We’ve had this little conversation before, but UNITY doesn’t have a brain, or DNA. She’s a bunch of nanites inhabiting a stitched together puppet of corpse pieces with no working metabolism to keep a brain alive, even if it contained one. (Which, I seem to recall there was a strip or two about people being able to see daylight through her ears, so…)
At best, she’s a personality clone.
It’s a lot like with Aimee, to be honest. It would be just as insane to say that Aimee’s “brain” was “cloned” from Nick’s DNA – because she doesn’t have a brain, or DNA, and Nick’s brain wasn’t cloned. She’s a computer program based off Nick’s personality, running on a server. She’s a personality ‘clone’.
Sorry to pee on your campfire, but it’s canon. Virginia said that Unity’s brain is the only part of her that is technically alive, and that it was cloned from DNA that they got from some government facility. And Shaenon all but spelled it out in the commentary for Narbonic that it was in fact Mell’s DNA, sold to said facility by Helen.
Dr. Lee, canonically, declared the nanobot goo to be Unity, explaining a couple of strips later that it carries her memory engrams but requires brain hardware to execute higher cognitive functions. This explains why she gets smarter the more brains she consumes – they provide a temporary boost in processing power.
So even though Unity’s personality isn’t strictly biological (the carbon-based nanites being able to infect silicon-based AIs as well), they must have a DNA analogue (likely holographic) which allows her to recreate the original host environment in each new brain as required, much like a virtual machine. More importantly, they learn, accumulating experience as she evolves. Continuous backup.
The revenant (“zombie”) host body is preferred because it lacks a fully-functioning immune system, which eventually rejects the nanite swarm in living carbon-based units
All more or less correct, and all reinforcing my argument.
Unity’s nanites could be considered a distributed brain analogue. Technically, I would argue that at a fundamental level, she herself is the program that operates on them – in the same way that a person is the consciousness that operates within the cells of a brain.
But a brain analogue is not a cloned brain. Her program was built off Mell’s engrams, and so they “cloned” her personality in the sense of effectively copying it, but an actual biological cloning of tissue did not happen, because it wouldn’t make any sense.
D. Walker, I agree with you about the nature of Unity’s consciousness. Unity was spawned from an imprint of Mell’s and persists as a holographic pattern carried by the nanite swarm. She isn’t program, she’s “data in motion” which is why she could be transcribed onto the Semantic Web and ported to inorganic hosts or even “the Cloud”. Of course her personality has diverged from Mell’s, however close they may have been at the beginning. We have watched her growth as she has evolved into her own unique identity.
But I am an apologist. I’m that guy who hears about the Millennium Falcon famously making the Kessel run in less than twelve parsecs and considers it not an error but an idiomatic clue to the type of warp drive commonly in use.
I submit that the nanite swarm carries not only Unity’s personality and memories but also the DNA blueprint from Mell’s brain as her optimal host and literally converts the subject brain of the current host head into a clone of Mell’s due to neural pathways optimized for violence!
Back in the heyday of steamboats on the Mississippi, they used to measure journeys between two cities by both time taken and miles covered, because there were times you could take shortcuts if you were lucky and skilled enough.
In certain stages of the river, when the water was high enough, channels that would normally be dry and out of the water entirely would end up with enough water in them for a steamboat to pass over them, and thus shorten their path by miles at a time.
This was an inherently risky endeavor, though – a channel might be deep enough for a steamboat at the opening, but too shallow at the end, and you’d seldom know for sure at the time you decided to take the shortcut. On more than one occasion there was a steamboat that took a shortcut when the river was in flood, got stuck, and never moved from that spot again – leaving a giant steamboat stranded in the middle of the woods, well above the river, never to sail again, and likely to be stripped and scrapped.
Anyway, the same concept easily applies to space travel. The Kessel run is just a route that has shortcuts which shorten the distance, but which are normally not used because of hazards – flying through a dense asteroid field, for example, or flying between two binary stars or whatever.
I give Tremontino benefit of a good sense of client service and personal self-preservation. If Mel is a client, I suspect there would be much bowing and yes-ma’am-ing and silk handerchiefs dabbing cold sweat from the forehead.
