# Cloning and its Troublesome History
### An excerpt from M.D. Walter Innsbrook's "Medical Marvels in the Contemporary Explorative Age", c. 501 FSC

Cloning as a science has always been in the forefront of science-fiction speculation within the advanced cultures of our day. Indeed, Kalixcian and Solarian writers have both grappled with the topic at length, though its interpretations and mechanics have varied from miraculous to disasterous. It would be rather laborious to list and nod to each and every popular instance, nor does this history seek to do so. It is, however, important to note the rapid development of scientific ambition when once fantastical dreams became reality with the advent of FTL technology and the ultimate formation of our galactic community.

The first known experimentations of what would later open up the science of sapient cloning began in relatively recent history: around 311 FSC. As medical fabricators grew capable of designing (more accurately, copying) simple, organic designs, as well as producing them, it is only natural that the forefront leader of medical technology, DeForest Medical, began research on the exact replication of living subjects. There are two important historical contexts to consider around this time.

The first is the end of xenophobic sentiments within almost the entire galactic population. Incorporation and integration of the galactic community had finalized itself thirty-nine years prior with the Universal Equality and Justice Clauses of 272 (best remembered as the UEC), passed and agreed upon as galactic law by all known interspacial bodies. As cooperation and community were widespread, ethical treatment of sapients had never been more rigorously interrogated by state officials, especially in the academic fields of anthropology, archaeology, biology, and psychology.

The second was the rapid marketing of cheap, quality circuitry by various computing firms in response to Nanotrasen's abrupt domination of the stock parts market. This quick change to a consumer-favored market meant that investing in sizable portions of highly advanced computer processors was feasible for physicists and staticians who had been long awaiting a break in the market. DeForest was one of multiple companies to exploit the spike in supply.

What would unfold next is a series of disturbing experiments and scholarly investigation which set the stage for much of our current philosophical and ethical beliefs regarding the right of an individual to life, but, more importantly, the right to their *death*, and the permission of their consciousness to continue in whatever fabric it may experience beyond the mortal coil most of us know.

## The Vat Rats
While common vermin are not considered sapient under galactic law (assuming standard circumstances; I highly recommend the work of my friend and long-time colleague, Ph.D. Seekra-Vels' *The Sewage Empire* to readers interested in intelligent rat colonies found post-ICW), they nevertheless prove a common medium for testing over countless centuries. The initial production of a cloning machine utilized such a subject basis.

### Machines of Immortality
Supposedly, the designs of DeForest's first cloning machine were lost to corporate espionage (unlikely for a Solarian company to keep one copy), yet the setup implemented would continue on into prototypes produced until 498 FSC, when testimony and drawbacks regarding excessive cloning were made widely known to the galactic community, ultimately encapsulating in the ban of cloners and their usage via the Afterlife Assurance Accords (AAA) of the same year (we will discuss this in much detail later).

This intermediate setup consisted of three primary machines. A body-sized biological scanner, a user interface (in the form of a computer), and a cloning vat. The biological scanner possessed a multitude of highly advanced sensor equipment that would perform deeply intrusive scans on any subject placed and sealed inside. Organs, supporting structures, and flesh were collected in a series of three flashes first, before five minor electrical jolts allowed mapping of the nervous system.

In early designs, subjects were required to imbibe radioactive fluid that would permit for better mapping of the brain and its several layered cortexes. For our rodent pioneers, this proved a simple task of lacing drink. It was more difficult to convince the first series of sapients, but they were picked from chronically-ill individuals who were promised potential treatment if they were to participate in various trials. Boards of scientific ethics have attempted to find the specific individuals responsible for such considerable malpractice, though no signature of any accountable parties is present on what few documents remain of this time.

Regardless, these scans were then processed by the user interface, often a desktop computer system that was capable of receiving and sending the massive amounts of data required to replicate a living being. The device controlled and surveyed the scanning process, reporting various gaps in the scan which would then be replaced via statistical estimates. So long as conjecture of the computer remained below some vague threshold of acceptability (obviously, this would later cause complications), the scan was accepted then extrapolated into a production file, containing an executable that linked with the cloning pod and the subject's specifications.

The cloning vat was the largest part of the setup. While the size of the original tube is not known, future designs demonstrated a need for a vast pod, as they not only had to consider the potential mass of certain sapients, such as vox, but also support a vast number of tubes, sensors, and dispensers to permit the formation of differing shapes of the many species that span our systems. A loading module would also be necessary to permit the entrance of stem cell-enriched materials that are highly flexible in formation and ability to receive neurological instruction.

### Beginning Tests
As previously mentioned, it was a common rat (a species that unfortunately survived the Night of Fire) that was the staple for the introductory experiments, believed to have occurred from 311-313 FSC. Three criterium were put into place to gauge the success of cloning:

1) Physical Reproduction (does the subject's body perfectly resemble its predecessor?)
2) Mental Reproduction (does the subject possess the skills and information of its predecessor?)
3) Emotional Reproduction (does the subject possess the attachment and desires of its predecessor?)

The primary concerns are obviously tasks two and three. To this day, it is yet to be fully understood how precisely information is encrypted and placed within our brains. Work in the field of micro-image transplants (known commonly as flashing) have yielded rare successes in remarkable individuals, though the technology of imprinting biological data (never mind extracting it from an original source) has been stumped for centuries.

While information on the specific design of their setups is gone, we are fortunate to have been left laboratory notes on the initial runs of the cloner. The beginning year is not known, but the concept of their tests was simple. Please note that from this point forward, any references to the original document are paraphrased (readers may view it on their own; instructions are located within the end of this text).

