crude) diagram shows;



As this shows the Console is the point from which all commands original, and also a point through which all data is routed, aside from a direct link from the supercomputer to the scanner.

The practical upshot to this is that the console retains control over the scanners and STM, preventing XANA from taking control of these without some considerable forethought and an involved attack.

What is most likely is that during construction Franz became worried of the possibility of the scanners and STM being hacked by external forces penetrating the supercomputer via its modems, and remodelled the system to remove direct control of these units from the supercomputer. There are also firewalls and other physical and programming inhibitors to prevent the supercomputer gaining command of the console.

This does however make some procedures rather involved, for example;

VIRTUALISATION
Jeremie sends commands for the scanner and supercomputer to begin procedures. Data streams from the scanner, to the console and then to the supercomputer. The inverse occurs with a devirt or materialisation.

RTTP
Commands are sent to the STM and supercomputer, and data streams from one to the other via the console.

On some occasions though XANA has been able to access the console, whether by direct hacking or virus implantation – this has occurred in FALSE START, A BAD TURN and notably A GREAT DAY.

What is most likely to have occurred in the episodes where XANA materialized a new body is that he bypassed the console altogether, hacking the scanners through the data feeds to assume command.

In A Great Day however XANA’s attack required the use of the console – and this he achieved via a booby-trap in some data Jeremie downloaded to the console.

This boody-trap was a ‘root-kit’, a program which created a link through the command lines to the supercomputer, and then reversed the flow, allowing the supercomputer to control the console and indirectly the STM.

XANA also attempted similar approaches in TIP-TOP-SHAPE and REVOLUTION – by wresting control of a program operated from the console he can (with some effort), reverse the command flow and take control.

PROGRAMMING
The console can also be used to operate and modify systems in Lyoko, as well as add new data as seen in Marabounta – however it is likely that Jeremie does not have programmer’s access to Lyoko, otherwise he could have targeted XANA’s core and deleted him.

What Jeremie can do however is write new programs, such as the transfer protocols, materilisation program, the team’s attribute-packs, the vehicles, Marabounta etc. These are held in the ‘restricted’ access memory in the supercomputer, and run from there via the console. This also explains why sometimes a lack of ‘machine reasources’ can sometimes hinder operations – an overload of the console preventing more programs being run.

CONCLUSION
In operation the console is much like the launch-keys on nuclear submarines – it restricts control to certain individuals because without it, the complex cannot be run, the weapon cannot be launched.

It is the console that serves as the kids trump-card in their fight with XANA – by controlling it they also control systems outside of the supercomputer, as well as some of its internal functions – XANA on the other-hand only has control of internal systems and thus has dominance there, as well as using the supercomputer’s modems to create spectres.

And if Franz, during construction, had not thought of making the console the network hub, and just an interface and monitor like on a conventional computer, then XANA would have dominated humanity years ago.



END OF ENTRY

[TB3]

PROCEDURES I: SAPS AND TAPS

As was highlighted earlier in the chapter dealing with Zero-Point-Space, electrical impulses in reality can cause a distortion in ZPS. Such a phenomena must have been a fantastic enticement to Franz to further examine the physics of the universe he had discovered, until he made the following deduction;

‘Once again a whole new door had been opened to me – much like how two black-holes can theoretically connect to form a wormhole bypassing the laws of the Space-Time-Continuum, two rifts in ZPS could be joined to form a passageway – one of zero internal length, but spanning a potentially infinite distance.

The key as I found was to ‘extend’ the unique electro-magnetic disturbances caused by a ZPS rift – and the distortions caused by external electrical forces proved the key. By manipulating electrical charges in reality that existed in the same environs as a rift, one could cause the rift to grow and expand in any direction within ZPS – much like forming an intricate glass ornament by carefully blowing into heated glass.’

In short, hopper found that if a highly charged electrical impulse passed a ZPS rift, the distortions left in its wake became an extension to the rift.

This diagram illustrates the effect. Here we have a ZPS rift opening through from reality on the left, to ZPS on the right.
|
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|

In reality a high-powered electrical impulses passes the rift.
--------------------------------->
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As the impulses passes it leaves a distortion in ZPS.
===========================>
|
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And the distortion and the rift merge.
=/////==========================>
|/////
|////
|///
|//
|/

Therefore as long as the distortion exists the rift will grow along it. But if the electrical impulse fades out, then the distortion ends and opens out into another rift back into reality.

---------------------------| End of impulse

===============| End of distortion and entry point into reality.

Hopper at first referred to this phenomena as ‘my wormhole’, but in order to prevent confusion with the ‘classical’ wormhole caused by the connection of two black holes, he devised another name.

Spatial
Anomaly
Passageway

Hopper quite quickly learned how to manipulate and guide his SAP, and also how to close one he’d opened.

Closure was simple – a large energy discharge in the vicinity of the original rift sunders the link and the entire SAP collapses.

Guiding it was more problematic, because since there is no resistance in ZPS the distortion caused by electrical impulses can accelerate ahead of the impulse itself! Hopper however was able to turn this to his advantage, as he could thus project an SAP to areas with no electrical wires to carry his impulse – outer space, the bottom of the sea, the inside of a human mind etc.

SAPs are also interesting in that their entry-exit points are two separate rifts, therefore they negate the matter/energy exchange rule of ZPS – matter can enter one end and emerge the other in it’s original form, and the same with energy.

Franz also had a later brainwave on how to create a unique SAP that moved in time rather than in space – a TAP or Temporal Anomaly Passageway.

This is so-far limited to only reverse trips in time, though a TAP moving forwards in time may be possible with extensive work and planning – this could be achieved by having an impulse constantly in motion, circumnavigating the planet and when the impulse stopped the resulting SAP would stretch from the point and time of origin to wherever and whenever it stopped - data could pass through and arrive in the future and vice versa (thus this SAP becomes a TAP in name if not in substance) – the power drain however would be phenomenal and multiple things could go wrong in the years the SAP spends travelling randomly to nowhere.

SAP GENERATION
SAPs originate from the factory’s modems as discussed above, however there have been two means to date of achieving them. For now we shall refer to these as LEGAL and ILLEGAL.

A Legal SAP is where the computer has been instructed to generate one – this occurs on a frequent basis, mostly as an automated function of the RTTP feeding memories to target minds, and of course to monitor those minds.

In these cases the computer simply releases a large impulse of power from the capacitors, and then guides that charge to the modems where the high voltages and Exertanium wires create a ZPS Rift through the Hopper-Casimir effect. The impulse is then directed into external networks through another SAP, building it’s own behind it (thus creating an SAP within a SAP), and guided by the computer to the desired exit point. When the distortion, accelerating ahead, reaches the exit point the impulse is split into multiple smaller charges, the distortion collapses and the exit point opens.

All of this is automated, the computer simply being told where the exit point needs to be, and at some point Franz probably possessed the command codes to create SAPs freely – those codes however are lost and the only other means of taking full control of the supercomputer – the keys to Lyoko – are currently divided in two.

Thus, whenever an SAP is needed by a user and not as part of an automated program, illicit means are needed to create one. This is mostly done by XANA and once by Jeremie.