Mell’s partnership with Winter and Threadham just makes her appearance here that much more amazing. So … apparently there was another level of amazing this could have reached?
Oh Mel, your return is triumphant, please bleed anasigma dry, they already lots so much money on this war you can finish them off with an itemized bill.
Did you also somehow miss Artie? Or do you mean show -back- up?
We literally just saw him a month and a half ago, and the circumstances of it would make it odd if we didn’t see him and Sergio again before the comic wraps up entirely.
Shaenon didn’t really have a direction for Narbonic at the start, so you’ll have to hang in there until RT5472 shows up. Note that the web comic is about being Dave.
Kinda surprised she hasn’t started on her political aspirations yet, or did the diversion from the dark timeline prevent her from one day becoming president?
Her political career seems to have been averted. A Sunday sketch during the mirrorverse arc showed us that mirror!Mell was a *former* President by that point.
Yes, we have. Per the Narbonic filename story (link kindly provided by John Campbell above), they used to be the Narbons’ evil attorneys. They may still be. They’re almost certainly still evil.
I tried to order it but sadly Cous-cous wanted double its cost to ship over the northern border, putting it out of my immediate budget, and then didn’t respond to my email. ;-(
Aw, darn, I used the same rhyme yesterday. Let’s try again…
The law firm has got a new partner. Fetching CEOs for a good start, her. More service extensive, but it gets expensive. Perhaps they’ll do online Kickstarter.
When I bought mine a few years ago, the postage to the UK on the mailing label was only a few cents less than what I paid for books plus postage, making it a net loss to Shaenon. (I put a few quid in the tip jar.) They are heavy (high-quality!) books.
Having taken the end of Skin Horse to re-read Narbonic, I note that Mell is looking much younger in Skin Horse’s 2022 than she did in Narbonic’s Bad Future of 2023. Compare her in this strip to her in “Unstuck in time” http://narbonic.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2003/08/030826.jpg
Is it just the difference in hair, or maybe it’s the sheer enjoyment she has here that she doesn’t in the other timeline.
Ah, I’ve missed Mell’s Cheerful, Sunny Brand of Violent Sociopathy.
…I’m a bit curious how, as UNITY is supposed to be a personality clone of Mell.
UNITY’s brain was cloned from Mell’s DNA, but let’s face it… there’s just no one quite like Mell.
We’ve had this little conversation before, but UNITY doesn’t have a brain, or DNA. She’s a bunch of nanites inhabiting a stitched together puppet of corpse pieces with no working metabolism to keep a brain alive, even if it contained one. (Which, I seem to recall there was a strip or two about people being able to see daylight through her ears, so…)
At best, she’s a personality clone.
It’s a lot like with Aimee, to be honest. It would be just as insane to say that Aimee’s “brain” was “cloned” from Nick’s DNA – because she doesn’t have a brain, or DNA, and Nick’s brain wasn’t cloned. She’s a computer program based off Nick’s personality, running on a server. She’s a personality ‘clone’.
….but I digress…
Sorry to pee on your campfire, but it’s canon. Virginia said that Unity’s brain is the only part of her that is technically alive, and that it was cloned from DNA that they got from some government facility. And Shaenon all but spelled it out in the commentary for Narbonic that it was in fact Mell’s DNA, sold to said facility by Helen.
My 2cents
Dr. Lee, canonically, declared the nanobot goo to be Unity, explaining a couple of strips later that it carries her memory engrams but requires brain hardware to execute higher cognitive functions. This explains why she gets smarter the more brains she consumes – they provide a temporary boost in processing power.
So even though Unity’s personality isn’t strictly biological (the carbon-based nanites being able to infect silicon-based AIs as well), they must have a DNA analogue (likely holographic) which allows her to recreate the original host environment in each new brain as required, much like a virtual machine. More importantly, they learn, accumulating experience as she evolves. Continuous backup.
The revenant (“zombie”) host body is preferred because it lacks a fully-functioning immune system, which eventually rejects the nanite swarm in living carbon-based units
@David B Huber
All more or less correct, and all reinforcing my argument.
Unity’s nanites could be considered a distributed brain analogue. Technically, I would argue that at a fundamental level, she herself is the program that operates on them – in the same way that a person is the consciousness that operates within the cells of a brain.
