Combining the Digital with the Molecular

[Gir Quee]

Fairview, Hast

Gir flicked the lightswitch on in the rearmost room of the basement, casting harsh white light across industrial benches and cabinets. The basement of Gir's villa had been outfitted with a workshop to allow the man to tinker with ideas and technologies on his own as a hobby. When he first dreamed up the idea, he imagined fiddling with old starship engines and swoops. Yet the first time he actually had walked into the room to use it, and he found himself contemplating a work project instead. Azira slipped past his form to wander into the workshop as she looked around before setting down a suitcase. But she quickly spun around on her heel.

"Everything is still packed up, isn't it?"

Gir nodded, "To be truthful, I'm not sure what I have for this sort of work. My computer work has been pretty limited, and what experience I have is purely with starship systems."

"That's all right, today is just a basic demonstration to get you thinking about it...just so you have a practical idea of what we're working on..."

She nodded as she flipped open the suitcase's lid to reveal a blocky device that looked like a combination between a clear-cased soft drink dispenser and a random assortment of electronics from the local computer store. Gir stroked his chin. I wonder if Lod used one of these before...But the thoughts of his protege quickly faded away as Azira flipped a switch, which turned on the Duros Bio-Comp 1000. Gir thought that he saw a few air pockets bubble up before the computer's built-in holo-projector began to coalesce a loading screen in front of him.

"You didn't plug it in," observed Gir, "what's the power source?"

 

[Gir Quee]

"Photosynthesis," said the bothan, "or rather, the organisms in this compartment photosynthesize which then transfer the energy gained to the actual working part of the computer."

"I imagine that's design challenge number one then," said the blonde man, leaning back against one of the tables, "given that their won't be a lot of sunlight in deep space, or in the interior of the ship."

Her fur rippled, "We're working on several alternatives. I think the most simple solution is to adapt the plankton found in Aqualish Bio-lights to this computer's internal environment. The key advantage to using them is they react chemically to pretty common gases found in Type I atmospheres: carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and the like."

"So in other words, it would be powered by our life support system?"

Her fur rippled, "And that's the major objection that Salmakk has to it right now. He doesn't feel comfortable putting everything 'all in one basket', as the saying goes. He's currently researching deep-sea bacteria that survive in hydrothermal vents on Gessbrilbak that use chemosynthesis, rather than photosynthesis, to produce energy. But I think that he's over his head with that, even with Koorht's assistance."

Gir offered a rare frown. The design team has already diverged into two camps, it would appear. There's nothing wrong with exploring a couple of options, but her tone makes me wonder if it's become competitive, and not in a good way...I may have to intervene in this...actually work as management...The man from Hast slowly shook his head.

"Let me play devil's advocate for a minute. The power issue sounds like it's the current bottleneck in the design process. Let's assume that neither chemosynthesis or photosynthesis prove to be really ideal for the job. Is there a way to power this with conventional energy sources?"

Her fur rippled, "Yes...I suppose there would be...it might actually be simpler, but I feel like we'd be losing out on a potential advantage to a biological construct normally affords..."

"That's okay," said the man, "we don't need to make an exact copy of this computer, just something that meets the project specifications...tell me about the actual computing process itself."

 

[Gir Quee]

"The hardware foundation of the Bio-comp are these bio-composite fiber strands, which act kind of like a hard drive. How the proteins are arranged inside those strands determines how they act...hmmm...how to put this...the proteins are kind of like the old-fashioned binary coding used on really simple systems, like escape pod navigation systems or the simple household automatons."

"So these proteins are modified chemically?"

"Yes and no. I mean, they are strictly speaking physically modified into new materials. But what I think you really meant is what causes them to change. And the answer is electricity. Electrical charges guide the molecules around within the nutrient bath to make the system work."

Gir blinked as he tried to comprehend the concept. The use of electricity within organic systems wasn't foreign knowledge to him. After all, his own body used electrical impulses in structured ways as a sort of programming. For example, the human heart used sequenced electrical charges to specify when and how to have the heart's muscles to contract. But that seemed like rather simple, straightforward function compared to the ability to run the complex tasks of modern software. He held his thoughts for a second. But then again, many complex programming tasks can be broken down into amalgrams of simple functions. The tricky part is designing the interaction between all of those functions so that you get something that is consistently useful when provided with proper input...An errant side thought from his first professional track wandered into his consciousness.

"If it runs on electricity, then it is vulnerable to ion and EMP attacks, isn't it?"

