Secrets of the Enhanced Humans

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toysdream
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Secrets of the Enhanced Humans

This is sort of a spinoff of the Revelations from the Zeta Gundam Novels thread, but I figured I should start a new thread rather than bumping the old one. If the moderators think this should all stay in one thread, then splice away!

Our subject this time is the kyoka ningen - literally "enhanced human," or "Cyber-Newtype" in the English adaptations. Several of these characters appear in Zeta Gundam, Gundam ZZ, and Char's Counterattack, and the animation is fairly vague as to where they came from and how they were given artificial Newtype abilities. But this is actually discussed in some detail in Tomino's Zeta Gundam novels, which was the main reason I started compiling info from these books in the first place.


As you may recall, a passage in volume two of the novels mentioned that the research of the Newtype Labs was focused on "enhancing human reflexes through the use of biotechnological techniques such as drugs, hypnosis, and autosuggestion, then electrically extracting the nerve signals and using these reactions to operate machines." Starting with volume three, we get more details.
Zeta Gundam Volume 3 wrote:Enhanced humans were people whose fighting capabilities had been enhanced through means such as drugs, hypnotherapy, and organ transplantation. But these were essentially methods of strengthening the mind, rather than modifying human biology.

Basically, drugs were administered to relax the mind and, by slowing down speed perceptions, make actual movements feel slower and eliminate sensations of fear. Drugs were also administered to increase the body's reaction speed, and mentally the subject was placed under hypnotic control.

Of course, the original enhanced human plan involved the use of biotechnology for biological modification, but this fact was unknown to the average soldier.
In the following chapter, we learn a little more about Rosamia's phobia...
Zeta Gundam Volume 3 wrote:The fear of the sky falling was something that had not been erased from Rosamia's mind. The researchers had merely used Rosamia's sense of terror as a springboard for her training as a combatant.
Speaking of Rosamia's psychological issues, in volume four the Argama's resident doctor concludes that her memories of Kamille were imprinted through hynotic suggestion. He also speculates that Rosamia herself may have been created through genetic engineering - yes, like a Coordinator! - but as far as I can tell this is neither followed up on, nor supported by any hard evidence.


Soon enough, Rosamia disappears from the story and Four is introduced. Here, as she struggles to make small talk with Kamille, Tomino tells us a little about Four's personal history.
Zeta Gundam Volume 3 wrote:Four sensed that, within her past memories, there was nothing with which she could build herself a personality.

She had no choice but to perform her tasks ever more mechanically, ever more perfunctorily. That wasn't something she could boast about to other people, much less something suitable for a conversation with someone she liked.

Four had no memories of anything but training to become a Newtype at the Murasame research institute. In the time she was aware of, she had undergone mechanical reaction training, anti-G training in a cold room with a machine that resembled an amusement park ride, and super-running training to augment her memory.*

Within this training framework, Four had certainly become a human with sharpened reflexes. But it didn't include the basics of ordinary human behavior and conversation. She had lived a life in which sensors were always attached to her body, in which she was subjected to sleep learning even while she was asleep, and in which she was sometimes forcibly awoken from a sound sleep for tests to check that she was learning. All this was intended to turn her into a machine.

This was all that Four knew. Thus, whether or not military secrets were involved, it was not in her nature to be talkative.

* I don't know what "super-running" means, but this is the English term used in the original text.

When Four shows up at Kilimanjaro in the following volume, Tomino spends a few pages rambling about Newtype theory and the nature of their precognitive powers.
Zeta Gundam Volume 4 wrote:Four Murasame! The name meant that she was the fourth test subject of Japan's Murasame research institute, where Newtypes were studied.

Originally, when people expanded their sphere of existence to include outer space, the Newtype term referred to people who had the ability to fully comprehend this expanded space. These people were creatures who could grasp and understand the space beyond Earth, and possessed the means of communication and comprehension needed for actual existence there. These people were said to be "Hyper sapiens" superior to the present Homo sapiens.

Due to the necessities of living in space, these people could acquire the ability to transcend the vastness of space and achieve empathy with their fellow humans. The means they used might be something like telepathy. In other words, even if people were separated by the obstacles of space and time, it was said that these people could overcome them and empathically connect through their shared love.

In order to attain these abilities, people would have to better understand their situation. In that case, they could infer the situation from what they saw before their eyes, and predict how it might change and what new situation might result. However, we presently describe abilities of this kind as precognition.

A person fully endowed with these abilities would seem like a superhuman to people in the Oldtype category. But the appearance of such a person was the result of a change that humanity would soon be able to naturally achieve, now that it had begun living in outer space.

Changes in a species normally appear through mutation, and are then inherited and refined. But the mutation itself is seen by the rest of the species as a different breed, and therefore rejected. Humans in particular, thanks to their intelligence, clearly reject such different breeds within their midst.

But in the military world of this space age, the people known as Newtypes were highly effective due to the unique abilities they possessed. Precognition, the ability to read an enemy's will and react beforehand, was a valuable ability for a pilot. Humans are creatures that unhesitatingly use their intelligence to attack their neighbors. Thus they made use of Newtypes and established the Newtype research institutes.

