Let's talk tech (Now with Glossary)!

[DL offline]

I have to agree with TB3 on this. An AI will not have emotion but can learn from different experiences and upgrade it's programing to reflect these experiences, in XANA's case anyway. Basically what XANA might do is observe people to see what weaknesses we have and exploit them in an attack. If that exploitation were to fail then XANA would record that failure and create a new plan, using that weakeness or another, and impliment it in the near future. Basically all XANA does is learn. It goes in quite well with the current XANA theroy unless it was changed again.

[Reesane offline]

Just checking, but does anyone need help with the puzzle metephor?

[TB3]

Sad to say, does anyone think it's time this thread goes away until S3 comes out this spring?

It's actually a great honour to have created such a sucessful thread - this is the 625th post, and for over two months this thread has been practically stickied to the top of the forums - but given that we've pretty much explained everything, should we retire LTT until we have new material?

I for one will be sad, and if anyone can think of a subject to keep it afloat for a few more days, months, weeks etc. I'll be glad (heck I want it to be the first CL Discussion thread to pass 1000 posts, get locked and start again as a second thread), but this is no longer my thread, it belongs to all of us who have posted here - any decisions will be made by a group and not just by me.

Cheers guys - Happy New Year and I hope to see you all soon!

[Reesane offline]

Yes.... by the end of S3, I should have enough information to decide wether or wether not XANA has emotions...

[Cassius335 offline]

By the end of S3, he just might. Who knows?

[YDV offline]

He really can't... he can display behavioral patterns that could be likened to emotions such as anger or fear, but he's still an inhuman computer program. No matter how much he evolves, XANA is still trapped by the reality of what he is.

[TB3]

It's a problematic question no doubt about it. I once theorized a way by which XANA MIGHT have emotions - but it might not be applicable.

If Hopper WANTED XANA to be an AI (not sure about this), he might have saved himself a lot of time and effort by building the program around a scan of his own brain.

Much like how the avatars contain a person's conciousness, XANA could be derived from Hopper in this manner, building around the kernal of Hopper's brain and then grafted to the Multi-Agent-Program and then tied up in programming to contain and restrict him.

Couple the flaws in the MA-Program to Hopper's own developing mental instability (which has carried over to XANA) and you get problems, and XANA might also retain some of Hoppers emotions.

Practically I threw this idea away a while ago, but I thought it might be of interest.

[dr xana offline]

what i dont get is if returns from the past cant raise the dead then since millions die everyday everytime they return millions of people should be dead instantly unless that means they will simply die again in the same day but in a different way

[Osiris offline]

I thaught it was because the haeling capabilities of the supercalculater were not powerfull enough to revive people

[YDV offline]

*sigh* Once again, an RTTP does not send the whole world back in time. It merely sends the gang's memories and recollections of the events back into their past selves, by using ZPE to open a TAP in the space-time continuum (check the glossary. i'm not explaining.)

I suggest you do a little reading on our collective theory in the previous pages if you really want to start duking it out theoretically.

[animenologist offline]

Atleast according to our current theory. We also believe that the RTTP also effects those who actively interact with XANA during his attacks and what-not. Those who do and die, their mind is reconstructed in a dead state. Its also the reason why we think memories concerning past events are blocked of and hidden in the deepest reaches of their subconcious.

As for the thread itself, I've been fearing the fact that we've been losing steam for a few weeks now. Come season 3, I hope we have new things to inspire us. But as of now, I can't think of anything. Right now, the only thing I can think of to drive us forward is to complete the first version of our article concerning Lyoko's principles. But other than that, stick a fork in us, we're done.

[TB3]

I'm in agreement with Animenologist here - we've been running at the bottom of the clock for a while now and I think I might have the thing to spice things up.

Here, for your conveinience is the first part of our 'essay'.

Everyone, produce your editing pens (and we might want to wiki as well), cos I personally think it's too short, reads like cr*p and desperately needs a rewrite.

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

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.

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

Show no mercy!

Tommorrow I write the next small chapter on ZPE, and then we delve into the hardware - scanners, stm etc.

Have fun!

[animenologist offline]

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 gray metal.

However when energized 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 energized it also noticeable glows brightly, though this is from the intake and exhalation of latent energy rather than wasting current within it – energized 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 super conducts 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 virtualization, materialization, possession 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 civilian life, Exertanium would revolutionize the world. It’s super conductive 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 military circles. ‘Exertanium-Weapons' could wipe communities off the maps, detonate nuclear warheads in their silos and kill a base’s personnel while leaving material and resources 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.

