From QM 3.0  U.N. Quantum Corps Field Manual (Operations)

1.     The Operational Environment – Physical Characteristics of the Nanoworld

a.     It’s really, really small (NOTE: Think relationship of a nanometer to a football field.  If ANAD were a grain of sand on a football field (about 1mm), a football field at the same scale would be equal to 78%  of the distance of Earth to Moon)  

b.     Brownian motion - or pedesis (from Ancient Greek: πήδησις /pέːdεːsis/ "leaping") is the random motion of particles suspended in a fluid (a liquid or a gas) resulting from their collision with the fast-moving atoms or molecules in the gas or liquid.^[1]

(Imagine a large balloon in a football stadium. The balloon is so large that it lies on top of many members of the crowd. Because they are excited, these fans hit the balloon at different times and in different directions with the motions being completely random. Consider now the force exerted at a certain time. We might have 20 supporters pushing right, and 21 other supporters pushing left, where each supporter is exerting equivalent amounts of force. In this case, the forces exerted towards the left and right are imbalanced in favor of the left; the balloon will move slightly to the left. This type of imbalance exists at all times, and it causes random motion of the balloon. If we look at this situation from far above, so that we cannot see the supporters, we see the large balloon as a small object animated by erratic movement.)

 

c.     Van der Waals forces and atomic forces (everything is ‘sticky’)

In physical chemistry, the van der Waals forces (or van der Waals interaction), named after Dutch scientist Johannes Diderik van der Waals, are the residual attractive or repulsive forces between molecules or atomic groups that do not arise from a covalent bond, or ionic bonds.^[1]

The ability of geckos – which can hang on a glass surface using only one toe – to climb on sheer surfaces has been attributed to the van der Waals forces between these surfaces and the spatulae, or microscopic projections, which cover the hair-like setae found on their footpads.

 

 

d.     Navigating and maneuvering through molecules and atoms

It’s like walking across the seabed, or a room full of molasses, crisscrossed by strong currents, or like walking through a sleet storm.

 

2.     Molecular Configurations (Molecular Ops)

a.     Atoms tend to arrange themselves in the most stable patterns possible, which means that they have a tendency to complete or fill their outermost electron orbits. They join with other atoms to do just that. The force that holds atoms together in collections known as molecules is referred to as a chemical bond. There are two main types and some secondary types of chemical bonds

b.     The IONIC bond involves a transfer of an electron, so one atom gains an electron while one atom loses an electron. One of the resulting ions carries a negative charge (anion), and the other ion carries a positive charge (cation). Because opposite charges attract, the atoms bond together to form a molecule.

c.     The most common bond in organic molecules, a COVALENT bond involves the sharing of electrons between two atoms. The pair of shared electrons forms a new orbit that extends around the nuclei of both atoms, producing a molecule. There are two secondary types of covalent bonds that are relevant to biology — polar bonds and hydrogen bonds.

d.     Two atoms connected by a covalent bond may exert different attractions for the electrons in the bond, producing an unevenly distributed charge. The result is known as a POLAR BOND, an intermediate case between ionic and covalent bonding, with one end of the molecule slightly negatively charged and the other end slightly positively charged.

e.     Because they’re polarized, two adjacent H₂O (water) molecules can form a linkage known as a HYDROGEN BOND where the (electronegative) hydrogen atom of one H₂O molecule is electrostatically attracted to the (electropositive) oxygen atom of an adjacent water molecule. 

3.     Managing Energy

a.     ANAD has propulsors.  It has to keep its propulsors turning in the dense, chaotic atomic environment.  Momentum damps quickly.  ANAD must be constantly aware of ‘currents’…Brownian motion, van der Waals forces and local atomic bonds, loose atoms, etc.

