Intergalactic Summit

Um, gosh. Thank you! The whole thing? In layman's terms? Huh. Give me a little time! I have a hard time describing these things outside of network models, and I assume that you aren't interested in probabilistic statistics! I'll see what I can do for you, sir.

EDIT

Okay. I will try! A fragment was found of what is believed to be Hilen Tukoss's brain! We have studied it and come to a few findings. The overall conclusion was that we believe that Mr Tukoss's neural burner was activated in a normal fashion once his pod was ruptured - the same sort of event we've all suffered. An accident, or perhaps intrigue, caused the neural burn to fail to complete in th clone - perhaps it was the clone supplier's fault, or perhaps there was interference! We don't know. Bu the burn process seems to have completed normally.

During the examination we noticed some very odd things, however! There were fragments of fairly normal implants, and there were signs of medical nanites being used, but nothing unusual. The brain tissue itself, though, was really weird.

The tissue sample had a piece of neocortex - that's the big blobby grey bit on the top, unlike the little white blobby bits underneath. That's the memory-holding bit, and the rationality-bit, and it's where a lot of consciousness-related processes happen. It's you!

Neocortex is layered in six layers, from the outside in. It's also arranged in columns - each column is largely self contained. A single column might be responsible for identifying horizontal lines for your left eye below the plane of the horizon (that's a very dominant one, that) or it may be responsible for associating the smell of apple pie with the colour red, or maybe the concept of democracy with the colour green. Each column has some sort of basic logical function, sort of like that!

Typically each column is pretty self-contained - they don't talk much to their neighbors. Layers 2 and 3 are where that communication happens - imagine them like little transistors plugged into a circuit board, with all of the cross-wiring between circuits happening on the board. The board is layers 2 and 3. That's a normal brain.

This sample, though, was very different. Layers 1, 4 and 5 are doing the same as 2 and 3 - it's nothing but circuit board! It's a big noodly mess of neurons. This would utterly destroy normal cognition - normal human thought patterns. I'm guessing that this person would have symptoms similar to schizophrenia, to be honest. The interference of all of those extra cross-communicating neurons would cause a sort of "electrical storms" that is seen in seizures as well! It's very hard to tell specifically what the results would be. It's a mystery!

Is that a little more clear?

- S

So Hilen's brain had been re-engineered to effectively expand his processing 'registers' laterally, allowing him to process multiple possibilities in the same turn of the crank. Rather than having to make leaps of logic Hilen could calculate who knows how many possible answers at once. In fact even being able to calculate four conclusions in one run would produce amazing results.

There's no way an existing brain could be re-engineered in-situ. This must have been designed into his last known clone at the outset. I'd be interested to know what the SoE implants were considering they must also have been designed for the new cerebral architecture.

Thank you for your patience Ms Sherezad your kindness is a beacon of light in this dark pit that is the IGS.
I understand quite clearly now, but I have another question... would the use of the drug C3 cause those mutations?

He used to do experiments with it if my memory doesn't fail me.

We're always happy for additional help. Priano-haani is the investigation head, if you'd like to get ahold of her. Alternatively, you can send me a mail with your skills and interests and we can see what we can work out!

As for the co-processing model you are suggesting, I think there's a little bit of a miscommunication somewhere? The microscopic structures of the nocortex are beneath the level of conscious and subconscious thought - you might consider each neocortical column to be a thoughtlet, activating at different strengths. Otherwise what you describe isn't a bad description of how the brain generally operates - sensory information activating basic pattern-recognizers, which in turn activate more abstract recognizers, etcetera, distributing the initial signal throughout the brain. Eventually the pattern achieves stability - this is when a brain can be said to have "decided" on a particular outcome.

This behaviour is one for a normal, healthy brain. Our sample here is representative of one which is not. In this one, unless the cross-referencing neurons are extremely finely designed so as to be precise in communication, the action of these neurons would be to disrupt normal signal distribution, by inhibiting or activating where this would not otherwise take place. Given that the individual was apparently intelligent enough to pilot a Capsule, it suggests that the brain involved was very highly designed. Curious!

Hmm. Wouldn't C3 have shown up during the toxicology testing? Given its use by many capsuleers, I'd assume the standard toxicology battery run by Dr. Tenebrae would catch it. Mind, I suppose use of it only ticked up in recent years, so it might not be part of the battery yet. I'll check with her to make sure it is.

Thanks for the note on that front, Scherezad-haani.

It's an interesting metaphor - I don't entirely follow it, but it's something to think about! I think there are some correlations between your metaphor and the neurological structure, but I'll have to give it some time.

I've no idea where the clone brain would have come from; I do know that mapping from a normal brain to this structure without massive technological assistance would be impossible, and even then I can't see it happening without some sort of discontinuity.

The constructive and destructive interference you are suggesting is the normal function of the excitatory and inhibitory neurons that normally cross between columns in fact! The concern here is that, with such massive cross-communication, how could coherent pattern recognition happen? It's a mystery to everybody.

Briefly, the clone architecture is indeed novel. It is likely either a prototype, proof-of-concept, or a classified short production run model. That Tukoss was using it is certainly interesting. Given his affiliations, it could very easily have been developed by Eifyr & Co., or possibly Poteque Pharmaceuticals, or a skunkworks division within another major firm or research group.

While the presence of Sisters of EVE implants is suggestive, 'Virtue' series implants have been available commercially for some time, while 'Ascendancy' series implants are readily available for those who've raided covert research facilities. It isn't difficult to acquire these, that's to say, and I imagine any novel clone architecture would be engineered in such a way as to permit continued use of existing hardwiring technology.

Without the complete corpse, we will be unable to identify markers on the clone and production techniques used by its creator, and so I doubt we'll be able to identify its source definitively.

Unfortunately, the expeditionary group was unable to retrieve Tukoss's corpse when we returned to the Redoubt Hive some days later, as it had disappeared.

The first releases under the other release header have started to hit Galnet.

Interested parties are advised to read Mark726's summary of the infiltration of the Conflux and Vidette Hive facilities, on Galnet here.

Interested parties are also requested to support Uriel Paradisi Anteovnucci's call for information from the Jove corporations operating in Empire space, who may have as-yet-unreleased information on the fate of the Jove and how that may relate to the Vigilant Tyrannos.

I finally got to read it in details. Excellente work and some interesting findings. The alterations of his cortex really intrigues me. Could it be that the drifters had attempted to modify his neural tissue to make him one of them or to extract information from his brain? This could certainly give us a better understanding of their nature if we can recover additional samples.

It still strikes me that they left his corpse floating in space. Everything else they have been doing is shrouded. They should have known that the corpse would give us information. In one way or another.

Are there any psychological or neurological reports of Dr. Tukoss before he left. If so, is it possible for you to access it and compare the findings?