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.

“MOB…Mobility Obstruction Barrier”

In this post, I want to examine a device and technique that nanotroopers use to exercise position and mobility control over moving objects, like enemy soldiers or prisoners. 

It’s called MOB.  And it is a part of the normal kit for any ANAD Detachment.  Every nanotrooper carries a MOB canister.  Let’s take a closer look at this essential piece of mission gear.

Physical Description:

A Mobility Obstruction Barrier is a dense swarm of specially configured nano-robotic elements designed to link into a tight, programmable, semi-autonomous mesh-like barrier.  MOB systems can be used to enclose almost any desired area or volume, from fractions of an inch to kilometers in diameter.  There are practical limits to how well extremely large MOB nets can be deployed and controlled.  But, as an example, in one of The Tales of the Quantum Corps, an effort is made to design a MOB net for an entire island, to quarantine one of the bad guys. 

MOB nets are stored and deployed from canisters.  Un-deployed, MOB is just a few bots hiding out in some kind of containment vessel inside the canister.  The canister contains the containment capsule and all communications elements needed to command and control the MOB bots.  It also contains a baseline amount of atom feedstock, so that when MOB is deployed, it has something to work with. 

The canister has controls on a small thumbpad at the top for initializing, priming and discharging the bots.  Configuration templates are preloaded and because the MOB master bot does not normally have a huge processor, it’s limited in how many different configs it can store.  Here’s one depiction of an individual MOB bot configured to link up with its brothers. 

Capabilities:

MOB systems have some unique capabilities.  As the name suggests, the primary purposes of MOB are to immobilize recalcitrant personnel and to enclose and/or protect specified areas and volumes. 

One of the more interesting capabilities of a MOB system comes from the nature of what it is...a big swarm of nanobots.  Like any ANAD-style nanobot, MOB bots can assume many different configurations, though (as mentioned), their processors don’t match that of a true combat-capable ANAD.  MOB nets are programmable, meaning they can be changed in config on the fly, while in use.  Their immobilizing effects are likewise programmable.  MOB systems can form any kind of barrier from a loose netting to a tightly constricting cocoon-like enclosure.  They can be programmed to literally squeeze the life out of a contained target, or to apply pressure in graded steps, depending on selected parameters…like how hard the target tries to escape.  In other words, the degree of immobilization can be programmed.

MOB systems are also semi-autonomous.  This means that once discharged, the MOB master bots can travel stealthily on propulsors with a small force of obstruction bots, reach its intended target, then replicate at maximum rate and envelope the target in a matter of a few minutes.  The MOB system can be designed to stun, or detain its target in a programmable fashion while the mesh is forming, even up to rendering the target unconscious (though this is rare and requires specially configured MOB masters). 

A special MOB configuration called Clampdown is used when absolute immobility or restraint is required.  When this configuration is selected, the MOB master executes the command and envelopes the target in a highly restrictive, tightly compressed mesh, making it difficult for the poor souls affected even to breathe.  The Clampdown can actually kill if the pressure isn’t reduced after a period of time.

Tactical Employment:

All nanotroopers carry MOB canisters and all are trained in the use, deployment and release of MOB nets in tactical situations. 

A typical use of MOB systems would be to restrain and immobilize enemy combatants who have either been defeated in battle and surrendered or who cannot be assaulted in any other way.  The stealthy and autonomous nature of MOB allows it to be used for surprise effect, even for deception operations, to distract an enemy force from the main line of engagement.

MOB systems are sometimes used against enemy bot swarms, but remember that MOB bots normally have limited processor, limited maneuvering, and very limited effector complements.  Thus they are typically used to engage non-nanobotic targets, like human beings, dangerous animals, runaway vehicles, etc, that can’t fight back at the atomic level.  Using a MOB system to try and engage a fully-capable ANAD combat nanobot is like trying to stop a charging tiger with a spoon.  It doesn’t work. 

One tactic that Quantum Corps has developed is the ability to gang multiple MOB discharges into one larger restraining mesh.  This takes some preliminary programming, for one MOB swarm to accept and interlink with another, but it can be done.  Gang MOB can be used to secure especially large targets, or enclose larger than normal areas or volumes. 

Because MOB systems are barebones yet semi-autonomous ANAD swarms, they can also be configured and programmed to discharge at a set time interval, even multiple time intervals.  Let’s say you’re a commander of an ANAD platoon.  You suspect a house you’re reconnoitering contains some very bad people but you don’t have time or manpower to stake out the place and catch any baddies trying to escape.  Deploy one of more MOB masters into position and program them to deploy on sensing a human-size mass and heat load.  When the baddies open the door and try to escape, or even leave quietly, blam!  MOB drops on top of them and they’re caught.  In this case, MOB was deployed, but replication and containment were set to execute on a given sensor input(s).

Neat, huh?  Your own autonomous, semi-intelligent jail cell.  And it fits inside a canister too.

The next blog post for QC Times will come on August 1, 2016.  This post will cover another piece of mission gear that nanotroopers always carry…camou-fog….programmable swarms that scoop and manipulate photons in such a way as to make you and your buddies invisible or at least blend you into the background.

See you in August.

Phil B.

“How Do You Build an ANAD?”

For this month, we’re going to look at the details of actually building and initializing an Autonomous Nanoscale Assembler/Disassembler or ANAD system.  For ease of explanation, I’ve put this process in a list of steps, each of which I’ll expand on.  It’s also appropriate to recall here that among other things, ANAD is a weapon system, designed to combat really small enemies.