A small signal is sent by the user from the computer into external networks, and then flies through those networks leeching power. When enough power has been drained from these networks the impulse is directed back to the modems by the user and then BAM(!) a rift opens, and just like a legal SAP it is guided to the exit point by the same impulse that created it.

SAP APPLICATIONS

The SAPs are invaluable, both for good and evil purposes – and we’ll now cover their three most seen functions – monitoring, their role in the RTTP, and spectre generation.

MONITORING
Of course saying that this is a ‘most seen’ function is moot as it’s a quiet function that rattles on behind the scenes, though occasionally signs can be seen of it in action.

In short this is what age portion of the modems are constantly doing – while others hack mobile phone networks and the internet, a large number just monitor ZPS.

To achieve this a rift is opened inside the modem with no SAP connecting it to an exit point – the modems then monitor the fluctuations of ZPS in the vicinity of the factory and then all that data is run through a set of extremely complicated algorithms, filters and processes which separate and isolate all the electrical signals in the Billancourt area which push and pull at ZPS.

This might not sound particularly useful but when all that data is complied into a model it allows the supercomputer to build a virtual model of the area around it, and Jeremie has been seen using this multiple times like a combination map and sensor array to track XANA’s activity in the real world.


This screenshot nicely shows the model on the right hand screen – with focus on Billancourt (bottom), and a plan of the nuclear power plant (middle). Also noticeable is the hacking of a local cell network as evidenced by Ulrich’s com-screen.

Other applications of this model are to home in on telecommunication signals in the area which the computer can hack – allowing a constant stream of intel for XANA and Jeremie and learning material for Aelita in Season One.

Security also plays a part – the model serves like a motion-sensor coupled to security cameras, alerting Jeremie as to when someone enters the factory facility, the sewer tunnel and it would seem, the grounds of the Hermitage.

Another application of course is to help support the other SAPs – large electrical disturbances in reality could damage or destroy SAPs in the area with negative outcomes, and so the computer uses the model to monitor for ‘hot-spots’ where disturbances are likely – one major hot-spot is the nuclear plant, where the voltages in the generators and transformers are very extreme, thus why the plant often appears on Jeremie’s screen as the screenshots above and below show.


Another example showing the nuclear plant and Billancourt close-ups

The last monitoring aspect of the computer is to keep an eye on activated programs that intrude into reality and also those that interact with it – by isolating individual neural webs it can thus tag and keep track of all who interact with such a program, and this comes in handy with the RTTP.

These monitoring capabilities when added together make a formidable spying-tool. Quite what range the modems possess though is unknown. Judging from the image of a globe frequently seen on screen though, it would seem the modems can monitor any position on Earth. It is unlikely though that they continually monitor every square inch on the planet though, merely that Jeremie could shift the focus if he wanted to. Since this globe image is also seen when an RTTP is triggered it seems the computer makes a global scan for ‘tagged’ individuals. This is backed-up by a line of on-screen coding referring to the RTTP and a ‘Global Scan.’


The Global Scan

RETURNING TO THE PAST
It has already been covered how the STM generates a TAP, but SAPs play a large role as well.

Firstly it is through the SAPs that memories of people outside of the supercomputer are obtained – at the point where Jeremie begins the actual RTTP through the SAPs a ‘snapshot’ is taken of the neural patterns of all tagged humans (it is likely that non-humans like Kiwi and zombified Odd/Jim etc are not included) – at this point the global scan takes place to locate all those neural-webs.

It is the data from these snapshots that is sent back to the past via RTTP, and then when those arrive in the computer they are directed into the minds of the appropriate individuals via SAPs which are generated briefly and then closed.

One instance where this went wrong though was in ‘Ghost Channel’, where XANA bugged the data in the future so that when they arrived in the past via TAP the minds and memories of Odd, Ulrich and Yumi were diverted to a holding-pen on Lyoko.

However because the automated program had been duped by XANA, the SAPs to their past-bodies were still generated and because no data was coming through, malfunctioned and sucked their bodies into ZPE space much like a scanner would, destroying them in the process.

This episode also raises some interesting thoughts as to how the RTTP functions – only Jeremie noticed that Yumi, Ulrich and Odd had vanished – no-one else reacted so clearly they did not simply ‘vanish.’

It seems likely (taking this into account) that the RTTP implants memories several hours before Jeremie’s entered coordinates, possibly compensating for a period of time where the new neural patterns integrate into the pre-existing ones – therefore Ulrich, Yumi and Odd’s bodies were probably destroyed hours beforehand and never arrived at class – Jeremie at the time might have been worried but it would only be after his memories realigned that he panicked, since he now possesses two conflicting memories – one where the guys were at class, one where they were not.

SPECTRE GENERATION
Spectres are multifunctional devices, capable of possessing humans, controlling mechanical and electrical devices and forming new constructs such as Polymorphic Clones.

They are all however comprised of the same thing, atomic nano-machines known as ‘routers’, which are constructed in the following method;

First, XANA or Jeremie must illegally create an SAP – which travels to it’s destination and then opens – the split segments of the impulse used to guide the SAP meanwhile return to the modem and recombine into another large charge, which is used to create an ZPS rift literally on top of the SAP entry point.

Thus a set-up like this is created.

---|---|===================|

From left to right, ZPS rift, entry point, SAP, exit point.

Now XANA can feed the remnants of the impulse (supplemented with further small impulses) into the first rift, which it is exchanged for matter – by controlling that exchange XANA builds millions of his router machines, which then stream down the SAP and emerge at the exit point as an amorphous mass known as a spectre.


Having looped through this alarm clock to create an SAP, the impulse returns to the factory, creates a rift, is converted into routers and returns to the clock to emerge as a spectre

CONCLUSION
As can be seen the SAP is a simple concept, but it’s applications are many and varied. However the ability to use them to their full potential has been removed from the hands of both the kids and XANA, though he has still found a way to exploit the concept. Hopefully the kids themselves will soon be able to use these systems to even the battle-ground.

Outside of their conflict, SAPs have numerous uses, not just in espionage and military fields but also in scientific research, communication and the supply of electricity, water and other supplies over great distances without needing to build powerlines, pipes etc. to convey them.




END OF ENTRY

[TB3]

POSSESSION & PIXELISATION



The mechanics of creating a spectre have already been covered, and this chapter aims to cover the various uses of those spectres.

ROUTERS
Referred to by the characters as ‘pixels’, routers are the components of a spectre. Each router is in short a device the size of a few atoms, and basically is an inert sphere of Exertanium with a tiny SAP to the computer contained in a hollow compartment in the centre.

O
A router in cross-section

Through these SAPs the routers can receive and transmit data and power to and from the computer, and when a large number of routers coalesce together they form weak electromagnetic bonds and become an amorphous blob – a spectre.

(It should be noted that spectres can condense and gain a solid presence – one handled a lightbulb in ‘Attack of the Zombies’ and another blocked Jeremie’s air-passageway in ‘Franz Hopper’)


XANA and the lightbulb

That spectre can thus ‘possess’ objects and lend them new attributes. There are two subcatergories to this, inanimate and animate, and we shall cover both.

INANIMATE
The basic concept with all spectres is that the routers will enter the body in question and attach themselves to cells – from there it becomes a case of what exactly XANA want those spectres to do.