 

4.     The Nanowarrior’s Code

a.     Nanowarriors don’t leave fellow warriors behind

b.     Nanowarriors fight only the enemy

c.     Nanowarriors don’t harm those who surrender

d.     Nanowarriors destroy only what the mission requires

e.     Nanowarriors treat civilians with respect

f.      Nanowarriors don’t steal

g.     Nanowarriors don’t violate the laws of war

h.     Nanowarriors report violations of the laws of war to their superiors

 

5.     Types of Operations

a.     The Spectrum of Conflict -  anywhere there are atoms or threats emerging from molecular world

b.     Surveillance – look for signatures (EM, thermal, acoustic); decoherence wakes for quantum systems and signature patterns to discern enemy’s intent and direction (surveillance is passive)

c.     Reconnaissance – active methods (probing, scouting, sweeping) to determine enemy signatures and patterns, structure, bond types, enemy capabilities, strategy and tactics (grabbing bits or photons).  “Grabbing structure” is a commonly used technique.

d.     Infiltration/Pre-emptive Actions – masking ANAD as something else (dust particles, rain drops, flies or mosquitos, etc)

e.     Precision Strike – surgical operation to degrade or destroy a target.  Minimize collateral damage or evidence of presence.  There is an attribution problem like cyber attacks.  Sometimes, WorldNet or Solnet may be used as an axis for strike or assault ops (packet mobiles).

f.      Assault –a large scale operation.  Sometimes joint or combined arms (with UN Boundary Patrol or BioShield or World Meteorological Organization for weather control).  Battalion-size formations and up are common.

g.     General War – theater or global conflict scale, using mass formations of ANAD-style units.  Extensive damage.  An example would be the Containment Wars at the end of the 21^st century.

h.     Post-Conflict – Cleanup, remediation, restoration or protective barriers (like before Hicks-Newman asteroid hit the eastern Med).  Some civil fab duties, for food, clothing, shelter.  This is usually turned over to other UN agencies.

 

This has been a partial excerpt from Chapter 3.0 (Operations) of the Quantum Corps Field Manual. Future posts to Quantum Corps Times will provide additional excerpts.

 

The next post to the Times comes on January 2, 2017.

 

See you then and have a great holiday.

 

Phil B.

This post shows ranks and insignia for Quantum Corps enlisted men and woman.  The graphic elements are adapted from chemical diagrams of atoms and molecules.

Enlisted Ranks and Insignia:

There are additional symbols, badges and insignia for various ratings, such as Defense and  Protective Systems specialist (DPS) or Interface and Control specialist (IC).  These will be covered in a later post.

Like any military organization, Quantum Corps lives and breathes chain of command.  Ranks and insignia help distinguish who’s who and help cement this vital aspect of life in the Corps. 

The next post to Quantum Corps Times will come on December 1.  This post will feature excerpts from the UN Quantum Corps Field Manual.

See you then.

Phil B.

This post details the ranks and insignia for officers serving in the Quantum Corps.  This table is for officer ranks only.  A following post will show the table for enlisted ranks. 

A word about insignia: most of the insignia are graphic elements symbolic of the atoms and molecules that all nanotroopers work with, the operating medium of the Corps. 

Officer Ranks and Insignia:

There are additional symbols, badges and insignia for various ratings, such as Defense and  Protective Systems specialist (DPS) or Interface and Control specialist (IC).  These will be covered in a later post.

Like any military organization, Quantum Corps lives and breathes chain of command.  Ranks and insignia help distinguish who’s who and help cement this vital aspect of life in the Corps. 

Remember, the next post will show ranks and insignia for UNQC enlisted men and woman.

 

Phil B.



 

 

 

 

 

This post will deal with the social, cultural, political and scientific aspects of one of the most momentous discoveries in human history: the discovery of micro robotic remains among 3-million year old Homo Erectus fossils at a dig site near Engebbe, Kenya.  These remains and the presence of ancient viruses attached to these remains are fundamental and foundational to the development and operation of Autonomous Nanoscale Assembler/Disassembler mechanisms.  In other words, the discovery of ancient robots led directly to the successful design and construction of the first ANAD bots.

 

It all started in Leipzig, Germany…at a conference of anthropologists…

 

SOLNET Special Report:

 

“Ancient Robots”

 

The Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany is a pretty staid and stuffy lab for studying the beginnings of Man and the fossil and genetic evidence of our beginnings tens of thousands of years ago.  Pretty staid and stuffy….that is, until today.