"Not to the same degree as conventional technology."

"And why is that?"

 

[Gir Quee]

"It's actually dependent on a couple of things," started the female, "such as the composition of the liquid in the compartment of the computer. Pure water is actually an insulator. So really, you have a bunch of components shrouded in centimeters worth of insulation."

"Assuming there are no ions in the system," said Gir, "but I imagine that there has to be some for life to exist...at least in the compartments that contain living organisms."

"Some, but very few," said Azira, "the electrical impulses run up and down the fiber strands. But let's remember that the fiber strands themselves aren't living organisms, but rather combinations of chemicals...but I digress. Outside electricity trying to penetrate through all of that the insulation wouldn't be effective, but if the electricity was somehow introduced into the fiber themselves, the current would likely be powerful enough to overrun or disrupt the naturally occurring current in the fibers. So in essence, it would be disrupted like a normal computer. But unlike conventional electronics, we're not talking about frying stagnant circuits...we're talking about interrupting a biological process that will continue after the stimuli is removed."

"We're talking about the concept of biological compensation then," guessed Gir.

"Right," said the bothan, "we're talking about the chemical makeup of the proteins being altered. It's almost going to immediately notice the errors and will begin to self-correct, though there will be memory corruption that could result in a complete memory loss. But that's dependent on a number of factors, such as the length and power of the stimuli. In the worse case scenarios, the culture molecule organisms in the reserve tank would have to start rebuilding the strands from scratch."

"That sounds like a time-consuming process."

Her fur ripped, "Yes, it would be."

 

[Gir Quee]

"So how far are we into seeing a working prototype of the Calor?"

"Hard to say," said Azira, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, "scaling this technology upwards to the size useful as starships consoles is something more complex that the device here. It's not so much the duplication...the actual processing unitsare the same, it'll be more of a matter of linking them into a single, working system."

"So the other bottleneck issue is programming?"

Her fur rippled as she tugged at one of her shirt's sleeves.

"Yes. Especially if we want to build a separate supporting partition within each console with self-programming field programmable gate array."

"The ability to do that is what makes this technology worth pursuing," said Gir, "truthfully I wasn't in favor of greenlighting this project until that ability was mentioned as a possibility. But, if we can only to get to a basic working model of it at this scale, that will be okay. It can be a long-term goal to work towards, eventually. That being said, I think this may need to be accelerated."

"How do you plan to do that?"

"I want you to head a solution aimed the programming bottleneck, and focus your effort only that," said the man, "likewise, I will instruct Salmakk to focus exclusively on solving the power issue. But I do not expect you both to complete that with the resources and help that you currently have. I will work on obtaining the proper people and supplies to help you meet your specific goals."

 

[Gir Quee]

Azira's fur rippled in waves which signaled to Gir that his ideas had irritated her. She leaned up against the counter and lightly rapped her clawed digits against the countertop. Now I've done it...If Lucerne Labs had been run as a military or even with a typical corporate chain of command, her displeasure would be something that she'd simply have to deal with. And while much of the company had slowly assumed that typical form, the inner circle still mostly retained its egalitarian culture. She eyed him intently, and Gir dreaded that look. I've either hurt or angered her...or both...

"Your military is coming out."

Gir hesitated and looked briefly downwards before looking up, "I suppose it is. Look, Azira...I realize..."

"This doesn't need to be more awkward than it already is," said the bothan, "it seems that we both have glimpses of what the other is thinking...and you seem to be showing some regret for your earlier thoughts. I can appreciate that. And as much as I dislike the idea of you...meddling in the project. You're probably on point with your plan of action. I suppose that's why everyone else has a typical corporate management chain."

The blonde man paused, "There's a time...at least I found...when it's best to revert back to doing that sort of rigidly structured organization, especially in a time of crisis. But I don't want it to always be that way, and truthfully, I sometimes wish we could go back to the days when Salmakk introduced me to the company."

She grinned, "As a young officer who didn't know what he was doing half the time?"

"Something like that."

 

[Gir Quee]

"So when I get expect help to arrive?"

"As soon as I can find it," said Gir, "I know a few people who may know some other people from my days in the Republic."

"Spaarti Creations?" guessed the bothan.

"Probably among one of the biggest players in the field," said the man, "but if this is something that truly is going to be our own, I think we're talking about hiring experts into this field. You and the rest of the team have done a lot, but I think we're nearing the breaking point of what we can do with blending traditional technology with basic biology. We're going to need biological and or biochemical engineering experts to make this happen with the greatest odds of success."