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

This is after going through it with MSWord grammar and spellcheck. As for the content, I can't really give much, since Exertanium and ZPE is more your area of expertise, TB3. Don't see whats wrong with the style, but that may be because I actually fully comprehend the material involved, so I feel its easy to understand and comprehend. As for size, Exertanium is actually a fairly small part of our research, a lot of our biggest and longest items came from the areas of the most debate and conflict, mainly time reversions, pixelisation, and the detailed inner workings of Lyoko and how it operates. So don't feel to bad if this particular chapter is short.

[Chad Rains offline]

Ok. totally non-related to the scheme of things so far, im just putting up a small theory thats been rattling in my brain the past few days. Feel free to shoot it down or ignore it altogether. wont bother me in the slightest.

The original theory was that considering that the episode "Franz Hopper" was right up there next to contact and the finale ep's (Revelation and The Key. they are both linked "finale ep's" in my book), it had some connection to them in some way. so my little hairbrained theory was that the Franz specter was originally created by Hopper in an attempt to contact the kids, but XANA found out and took over to the Franz specter and is where things got hairy with the team thinking that Yumi was dying and whatnot.

further developing this theory, it could be said that all the "coaxing" in season 2 (ie. Aelita's visions primarily) was Franz's way of contacting them as best as he could in his condition and coaxing them towards the answers they have been looking for. Up until "Contact", Franz had to go through XANA's methods and thus why the towers were still red at the time. In some way, he found out a way to control the tower's himself and thats where the white tower business started in "Contact"

[TB3]

Hmm...interesting idea VChat20 - it's possible, but the problem is it seems unlikely (I do admit though that pretty much everything we've said here is unlikely ), but it might well explain how XANA made the jump in simulating human emotions between 'XANA's Kiss' and 'Franz Hopper,' and then went back to a very OOC Odd in 'Revelation,' if the clone was originally created by Hopper himself.

That said it seems unlikely that Hopper was the cause of Aelita's visions - if he could have induced memories and designed complex dreams such as the Mr. Puck ones he could have appeared directly in Aelita's mind and spoken to her directly.

Still...worth keeping your idea in mind for now.

Animenologist, thanks for the feedback on the Exertanium piece. In gratitude I offer up the next chapter for your evaluation (and hopefully everyone else's as well if they turn up).

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

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.

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

Hope that read well - I'm much more pleased with it than the last one as it seems quite simple and relatively straightforward, but I'd really like to hear your feedback.

Cheers!

[Omega offline]

Hmm...interesting idea VChat20 - it's possible, but the problem is it seems unlikely (I do admit though that pretty much everything we've said here is unlikely )

Let's see... quantum computers, traveling through time, being "scanned" into a virtual parallel universe, abandoned factory full of really cool stuff... yeah, it's unbelievable.

Um, haven't been here a while, but here's something about people dying and RTTP's and what-not:
In one episode (saw it a while ago, don't remember the name), Ulrich clearly said something <i>similar</i> to this: "You know, guys, that returning to the past doesn't bring back the dead."

I'll do some research to find that again; TiVo ROCKS!!!

However, this sort of leaves me hanging here... Do the millions of people dying just cease to -- IDEA!!!

In Back to the Future, I think, they say that when you go back to the past, you go to a different parallel dimension. If this were true, the people who die and then we RTTP, those people simply never existed in the universe we go back to!!! This fits in neatly with a book I have... hang on... AHA!!!

Ooohh... this is exciting... MY FIRST DIAGRAM!!! This is from the Eyewitness Books series, book Time and Space.
NOTE: -- The options are what you ARE DOING, not what has happened.

0000000000000000 ----- A lot of options
.......00000000 ----- Sit at coffe table or in office
..........0000 ----- Sugar or not in chosen drink
............00 ----- Milk or cream in tea or coffee
.............0 ----- Tea or coffee

This diagram (^Above^) shows how... let me start again.
Let's say current time is that we have chosen to sit at the coffee table drinking coffee with milk and no sugar. Somebody dies. We RTTP back to sugar or not and chose sugar. All the people who died came with no sugar, which is what we had at Coffee Table 1, but not where we are now which is Coffe Table 2. Because they never did exist in our curent universe, nobody misses them. But back at Coffee Table 1, everybody is probably running around wondering "Gee, where did Jim Morales go?"


About the RTTF's: wait--- Return to the Future!?!? We need a new term.
To avoid the catastrophe of being missing for no reason, you return to a couple seconds after you left, thus never missing anything! If Odd were to go to the future, he would have to come back a couple seconds after he left.