 The Institute is housed in a complex of modern research facilities set in a wooded estate.  The buildings are concrete and steel, gently curving architecture that could be a corporate campus anywhere in western Europe or North America.  From the outside, there’s nothing about the Institute that would indicate what really goes on inside or what kind of bombshells occasionally erupt from this secluded, almost pastoral setting. 

Today, just such a bombshell landed, right in the laps of the Board of Directors of the Institute’s Department of Human Evolution.  The bomb thrower, Dr. Rudolf Volk, made a presentation at this month’s Board meeting, a presentation about new finds at the Engebbe, Kenya dig site, new finds which, if confirmed, will radically and forever overturn what we know about Man’s ancestors and our origins.

 SOLNET reporter Anna Kolchinova was there and files this report:

 “The essence of Dr. Volk’s presentation is that we now have incontrovertible proof, physical evidence, that Man didn’t develop and evolve on this planet alone or unaided.  Recent finds of fossilized micro robotic remains among ancient Homo Erectus bones at the Engebbe dig site have swept the world of archaeology and anthropology like a hurricane.  Volk is a researcher in the Institute’s Department of Human Evolution and was here in Leipzig to present the details of his findings to the Institute’s Board of Directors. 

“According to Dr. Volk, the robotic remains have been conclusively dated to be synchronous in time with the bone remains.  The techniques used were a relatively new, more advanced form of radiocarbon dating, a method called quantum state spectrometry.  According to Dr. Volk, the tests have been performed multiple times, by multiple researchers right here at the Institute and the results are consistent across all experiments and experimenters. 

 “It seems, to quote Dr. Marta Siebeck, an archaeologist on the Board here, that ‘we may be descended from ancient robotic creatures.’”

 (Append Video Post 227):

 “How is this even possible?”  asked Dr. Max Schneer (NOTE: Dr. Schneer is current Chairman of the Board of Directors…AnnaK).  “I’ve seen the dating charts, I’ve seen all the spectrographs…but that’s not my question, Dr. Volk.  I’m asking you to take a larger view here, understand what you are suggesting with all this data: that somehow, flesh and blood creatures like you and me, formed of tissue and bone and blood, are somehow evolved from something that was made, a machine, a robot?  Surely you understand the implications of this, even if it were proven true?”

Dr. Volk shifted uneasily in his seat, focusing on the tablet screen in front of him.  Lines and spectra from the dating tests filled the screen.  “Dr. Schneer, the implications, as you call it, of these spectra, are for other people to decide.  I’m a scientist.  All I can do is perform the science and make sure my methods are repeatable and above reproach and my data is clean.  The test results you see were performed seven times by five different people in three different labs, separated by thousands of kilometers and several weeks in time.  No one seriously questions the data anymore.  What we all make of this data, how we interpret the data…ah, now that is another question altogether.”

 

Dr. Uwe Holweg, a physical anthropologist, glared back at Volk like a disappointed parent at a child.  “Rudy, you have to see what the data are suggesting.  If any of this is true, it means the end of evolution by natural selection.  It means what we are today is not the product of random mutations and selection pressures.  It means you and I are programmed in some fashion.  It means you and I are part robot ourselves, even if we are tissue and blood and bone.  What does that do to Darwin?  The old man must be spinning in his grave today.”

 

“I think that’s a fair statement to make,” Volk agreed.  “It appears that Evolution is not so much by natural selection but by programming.”

 

“Yes, exactly…”Holweg went on, warming to the idea.  “But what is the end state of this program?  We’ve all heard of this ‘Prime Key’.  Is that the guiding principle?”

 

“And can we understand this program, like we understand Evolution,” added Siebeck.  “Can it be altered?  What would it take to do that?”

 

Volk really didn’t want to play speculative games with the Board.  He wanted to present the facts and let the philosophers deal with the fallout.  But the Board was off and running. 

 

“The only way I see to alter this program, as you call it, would be to eliminate once and for all our dependence on ANAD-style nanobotic mechanisms.  Of course, that would be a great technological leap backward—“

 

“And not jolly likely,” said Dr. Schneer.  “But if it’s not feasible to end the program, or alter it, can we re-direct it?  Can we get under the hood, so to speak, and tinker with the program.  That’s the question.”