She nodded, "I'll download what we have currently have on the Calor onto your computer here then. It might help you with your search."

"I appreciate it," said Gir, "to better answer your question, I'm thinking that you'll see help arrive in two to three weeks. Most of that time will be spent traveling from the core to Hast...but there's a chance that they start helping you sooner with some of the theoretical work or designing that can be completed as a distance job. I would start thinking about formulating tasks that you can farm out to the new hires. I'll contact you as soon as I have one onboard."

"I suppose I should head out then."

"It was good seeing you again."

"Yes...hopefully next time I'll have something more tangible to demonstrate to you."

 

[Gir Quee]

Later on that night...

Gir leaned forward on a chair on the top floor of his villa. Dusk had begun to set in, causing dim orange light to reflect off the sea's glassy surface and faintly illuminate the living room in shades of dull amber. He briefly regarded one of the room's plotted plants which appeared somewhat sickly. Is it just the light? Or did one of the caretaker droids malfunction or omit it from its task list? Gir looked at the datapad resting on a nearby stand. What am I saying? I ought to stop procrastinating. The blonde man tapped a button on the datapad, causing the holo-projector in front of him to hum. Light began to coalesce above it into the four-pointed star logo of Lucerne Labs as it established a connection through the holo-net.

Several minutes passed before the logo faded away to reveal a human male in his mid-forties sitting at on office desk light years away. Judging by how the man's tie appeared loosened and uprolled sleeves, Gir guessed that Wenton was actually working past his normal scheduled hours. The black-haired man offered Gir a practiced smile while he straightened out his desk.

"I must admit, I never expected you to call me after all this time. I hear that you are happy with your job. Not looking for another one, are you? I'm not sure if I can find you a higher position..."

Quee offered a subdued smile in return, "Not at the moment. But I'm looking for people who are looking for jobs."

"Oh. Oh," said Wenton, leaning forward, "Well...that's just as good. What kind of degree or candidate are you looking for?"

"Someone with a background in genetic engineering or biochemistry. Actually, several people, if you know of any."

"One of my headhunters has been travelling the collegiate circuit, so I should have a lot of new grads looking for jobs," said the man, "but experienced people...well...that'd be a bit farther. Give me the basic run-down of what you're looking for, any specific experience or skillsets within bioengineering itself? How many people total?"

 

[Gir Quee]

"Five for the moment," decided Gir, "but keep your eye out...I think we will be expanding this section more in the future as well. As for skills, I am most interested in those candidates who have an interest or experience in how their field relates to materials science or traditional computing. Experience applying those to starships or vehicles would be even greater, but I imagine that such candidates will be even harder to find."

Wenton nodded, "Very much a niche...but I assume that is a niche that Lucerne Labs apparently sees potential profit in. That is enough information for me to start searching for candidates though. But now it's a matter of how they will see you. I'm assuming industry standard salary and company benefits are the start of the order."

Gir nodded, "And signing bonuses for those with the right experience."

"Naturally."

"Do you think that will be enough?"

"It's a small and difficult field to master," said Wenton, "I would really recommend offering something more...compelling. Sharing your idea of starships augmented by biotechnology, which I'm guessing is your goal, might help entice some of them. But I think you may need something more."

"What would you recommend?"

"It will probably vary from candidate to candidate, and I will have my people try and pry some ideas from them to formulate to use as part of our offers, but I need an understanding from you that I will need some flexibility in working with what I can offer them. I may ask you to give them one of your shuttles as a package, or a house, or perhaps a tuition assistance plan so that they can go back to school in the future."

"I understand," said Gir, nodding his head, "I will leave those specifics to you. I'm assuming that you will want your usual rate?"

"You wouldn't be calling me if you could fill these positions on your own," surmised the man, "which means that you want them fast. My normal rate and a half."

"Your normal rate and a quarter," countered Gir, "I have Windsor Staffing on my next to call list if this falls through."

"Deal."

 

[Gir Quee]

Some weeks later...

"This is perhaps the finest human home I have ever visited."

Gir looked down at the lurrian touched the leaf of one of the villa's indoor plants. Apparently he can also appreciate open spaces and plants...Gir turned his gaze from the diminutive alien to Azira, who approached them with a glass full of purple colored liquid in each hand. She handed one to Gir and the other to her new partner. Wern sniffed it, took a sip, and promptly set it down on a table. The bothan cleared her throat.

