Genetic Mutations and the Norn Gene Pool
Written onI was finally able to settle down and take a look at the genome of Jetvika. Even though she was left on her own for a good portion of her first ten minutes, she vigilantly stood by the learning computer! I also had provided her with a small store of food: Norns can be fairly self sufficient most of the time. However, I paused to examine her genetic mutations. She possessed a mix of Forest Norn genes and standard Norn genes.
Lobes
Brain lobes include important information about how the different parts of the brain work, from how concepts are learned to how a Norn goes through the decision process. These genes can greatly affect the learning process.
121 Emb B MutDup Lobe #= 7 Dendrite Type 1: Input Lobe=5, Min#=1, Max#=1, Spread=0, Fanout=0
This is just one part of the gene, since there are multiple tabs in the Genetics Kit for each lobe gene. Gene 121 corresponds to attention lobe, which controls what object the Norn will pay attention to. In this case, the type 1 dendrites had been mutated. The standard Norn genome has the input lobe set at 4, but this input would be taken from lobe 5. Lobe 4 corresponds to the noun lobe, while lobe 5 is the general sensory lobe. The noun lobe is fairly straightforward: It has cells that match up with each noun in the world. It is activated whenever a particular noun, such as “food,” or the verb “look” is spoken. The general sensory lobe is a bit more complicated. It is linked with the stimulus lobe, and controls what the creature can sense in the environment. Some of the cells within this lobe might include “I’ve been patted” or “User has spoken.” Effectively, Jetvika should focus her attention based upon her environment, rather than any spoken nouns. In practice, I found no obvious difference with the way that she focuses compared to other Norns. I expected her not listen to any spoken nouns, although she would still be able to direct her attention to specific objects. Just another unexpected outcome!
Stimuli
Stimuli genes define the chemicals that a Creature expects to receive in response to an action. These actions can range from interactions with the hand to involuntary actions like coughing or sneezing.
244 Emb B Mut ‘Invol 3=’cough” causes sig=0 GS neu=255 int=0, , , => 32*Pain + 8*Coldness + 8*Fear + 16*Hexokinase
At last, a simple mutation! The standard Norn will receive pain, tiredness, fear, and hexokinase each time he or she coughs. In contract, Jetvika will become cold rather than tired. This is actually beneficial, since fever toxin can be present with a cough. She would effectively cool herself down each time she coughed! Hopefully Jetvika will lead a healthy life, though. If she ever does come down with an illness, perhaps we will be able to see this mutation in effect! This is also one of the first positive genetic mutations: Jetvika could pass this gene on.
Husby soon laid a beautiful egg in the garden, after the wonderful Glein headed off in another direction. At least female Norns know how to take care of themselves without any help from their male counterparts! Erikstad and Dalselv witnessed the appearance of the egg, and Erikstad apparently wanted to try to convince me that he was the one who had laid it. I didn’t buy it! He was convinced of his cleverness, however, so I avoided any acts of disillusionment.
Glein soon found Bolga on the island, where they shared a few quiet moments together. He was very surprised when he learned that a little egg was on its way! At least he was creating a bit of genetic diversity in the world. Arnes would most likely never become a father, and Innhavet was just beginning his fray into adulthood. Erikstad was still the leader when it came to passing on his genes, but I was happy to see his dictatorship coming to an end. Imagine if everyone from the next generation had the same father! Not exactly the path towards improving the Norn genetics in Creatures 1.
Soon, a little Norn egg was laid in the warm sunshine of Albia. Forvika was amazed by the newest addition, and she stopped to take a close look at it. I hoped she realized that the bouncing ball was the actual toy, and not the bright blue egg! C1 eggs can not be moved until they have grown to their largest size. Some creatures often enjoy taking a look at the small eggs, although their attention usually takes them elsewhere. As much as Forvika may have wanted to see what would emerge from the egg, it would soon become dormant after being picked up.
Nothing could keep Halvor from looking at the full grown eggs, though! He stood up as tall as he could, and must have wondered what was inside these strange objects. It was adorable to watch him stand with them for some time: It was almost as if Halvor had appointed himself the egg guardian! What a character he was. There would be more eggs for him to watch over very soon!
Hide your eggs, cause Halvor is snatching all your eggs up!
-Toaster
I think that Norns are hard-coded to shift their attention based on nouns the hand says. The CDR’s write-up on the attention lobe describes how some original C1 Norns had an error in the lobe’s SVRule that caused it not to take information from the noun lobe, which was fixed by altering the executable. So that may be why Jetvika’s brain lobe mutation is apparently harmless.
Anyway, your blog is very entertaining! Keep up the good work!
Toaster: Ha ha! Stay tuned for the next update about the C1 world. I have the funniest picture of Halvor actually “wearing” an egg! He snatched that one up!
Anonymous: Thank you very much for the information and link! The CDR is probably the best site for information related to C1 Norn genetics, and I usually visit it every day. I had read the section about the SVRule issue, but I wasn’t confident enough to say whether this was part of the reason for Jetvika’s harmless mutation. Seems quite logical, though!
Thanks for the kind comments, and I hope you’ll continue to enjoy future entries!
Some interesting mutations in Jetvika. Will have to keep your eye on the lobe mutation to see what effects it has.
As for the stimuli mutation, it’s very cool to finally see a mutation that could be beneficial! Fingers crossed it gets passed on.
Thanks, ArchDragon! I’m kind of hoping that she comes down with a very minor illness, just so we can see her mutation in action. Hopefully she will be able to pass this along to at least one or two Norns: It certainly will come in handy in pretty much generation!
I wonder if Halvor was sad he would never have eggs of his own.
Maybe he was: My C1 Grendels often take an interest in the Norn eggs, whereas the other Norns rarely look at or interact with them. Perhaps Halvor was trying to spend a little time with the next generation in whatever way possible!