 

Holweg chewed on that idea, then stabbed the air with a finger.  “The Assimilationists!  That’s the answer.  Some people think the Assimilationists are collaborating with the enemy.  Maybe it’s not so much collaboration but a way inside…send a few saboteurs into the mother swarm and try to change the program from that direction.”

 

Volk just wanted to get back to the facts.  “I have more data on specific fossil pieces from the dig…if you’d like to—“

 

But the Board had dropped Science for the moment and preferred to spin theories. 

 

“Just think what this means for the great Religions,” Holweg said.  He rubbed his hands like a child in a candy store, trying out theories like so many chocolates.  “We’ve all seen the stories…SOLNET, WorldBeat and the others.  Config Zero is some kind of earthly representative of these Old Folks—“

 

“Old Ones,” Siebeck corrected him.

 

“Exactly.  It’s Config Zero we have to deal with.  I’d like to ask about five thousand questions if I could get an audience with the…the…whatever he or it is.”

 

“It’s clear,” intoned Schneer, facing the SOLNET cameras, his voice deepening into authoritative mode, “that the whole story of human origins has been upended.  What Dr. Volk has given us is physical evidence that our understanding of our origins and how we came to be is a mistake.  Indeed, if the Assimilationists are to be believed, Man himself is a mistake.”

 “Imagine it,” said Holweg, “Evolution is nothing but a program glitch.  An error.  Some kind of software bug.”

 
“Precisely,” Schneer agreed.  “And as this fellow Symborg says, the programmers are coming back to fix their mistake.”

 Volk tried to interject some facts.  “The fossils from Engebbe have been categorized into three main classes, as you can see…we have pieces that seem to be some kind of effector, perhaps with graspers….”  He pressed buttons on his display controls and a 3-D image of the find danced in the air before the Board.  “The second category we’ve called Sensor Devices—“

 

But Schneer wasn’t listening.  “Maybe we anthropologists should be talking with the cosmologists.  Surely the study of Life’s origins should include a study of these Old Folks and how they may have come to Earth and seeded the environment.”

 

“Of course, that’s all speculation at this point,” Siebeck noted.  “Dr. Volk, when can you go back to Engebbe?  We need more evidence…this really is extraordinary…fossil evidence, geological evidence, even genetic evidence…you have some chemical and materials properties results for us?”

 

Volk took a breath, tried to collect his wits.  The whole meeting was spinning out of control and Schneer, who was supposed to be in charge, was leading the revolt. “I do, Dr. Siebeck.  We’ve done recent assays on some of the pieces.  We’re finding octahedral and dodecahedral lattices of iron, silicon, germanium and some unusual elements that don’t even appear on our periodic table…we don’t know what to make of them.”

 Volk manipulated the 3-D images and atomic structures rotated in space in front of the Board. 

 “We’ve got to have more evidence,” Schneer decided.  “The Board will authorize funds for more trips to Engebbe.  Dr. Volk, you mentioned some kind of crystal—“

 
“Ah, yes—“ Volk changed the display to show a new set of images.  The lattices flickered out and were replaced by new structures, crystalline shards magnified millions of times.  “We think these crystals may have been part of the processor core…this is controversial, but there are holes and pits suggesting some kind of electron transport mechanism.  We need more evidence—“

 Anna Kolchinova’s face popped into a small window on the side of the broadcast.  “The Board met for most of two days at the Institute.  It was one of the more chaotic and tumultuous briefings this reporter has ever covered.  And in hours, most of the science world was in an uproar over the news.  Headlines rocketed around the world—“  Here Kolchinova appended spinning, flashing images of headlines and captions—ANCIENT ROBOTS FROM AFRICAN DIG…BOTS DISPLACE APES AS MANKIND’S FORFATHERS…PREHISTORIC BOTS MAY HAVE CREATED MAN…

 

Kolchinova went on, summing up the report from Leipzig.  “It’s hard to tell where this story will go now.  There are so many substories here…the science itself and the still unknown physical nature of the find and its relationship to Man today…the Assimilationists and how they will use the story…our increasing dependence on ANAD nanobotic technology and the speed at which this technology evolves and takes over more and more of our lives…. 