"Wern, this is Gir. And Gir, Wern."

Gir knelt down and stretched out his hand to offer a handshake to the Lab's newest engineer. Wern regarded it tentatively before grasping it. But just as quickly as he grabbed it, he let it go. I'm going to make a guess that he's either not used to common galactic society practices, or that he's not much of a people person. The blonde man stood up.

"A pleasure to meet you."

But Gir did not have the creature's full attention. Wern's eyes darted around the room, inspecting the various plants and objects. He briefly waddled over to lean over a vase and sniff one of the ferns before he turned his almost wookiee-like face towards the man.

"And your's."

Azira offered a brief smile, "Wern was the one who introduced the idea of using microbial fuel cells, and he optimized most of the organisms in it.'

"That's impressive."

"It's nothing, really," said the wide-eyed lurrian, hobbling over to look at another plant, "there are much more interesting and complicated things here than in the lab...I wonder if I might trouble you for a couple of specimen samples of these."

 

[Gir Quee]

"Absolutely," said the blonde man, "take what you like."

Almost immediately, Wern gingerly stripped one of the fern's leaves off and placed it in wood-like capsule that he wore around his waist. Sort of has a Wookiee's fashion sense as well...but perhaps that's just because of my normal frame of reference. I wonder why I haven't seen others like him...Gir cleared his voice.

"So where are you from?"

But Wern seemed absorbed in studying another fern which seemed almost identical to the one he had just torn a leaf from. Azira flashed him a knowing look. I wonder if he's like that in the research labs...

"Wern is from Lur," explained Azira, "much of their material culture is based on genetically modifying things. You guys don't use a lot of machines, do you?"

"Traditionally, no," said Wern, waddling over towards another plant, "there was never really much that we could build them from...except for snow...but nature provided enough other organisms to allow us to thrive."

"You're the first lurrian I've ever met."

"Most of us never leave our world. I'm probably something of a rariety...but that's because I'm searching for new samples to take back and cultivate there."

"You won't be with us long then, I take it?"

Azira quickly interjected, "Wern is working on a new rotating schedule, where he works three months with us before he spends three months on his homeworld."

"I am very grateful that I found an offworld employer who is so flexible with his scheduling, and one that can enable me to continue to pursue my personal work," said Wern, "I regret that my species has not shown much of an interest in space travel...I've found it hard to difficult to travel abroad in search of new specimens."

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir raised his glass and took a gulp of the sparkling juice. I wonder why Azira's using juice and not wine...perhaps his species can't handle it, or he dislikes alcohol. He set his glass down.

"Have you thought about learning to fly?"

Wern paused to let out a squeaky high noise that Gir guessed was a laugh. I'm going to take that as a no...but he doesn't seem to have any physical deformities that would prevent him from learning, though he might have trouble finding a ship that has the right ergonomics for his size. But I'm certain there are manufacturers who would cater to that...I wonder what that is...

"I have trouble with your computers, let alone something as complex as a starship. Galactic standard technology confounds me," revealed the luurian, "as it does for most of my people. But I take comfort in that genetic and bioengineering seems to be equally foreign among your kind."

Gir considered that carefully. In other words, our breakthrough in the project was made by someone who has trouble understanding both computers and starships...somewhere behind the irony there's a lesson about the merits and faults of specialization. But I guess that just goes to show the importance of integrating a variety of people with different talents on your team.

"As someone is ignorant of that field, but as someone who wants to know more about it, would you mind show me the working prototypes? I understand that you used them on your way here..."

Azira flashed a smile, "I told you Wern that he'd want to see it."

The diminutive alien bobbed his head up and down, "And I didn't believe it at first."

 

[Gir Quee]

Azira led them up the stairs of the villa onto its flat rooftop. As he emerged into the open, he immediately realized how hot the summer had been. I've become too accustomed to air conditioning...perhaps I need to get out and rough for it for a while? He shrugged the thoughts away as Azira led them towards a LL-1200 light freighter parked on the visitor's landing pad. Azira tapped a button on her comlink, causing its ramp to lower onto the ground with a soft clank. Seconds later, Gir found himself in one of the ship's maintenance areas looking at a gray console that almost looked like a standard computer terminal. He eyed it curiously.

"It's not much to see," admitted Azira, "not like this. Wern, help me take off the panels. You get the lower ones, and I'll get the higher ones."