Here’s the list:

Phase I  Construction

1.  The Core

            a.  Main memory – multiple zettabytes of storage for data and instructions

b.  Working memory – RAM memory for all the many operations that ANAD has to perform

c.  Buffers – software in memory that couples ANAD’s processor with the brain of the nanotrooper.  All sensory inputs from ANAD have to be buffered before a human brain can make sense of them

d.  Config translator – software that takes trooper commands for ANAD to assume a specific configuration and translates them into ANAD-compatible instructions…i.e., move this effector ten degrees and rotate twenty degrees, etc

e.  Quantum processor – the CPU; a quantum computer with extremely fast execution speed; able to use qubits to execute multiple instructions in parallel like the human brain. Provides ANAD 1.0 with approximate cognitive capacity of a five-year old.

2.  Main Platform and Actuator Mast – the structural foundation of the ANAD system with a narrow column or mast to which most actuators and effectors are joined, with articulating multiple degree of freedom axes.

3.  Power Cells (picowatt) – ANAD power cells are powered by nuclear fission of long-lived radionuclide elements, essentially a radioisotope thermoelectric generator.  Power output is in picowatts (trillionths of a watt).  

4.  Propulsors

a.  Normal (flagellar screws) – whiplike propellers for maneuvering ANAD in confined spaces, where precision is required.  Similar to bacterial flagella.

            b.  Quantum wave – ANAD has the capability to propel itself even if it has lost its entire actuator mast and all normal propulsors.  This can occur during a ‘quantum collapse’ maneuver, where ANAD sloughs everything but its core.  Quantum wave propulsion makes use of extremely rapid entanglement state changes, which heat the surrounding medium, generating a propulsive wave, like a surfer, on which ANAD can travel for short distances.  Often used as an escape maneuver.

5.  Sensors and Actuators (generally self explanatory)

            a.  Pyridine probes

            b.  Carbene grabbers

            c.  Enzymatic knife

            d.  Hydrogen abstractors

            e.  Bond disrupters

            f.  Fullerene grapples

            g.  Ribosomal systems

            h.  Photon lens

6.  Connection and Bonding – all elements have to work together, sensing target atoms and molecules and communicating what they sense to the core.

Phase II:  Animation – this phase involves powering up, energizing and initializing an ANAD system in a systematic manner.

1.  Lay-in triggers – triggers are the starting points, literally effector starting coordinates, for replication and all configuration changes

2.  Seed growth medium – ANAD requires some kind of feedstock in order to replicate.  Config changes don’t need this, but any replication cycle requires the config translator to be ‘primed’ to sense and accept a variety of feedstock atoms.  This is done by exposing the config engine to the types of atoms it is likely to encounter.

3.  Base replication  - these steps are followed to ensure that ANAD can perform a basic replication cycle, i.e., ANAD can copy and reproduce itself accurately. All facets of the rep cycle are exercised and ANAD’s response is analyzed at each step.

            a.  Transmission

            b.  Reception

            c.  Execution

            d.  Examine memory

4.  Learn-in comm centers  - this involves activating and testing each communication channel that ANAD uses…, bandwidth constraints, test messages, etc. 

            a.  Acoustic

            b.  EM

            c.  ELF

            d.  Quantum coupler

            e.  Voice synthesis and response

5.  Activate sensor algorithms and substrates – involves priming all sensor channels with test data and examining and analyzing ANAD’s response.  Because ANAD has quantum capabilities, it has sensors which can perform a lot of analysis on sensor data before it ever gets to the CPU.

6.  Basic operations – this is the process of exercising and testing ANAD in a variety of simple operations

            a.  Launch and recovery in containment

            b.  Disassembly of simple structures

            c.  Assembly of simple structures

            d.  3-axis (non-swarm) config changes

            e.  Elementary swarm operations

            f.  Controlled replication

            g.  Combat replication

Phase III: Unit Readiness

1.  Load tactical config templates and verify – tests ANAD’s ability to accept and execute tactically relevant configurations needed to perform its many missions.

2.  Combat swarm operations – demonstrates ANAD’s ability to replicate a swarm of like assemblers of any given size in a tactically useful timeframe and conduct single swarm maneuvers

3.  Demonstrate small-unit tactics – here ANAD operates as a swarm with a human unit and coordinates and synchronizes operations with human nanotoopers.

4.  Program and control systems integration/verification – verifies that ANAD master bot and replicant swarms can be effectively controlled and responds properly to control inputs.

5.  Response checks – tests and validates ANAD’s response to all tactical commands in a warfighting environment, with jamming, environmental stresses, etc.

6.  Exercise all inhibits and constraint checks – final check on all fail-safe, fail-operational and redundancy systems.  Ensures ANAD responds to all overrides and safety commands.

7.  Verify all final configs – re-loads and verifies accuracy and executability of mission configurations needed for anticipated tactical scenarios, conflicts and adversaries.

8.  READY!  Now you know how to build, setup and test an Autonomous Nanoscale Assembler/Disassembler. 

Hopefully, the end result looks something like this…

In the next post to Quantum Corps Times, we’ll learn more about how Mobility Obstruction Barrier (MOB) systems work and just what you can do with them.

See you on July 1.

Phil B.