 “The Board has determined that more evidence is needed to support and extend Dr. Volk’s findings.  More expeditions to Engebbe are planned but it should be noted that the dig site is on the boundary of the east African Sanctuary and some ticklish and sensitive diplomatic negotiations with Config Zero and the swarms may be needed.” 

 Kolchinova’s face hardened.  “There are some who view Config Zero and the swarms as an enemy.  There are others who view Config Zero as an ally, even something of a Messiah, or perhaps it’s more accurate to refer to Symborg in those terms.  Whatever your point of view, it can’t be denied that Man is no longer alone, here on Earth and elsewhere.  Indeed, if Dr. Volk’s evidence can be corroborated, it’s clear that Man was never alone and that there is a direct connection between life on this planet and life elsewhere. 

 
“That discovery, if it turns out to be true, can’t help but have the most profound effects on every aspect of what Man is about, even his own conception of himself and his place in the Universe.  This is Anna Kolchinova, reporting for SOLNET, from the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, Germany, saying good-bye…until next time—“

             The next post will examine the ranks and insignia for officers and enlisted men serving in Quantum Corps.  This post will be uploaded on November 1, 2016.

 

See you in November.

 

Phil B.

‘Engebbe and the Beginnings of ANAD’

In this post, I want to describe the historical beginnings of the Autonomous Nanoscale Assembler/Disassembler (ANAD). 

In the late 2040s, the U.S. Army and a new UN organization called Quantum Corps came separately to Dr. Irwin Frost, director of the Autonomous Systems Lab at Northgate University with a proposal: build us a nanoscale robotic device that could operate autonomously in a variety of environments, always at the scale of atoms and molecules, and that could both assemble and disassemble matter at high speed.  The need for such a device was becoming more and more apparent as threats were developing around the world in this medium.

The Army and Quantum Corps now regarded the world of atoms and molecules as a new medium in which to fight and win wars, and they had a tight timetable, as molecular assemblers and matter compilers were a growing problem everywhere, all of them unlicensed and unregulated.  Dr. Frost found himself under the gun to get a workable ANAD unit up and running.  This led him to make a fateful decision.

From a dig site at a place called Engebbe, Kenya, archaeologist Dr. Rudolf Volk had recently made an extraordinary discovery.  Nestled in among fossilized Homo Erectus bones were also fossilized remains of a micro robot from several billion years ago.  As well, dormant specimens of an ancient virus were uncovered.  The virus was removed and genetically sequenced.  The results were published and Dr. Frost found in this ancient viral genome sequence the answers to some programming problems he had been having with ANAD.  It seemed that Nature had solved the very same problems billions of years ago. 

Frost took this genome sequencing and applied selected parts to ANAD’s program, solving his problem, enabling him to meet his deadline and make ANAD ready for launch and service with the newly stood-up U.N. Quantum Corps.  But what he didn’t know was that he had inadvertently copied into ANAD’s core programs some unknown aspects of the viral genome that would manifest themselves only later, aspects that would threaten all of Mankind and make all assemblers worldwide suspect.  For at the very heart of ANAD’s program lay a ticking time bomb.  And no one realized it, until it was almost too late.

ANAD was originally conceived as a weapon of war, an intelligent autonomous, nanoscale device that would enable Quantum Corps troopers to deal with similar devices springing up everywhere.  The principal adversary in the mid 21^st century was the criminal cartel Red Hammer, a bastardized offshoot of rogue Chinese army leaders and secretive tong societies in Hong Kong and Macau.  Red Hammer was a vast and growing criminal enterprise and their discovery and employment of matter fabs and ANAD-style nanobots rapidly became the number one public health and national security concern of nearly every nation on Earth.

It was Red Hammer who first demonstrated one of the most dangerous aspects of ANAD technology: the ability of the bot to replicate copies of itself at high speed, to build large formations of these copies, to control these formations, and to swarm against targets of interest, assault them like murderous bees and disassemble the targets into atom fluff….into their constituent atoms and molecules.  High-speed replication, close coordination of all elements, autonomous operation and configurations optimized for a variety of uses made Red Hammer ANAD systems especially dangerous.