But a brain analogue is not a cloned brain. Her program was built off Mell’s engrams, and so they “cloned” her personality in the sense of effectively copying it, but an actual biological cloning of tissue did not happen, because it wouldn’t make any sense.
D. Walker, I agree with you about the nature of Unity’s consciousness. Unity was spawned from an imprint of Mell’s and persists as a holographic pattern carried by the nanite swarm. She isn’t program, she’s “data in motion” which is why she could be transcribed onto the Semantic Web and ported to inorganic hosts or even “the Cloud”. Of course her personality has diverged from Mell’s, however close they may have been at the beginning. We have watched her growth as she has evolved into her own unique identity.
But I am an apologist.
I’m that guy who hears about the Millennium Falcon famously making the Kessel run in less than twelve parsecs and considers it not an error but an idiomatic clue to the type of warp drive commonly in use.
I submit that the nanite swarm carries not only Unity’s personality and memories but also the DNA blueprint from Mell’s brain as her optimal host and literally converts the subject brain of the current host head into a clone of Mell’s due to neural pathways optimized for violence!
@David B Huber
It’s not an error, though.
Back in the heyday of steamboats on the Mississippi, they used to measure journeys between two cities by both time taken and miles covered, because there were times you could take shortcuts if you were lucky and skilled enough.
In certain stages of the river, when the water was high enough, channels that would normally be dry and out of the water entirely would end up with enough water in them for a steamboat to pass over them, and thus shorten their path by miles at a time.
This was an inherently risky endeavor, though – a channel might be deep enough for a steamboat at the opening, but too shallow at the end, and you’d seldom know for sure at the time you decided to take the shortcut. On more than one occasion there was a steamboat that took a shortcut when the river was in flood, got stuck, and never moved from that spot again – leaving a giant steamboat stranded in the middle of the woods, well above the river, never to sail again, and likely to be stripped and scrapped.
Anyway, the same concept easily applies to space travel. The Kessel run is just a route that has shortcuts which shorten the distance, but which are normally not used because of hazards – flying through a dense asteroid field, for example, or flying between two binary stars or whatever.
@D. Walker:
Thank you. That’s the clearest and most comprehensive explanation I’ve seen. Of both river navigation and “the Kessel run”.
Angels: December 26-31, 2005 | Narbonic: Director’s Cut
http://narbonic.com/comic/december-26-31-2005/
Tuesday’s strip and commentary.
Yes, it looks like Mell has found her perfect career.
Is Tremontino Mel’s tailor? It’s amazing how her suit projects high levels of competence in law, service, and mayhem.
That would be – ah – fitting!
She’d have to resist the urge to smack the ever-livin’ smugness out of him.
I give Tremontino benefit of a good sense of client service and personal self-preservation. If Mel is a client, I suspect there would be much bowing and yes-ma’am-ing and silk handerchiefs dabbing cold sweat from the forehead.
One wonders if Winter and Threadham were very shrewd or very foolish in their choice of junior partners.
Per a certain hidden story about an incident at an Italian bistro, Octavius Winter and Elijah Threadham were the Narbon line’s former evil attorneys.
(I should really reformat that so that the complete run-through is the one with the punctuation and stuff.)
It’s published in the Narbonic reader which is available in the store. The illustrations really add to that story.
Mell’s partnership with Winter and Threadham just makes her appearance here that much more amazing. So … apparently there was another level of amazing this could have reached?
They almost recruited a Howe, then they realised they didn’t have the right names for that to work.
Howe was later brought on board by the renowned team of Dewey and Cheatham.
Oh Mel, your return is triumphant, please bleed anasigma dry, they already lots so much money on this war you can finish them off with an itemized bill.
Did she just say “if I have to fight my way in we will bill you for it”?
Oh yes she did. It is proof of her superior name brand of corporate evil.
Have fun and make money doing it.
And done with a smile on her face. She’s got style to go with the old ultra-violence.
Ah, Mell. You haven’t changed at all.
Did anasigma just update their logo?
I hadn’t noticed that before you pointed it out. Interesting.
Mel is definitely Red Team.
I’ve really missed Mel.