HACKING
One common XANA attack is the hacking of some external network to the complex and then abusing that network to ill effect. Examples would be the Parisian Power Grid and the SNCF Railway Control Network.

In these cases XANA simply creates an SAP between the computer and the network in question, but on occasion he has used spectres to hack a system to which there is no physical connection, for example an Electric Bus owned by Kadic College – in this example the spectre entered the onboard computer and via the router’s SAPs rendered that computer an extension of XANA – he was thus able to bypass the driver’s controls and take control of the accelerator, steering and gearbox.

PHYSICAL CONTROL
This is another attack mostly used to control vehicles that have no onboard computer – by coating the manual controls with routers and then manipulating the electromagnetic bonds between the routers, controls and fixed objects XANA can exert physical force on the controls and manually operate the device – some examples to date are a pair of bulldozers and an ambulance.


Yumi fights XANA for control of the ambulance

ENHANCEMENT
This is simply where the routers draw matter from ZPS and use it to physically add mass to an object, and one of the best examples is Teddygozilla – upon invading Milly’s teddy-bear the routers constructed electrical circuits and mechanical operating systems to give the stuffed toy actuation – and once that had been accomplished added mass to those systems and the rest of the bear, allowing it to grow to an immense, city-destroying-monster size.

This ‘enhancement’ technique was used by XANA primarily in his early attacks, during the period where he had yet to devise how to ‘create’ objects, and had to build his creations onto a base – in this case the frame of the teddy-bear.

This form of attack however has proved useful to XANA in more recent times – in the episode ‘Cold War’ for example he injected a large number of spectres into a cluster of clouds, and then by adding water-molecules and controlling the motion of the clouds was able to create a snap blizzard.


Injecting the routers into the clouds

ACTUATION
This is the second evolutionary stage between ‘Enhancement’ and XANA creating his own organisms through routers – the best example occurred in the episode ‘The Girl of the Dreams’ – XANA’s routers settled onto a suit of armour belonging to the Ishiyama family and then from that drew matter from ZPS to not only move the armour via ‘Physical Control’ but also to create ‘block-limbs’ to act as legs for the armour, and to support it’s katana weapon.

This limbs would have been directly controlled through the routers and they thus would have been under a lot of stress, hence the glow given off by the armour during the attack – energy bleeding from the overworked nano-machines.

POLYMORPHIC CLONING
The final and most elaborate stage in XANA’s evolution in actually building weapons does not technically classify as ‘inanimate possession’, but it makes sense to include it here.

In these attacks a group of spectres converge and draw through matter from ZPS to create a fully functioning human body, based on the data XANA has collected of his foes, and their sometime allies, enemies and compatriots. These clones are fully self-aware as they have fully functioning brains (though with an SAP uplink to XANA) and are also self-animate – they control their own bodies. Thus the routers can create complex organisms without overloading, as now they only have to create the bodies, rather than actually control them.

These bodies can also be disassembled and reconstructed in new forms, lending them the moniker ‘polymorphic clones’ – so far appearing in the episodes ‘XANA’s Kiss’, ‘Franz Hopper’ and ‘Revelation.’


The spectre from ‘Franz Hopper’ recombining to attack Jeremie

A similar occurance would be the ‘ghost’ XANA once created.


ANIMATE POSSESSION - PIXELISATION
There is an interesting scene in the episode ‘Amnesia’ – XANA takes control of a device used to construct nano-robots and builds a batch, which proceed to perform a lobotomy of many of Kadic’s students and staff, the main target being Ulrich and the rest of the team.

Watching this episode the question arises ‘Why does XANA not take control of a team member?’, after all, XANA had possessed various rodents and insects at this time. The episode ‘A Great Day’ went some way to answer this question – the supercomputer at the time did not have the computing power to possess a person, but this left another thread hanging in that destroying a few memories is as no means as advanced as controlling a human being – surely the routes could have achieved that?

Well, no. As was later seen people who have been to Lyoko multiple times are immune to spectre-control, though not to enhancement (as Tip-Top-Shape showed) – this immunity comes from the fact that both the Lyoko-team and the routers have been constructed from a ZPS matter-exchange, thus if one goes through the scanners enough, the similar energy signatures will cause ‘destructive interference’ during the possession process to weaken XANA’s attack and allow a complete block depending on the subject’s willpower…

…everyone else though, is up for game.

MENTAL ALTERATIONS TO A POSSESSEE
As with inanimate possession the basic principle is that a spectre enters the body and the routers bond with as many cells as possible. However the differences begin when we consider that living creatures have neural systems, minds, instincts and varying degrees of free will.

With lower animals it’s a simple case of over-riding the mind - though some base instincts are seen to remain. This is much more apparent with several human possesses, leading to the theory of their being two kinds of possession, as well as three ‘special-cases’;

PARTIAL POSSESSION


In these examples XANA’s routers enter the brain structure and with minor electrical charges alters the physce of the person in question, allowing XANA to talk to them verbally and instruct them – however it is still the possessee in charge of their now super-human body, just with XANA as the ultimate devil’s advocate.

The human mind therefore ‘thinks’ of what it wants to do, and that data loops back to the computer and then back again to the routers instantaneously, which act out the command – i.e. walk through THAT wall, electrocute THAT guy.

This ‘partial-control’ must have been useful to XANA in his earlier attacks as he gots used to controlling the human mind – a period of testing the water. It’s substantiated by the fact that many early possesses such as Sissi, Jim, Nick and Peter Duncan all display character traits that we are familiar with. It’s also an unnerving concept that rather than seizing the body from it’s owner, XANA merely tweaks the physce in order to bring out an underlying dark-side.

FULL POSSESSION


When Jeremie was possessed it was easy to see that something was wrong – he barely talked and showed no signs of retaining any personality elements – most likely Jeremie had a mild immunity and resisted XANA during the pixelisation process, so XANA rather than tweak his physce simply overruled his mind entirely. This is the first ever total possession.

These form of attacks are best described as ones where XANA merely has to either abduct or terminate a subject – no subtlety or finesse is required so it makes no sense to fiddle with the mind when it can just be taken out of the loop. These possessees show little to no emotion aside from general anger, but also appear to have more developed abilities. What is most likely is that XANA can dedicate more of his efforts to enhancing the body, hence these heightened abilities.

AELITA

Aelita is the only member of the team to be possessed despite her immunity – in the case in question, ‘St. Valentine’s Day’, XANA had sent her a necklace under the auspices of a gift – in actuality the necklace contained a microchip constructed in the scanners designed to connect to the supercomputer via SAP and boost a direct signal to Aelita – a literal hack of the mind in order to achieve a partial possession.

The upshot was that while Aelita was possessed, without the routers she had none of the actual physical enhancements while on Earth, and she only revealed her new allegiance and displayed unusual combat and abilities once transferred to Lyoko.

XANA also stimulated Aelita’ s mind in the episode ‘Deja-Vu’ in order to either dredge up or implant some memories from her past life on Earth – this was most likely achieved through Aelita’s direct link to the computer as a result of her missing memory fragment.