And when Red Hammer demonstrated during the Serengeti plague outbreak of the 2050s that these systems had the ability to enter a human body and take up positions anywhere, especially in the brain and to manipulate nerve impulses, stoke dopamine and serotonin flow and in general control pain and pleasure impulses in the affected persons, Quantum Corps knew they had to act and act fast.  The ability to generate addiction on demand and to manipulate it to any desired degree made Serengeti a global menace and ANAD an essential weapon in this ongoing fight.

Serengeti made ANAD a necessity. 

The growth of molecular assembler technology and its rapid spread into all corners of society and the world went hand in hand with the growth of ANAD into a powerful weapon of war and law enforcement.  In fact, by the mid 2st century, the divide between fighting wars and enforcing the law had blurred to near invisibility.  ANAD’s ability to replicate, swarm, assume a near infinity of configurations and disassemble matter at high speed made it and Quantum Corps a front-line organization in the battle against exploding fabs and malicious hackers and fab lords worldwide.

In an earlier post to Quantum Corps Times, the general state of the world in the last decades of the 21^st century was described this way:

Life in the late 21^st century AD is generally a time of great technological progress, conflict and promise.  The growth and spread of ANAD-style nanotechnology has had profound effects on every aspect of life in the last fifty years.

ANAD systems and poorly regulated fabs based on ANAD technology are widespread, around the world, in every city and village and on every farm or commune.  Fabs (fabricators) based on ANAD can create almost anything inorganic that human beings can imagine.  Cars, furniture, clothing, sex toys, homes, electronic devices, guns, etc can all be fabricated from atom-scale feedstock.  All you need is the fab, the core with its software drivers and the requisite feedstock.  Organic structures, especially living systems (strictly forbidden in most places) are still difficult, expensive and generally not worth the effort.  Otherwise, the sky’s the limit.

More importantly, robotic nanoscale systems based on the original ANAD design (from the 2050s and Northgate University, Dr. Irwin Frost) are widely recognized to be a parallel sentience and life form, both a companion and competitor to Man on this planet, even though the devices were created by Man.  The swarming nature of ANAD bots and the complexity of their swarm formations have given rise to the belief and understanding that ANAD swarms are worthy of being called a new life form. 

Moreover, the spread of ANAD technology has been so explosive, and the swarms so compelling in their sophistication and behavior that the term angels has now entered popular use as a way of describing such swarms, with all that implies.  Angels (now a generic term for ANAD swarms) are originally defined as messengers from God, spiritual beings and protectors and guides for humans in their relationship with God.  Angels as ANAD-style swarm entities are companions, love mates, partners, and all other things, even pseudo-religious beings to many people on Earth today.  Some people have even developed swarm analogs of themselves, so that when they die, the swarm version remains behind…a strange form of immortality.

A growing symbiotic (some would say parasitic) relationship has developed between Man and ANAD.  Because of the growth and spread of independent swarms, quasi-official recognition of their status has been granted formally by the UN and by most other political entities.  In other words, ANAD swarms have rights, now defined by law.  Not only do they have rights, ANAD swarms have independent lifestyles and can reside (if they choose) in protected sanctuaries, which are almost like nation-states.  In the story ‘Johnny Winger and the Golden Horde’, ANAD swarms (angels) will even be given political representation in the UN.

Humans have a conflicted relationship with ANAD swarms.  On the one hand, humans are deeply dependent on ANAD technology and the fabs which are spreading so quickly.  Human economies and lives depend on fabs now.  Many economies and societies would fail if ANAD systems vanished or were banned.  Yet many people are uneasy with this growing dependence and the rapid growth in sophistication and complexity, and now official status, of ANAD swarms.  Man has not had a serious competitor on this planet for millions of years.  Now he does.  And this competitor is of his own creation.  There is growing concern with where this relationship is going. 

Will Man and ANAD remain partners, with ANAD a more or less junior partner?  Will Man and ANAD fight each other?  What will be the outcome?  Will Man and ANAD merge into a new life form, symbiotically blended? 

These questions plague human beings profoundly in the last years of the 21st century. 

The next post to Quantum Corps Times will come on October 1, 2016.  This post will deal with a development already alluded to in this post…the discovery of micro-robotic remains at an archaeological dig site in Kenya and all that this discovery implies. 