Wonder if Artie’s going to show up?
Did you also somehow miss Artie? Or do you mean show -back- up?
We literally just saw him a month and a half ago, and the circumstances of it would make it odd if we didn’t see him and Sergio again before the comic wraps up entirely.
Pretty sure the full question was “Wonder if Artie’s going to show up to see Mell?”
Yes, I was wondering if he’d show up again and see Mell. He knows Tip, too, which might make things interesting if it comes up.
Helen and Dave, now, would surprise me if they make an appearance.
I don’t believe that I’m familiar with Mell Kelly, I’m guessing that she only appeared in Narbonic up until now.
You really should read it! Go to Narbonic.com for Shaenon’s original webcomic. Also read “Li’l Mell And Sergio” for a peek at Mel’s childhood days.
And Sergio’s!
And then go order a copy of the “Perfect Collection.” Maybe Shaenon will draw a cute gerbil on the mailing packet like she did on mine!
I got that too, which is why I didn’t throw it out.
I also have my gerbil and it is so good.
Also I 4th the recommendation to read narbonic.
I cut out my gerbil and framed it!
I cut mine out and use it as a bookmark when I read the books
Mel is quite likely the most dangerous person we’ve seen in the story up to this point…
She has been seen at the coffee shop the gang frequents. Not a speaking part, just a walk-on.
Shaenon didn’t really have a direction for Narbonic at the start, so you’ll have to hang in there until RT5472 shows up. Note that the web comic is about being Dave.
Kinda surprised she hasn’t started on her political aspirations yet, or did the diversion from the dark timeline prevent her from one day becoming president?
Her political career seems to have been averted. A Sunday sketch during the mirrorverse arc showed us that mirror!Mell was a *former* President by that point.
Mell probably just hasn’t gotten bored with lawyering yet.
Have we met the lawyers Winter and Threadham? Are they the sort we would approve of letting the innocent Ms. Kelly hang around with?
Yes, we have. Per the Narbonic filename story (link kindly provided by John Campbell above), they used to be the Narbons’ evil attorneys. They may still be. They’re almost certainly still evil.
Then we can hope Mel hasn’t corrupted them further.
SPOILERS but they’re both dead by the end of the story, so I like to think Mell is the only living partner in a zombie law firm.
Well, she was once taken up to Heaven…got thrown out of there, then thrown out of Hell…but I guess no part of that involved dying.
I’m sensing that someone didn’t want to actually draw Mel stress-testing their security….
I have a new favorite fictional lawyer.
I’ll have to remember her when my friend starts talking Perry Mason.
I tried to order it but sadly Cous-cous wanted double its cost to ship over the northern border, putting it out of my immediate budget, and then didn’t respond to my email. ;-(
Supposed to have been a response to HL’s comment mentioning Perfect Collection.
Try emailing me@shaenon.com. Sorry if we missed your inquiry–and sorry that international shipping is so high right now. We wish it weren’t.
Winter and Threadham and Kelly are worthy of Machiavelli. Their corporate clients are always compliant, ’cause there all immense Nervous Nellies.
Aw, darn, I used the same rhyme yesterday. Let’s try again…
The law firm has got a new partner. Fetching CEOs for a good start, her. More service extensive, but it gets expensive. Perhaps they’ll do online Kickstarter.
Y’know, come to think of it, Mell has changed. She didn’t bring Dave to his job interview in a sack, just invited him to come.
When I bought mine a few years ago, the postage to the UK on the mailing label was only a few cents less than what I paid for books plus postage, making it a net loss to Shaenon. (I put a few quid in the tip jar.) They are heavy (high-quality!) books.
Supposed to have been a response to mickeyjf’s comment mentioning Perfect Collection.
Having taken the end of Skin Horse to re-read Narbonic, I note that Mell is looking much younger in Skin Horse’s 2022 than she did in Narbonic’s Bad Future of 2023. Compare her in this strip to her in “Unstuck in time”
http://narbonic.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2003/08/030826.jpg
Is it just the difference in hair, or maybe it’s the sheer enjoyment she has here that she doesn’t in the other timeline.
So I don’t entirely remember how this goes, but I am willing to bet that Tip is in a different outfit when he emerges from the sack.