ODD

Odd proved that the team’s resistance to spectres was part willpower as well as natural immunity in this example, when he allowed himself to be pixellised by a spectre generated by Jeremie – Odd while under the influence was in full control of his body, and also had access to all the abilities available to a full possessee, probably because the routers did not have to constantly stream a slew of commands to his brain.

XANA was also later able to reverse the flow and extract Odd’s natural cellular energy in this episode, proving that the routers are designed to handle the conveyance of power between locations/

SISSI
Sissi is the only person seen to be possessed twice to-date. Once by XANA and once by Franz Hopper. However this possession was curious in two regards.

Firstly during the pixelisation process Sissi showed a degree of resistance, suggesting that she herself is developing an immunity to these forced invasions of the body.

Secondly the spectre that possessed her was considerably smaller than convention, suggesting Franz was very weak at the time. There is also likely to have been data corruption along the way as all of her dialogue came out scrambled and her behaviour extremely erratic.

Most curious though is what kind of possession this was – Franz hardly seems the type to force himself on an unwilling subject, which leads to the concept that Sissi at some point agreed to help him – much like a XANA partial possession, but with Hopper merely supplying her with information rather than warping her mind and morals. Even the team noted this as an unconventional possession, referring to Sissi as ‘spellbound’ rather than ‘possessed.’

PHYSICAL MUTATIONS TO A POSSESSEE
These are rare when they do occur, and to date have only occurred in animal victims – specifically a pack of rats, a swarm of hornets (possibly), a group of wolves and Kiwi, though in the last case he proceeded to indirectly mutate Kadic’s population.

In the case of the rats we cannot be sure of what changes took place, simply the circuitry was shown forming inside the rat’s eye, and the hornets are pure assumption – in the case of the wolves and Kiwi however we have confirmation.

Relating to Kiwi on the night in question XANA was seen to possess him, who then proceeded to bite Tamiya. Tamiya subsequently suffered a severe headache and then mutated into a zombie, and both she and Kiwi proceeding to spread the infection around the school.

What seems likely is that XANA took direct control of Kiwi’s mind and modified the saliva glands, imbuing the fluid with a potent mutagenic virus – when Kiwi bit Tamiya this virus (Xanavirus Metaform) spread into her bloodstream where it replicated at an exponential rate and proceeded to attack her cells, starting with the frontal lobe of the brain and then the rest of the body, altering the DNA to create a predatory drone under Kiwi/XANA’s command. Some routers were probably transmitted as well in order to create an SAP link to the computer and control each zombie, via Kiwi.


An example of zombie mutation

POSESSION POWERS

PHYSICAL ENHANCEMENT

The first notable element of a pixelised human is the enhanced physical strength – the first ever possessee was Sissi, who displayed the ability to bend iron pipes – subsequent ‘victims’ displayed similar feats of extreme physical power – from mundane strength, to extremely hardy bodies, and an exceptional turn of speed.

The basic trick played here is the injection of electricity into the cells of primarily the epidermis and musculature – with at least one router per cell XANA can thus use the electrical output to various ends – creating strong electromagnetic bonds between the routers would reinforce the bonds between the cells themselves. Thus Jim was able to survive a blow from a metal bar that should have split his skull open.

This reinforcement also protects the muscles and other organs from damage from the extreme exertion the body is pushed to – by forcing glands to produce adrenaline, testosterone etc. and bypassing the pain barrier the human body comes to it’s full potential, further enhanced by the injection of electrical charges directly into the muscles.

ELECTRICAL PROJECTION

The second most common ability of a possessee is the ability to project electricity from the hands – for this and other similar abilities a large cluster of routers gather in the hands, mainly in the palms where they can project electricity from the computer in massive voltage-arcs without frying the possessee’s body.

XANA has no hesitation however in frying the bodies of those who get in his way, and that indeed is the main function of this ability, though one possessee also used it to induce a temporary trance-like state in Jim in the episode ‘St. Valentine’s Day.’

STATIC CLING

A similar trick and really an offshoot of the Electrical Projection ability is the ability to create a charge of static electricity in the palms and also in the heels of the shoes – when this is used it allows the possessee to cling to any surface – best displayed by Nicholas who crawled all over the factory control room.

LEVITATION/TELEKINESIS

Again a development from the same abilities that allow Electrical Projection and Static Cling is the ability to levitate or telekinetically move objects – principal Jean-Pierre Delmas notably levitated Yumi and Odd while attempting their termination, and then proceeded to negate his own body-weight and run on water.

There is also the capacity to put more finesse into this ability, where it ceases to be clumsy levitation and becomes more intricate telekinesis – for example the frequent destruction of cell-phones.

The roots of both abilities lie with Einstein, who postulated on a ‘Unified Theorem’ that would connect electricity with gravity and allow manipulation of one with the other – Einstein never found his unified theorem, but XANA did and displayed the effects in the episode ‘Zero-Gravity-Zone’ – where he played with gravity in the vicinity of Kadic using electrical devices as his tools of manipulation – with some modification the same principals can be applied to the routers and thus adds an extra weapon to the arsenal of the pixellised human.

KI-BLASTS

Another ability ustilising ‘XANA’s Unified Theorem’ is the colloquially-termed Ki-Blasts, best displayed by Odd and Nurse Yolande. This in short modifies gravity to create a force-field in which voltage can be held – in short a capacitor, which is then ‘projected’ at the target, where the force of the impact collapses the field and discharges the voltage.

CLONING

The next ability is less commonly seen but is memorable – a possessee duplicates in two. This is an ability which stresses the capacity of the routers to the nth degree – simply each router draws matter from ZPS, duplicates the atom it is bonded to and projected several feet away – the net result is that a clone of the possesse is created, but not for a long period of time as the stress of maintaining the clone and maintaining control over it will quickly overload the capacity of the routers and XANA thus puts his whole operation at risk.

A similar technique was used in ‘Vertigo’ where the routers were used to create holographic clones of a group of wolves, which was a far smaller strain on their system.


The holo-wolf

PHASING
A similar trick to cloning is phasing, where each router plays with ZPS and their bound cells, but to the inverse of cloning – instead of drawing matter from ZPS, each cell is half-drawn into ZPS, thus retaining a presence in reality, but also far enough into ZPS that the body becomes multidimensional – much like a Krabbe the size of a car can fit into a multidimensional scanner, a temporarily multidimensional body can push through a sold object.

AFTER-AFFECTS OF A POSSESSION
In the case of a possession when Aelita shuts down the tower from where XANA is controlling the person in question, a automatic command in the computer closes the SAPs between itself and the possessee.

The net result is that all power supply to the routers is lost and the mind and body revert to their original form and structure – with the side-affect of amnesia. In the case of a full-possession this could be attributed to the fact that the human brain has been cut out of the loop entirely and thus has no memories. In the case of a partial possession it is likely the memories remain, but sealed away with any others locked during an RTTP.

Inside the body the spectres, drained of power detatch from their bonded cells and are eventually purged from the body with other waste matter.

The kids have also exploited this constant power-requirement of the routers on several occasions, by using high voltages to disrupt the SAP connections and briefly shut down the routers until XANA reopens the links, with the net result of briefly stunning the possessee. So far, aside from the abortive experiment with Odd, this is the only couter-weapon the team has against these possessed agents of XANA.



