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Digitization

 * 1) Heavy machinery underwater? -- huge driller!
 * 2) Universal Constructors -- Theory, Principles, and Practice (Wayne Yin)
 * 3) "...and thus arose the need for a more generalized theory encompassing a "Universal Constructor" (UC) that would be able to handle such arbitrarily complex nanoscale design problems. Unlike the simple atom-by-atom nanotech constructors common today, a UC would combine millions upon millions of atoms in a parallel process that could produce materials or mechanisms of unmatched intimacy on a scale currently not possible even with the best nanoscale foundry.
 * 4) One of the most obvious applications of a UC -- if its construction were even practical -- would be the genetic manipulation of lifeforms at the atomic level to cure disease, correct congenital defects, or expand their capabilities in beneficial ways. Theoretically, if an "intelligent," real-time control program were developed for the UC, then autonomous, artificial nanoscale organisms could be assembled. Careful design could create organisms that might actually exist in "symbiosis" with other life.
 * 5) However, a UC also creates the tangible threat of a "gray goo" scenario; the design of an organism that is so evolutionarily advanced as to overwhelm the current ecosystem..."
 * 6) UC is central antagonistic technology in the game
 * 7) Helios could control
 * 8) Augs=symbiosis
 * 9) Nanoscale 3D printer
 * 10) etc,.

Analysis

 * 1) How in the hell did the Majestic 12 fit such a huge piece of machinery underwater? I can only assume they floated it down with URV's, but going piece by piece like that is too inefficient and I'd be afraid to bring even a backpack and lunch with me in one of those things.
 * 2) This book is another one of the pillars of the game lore. It shows up in only one spot; on a desk in the excavated area beyond the driller and in the living quarters.
 * 3) Nanotech constructors in the 2050's go atom-by-atom, similar to a cross between a 3D printer (but naturally on a much smaller scale) and an electron tunneling microscope. Building alloys or machines is all well and good, but organics would be impossible to create with such rigid foundry limitations. By combining several of these processes at once, instantaneous organic cloning or material replication is possible.
 * 4) Exactly what's happening in the game -- augmentation, genetic manipulation, the works. An algorithm for organics would need to be created, however. Modification allows for nano-augmentation (which, covered in the game here is machines within cells that replicate with them as part of the RNA process [-- see earlier pages?]), or the Gray Death, when left unchecked.
 * 5) As above.
 * 6) An "intelligent" real-time control program could be Daedalus/Icarus/Helios. The computing power required to run these UC's are enormous for organics, and such a distributed computing platform could handle the work, if routed or programmed correctly. The station beneath the DuClare chateau could have served as a central routing station for instructions, post-Aquinas implementation.
 * 7) The only symbiosis to be found here is the nanoaugs; humans and the Gray Death cannot coexist without a massive, instant evolutionary shift.
 * 8) See above.
 * 9) See below!

Further Analysis
The Universal Constructor, still hypothetical today, is a fascinating piece of technology. Assembling anything, everything, in seconds, on command. Astonishing -- the possibilities would be endless. As a class of Von Neumann devices, "Molecular Assemblers", being the central idea behind a UC, but not a UC itself, can replicate themselves as well. RNA and ribosomes fit this bill.

The technology which powers a large portion of this game's narrative is also central to the player character and primary antagonists. Replication of the cells behind nano-augged agents, the machines, is made possible by the same ideas put forth behind a Universal Constructor. In a way, JC, Page, Simons, and Tong are all Universal Constructors. I think one of the biggest cases in point is the killswitch: an unchecked, exponential replication of cells and machines, resulting in such a powerful shock to the system that the human itself shuts down. Not only are JC and Paul killing machines, they are, more or less, biological weapons of mass destruction. As the Gray Death or nano-augmentations in them explode in numbers, should they lose limbs or a decent quantity of blood, the Gray Death multiplies and expands, essentially creating more of itself with the whole world as its petri dish -- a gray goo scenario, which could, should it be so inclined, completely overtake ecoregions (or even the whole biosphere). 24 hours is also fairly arbitrary and slow; UNATCO could simply have programmed it to be an instantaneous replication of every machine and every cell, killing the twins within a few minutes. Naturally, however, this would make getting to Hong Kong and deactivating it quite tricky though!

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