The first experiment focused on the second goal of cloning: that of information transference. A control group was simply cloned post-mortem, while the experimental group were timed on the solving of a maze, with their results recorded, then cloned post-mortem. Lethal injection was used for each of the subjects, before they were then placed into cloning approximately five minutes after recorded time of death. Both groups were then placed in the same maze the experimental group had previously gone through. The experimental group not only saw quicker times than the control group, but also significantly improved results than their first run.

Variations of the experiment were performed, such as extending the decay time of the subjects, altering the maze as to "mislead" the experimental group post-cloning, and adjusting the experimental variable to be time of decay, not previous exposure to the maze. Each result only confirmed the belief that their device had successfully fulfilled their second criterium. However, the objective times of subjects that had been left to decay for several hours were drastically lower than fresh scans. While their physical reproduction was noted as acceptable, certain eccentricities were noted in the subject's responsiveness to stimuli. This manifested in a number of different ways; some had critically slow reaction times, others had paralysis of various limbs, and a few were unreasonably hostile, to list some of the side effects of cloning a partially-dead brain.

It is suggested that the scientists immediately prioritized rectifying the consequences of brain decay after these discoveries. This history agrees with this interpretation for a number of reasons. Firstly, there was Vitra Pharmaceutical Treatments' invention of neuropozynase in 317 FSC: a protein that accelerated brain recovery through temporarily inducing extreme neuroplasticity, and a discovery known to have been heavily funded by DeForest (and Cybersun Industries, though this is unrelated to our discussion), as DeForest and Vitra had not yet had their publicized falling-out. Secondly, the rhetoric and personal comments located within research notes post-first wave cloning were highly disturbed with the potential inability to rectify the issue of brain decay. The following is one of the more striking personal entries that was seized during the Solarian Peace Bureau's investigation of DeForest after the Inter-Corporate Wars:

> *"I shudder to think of what our Lazarus device will spell for the future of our communal existence as intelligent beings. Every inventor has shared this same dread, and for good reason. What horror must have the creator of the machine gun have felt? Or that of the nuclear bomb, or the plasma engine, or the man-machine interface? Regardless of our culture, every critical technology introduced has ushered in consequences that nobody can successfully predict. Is it right for mortals to claim power over the spark of creation itself, to play God's divine game? It is said that no thing created can be perfect, and yet that is what we strive for with this machine. Can we truly assure someone will be the same after this process? What will they have experienced, having died and being digitized then given flesh anew? What if the soldier of our day is brought back, time and time again, to go fight and die so long as they must serve? What of the worker, or the genius whose intelligence is coveted for generations on end? Will any of us see rest in the years to come? Or are we to be repeatedly brought forward, losing a piece of ourself with every cycle? There are too many questions, and there is too much uncertainty, yet the project continues. It is a terror and a beauty of our great minds. May our gift of fire not burn the foundations of meaning we have fought for over our shared existence."*

Thirdly, the rampant escalation of test subjects chosen suggested a key anxiety with the technology's translation to sapient beings. Emotional continuance was seemingly dismissed as a concern with the second wave of testing, while physical replication was considered acceptable. Thus DeForest's experimentation went down a path of deplorable inhumaneness, yet awe-inspiring innovation.

### Mental Interfacing
The introduction of neuropozynase as revolutionary in the field of neural flexibility and recovery is what led to the greenlighting of the second wave of cloning experiments within DeForest laboratories. One of the drug's most remarkable features is that of cross-genetic compatiblity. To simplify, the protein is acceptable treatment for most animals that are capable of regenerating damaged neurons (rare beyond sapients, and considered an attribute of mammals). More notable is its ability to *enable* said attribute in non-mammalians. This permitted re-runs of the first round of experiments.

The scientists began with experimentation on the effectiveness of neuropozynase regarding revitalization of neural structures. A control group was permitted to decay for approximately four hours, while the experimental group underwent a similar timespan, with both having experienced the maze pre-mortem. However, post-cloning, the experimental group was treated with ten miligrams of neuropozynase. Two different tests ran the maze, their difference being one ran immediately after treatment, whereas the other waited twenty-four hours. Experimental group saw normal times after twenty-four hours, with slightly slower times immediately after drug administration. Control group consistently performed *worse* after the twenty-four hour waiting period, which suggests a delayed decrepitness present in stale-cloned subjects (term for a decayed entity that is scanned and successfully reproduced). This was curiously not investigated by DeForest, though it came to the attention of the SPB almost two centuries later.

It is worth mentioning a number of other experiments regarding neuropozynase that did not necessarily seek to test the effects and completeness of DeForest's machine, but rather interrogating its ability to increase the "intelligence" of what is otherwise classified as a "simple" animal. While this is not the focus of this history (I would once again point to *The Sewage Empire*), it is important to note as a general side effect of the drug: to such an extent that its "repair" of partially-decomposed brains is plausibly misleading. As cloning is now illegal, it is impossible to (lawfully) verify the truth of the matter, nor are we aware of its potential impacts on stale-cloned sapients (as very few Nanotrasen operators were fully informed of cloning's drawbacks during its considerable use in the ICW).

Regardless, scientists were likely appeased with the results of neuropozynase treatment as an option for subjects who would potentially go hours before reaching a potential cloning vat or scanner in the field. Mental reproduction was thus considered enough of a success, at least in simple animals.

## Sapient Subjects
There is a considerable jump between the time of the Vat Rat experiments from 311-318 FSC and the time of the first sapient cloning, which occurred in 370 FSC. We are not sure why the natural progression of the research was seemingly put on pause for so long. However, we are gifted with significantly more robust documentation of the tests where sapient subjects are present.

*M.D. Walter Innsbrook is a professor of medical science and Kalixcian history at Yukati University, located within the Martian dome of New Deimos. He currently resides in uptown Reistahn with his husband and five children. For more information, please visit his official site on the university webpage.*