END OF ENTRY

[TB3]

AVATARS





The Avatars

When in Lyoko, the minds and consciousnesses of the protagonists operate through their Avatars – ‘bodies’ derived from their virtualisation scans and customised to suit their own tastes, combat styles and abilities. There is far more to these colourful figures though than meets the eye.

The avatars are not strictly ‘avatars’ in the internet sense – on forums an avatar is a small image which allows users to identify each other – while the Lyokan avatars serve the function of creating distinct divisions between characters, they also function as ‘file folders.’

We will shortly dive into an analysis of the avatars, but in order to understand them fully we must take a short lesson in Genetics.

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DNA – THE DOUBLE-HELIX
The human genome or DNA strand is one of the largest molecules known to exist – though smaller than idividual cells each DNA molecule is extremely long (5 cm) and like tangled spaghetti that 5cm is crammed into every single cell of the human body.


A schematic of a human DNA strand

This is the universally known ‘double-helix’ configuration of DNA – actual genetic information is encoded in the ‘rungs’ – also known as ‘base pairs’ – the human DNA strand contains 3 billion of these base pairs.

The base-pairs are made of a pair of ‘bases’ or ‘nucleotides’ - these are Adenine (A) and Thymine (T), and Cytosine (C), and Guanine (G). The sequence of these basepairs control the creation of amino-acids in the growing human body – these amino-acids in turn control the development of proteins which eventually group, combine and develop into cells and then the complete body. Hence the DNA sequence determines the structure of the human body.

What’s interesting is that at least 99% of each person’s DNA strand is common to every human being on the planet – only between one in every hundred and one in every thousand base-pairs differ from the standard template.

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VDNA – THE QUADRUPLE HELIX
NOTE: In the show this is referred to as DNA, but to save confusion with human DNA it is hereafter referred to as V-or ‘Virtual’ DNA.

Is what the team’s ‘virtual structures’ or ‘avatars’ are derived from – VDNA imitates human DNA, but with four helix-structures instead of two, as shown here;


‘Missing Link’ screencap showing the quadruple helix structure in the top left screen, centre, and bottom right.

Much like human DNA, vDNA controls smaller agents which work to build a body – in this case a particle simulation system (from which the infamous Multi Agent System was most likely developed) – and from that the avatar is built.

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PLAYING CARDS
The avatars are represented on Jeremie’s console as playing cards, and he uses these an adjoining functions to communicate with the team and also control their materialisations, settings, weapon reloads etc.


Aelita’s Playing-Card and Communications Screen


Odd’s ‘Physical-Status-Display’


Aelita’s ‘Mental-Status-Display’


Odd’s Lazer-Arrows are reloaded.

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AVATAR COMPOSITION
As said the avatars are virtual constructs, and thus are very different to human beings – they have no organs, they do not rely on respiration and ingestion of food for energy. They never age, and would remain eternally young were they not updated with each scan.


Image showing the wireframe of Yumi’s avatar

The bodies are simply very advanced wire-frames, animated by the computer and controlled by Quantum Digital replicas of their human brains, which receive ‘sensation’ through a simulated nervous system.
The avatar itself contains three VDNA files, and links to several other files.


Screencap showing the composition of Yumi’s avatar, showing the three component files and (top right beside her avatar) a display monitoring her separate DNA code

The three files are;

VDNA PHYSICAL DATA
This is a pre-existing file within the computer that contains the physical data of the avatar – its shape, build, clothing, coloration, weapons etc. This file also contains the basic data that all the avatars share – the ‘Template’ data.

VDNA MENTAL/CONCIOUSNESS PATTERNS
This file contains all data referring to the ‘mental’ aspect of the human body – namely a molecular scan of the mind and a recording and simulation of all neural impulses and wavelengths.

This file is also encoded in vDNA to allow it to be simulated and linked to the avatar’s ‘nervous system’ – when the two files combine the avatar ceases to be inanimate coding and becomes a living, thinking, feeling being.

VDNA SEQUENCE CODE
This file, encoded in vDNA, allows data stored in a vDNA format (such as the mental/consciousness patterns) to be decoded and reintegrated into the molecular scan – without it the body could be brought back to reality but it would be mentally ‘blank’ – incapable of even supporting it’s own autonomous body functions. This was the danger Yumi was placed in during ‘Missing Link’ when XANA stole her vDNA codec.

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SEPARATE FILES
The avatar only contains the files necessary for it’s own operation, but it also serves as a link to several other files held in the supercomputer’s restricted access memory.

MOLECULAR SCAN – BIO (V. large file, VDNA encoded)
This is all the data picked up by the scanners during the virtualisation, minus the actual consciousness, which is diverted to the avatar. Also the scan does not include the DNA encoded in each cell, as it would make the file needlessly big.

DNA (V. Large file, DNA encoded)
Here a single copy of the DNA strand is held, picked up during the scan and then reintegrated into every cell during the reconstruction of the body.

It should be noted that aside from building the avatar during the subject’s first scan, DNA is not used in Lyoko, but it is saved and held because without it the human body reconstructed could not function.

BACKUP (V. large file, VDNA encoded)
This contains a copy of the molecular and DNA scan from the last successful transfer as a redundancy.

LYOKO ATTRIBUTES (Small/Medium file, VDNA encoded)
These file was written by Jeremie and contains all the aspects of the avatars that are not part of the default programming, such as clothes, weapons and abilities. This sections of vDNA are spliced into the prexisting avatar data before the actual transfer begins.

Two of these attributes are noteworthy;

1.ODD’ S VISONS:
The supercomputer is a powerful number-cruncher, and with the right data and chaos-theory-based programming can predict the future to a small extent – therefore Odd’s ability ties to that – and on several occasions the computer has given him a 'heads-up' on an upcoming situation.

This saved the team’s backs a few times but Odd has seemingly traded this up for a shield ability – possibly he still has it, but either it's use has not been shown on the computer has not seen fit recently to warn him. At this point, it’s conjecture.

2.AELITA’S BOND TO LYOKO:
Aelita’s notable gift inside Lyoko is the Creativity/Synthesization ability – a manifestation of her half of the Keys of Lyoko – the other half possessed by her father and pirated by XANA. Together the keys give dominion – alone they grant a level of control. Aelita can physically alter Lyoko and also has the ability to not just interface with the towers (which in theory all users can), but also control and override them. It is also through this bond to the towers that Aelita gains a degree of extra-sensorary-perception within Lyoko.

As an aside, it works that it was the presence of this highly encrypted, unreadable, unusual coding in Aelita’s vDNA packet that SEEMED connected to her abilities that inspired Jeremie to not only give the team weapons in Lyoko, but also superhuman abilities. Most likely their abilities were also derived from some of Aelita’s coding, as all of their powers rely to some extent on a manipulation of Lyoko’s environs.


MOLECULAR SCAN – NON BIO (Small file, VDNA encoded)
This file is the same as the biological molecular fan, but it only holds the data on the clothes and accessories worn by the human subject and thus is much smaller.

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CONSTRUCTING AN AVATAR
As now shown an avatar is dependant on DNA to function, both human and simulated. The human DNA is acquired with the subject’s first ever scan.