Here's a question to keep ya goin': In Saint Valentine's Day, why does Aelita remain possesed after being scanned? Acording to current theory, non-biological files are placed elsewhere during the trip, so wouldn't that mean she would be relieved of possesion until she came back?
Another point though; during the transfer, Jeremy sees something weird about Aelita, so is that the necklace? I'm at a loss here, and I hope this sparks some interest...

btw, the edit was me clicking the wrong button, still used to the winter setup, so I pushed 'Submit' instead of 'Preview' Sorry.

[TB3]

Hmm...interesting idea VChat20 - it's possible, but the problem is it seems unlikely (I do admit though that pretty much everything we've said here is unlikely )

Let's see... quantum computers, traveling through time, being "scanned" into a virtual parallel universe, abandoned factory full of really cool stuff... yeah, it's unbelievable.

Um, haven't been here a while, but here's something about people dying and RTTP's and what-not:
In one episode (saw it a while ago, don't remember the name), Ulrich clearly said something <i>similar</i> to this: "You know, guys, that returning to the past doesn't bring back the dead."

I'll do some research to find that again; TiVo ROCKS!!!

However, this sort of leaves me hanging here... Do the millions of people dying just cease to -- IDEA!!!

This is one of those really contentious subjects, but the current theory is that the only people who are affected by the RTTP are those who have interacted with the program XANA is running. It goes something like this;

1. Teadybear attacks Jim
2. Because he has interacted with it's active program, the active tower 'tags' Jim and monitors him.
3. RTTP is triggered.
4. Current theory is that an RTTP streams memories back in time and inputs them into the brains of everyone who has interacted with the program (and also the supercomputer's memory-banks), but with memory blocks to prevent access to those memories.
5. Suppose Jim died in his fight with Teddygozilla - his brain would be reconstructed during the RTTP as a lump of dead grey matter - if you are to survive an RTTP you have to have brain activity.

By extending this in some circumstances a person who died naturally would suddenly 'die' after an RTTP - for example if XANA's teddy-bear stomped into a hospital and a load of people interacted into it, they'd be tagged. And if any of those people then died simply of old-age, heart-attacks etc, after the RTTP they would all flatline simultaeneously, a give the doctors a gigantic fright.

In Back to the Future, I think, they say that when you go back to the past, you go to a different parallel dimension. If this were true, the people who die and then we RTTP, those people simply never existed in the universe we go back to!!!

Umm...you might be confusing Back to the Future with another TV show/movie - in BTTF time is linear and not multidimensional - otherwise we could not have characters being erased because event sin the past have prevented their births.

The only approximation in BTTF of 'paralell universes' is in Part 2, where because of Biff Tannen's tampering with time, the original timeline has been disrupted creating a 'Hell Valley' universe.

This fits in neatly with a book I have... hang on... AHA!!!

Ooohh... this is exciting... MY FIRST DIAGRAM!!! This is from the Eyewitness Books series, book Time and Space.
NOTE: -- The options are what you ARE DOING, not what has happened.

0000000000000000 ----- A lot of options
.......00000000 ----- Sit at coffe table or in office
..........0000 ----- Sugar or not in chosen drink
............00 ----- Milk or cream in tea or coffee
.............0 ----- Tea or coffee

This diagram (^Above^) shows how... let me start again.
Let's say current time is that we have chosen to sit at the coffee table drinking coffee with milk and no sugar. Somebody dies. We RTTP back to sugar or not and chose sugar. All the people who died came with no sugar, which is what we had at Coffee Table 1, but not where we are now which is Coffe Table 2. Because they never did exist in our curent universe, nobody misses them. But back at Coffee Table 1, everybody is probably running around wondering "Gee, where did Jim Morales go?"

This might be applicable but again (and I really like how you described and illustrated it), until we see something to prove it in the show it sounds the least likely - multidimensonality is quite complex stuff.

The only way in which I could try 'disproving' this idea (and I hope I don't sound like a meanie) is that were this the case with the RTTP, you require a physical movement of bodies between dimensions, and this simply DOES NOT HAPPEN in the show - if it did, then in 'Attack of the Zombies' the RTTP would have depsosited everyone in a paralell universe but they would still be zombies, because the change was a permenant mutation not controlled by the tower - likewise in 'Killer Music' Odd, Sissi, Yolande etc. would still be in comas.

Given that these physical changes have never transcribed over the time-wipe, logically the RTTP is a process that only works on the mental level, and the relocation of memories seems most sensible.

About the RTTF's: wait--- Return to the Future!?!? We need a new term.
To avoid the catastrophe of being missing for no reason, you return to a couple seconds after you left, thus never missing anything! If Odd were to go to the future, he would have to come back a couple seconds after he left.