See you then.

Phil B.

 

 

 

Camou-fog Notes

This post concerns another piece of essential mission gear for nanotroopers…something called camou-fog.

Wikipedia defines camouflage this way:

“Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see (crypsis), or by disguising them as something else (mimesis).”

1.     What is it? Camou-fog is a linked, programmable, re-configurable mesh or lattice of coordinated, synchronized nano-robotic elements that can reconfigure into any shape, form or color or texture for which it has stored templates.  Here’s the idea…

 

 

Note that the substance is fully programmable and reconfigurable.  This means it can resemble any surface or substrate for which it has configuration templates.  Camou-fog is a bunch of bots…ANAD clones.  Because of that, the stuff can be made to look like anything.  The possibilities are literally limitless.  Only the configuration template design and the memory capacity of the bot master limit what can be done.  That and the laws of physics.
 

2.     How is it made and stored? Camou-fog is resembles what was once called utility fog.  It’s an evolution of the original idea.  Camou-fog is composed of individual nanobots, with a single master bot for command and control.  And it’s stored in a canister or containment capsule, and launched from same.  Every nanotrooper carries a camou-fog dispenser loaded with tactical config templates for the most common applications.  Special templates can be provided for unique missions.

 

3.     Deployment and Tactics. Camou-fog is not an invisibility cloak, a la Harry Potter or a Klingon cloaking device.  The stuff is used mainly for camouflage (stealth approach and assault), deception ( to make an ANAD assault look like dust storms, flies, rain drops, etc), diversionary feints and probes (forcing the enemy to react in the wrong direction or against an non-existent threat a la Patton’s paper tank army in Operation Overlord).  Camou-fog can also  be used to support simulated threats and attacks.  It’s always used with other swarming tactics (see UNQC Field Manual).

 

Typical Quantum Corps operations in which camou-fog might be used are:

 

a.     Surveillance

b.     Reconnaissance

c.     Infiltration/Pre-emptive Actions

d.     Precision Strike

e.     Assault

f.      General War

g.     Post-Conflict

 

4.     What camou-fog should not be used for.  How it can be defeated. Camou-fog can be defeated by messing up the config templates, by keeping them from replicating or linking, by jamming comms, by making rapid changes in the environment faster than the swarm can adapt to, by unexpectedly altering the environment, by forcing the camou-fogged object to move against the background, detecting other emissions (emission control and discipline are vital).  Camou-fog bots are vulnerable to HERF barrage, as is any ANAD style botswarm.  If you can’t see or detect something camou-fogged, just blow the camou to kingdom come with thunderbolts of rf energy.

 

5.     Hazards and precautions.  As with any piece of mission gear for nanotroopers, there are some caveats in using camou-fog.  It’s not a panacea for pulsing, synchronized, converging, or swarming attacks.  Use of camou-fog should be integrated into any attack plan, like any other gear or weapon, for best effects. Camou-fog must be coordinated with other tactics.  It should never be used as a substitute for good tactical judgment (see UNQC Field Manual).  Below are some typical tactical deployments in which camou-fog might be used:

 

a.     Deception and concealment

b.     Feints

c.     Diversions

d.     Swarming attack

e.     Dispersal

f.      Entrapments and ambushes

g.     Managing configuration changes

 

6.     Large-scale uses and applications.  Camou-fog can also be used for static structures, such as fake fortifications, even whole villages, weapons emplacements, natural forms such as trees or hills, or to otherwise conceal something or deceive an enemy.  Camou-fog is particularly useful in helping a nanotrooper unit blend into an environment and of course, that blending can be real-time and changeable, as the environment changes. 

 

So you see that camou-fog can be quite handy to nanotroopers in conducting routine or even special operations.  It’s best traits include its programmability and reconfigurability.  It suffers from the same limitations of any nanobotic device but the true worth of the stuff is in all the imaginative uses nanotroopers can put it to, often things not even in the manual.

 

Next month’s post to Quantum Corps Times will be posted on September 1.  This post will take a slightly different direction, looking at a place called Engebbe, Kenya, where the original ANAD was born.  We’ll cover a little of ANAD’s early history as well.

 

See you on September 1.

Phil B.