Aptoms mind

[Super Existence]

Aptom can take over a being from a simple cell. How does his intelligence transfer over?

The human brain is a large organ and surely memory capacity is dependant on size.

I know about instincts being genetically programmed such as 'fight or flight' but surely something as complex as a full personality and a lifetime of experiences would be beyond the cells capacity to store, even cells as unique as Aptom. Or am I wrong?

[*YoungGuyver]

No, you are right.

But in the confines of the story, we need to find another way to make Aptom work. Thes best possible reasoning is that during the experiments on him, Dr Balcus found another way to make memory transfer cellularly. It looks like Aptom has no -real- mind until his brain forms though. But he does have some way to transfer information around to recreate his mind and memories.

[*Jess♥]

memory is fast. that suggests that in terms of data storage, it is not very compressed.

we have learned from computers that if you can compress something that it is slow to access but you can fit it in a much smaller space.

surely if you could compress memories, you could store it on a small strand of nucleic acid. nucleic acids can store vast quantiies of information in a tiny tiny space. it does not seem to far fetched that aptom could store his lifes memories in his genetic code.

this would not be readily accessible of ccourse, and thus why his single cells must construct his brain before he starts to function on a conscious level.

[*BananaKing]

I don't think there's an answer for this, considering aptom has no brain...its hard to say because we really don't know the extent of what Barcus altered during aptom's optimizations

[Enzyme-eternal]

I have a thought, what if all of Aptom’s cells act as backup information for his brain, like his body is a hard drive and his brain is the processor (yes I’m aware in reality the brain is both but it’s just a metaphor). This would make data storage easier for the cell because, unlike a brain cell, it wouldn’t have to process the data or provide access for more until Aptom’s brain regenerates.

[*Kenji Murakami]

I think that's kind of like what Ryuki suggested. Personally, I tend to go with Ryuki's idea, too. Or something like it, anyway.

[BoomerBane]

Off of curiosity, is Aptom truly able to absorb the memories of Zoanoids that he has consumed?

[*BananaKing]

Well that depends on how memory is actually stored in a being's mind. Since he absorbs everything about a zoanoid, I can only guess he absorbs the cells that contain the zoanoid's memory. In turn he would absorb all of the zoanoid's memories.

In that regard, Aptom probably processes what he absorbs extremely fast, so he probably goes through the memories really fast and if he doesn't see them as useful, he tosses them away.

[*Jess♥]

I'd like to compare this to computer systems.

if you pick up a hard drive from another device or computer, and connect to it, would you immediately be able to read the data?

i would say if your operating system was designed to read another disk, then you would be able to. but what if your operating system was not designed to read other hard disks?

think about what aptoms is designed to do.

to assimilate DNA information.

is he designed to assimilate memories?

a good thought here is why aptoms memories might be stored.

well if his brain needs to be re-processed when he gains new genetic data, then perhaps his body is designed to make a backup of his memories while he is re-processing his braincells?

I don't thik this would allow him to access anothers memories.

because in order to give the brain cells the ability to do this backup process, they would need to be modified and perhaps the process of modifying them will disrupt the memories in such a fashion as aptoms backup system is designed to circumvent.

[*Kenji Murakami]

The way I see it, Aptom can absorb short-term memories, but long-term memories get processed the same way as any other group of cells.

[*Jess♥]

is that based on what i said or some other line of thought?

are you thinking along the lines of residual charge?

[*Kenji Murakami]

Well, my thought was that, if someone had just formed the memories, their brain would still be active enough that he would be able to pick up the information.

[Renegade]

From what we know, Aptom's regeneration and absorption can occur at the cellular level even without a mind. In cognitive science and neurology it is believed that the physical aspect of the mind at least is housed in the electrical impulses of the brain. Aptom's cells must have some method of recording these impulses on the cellular level probably through an advanced chemical code which imprints these impulses on whatever brain cells he forms.

I'm being very flexible with my language here, but I hope you get my idea. Going back to the computer analogy, he has a BIOS for his memory in each cell of his body that boots up his OS onto his brain cells whenever they regenerate. Question is what the hell that BIOS is?

[*Jess♥]

i have thought for a while that it is a form of nucleic acid.

perhaps even in DNA.

after all, all DNA is, is information.

[spectre555]

Do you guys read Springgan?

i think we could look at Jean's regenerative ability and see if it fits here.