If the RTTP works the way we think it does, one could send one's memories to the future, but they would arrive in one's adult body (and you'd need some way of aiming the memories which is very tricky compared to the computer targeting a point it knew you were standing in 'X' hours ago).

One way which one could time-travel to the future is to get scanned in and then held in the computer as an idle program for several years, and then get scanned out - not only would you come out the exact same age as you went in, but there'd also be no 'other you's' in the future to complicate the issue.

Here's a question to keep ya goin': In Saint Valentine's Day, why does Aelita remain possesed after being scanned? Acording to current theory, non-biological files are placed elsewhere during the trip, so wouldn't that mean she would be relieved of possesion until she came back?
Another point though; during the transfer, Jeremy sees something weird about Aelita, so is that the necklace? I'm at a loss here, and I hope this sparks some interest...

Hmm but remember - in some cases the computer might be instructed to sort non-bio data into another folder but to still link it to the biological data (i.e. Jeremie would have his glasses on Lyoko, or people with pacemakers, false limbs would have to retain them etc.) - the necklace started glowing during the transfer and Jeremie picked up a bug, so presumably the necklace was uploading a data-stream to the scanner over-riding it and instructing it to either:

1. Treat it like essential non-biological data, and thus link it to Aelita.
2. The necklace might not have been the object controlling Aelita in Lyoko, but it could (during the transfer) have added extra lines of data to her code cross-linking her with XANA, allowing him to retain control of her but without the necklace.

btw, the edit was me clicking the wrong button, still used to the winter setup, so I pushed 'Submit' instead of 'Preview' Sorry.

No problem - hope these responses interested you, but if you or anyone else disagrees and wants to put forward your own ideas just say.

Cheers!

TB3

PS: Thanks for bumping this thread back onto the front page.

[Omega offline]

Thanks for replying 'bout that. I can see your side of... all the statements, but I suppose there's really no <i>right</i> answer to any of this. They could have even more complex ideas, or they could be simpler. (They would be Antefilms/Moonscoop.) I honestly think that they are all great ideas, as most of yours are, but maybe we just have to "ride the wave" a little bit longer 'till season 3.... maybe they will take every single one of our resolved ideas and use them. Be interesting to here this:

Jeremie: *thumps head* "Oh, no!"
Odd: "What?"
Jeremie: "I forgot to replace the exertanium! If it overheats, we're done for!"
Odd: "I'll be right back, Jeremie."
Jeremie: "Where are you going?"
Odd: "To the local hardware store!" *elevator door closes*
Jeremie: *thumps head*


But who knows?

P.S. No problem bout the bumping, I didn't realize I was even doing that!
P.P.S. This is off topic -- has anybody read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? You don't have to answer, I'm just curious.

P.P.P.S. W00T!!! 27 pages!!!

[Lani offline]

Hey guys, I just have to say that this thread was really interesting, and took over a week for me to read. xD Anyway, I've got... two questions.

-Just curious, what would happen if you scanned a dead person? Like someone who had just died, and their body was still intact and everything.
-Would Jeremie be able to materialize the vehicles, since Xana was able to materialize the crabs and Kankrelots?

^^ Keep up the good work~

[animenologist offline]

For your questions, Lani:

1. I can guess the situation would be very similar to Just in Time. In that case, something biological, but not alive in a concious sorta sense was scanned and possibly virtualized (Aelita's hair). In that case, the scanner used it to recreate Aelita's formatted computer code and create a fully made Aelita. If that episode is any indication, theoretically, you could create a virtual clone of a dead person and materialize it into a real person.

2. Theoretically its possible. XANA has materialized virtual things for scratch 3 times already (Image Problem, False Start, and A Bad Turn). If XANA can do it, Jeremie could too. Though he probably lacks the knowledge to do so, it took him a while to do multiple things XANA has been doing since its relatively early evolution (materialization, tower activation, spectres, plus he can do better avatar alterations given the chance).

As for TB3's work, what can I say about it? Its incredibly straightforward, easy reading, and a nice continuation of the groundwork set by the first chapter. Can't wait to see what can happen once you get into the meat and potatoes of the subject matter like actual operation and mechanics.

[TB3]

Thanks for the compliments Animenologist, I'm going to be working on the mechanics chapter today.

Lani - I cannot express how gratifying it is that you read the entire thread - thankyou so very much.

As for your questions I agree with Animenologist on point 2, provided that the vehicals operate in Lyoko with a concept of 'real-world-physics', otherwise Jeremie would have to design a mechanical system for them before he could materialise them, and it could be the same with XANA and his monsters.