As pointed out around 3,000,000 to 30,000,000 of the 3 Billion base pairs in DNA determine the ‘uniqueness’ of a human being – in the first scan the computer strips out many of these DNA fragments, converts them to vDNA and then splices them into the VDNA PHYSICAL DATA file of a blank avatar.

At this point the blank avatar contains only the vDNA coding shared by all the avatars, much like the 99% of DNA shared by humans. This defines how the avatar will walk, talk, move and receive sensation, image and sound etc. As extra data is spliced in however the various details begin to fill in – the default vocal patterns become those of the subjects, hair colour develops as does data on eye colour, facial features, build etc.

At this point however the avatar is just a ‘genetic’ model, containing the potential for all the myriad ways in which a body can develop. In order to tie the avatar down to it’s subject’s specific physicality some data from the molecular scan is converted to vDNA and spliced in – this specifies height, skin tone, age, finalises the build and ensures that the body is as accurate as possible.

Finally the ‘Lyoko Attributes’ data is converted to vDNA and spliced into the PHYSICAL VDNA FILE. This is now complete and is saved to the restricted-access memory of the computer. The avatar is now finished and ready to accept it’ s owner.


Aelita’s ‘pre-saved’ avatar awaiting it’s owner

COMING AND GOING

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COMING AND GOING

VIRTUALISING
When Jeremie begins a scan this ‘pre-saved’ avatar is all he had to work with, and before he can actually trigger the program he must set this avatar up to receive a consciouness
as well as create folders and data streams for the various human elements and program all the interlinking threads.

At the same time, Jeremie has to prepare an uplink to stream all of the avatar and scan data into Lyoko – these uplinks are derived from a much larger collection of programs handling all the data exchanges known as THE TRANSFER PROTOCOLS, which are vital to the data-handling and shunting capacity of the complex.

The other important task though is configuring the avatar. The prepared avatar includes a lot of variables affecting how the avatar will be affected by external stimuli, as well as what elements are incorporated from the scan. Here Jeremie can modify the settings to dull the avatars to pain, allow them to run great distances without feeling exhaustion and jump, run, balance and fight with a grace, strength and dexterity impossible for a human. When these are combined with the Lyoko attributes the team is transformed from students of exceptional willpower and courage, to literal superhumans in a simulated environment.

With all these elements in place the avatar is now ready, and all that remains is to begin the scan.

The person enters the scanner which rolls through it’s programmed operation, and from it is ejected a vast amount of code. This is split into two streams;

The Molecular Scan – this streams directly to it’s storage space, where it is encrypted as vDNA and stripped of it’s DNA molecules to save on memory space. A copy of that common DNA thread is saved in the separate folder, not encoded or encrypted in any way.

The Mental Scan – at this stage this comprises the neural impulses, which go straight into their folder in the avatar, again encoded as vDNA.

The computer now moves to the next stage of splicing together elements – new data from the molecular scan is added to the avatar’s physical vDNA to include any changes that have occurred in the human form. The mind’s molecular data is uploaded to the mental vDNA folder to complete the mind, and the two sections linked.

Jeremie now launches the particle-simulation system, and this, guided by the molecules, generates the avatar in a holding space in the computer. Finally the human body is destroyed and the avatar uploaded to Lyoko.


Yumi’s Avatar nearing completion of construction, as evidenced by the main screen showing her virtual particles configuring, and the playing-card showing the upload of mental data.

To date the above process is the only means by which a person can come to Lyoko. There are however multiple ways to leave it.

All three of these means share a common concept – of bringing a virtual body to reality – and also common software, such as the standard CONSTRUCTION PROGRAM for the scanners, and in the case of the avatars the common codecs for converting vDNA to DNA and molecular data.

LIFE POINTS AND SAFETIES
The wireframes that compose the avatars are also their Achilles Heel – they do not contain data on the human DNA and molecular data, but they do contain the consciousness – this has no backup, and if the wireframe is destroyed, that data will discharge into Lyoko, sundered, fragmented and lost, the person with it.

Thus the Life-Point system was developed – the status of the wireframe is noted, and damage to it equated as points deducted from a total of 100. When zero is reached, the automatic devirtualisation program triggers to remove the person before the wireframe receives further damage and collapses.

Of course an automatic program can easily run into problems, thus some safties were built in by Franz – neither the devirt/rematt programs will trigger if the scanners are not operating and a passageway open to stream the molecular data to them – were the avatar to be intentionally decompiled without these factors in place the data would be lost across Lyoko anyway as surely as by any monster’s laser. With the safety tripped the person remains in Lyoko, the lesser of two evils between certain ‘death’ and possible ‘death’, as seen in ‘Common Interest’. XANA has also tried to bypass the safeties – in both ‘Routine’ and ‘Franz Hopper’ he managed to sever the Lyoko-to-Scanner passageways without tripping the safeties, which would have resulted in again, fragmentation of data if the avatars had decompiled.

REMATERIALISATION
This is perhaps the best and most comfortable means of leaving Lyoko. It can however take a considerable amount of time. Once Jeremie triggers the process the computer begins a dual process of maintaining the avatar in question whilst simultaneously decoding its mental/consciousness folder and combining the physical data with the BIO and NON-BIO MOLECULAR FILES.

The actual process of decoded is interesting. Based on a scene in ‘Missing Link’ (which I couldn’t get an image of, but right before Ulrich and Odd interrupt Aelita’ transfer), the mental vDNA strand separates into two double-helixes. It is now in a format where it can be decoded via algorithms into a data-stream that the scanners can use to reconstruct the physical mind and neural impulses.

Finally the data is ready to be returned to the scanner and the final stage takes place – the avatar decompiles and its mental patterns are transferred to the scanner with the body data to be combined and constructed.


Yumi and Ulrich’s avatars are decoded and combined with their molecular scans prior to decompiling

The process is very carefully executed, checked for regularity and errors multiple times in both the combination, transfer and reconstruction stages - the net result (at the expense of time) is that the person will cheerfully step out of the scanner with no mental or bodily fatigue and can actually be virtualised again rapidly as their bodies are physically ready and the various elements of the avatars are held in the console in an easy-to-compile state.

It should also be noted that Jeremie has written a more effective materialisation program than was originally present in the system, but in the interests of care and keeping the subject safe the process can still take some time

DEVIRTUALISATION

Just another day in the life of...

It’s a sad fact that this program which was written as an emergency fallback is actually used more than the program primarily intended for bringing a person back from Lyoko.

The devirtualisation process is in actuality a poor-man’s version of the materialisation program, which is triggered by an avatar’s life-points falling to a critical level – the program begins to prepare to yank this person out of Lyoko – the scanners power up, the data begins to decompile and translate – unfortunately in a crisis situation there is often very little time between 30,20,10 and 0 LP, and so the process has to be sped, stages cut out, the whole affair stripped to the bone – and the net result is that the person is saved, but also they are usually exhausted, on occasion in mild pain.

This is worsened in cases where the person has been devirtualised due to a sudden ‘death’ in Carthage, a devastating surprise attack or where they have ‘committed suicide’ in order to leave by their own free-will, as the program has no forewarning or time to prepare, hence the recovery process has to be a sped and rushed affair, literally streaming data straight from the memory banks to the scanners via the vDNA/DNA sequence code pack.