[durendal]

Just throwing in a couple of cents. Perhaps that Aptom's cells are being altered constantly. I mean, instructions can be written to the genetic level of the DNA, so won't it also be possible to do the same for memory? In terms of capacity, I don't think Aptom's brain being limitless. I'm sure Aptom also forgets somethings to make way for memories like any regular joe. My point, every time he gains a new memory, his genetic code might get altered to accomodate new memories. I guess this could be another attribute to Aptoms evolution, since his DNA are constantly unstable. Perhaps his cells work the other way around. Memories are stored in the cells instead of information like instincts and the like, and awaits instructions when the brain is formed. Isn't this how Evil Aptom was conceived?

Am I making any sense at all?

[*YoungGuyver]

Recap-Aptom, what do we know:

Aptom was originally designed to 'mimic' other zoanoids. He was basically a shape shifter (probably did this by picking and choosing which parts of his DNA he would express, a talent we see to this day)

It is to note that originally he couldn't fully mimic others, and was lower in power to the originals.

Reprocessed by Dr Balcus:

-Aptom absorbed the DNA of other zoanoids by absorbing their bodies

-While he was in the process of absorbing, he could link with their telepathy to talk to zoalords

-Can regenerate, using other zoanoids as base material (obeying the law of conservation of energy-which is note worthy for zoanoid processing in general)

-When regenerating a body, has all the memories he did before

-Evil Aptom had something in place of a brain that Sho was able to detect, this was sending out brain signals that stopped the body from trying to form a brain

-While in the middle of absorbing Hayami, he felt Hayami's precence, and it faded away when the absorption was complete (as if two minds can not coexist)

I would say that Aptom can not absorb memories, but while in the process of absorbing, can link with their nervous system. I guess he MAY be able to glean information from them that way. I'm a bit hesitant to say specifically that it is DNA that Aptom is using to store memories. There are a lot of different components to a cell. True, the nucleus is the blue print of the bodies physical form. But I would like something that can feed from the blood stream or the nervous system constantly. I suppose with the increased speed of manipulating DNA this would not be an issue, but still. It's just a preference. I don't like throwing out the word DNA all the time, it makes it a one trick pony. I'm also a little frightened of physical body DNA combining with memory DNA. Any confusion would be weird. I would like Aptom to be capable of processing his physical forms without having to sift through memory strands. Perhaps memories strands are kept in a separate package, or in a ball unto themselves. I would imagine that memory strands would require a new organelle to help write the new memories in. And organelle that receives a signal from the brain (perhaps electrical, perhaps chemical-my vote is on electrical, through the nervous system), and then adds another link unto the memory chain.

If the way I think works is it, then there is just one question:

Aptom has demonstrated the ability to create multiple versions of himself, and then merge back together. If he is creating memories for different bodies simultaneously, do they merge back together, or is there a 'prime Aptom' chosen? A 'master hard drive'? It might be difficult to spy on various people if you then must chose who has the better reason for remembering. Perhaps this is why Aptom doesn't do this trick very often. Not really sure, I'd like to see more examples before I say for sure on that one. I need to see how he reacts some more.

[*Jess♥]

don't forget how aptom has been described as a self processing zoanoid.

if the processing method uses retrovirus' as has been suggested, then aptom may well transfer all his memories etc using retrovirus.

also, this is very important, the term ontogenesis was used within the manga. ontogenesis specifically implies a lesser lifeform spontaneoulsy becoming a more complex lifeform. surely this would apply to a simple organism such as a retrovirus or very similar.

in essence, aptom could BE a virus.

in terms of storage, i'm pretty sure each of us is aware of some other methods of storage within a cell.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nucleic_acid

Artificial nucleic acids include peptide nucleic acid (PNA), Morpholino and locked nucleic acid (LNA), as well as glycol nucleic acid (GNA) and threose nucleic acid (TNA).

any of these nucleic acids could be kept primarily in a retrovirus that is coursing through aptoms body constantly. perhaps his lymph system is the medium, since that seems more similar to hormones to me. and perhaps these retrovirus constantly check in with each other and compare notes. if one has more information (more memories) these are simply copied across.

in an unusual case where each has different memories, they should notice the difference in the memories and both give each other a copy of what the other doesn't have.

[Super Existence]

The concept of Aptom actually being a virus seems to fit with everythign we've learned about him. Takaya based him on John Carpenters 'The Thing' which is also similar to a Virus.