#posthuman is fun

Okay, why is fandom so hung on Reaper (most probably Gabriel Reyes) being in pain? It’s not that strange as fanon likes to spread (and the general kind of people that involve actively in fandom), and giving a character chronic pain is somehow redeeming but it seems a little bit lazy? (And then, who am I to even criticize this even if it’s used often as a kind of defining characteristic?)

  We actually have two explanations given canon-wise for Reaper, both implied, as far as I know: genetic experimentation and nanotechnology. The whole decay/regeneration thing is like a little garnish on top of it.

  Myself, I’m partial to the nanomachine theory (because I love nanite-based fun since it was first invented and then came the MGS with the whole La Li Lu Le Lo deal and…). One argument I see thrown around is the fact that human mind was not designed to ‘insert favorite headcanon about nanotechnology here’.

  But the question is: are we dealing with a human mind anymore? Reaper’s abilities would suggest that the answer is no, we are not. Human mind exists as an intact whole – the brain. The physical changes to the brain change the mind occupying it. There are head trauma victims whose whole personality changed so much they became entirely different people with memories of someone else.

  At best we are dealing with a mind that switches between a singular unit and a collective of individual parts or neural net composed of connected nanites, and the question we should ask are:

  -    does any given nanite from Reaper hold his whole ‘mind’?

  -    If not, does his mind when he is in his dispersed state function as a nebulous cloud processing between all the nanites?

  -    What happens if the nanites get separated? Do they die off? Do they enter dormant state? Or do we have a potential gray goo scenario on our hands?

  -    If any nanite holds the entirety of the information as a singular unit and does have the processing power to simulate entirety of the decision-making process… well, this is where the real fun begins… does every nanite processes the same input the same way?

  -    If it is possible for a singular nanite to reach a different conclusion to the same input, how does decision-making process for the whole swarm work? Is it voting-based?

  -    If nanites get separated, is it possible for them to create separate Reapers? What about a single poor nanite that wakes up after being lost, EMP-ed or just dormant? (Let’s light a candle for all poor Reapers that died alone that way?)

  -    If he reforms, does the decision making switches to the brain, and if it does, how do nanites rewrite the brain to incorporate new memories? (This is particularly interesting since they would have no blueprint for incorporating new memories and forming new neural pathways. There is a whole universe of possibilities with this one.)

  -    How far goes the autonomy on single nanite and how far goes the control over every single nanite?

  So, if we are dealing with the nanite thing, my own view is we are not dealing with the human mind anymore, so there is nothing that would be ‘painful’ about that except maybe the adjustment period where Reaper would have to deal with the change in how he ‘exists’ as an intelligent entity, and with enough time there could be (must be) enough control over the whole nanite swarm to control appearance and a lot of different stuff, and to be very creative with what you do, and it kind of defeats monster Reaper (unless he wants to appear this way).

  Now, there is a thing in general, how do we interpret ‘pain’. Pain is simply an information that something gets/is broken, and there is no need for it to be ‘unpleasant’, we are just wired this way to avoid any injury. Many types of chronic pain are the types not connected with any ongoing injury but concern neurons misfiring which gets interpreted as pain by the brain. If you are virtually a swarm of intelligent nanites cloud-computing, there is no need for pain being painful except it being a habit?

  Of course, in cinematics Reaper is shown being ‘in pain’, but we cannot know if it’s concerning being in pain as we interpret or just dealing with an injury that prevents a certain type of action/movement. More so, if the collective networking between the nanites takes over a part or most of the function of the original nervous system.

  Now, the genetic thing. The genetic approach is simply magic, and I don’t mean the degeneration/regeneration cycle, but the implication that the most innate to Reaper abilities are biologically based which is simply crazy. That’s scary magic. But, if we disregard the nanomachine theory, and leave the magic genetic thing of dispersing and reforming, then yeah, there is a potential for pain, because we do need a mostly intact nervous system for that – and matter-of-factly – the nervous system itself decays and regenerates and many of chronic pain diseases are connected with nerve degeneration. Which could be dealt with the nanomachines taking up the role of the nervous system, but…

  It all sums up in: the lore is fucked up and there are no explanations beyond magic, but, as much as I am invested in reaper76 myself, there are many much more fun ways you can play the nanomachines or genetic thing off in the whole deal, and actually any headcanon is right. I’d just love more of difference in portraying the whole nanite thing because as hell it’s fun in all the different ways you can deal with it.

  And the whole deal is just something I came up in like half an hour, so it’s far from being in any way comprehensive or accurate.