Point one though is...contentious. I'm not sure if you could create a living, breathing virtual person from a corpse, both scientifically, and spiritually (the conciousness has gone and with it, the soul - that's personal opinion though).

Scientifically, you could easily build an avatar in Lyoko from the DNA of the body - possibly copying the molecular composition of the brain could allow a person to return to life, as long as the body had not begun to...well...rot (the molecular structure would begin to disintergrate and you'd have conflicting DNA elements from micro-organisms feeding on the flesh). Until we see it, I'm open to both sides, and it would be incredible if we could have someone die and return them to life with the scanners.

As for Aelita's hair, wasn't Jeremie using it to help him search for the fragments of Aelita's coding scattered around Lyoko, as I can't fathom how a hair would hold memories - however, Jeremie did say he was experimenting and had composed Aelita's code into a fractal and from that generated the hair - possibly it was different from human hair in that it had contained within it all of Aelita's coding, including memories etc.

This would have been a good test for Jeremie, as technically he materialized all of Aelita (all of her coding), except when the DNA was extrapolated by the scanner he instructed it to generate a single hair follicle, rather than the entire human body and mind.

Agh, it's all conjecture! Thanks again guys and I hope to be back soon with the 'meat and potatoes!'

[Osiris offline]

I just got round to reading the essay like documant you have been writing (would have done it sooner but damn programming assignment) i think you have some really good ideas.

Also about bringing aelita back to life in just in time Didn't her hair also include her vDNA. wasn't that why the scanner could recreate her?

[Chad Rains offline]

RE: Aelita's hair. Although I dont particularly remember anything in that episode about the hair being used to find Aelita's scattered data (I may have not been paying enough attention ), if the super computer is anything like the computer's we have, being formatted wouldnt have wiped Aelita's data clean as one may think. Generally what happens with computer's is anytime file are deleted or a drive is formatted, all that data is still on the drive, but not registered in the drives "table of contents" (this lists all the files that are currently on the drive and the type of filesystem and whatnot). But as more data is written back to the drive, it is written to random spots and sometimes overwrites the deleted data. that is why you commonly see people tell you when using those undelete programs, to do whatever possible to not write to the drive anymore than you have to before you use the program.

So taking the above theory, this could have very well been what happened in "JIT" and possibly Cruel Dilemma as well. the data was no longer "visible" per se, but it was still on the super computer. Jeremie could have very easily written a kind of "undelete" program to accomplish the task at hand.

[TB3]

Hey guys! Here's the next chapter, and I hope all the geniuses are present, as this one's a heavy chapter and might need a lot of corrections and editing.

Good luck and God be with you.

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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...

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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.

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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.

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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).

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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.

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Hope you survived all that! Remember to leave feedback!

[animenologist offline]

Specific quotes from Just in Time relavent to the hair.

This was Jeremie's speech explaining the materialization of the hair after he showed the test tube.

Jeremie: Well I chose a hair because it was a simple anatomical structure, but which contains Aelita's complete genetic computer code according to a well-known fractal whose recurrences are comparable to the genetic code of a human, which enabled me to make a physiological number transfer onto one part of the program already pre-targeted and defragmented. And that's that. Simple enough right?

____________________________

This was after Jeremie realized the problems relating to Aelita's genetic code and her eventual reformat.

Jeremie: I don't believe it, its a disaster!
Ulrich: What is?
Jeremie: I was trying to figure out why the materialization didn't work and I realized Aelita's program is all full of bugs. When I materialized the hair, I ... I hit a button I shouldn't have and so I damaged the annex programs.
Yumi: Annex? That doesn't sound so bad.
Jeremie: Thats what you think. The part of the program linking Aelita to the towers is screwed up. If Aelita enters the Lyoko code, she'll be completely reformatted.
Ulrich: Meaning?
Jeremie: She'll disappear forever!

_____________________________________

This was what happened at the end when Aelita was restored using the hair.

Ulrich: Jeremie, it wasn't your fault.
Jeremie: It was and all that for a strand of hair.
Yumi: Hey the hair! Jeremie, didn't you say that the hair contained Aelita's entire genetic code?
Jeremie: Her computer code, yes, but ...
Yumi: Is it possible to reverse things? And recreate Aelita's code from the strand of her hair? Hmm?
** Yumi places hair in scanner **
Jeremie: Here we go.
** Jeremie runs the console, scanning the hair **
Jeremie: It works! The codes are getting restored!
______________________________________________________

Take from it what you will. I'll be back with comments concerning the TB3's latest giving later.