The engineers began to remove the carbo-plas panels, revealing transparent compartments which appeared to be filled with a water-like substance. As each panel came off, he inspected each compartment, expecting to seem some obvious structure or even gunk within at least one of them. But they all seemed empty to him. Are they really that small? Protein strands are microscopic I suppose...but I wonder why they wouldn't organized into denser sections for consolidation purposes...maybe wrap them up in some sort of insulator? Perhaps I'm too much stuck in the old mindset though...

"And still you don't see much," said Azira, "at least not like that. But it'll still give you a better idea of the architectual layout. Each compartment holds a different set of organisms or organic material that make this device work. There are some lights that we could shine into there that could show you parts of it...but then we run the risk of the organisms in there being damaged or eventually developing cancer."

"This sounds like it's going to be a short show and tell then."

"Not at all. I've prepared a presentation on the computer that will outline the workings of the device. It's half documentary and half promotion material, but I think it'll need to be polished a bit more before we can put it out on the Net."

 

[Gir Quee]

Azira briefly glanced at the liquid crystal screen and typed in a few commands before she attached a peripheral holo-projector to the datalink. The device began to hum before the Lucerne Labs logo coalesced in front of them. It quickly faded to reveal a wire-frame model of the Calor's compartments before zooming in onto the largest compartment which occupied most of the unit's center. Azira's voice flowed out of the terminal's speakers.

"This is the heart of the Calor series, the main processing unit..."

The wire-frame morphed into a real life image of the compartment. Several seconds briefly passed before a sporadic mess of tangled looking threads began to spread out out from a central group of cord-like structures appeared out of nowhere. Azira's voice began to lead them through a tour of the computer's architecture and biological components. There were elements of it that he didn't understand, particularly when she started talking about the biology behind it. He was pleased though to hear near the end of the presentation how a cluster of Calor series computers compared to a central multitasking unit, which was probably the more common architectural equivalents available on the market. But in many ways, the Calor series was the inverse. The main Calor had a single function to which it was dedicated to, but it could augment the processing capabilities of other computers that it was connected to. The presentation ended with a series of financial unit costs to produce and expected mark-up before it started to hint at how it was expected that the market would receive them. While Gir knew that information to be important, and it probably would be among t he most important information to many CEOs, his mind was elsewhere.

"Let's go back and talk about the partial reconfiguration area," said Gir, "I think that's going to be a highlight to most independent ship operators and the people who are going to be using these on a day to day basis. The applications of how this could process sensor signals or chart hyperspace courses should be emphasized. So why is this barely touched upon?"

Azira's fur rippled briefly, "I'm hoping to improve that area. Right now, it's glitchy."

 

[Gir Quee]

"Tell me more about it."

Wern looked up at Azira before turning his gaze to Gir.

"Imagine that you are...lifting weights in a gynasium. You have been following a set routine that works a specific group of muscles, and then you start a new routine that works a different set of muscles. How will your body react?"

"It'll become sore quickly? Tired?" guessed Gir.

"But after time, it will be physically adjusted to these new exercises," said the lurrian, "the computer is like that."

"Imagine that whole analogy on an accelerated level. The reconfigurable portion is accustomed to doing certain tasks and procedures," said the bothan, "if that changes, it has to reconfigure and rebuild itself over time in order to optimize itself for a certain task. Now the organisms and protein structures adapt far faster than most mechanical or electronic components can, but we're still talking about something on the order of minutes to hours, depending on how big of an architectural shift that we're talking about. Like your muscles, it's performance on the new task improves and becomes more seamless as time goes on."

Gir frowned, "I don't see a warm-up period being an issue for this..."

"Ah," said the bothan, "and if it was just the reconfigurable part going through this process, it really wouldn't be. But we're not talking about the solely the reconfigurable portion. The main computer processor is used to relying on the reconfigurable area for its own use, leaving some of its own sections underused. So when that section is removed from them, portions of the base computer also need to work to properly reconfigured to fill in the areas formerly taken care of by the reconfigurable portion."

Not ideal...but that could still make reconfiguration more useful for longer term operations. A minor advantage situationally if it's used right...but really, I wonder...

"How long will it take to figure out how to correct that flaw?"

Azira and Wern exchanged glances.

"I do not think...that it is something that can be corrected...It's...ermm...nature."

Azira's fur rippled, "I think eventually it is something that we can overcome...with time."

"I'm guessing this is really a long-term endeavor?"

"Yes, probably."

"Let's get the Calor series finalized for production right now, as is. Naturally, I would like to work on correcting that fault, but it's not a priority."