The process also requires a longer turnabout time before the subject can be virtualised again, partly due to the physical exhaustion, also because the program has not had time to salvage the avatar components, so Jeremie is back to square one in terms of recompiling the elements.

XANA has been able to exploit this rushing element to put the lives of the team in serious jeopardy – in ‘Routine’ and ‘Franz Hopper’ he was able to corrupt the programming to an extant where the computer believed everything was in order, when in actuality the vital stage between the decompiling and codec processes has been stripped out, with the result of the vDNA being scattered across Lyoko and lost.

MATERIALISATION

The first full Materialisation

For the first year of the alliance and friendship between Kadic and Lyoko Jeremie’s main objective was to generate a program which could bring Aelita from Lyoko to Earth.

Aelita requires some thought here – she left Earth on June 6th 1994 and was not seen again until 2004/2005. In that time XANA had removed all of her memories of a human life, and either by design or accident her avatar/playing card had been permanently damaged – as a result she had lost all traces that showed she was once a human being – notably her DNA and her back-up files. Tragically this data was probably still in the restricted-access memory, but with the loss of the avatar links Jeremie could never even know they existed, let alone go hunting for them in an area to which he does not possess access codes.

As a result, Aelita could not be devirtualised – if any of the team lost 100 LP they were instantly dragged out – Aelita did not, and without that her already fractured avatar would suffer fatal damage if she lost any further LP.

When exploring Aelita’s avatar coding Jeremie only had one element to suggest she was not merely an advanced AI – the clothes she had been wearing when virtualised. However this most likely led him to believe Aelita’s creator had intended to bring her to reality, and if that was possible in theory why shouldn’t he try to achieve it. XANA even played along to this concept in the episode ‘Franz Hopper;’

[i][b]“I created you to be Lyoko’s guardian – but I never dreamed I would see you in flesh and blood.â€

[TB3]

LYOKO
The World Without Danger

June 6th 1994 – the scanners and virtualisation programs are ready! In a few hours I will travel to Lyoko with Aelita. Like me, Aelita will hold the keys to Lyoko. Together, we shall be the ultimate masters. We will live together, forever.
The Diary of Franz Hopper – Day 2546, Final Entry

Sadly, by the time he made this final entry in his video diary, Franz Hopper was not the sanest of men. 7 years continually entering programming into the supercomputer, 7 years of reliving the same day over and over had conspired with his perceived persecution to warp his sensibilities.

To Franz’s eyes, he had nowhere to run to where he could be safe from the agents who raided the Hermitage on June 6th. Were he caught he also faced not only heavy criminal charges but also the heartbreak of being separated from his beloved daughter and only family, Aelita Hopper.

At first Franz most likely hoped to use the Il.e Seguin complex to “destroy Carthageâ€

[TB3]

A HYPOTHETICAL HISTORY OF LYOKO

Quite where Lyoko had it’s beginnings is unknown, but it is likely Franz always intended building a Virtual User Interface which would require virtualising a person in order to make the best use of the supercomputer’s power in his intended mission against Project Carthage.

This original User Interface is likely to have been built from Carthage outwards, and most likely followed the same minimalist architectural style as that sector.

Based on his diary (‘I built the supercomputer, created Lyoko, and last of all XANA to destroy Carthage’), Hopper finished Lyoko during his 7 years of RTTPing in this, its original functional form, and then turned to developing XANA.

Most likely he succeeded in attacking Carthage with XANA and destroying all of its physical and virtual resources. This is evidenced in the fact that in the 12 years since then there has been no evidence of Project Carthage’s existence – although a secretive military-funded project some of the tech it would have developed if unhindered would surely have reached the private sector by 2006.

Also, were the project not disbanded and still functioning, it’s staff would have surely investigated some of the weird events in Paris 2004-2006 which might lead to their wayward scientist – they would also have probably picked up on the supercomputer’s constant SAP activity and swept down like vultures.

Franz now turned his mind to protecting himself and his daughter – he knew that Carthage knew he was located at the Hermitage and several agents were on his tail. Now that Carthage had been attacked he knew he’d probably be pegged for it and the search intensified, making escape impossible. Therefore he and Aelita had to vanish.

Already suffering from a mild degree of mental instability Franz hit on the warped idea of rebuilding Lyoko as a safe and habitable environment for himself and his daughter – thus he once again Returned to the Past (undoing the damage he had done to Carthage in the process, meaning he’d have to repeat the attack when ready to ‘vanish’) and set to further programming work.

Over this period XANA would have been an idle program with no function – most likely Hoppe thought ‘it’ was inactive. However XANA had gained sentience without Franz realising it and was left to brood for a period of years – at this point XANA’s malevolent intentions presumably surfaced and it began planning an attack on its creator and his offspring…

June Sixth 1994 – after 2546 days Franz had finished his work. Lyoko had been reconfigured into a fully realised virtual world with five separate environments and plenty of variety to keep Aelita entertained and prevent boredom.

Franz had also planned out all of his safety systems, countermeasures, security protocols and planned for all contingencies.

XANA meanwhile had observed all of these systems being developed and finalised his plans to imprison his programmed ‘masters’ and set himself free within the supercomputer where he can freely plan his next actions. Crucial to this was his first creation – the Scyphazoa, designed to bypass all of the avatar ‘anti-tampering’ protocols.

Through the night Franz works at the Hermitage, working on making a hole in Aelita’s bedroom wall – she spends her last night on Earth in Franz’s bed, hugging a beloved plushie and perhaps worried about her father’s strange behaviour.

In the early morning Franz returns to the factory and makes his final diary entry.

[b][i]“June 6th 1994 – Day 2546 – the scanners and virtualisation programs are ready! In a few hours I will travel to Lyoko with Aelita. Like me, Aelita will hold the keys to Lyoko. Together, we shall be the ultimate masters. We will live together, forever.â€

[Cassius335 offline]

Right, that's me downloading the whole page, then...

[Lani offline]

Thanks TB3 and good job! I put it on word and it's about 93 pages long. xD;

On another note, have we covered Jeremie's helmet that he used in Temptation yet? I have a guess on how it might work, but I don't want to be repeating if you have already talked about it... :O

[TB3]

Hehe, remember guys some of the ideas in the essay have been revised - the concept of Exertanium coils for example is up for debate against the nanotube possibility.

Thanks Cassius and Lani as well, and Lani, we do have an tentative idea about the helmet (that the excess energy in the system from bodies being in Lyoko during an RTTP is possibly used to accelerate Jeremie's own brain functions), but we'd love to hear yours - you are after all a Lyokologist

LYOKOLOGIST NOMINATION

Cassius335 - any objections? - I've decided that from now on making people part of the group has to be decided by the members and not just me.

[Jazzy Josh offline]

*Lyoko is Cool's Jaw drops*

I haven't even finished reading the essays...and I'm

*Lyoko is Cool's Jaw drops*

Amazing theories, can't wait to get to the last essay

[Lani offline]

Thanks Cassius and Lani as well, and Lani, we do have an tentative idea about the helmet (that the excess energy in the system from bodies being in Lyoko during an RTTP is possibly used to accelerate Jeremie's own brain functions), but we'd love to hear yours - you are after all a Lyokologist

Hokay then! Here's my guess...

