Guardian Angels - Nanotechnology : Playing God by Elliott Griffin

Nanotechnology : Playing God
by Elliott Griffin

All right, let's jump right into this. The following is going to break down the composition and application of nanomachines in humans and entire nanomachine colonies, I will write about their role in Gears later when I have time..

�Theories on the Composition of Nanomachines and their applications to Human beings.
A nanomachine can be simply thought of as the equivalent of a human 'stem cell'. A stem cell is a universally applicable source that your body uses to reproduce nearly anything. They contain the entire DNA structure of your body and sort through it and apply the code needed to produce the desired cell. A nanomachine can be thought of as very similar, a universal rebuilding tool, which contains the entire genetic fabric of a being and applies only the code needed to reproduce the desired cells.

Now, from here you can start hypothesizing about their actual composition. It is a fact that Nanomachines are both organic and inorganic. Emeralda was comprised totally of Nanomachines, yet these Nanomachines contained the DNA of both Kim and Elly. The purpose of Emeralda was to fill the void in their lives where they felt a child should be, as well as an attempt to create the perfect being. So, from what is known about Emeralda one can infer that Nanomachines are a hybrid of organic materials (DNA namely) and technology. The word itself, Nanomachines, means an extremely small (talking billionth of an inch) machine. From what we know about human anatomy and physiology the human body attacks foreign matter that enters it. For instance, you cannot receive a kidney from someone without heavy hormone treatment to prevent your body from destroying said kidney in an attempt to rid itself of foreign matter. Therefore you can infer that when a person is treated with Nanomachines they must contain the DNA of the patient, or the body will not accept them.. Now, possibly, as the Nanomachines are fusing to your body, it can be assumed that they 'adapt' to your genetic structure as they go, thus accomplishing the same thing as being previously assimilated with the patient's DNA.

Either way, physiologically speaking, the recipient's DNA must be present for the body to accept the Nanomachines. Also, Nanomachines would need a map to go by to reconstruct lost tissues, limbs, etc. The only map for recreating an organic unit precisely is the DNA, thus further providing evidence that it must be involved intimately with the Nanomachines. So now that we've provided facts, as well as in-game citations, about the role of DNA within a nanomachine, let's talk about the other half that comprises a nanomachine, the inorganic parts. It is my belief that Nanomachines are self-sufficient modules that think, respond, and act, all while maintaining their applied role. However, to say they are self-sufficient is quite bold, because they will need a power source to do so, and how can something so small also have the ability to generate energy?

I think that they aren't powered in the mechanical sense, that they need constant charges to keep them operating, yet I think they are powered in a similar way as the cells they are replacing. They use a type of photosynthesis that transforms light into energy, as well as using the nutrients provided by the host to form energy. Possibly photosynthesis is the main power source for these machines, yet in times in low-light they have a system of converting bodily provided nutrients into energy. A sort of, hybrid-best of both worlds-type system that ran efficiently and constantly. There is no point in digging into the actual fuel source of Nanomachines as it would all truly be speculation, and for all we know, the humans on the planet of Xenogears might be silicon-based creatures, as opposed to us carbon-based humans, its entirely up in the air due to the lack of knowledge of the atmosphere of the planet of Xenogears. All in all, one must assume they use a hybrid of various energy sources to run all the time and maintain themselves.

�Nanomachines used to construct entire beings, as in Emeralda.
Everything that I just said simply applies to the application of Nanomachines to a Human being, now I believe the creation of a nanomachine colony-being is entirely different. Emeralda will be used from here out as the basis for this part of the discussion. She possesses the ability to transform parts of her body at her will and a number of other things that her strictly-nanomachine comprised body was capable of. Starting with the fact that her entire body, including brain, was composed of Nanomachines, I believe this is the source of her ability to 'morph' the Nanomachines into a desirable form. For instance, since her entire body is a billion (or something close) nanomachines they could work in unison to reform and then revert back to normal. A human with a nano-constructed arm didn't have the link to the Nanomachines to tell them to morph, but an entire colony of them linked to a central brain would be able to assemble in a desirable fashion. If humans possess such a link with the tiny minds of every single nanomachine I believe they could also tell them how to act. This just happened to be a benefit Emeralda had from being entirely comprised of them.

I have speculated also that Emeralda is somewhat of a miracle. She has an independent DNA pattern, a hybrid of Elly and Kim's DNA makeup. One can assume that Kim, in all his brilliance, took the DNA patterns and spun them together forming a mix of the two genomes, and in a sense, creating their child. Then inserted this code into the nanomachines that would assemble Emeralda, they in turn acting much like human stem cells, started assembling her body in the image this hybrid DNA created. Yet, what if the procedure Kim used was imperfect? Emeralda had green hair, and looked nothing like the two people her DNA was based on. I think this is a rehash of the DNA combination Kim used, along with the process being the first entirely nanomachine-composed being. I'm sure imperfections were abundant.

I hope this in some small way helped clarify nanomachines and their role in the Xenogears universe. This is entirely my speculation, based on theory and scientific knowledge. :D! - Elliott Griffin

Xenogears and everything in it are copyright Squaresoft. I claim no credit for their work/property. All artwork and stories belong to their respective artists and authors.