We learned about this in biology today:
You all know what adrenaline is right? I thiiiink it's like a chemical in the brain released into the bloodstream during certain situations, but I'm not sure cause that was like 11:30 earlier today and now it's like 7:20 but whatever... How you can get adrenaline rushes and stuff like that. Apparently, when one gets an adrenaline rush, their brain works a bit faster and in turn one becomes a bit smarter. Here's what I think the helmet does: It stimulates the brain to release the adrenaline chemical into the bloodstream, making Jeremie smarter and stuff. And since the helmet is attatched to the computer, it becomes a bit more powerful with each RTTP. When the helmet becomes more powerful, it stimulates the brain to release a greater amount of adrenaline, making Jeremie smarter and smarter etc.

But here's the catch: Too much adrenaline can be bad for the brain. Also, one who has been subjected to a large amout of adrenaline is left in a bad and unstable state of mental and physical health. Catch my drift...?

xD; I hope that sounds kinda close? I forgot like half the stuff I was going to say >>;

[TB3]

Thanks Cassius and Lani as well, and Lani, we do have an tentative idea about the helmet (that the excess energy in the system from bodies being in Lyoko during an RTTP is possibly used to accelerate Jeremie's own brain functions), but we'd love to hear yours - you are after all a Lyokologist

Hokay then! Here's my guess...

We learned about this in biology today:
You all know what adrenaline is right? I thiiiink it's like a chemical in the brain released into the bloodstream during certain situations, but I'm not sure cause that was like 11:30 earlier today and now it's like 7:20 but whatever... How you can get adrenaline rushes and stuff like that. Apparently, when one gets an adrenaline rush, their brain works a bit faster and in turn one becomes a bit smarter. Here's what I think the helmet does: It stimulates the brain to release the adrenaline chemical into the bloodstream, making Jeremie smarter and stuff. And since the helmet is attatched to the computer, it becomes a bit more powerful with each RTTP. When the helmet becomes more powerful, it stimulates the brain to release a greater amount of adrenaline, making Jeremie smarter and smarter etc.

But here's the catch: Too much adrenaline can be bad for the brain. Also, one who has been subjected to a large amout of adrenaline is left in a bad and unstable state of mental and physical health. Catch my drift...?

xD; I hope that sounds kinda close? I forgot like half the stuff I was going to say >>;

MAGNIFICENT Lani!

This is really neat, carry that badge with pride! You deserve it

Hmm, what if the helmet did both things, would that make sense - stimulate the adrenal glands (which might explain Jeremie's agression) and neural acceleration - or we could scrub the last bit.

Hmm, this makes Franz an expert biologist as well too - man that guy was smart!

[Lani offline]

Thanks Cassius and Lani as well, and Lani, we do have an tentative idea about the helmet (that the excess energy in the system from bodies being in Lyoko during an RTTP is possibly used to accelerate Jeremie's own brain functions), but we'd love to hear yours - you are after all a Lyokologist

Hokay then! Here's my guess...

We learned about this in biology today:
You all know what adrenaline is right? I thiiiink it's like a chemical in the brain released into the bloodstream during certain situations, but I'm not sure cause that was like 11:30 earlier today and now it's like 7:20 but whatever... How you can get adrenaline rushes and stuff like that. Apparently, when one gets an adrenaline rush, their brain works a bit faster and in turn one becomes a bit smarter. Here's what I think the helmet does: It stimulates the brain to release the adrenaline chemical into the bloodstream, making Jeremie smarter and stuff. And since the helmet is attatched to the computer, it becomes a bit more powerful with each RTTP. When the helmet becomes more powerful, it stimulates the brain to release a greater amount of adrenaline, making Jeremie smarter and smarter etc.

But here's the catch: Too much adrenaline can be bad for the brain. Also, one who has been subjected to a large amout of adrenaline is left in a bad and unstable state of mental and physical health. Catch my drift...?

xD; I hope that sounds kinda close? I forgot like half the stuff I was going to say >>;

MAGNIFICENT Lani!

This is really neat, carry that badge with pride! You deserve it

Hmm, what if the helmet did both things, would that make sense - stimulate the adrenal glands (which might explain Jeremie's agression) and neural acceleration - or we could scrub the last bit.

Hmm, this makes Franz an expert biologist as well too - man that guy was smart!

Thanks!!

Yeah, I catch a lot when I'm in science class... CL has really taught me to love that class (especially since my teacher's name is Jim xDD)!!

Franz was the old science teacher in Kadic right? xD; So he must've had a good amount of knowledge in that field as well as physics cause Ms. Hertz seems to teach everything that ever existed xD;;;

[YDV offline]

I know xD; One day they're talking about nanotechnology, the next they're discussing molecular biology. o___o

Yeah, excellent idea, Lani-- certainly makes sense. I think we should combine the two, since that gives it more likelihood of being correct (And if one way isn't how it happened, we can just cough and say we thought it was preposterous all along xD)

No, I don't have any objections to Cassius being nominated Lyokologist. Um... Here ye.. er... Here ye! xD; We need some cool legal jargon.

[Jeremified offline]

TB3, you officially win at life for typing in 93 pages of pure knowledge. Once you hit 100, you will win at life and everything in it! Wow, that was so much detail that my brain hurts! O__o

Okay, I have one thing to bring up here: collective memory. I learned about it before, and it's basically memory that's passed down genetically from a family line. Usually it's subconsciously recollected through a dream or some other way. Here's one theory for how Aelita's past memories were taken, but not her knowledge of speech, her own name, and other basic human abilities:

Aelita's primary memories would include anything that's happened to her in her own life. They're newly created collective memory, and have never been passed down. Thus they are the weakest parts of her total memory. Her secondary memories would be known by her close relatives, such as her name and some family history. Here's the main part: her core memories, memories that have been known for dozens of generations, would include speech (which everyone in her family up to about 6 generations would know about), basic human movements like walking, running, stopping, etc. (almost everyone in the world knows how to do this), and how to comprehend sight, hearing, and other senses. These memories, as stated before, have gained "strength" over time as the collective memories have been passed down for a long time. In other words, her genetics would have been passed down very many times- in fact, so many times that the genes became nearly perfect in every way. XANA probably wouldn't have had the power to destroy these parts of her memory. However, her primary memories had just formed, so XANA easily destroyed those.

Any comments/additions to this?

[Jazzy Josh offline]

Great Idea, Jeremified

*still haven't finished reading*

[Lani offline]

I likes it! And it makes a lot of sense, too. Good job! ^^

But if XANA didn't take any of her secondary memories, wouldn't she still know who her father is? Or maybe she doesn't know that he's her father but still knows who he is and maybe that's why she was able to identify him in Deja Vu... hmm...


And another thing only related by the word "memory", I doubt it was actual human memories which the Scyphozoa stole that caused Aelita to die, but like actual computer memory. 'Cause I doubt if you got rid of all your computer's memory and stuff it really wouldn't work anymore ^^; Just me givin' two cents! :O

[Cassius335 offline]

LYOKOLOGIST NOMINATION

Cassius335 - any objections? - I've decided that from now on making people part of the group has to be decided by the members and not just me.

*blushes*