Originally, species changed in accordance with natural principles of mutation and natural selection. But humanity, with its unique ability and motivation, set out to create Newtypes artificially no matter what the cost.

Four knew no other name than Four Murasame. Now Four, surrounded by a psycommu system that artifically expanded her sensory and recognition powers, sighted the Zeta Gundam.

The psycommu system could receive and emit amplified brainwaves. It did this by amplifying, transmitting, and receiving the various kinds of brainwaves emitted by the human body when it formed an intention. It didn't just convert fluctations in electric potential. Naturally, if the test subject had little ability, the system could become confused by whether or not it should exclude other intentions produced by what could be called surplus ability. This was a weak point of the psycommu, but if it were used more properly, then the test subject could reliably operate it to the extent that they might seem to have precognition.
This talk of perfect comprehension and understanding hearkens back to Amuro's ramblings on the subject of enlightenment and satori. Apparently, perfect understanding of people and situations allows you to anticipate what's going to happen next. I'd also note that, for once, this is Tomino himself explaining why Newtype abilities emerged as a result of living in space, rather than his characters.


On the whole, it seems that the enhanced human process really is focused on boosting the test subject's reaction speed and combat performance, rather than inducing ESP abilities or spiritual awareness. The fact that these test subjects exhibit Newtype-like abilities seems almost to be a side-effect, and as far as the researchers are concerned, the only practical consideration is whether or not they can operate a psycommu system.There's a little bit more about Rosamia's physical modifications in volume five, once Doctor Hasan completes his medical analysis, and I'll post that as soon as I'm done transcribing it.

-- Mark
Last edited by toysdream on Sun Oct 21, 2007 12:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Wingnut
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Originally, when people expanded their sphere of existence to include outer space, the Newtype term referred to people who had the ability to fully comprehend this expanded space. These people were creatures who could grasp and understand the space beyond Earth, and possessed the means of communication and comprehension needed for actual existence there. These people were said to be "Hyper sapiens" superior to the present Homo sapiens.

Due to the necessities of living in space, these people could acquire the ability to transcend the vastness of space and achieve empathy with their fellow humans. The means they used might be something like telepathy. In other words, even if people were separated by the obstacles of space and time, it was said that these people could overcome them and empathically connect through their shared love.
Sounds a lot like what Char was trying to forcefully achieve in the movie by making space the only place that humanity would be able to live and hopefully by the time the planet had recovered, humans would see the errors of generations past and take much better care of Earth.
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toysdream
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Okay, one more note on Rosamia. This is the novel version of the scene where Doctor Hasan reports his preliminary findings.
Zeta Gundam Volume 5 wrote:After eating, Kamille once again visited Hasan's room.

Hasan was studying a tomograph display and didn't turn to face Kamille. The wall was also covered in X-ray photographs, magnified cell photographs, displays of muscle strength measurements, and so forth.

"So, what's up?"

Hasan peered at a records display on his desk. "At this point, there's nothing abnormal, but there's still the cellular examination. Without those results, we won't know whether or not that girl has been biologically modified."

"But... She doesn't show any signs of being a cyborg."

"So it seems... But the fact is that she's full of keta-metallothionein. The levels are abnormal."

"Isn't that an anti-radiation drug?"

"Oh... What's the matter, Lieutenant?"

Char was peering in. "Don't worry..." He sat beside Kamille. "Whatever happens, it's okay. We put a transmitter on the girl's body."

"What? Why?"

"She's an enemy. She has to be observed." Char's severity left Kamille no room for objection.

"...So is it possible that Rosammy is an enhanced human?"

"...Her psychic waves are far higher than the average for an ordinary human."*

"Psychic waves...?"

"Brainwave activity is hard to explain." Hasan tapped the keyboard and showed him a graph of brainwave measurements. "These high-amplitude ones are Rosammy's. They're different from those of an ordinary human, aren't they? But we can't conclude that she's an enhanced human from that alone."

"...How are enhanced humans different? What in the world are they?"

"Medically speaking, it's a worthy undertaking..."
The scene then segues into more antagonism between Kamille and Doctor Hasan, who previously offended Kamille by expressing his fascination with the idea of genetically engineering superhumans. But we do get a little more data here, including confirmation that Rosamia's "psychic waves" are higher than those of an ordinary human, which presumably explains why she can use the psycommu system.

-- Mark
Imperial
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You're a godsend, Mark!

I feel like I'm finally starting to understand the Newtype concept after all these years. It's dealt with in such vague, abstract (and seemingly drug-induced) terms that I always wrote it off as something magical. However, with these Zeta novel excerpts, I feel like Tomino's finally dumbed it down for me.

A Newtype isn't a psychic or a magician. They can't see the future. They simply understand other people and various situation to a hitherto unknown degree. That understanding goes so deep that a sufficiently aware Newtype can predict an enemy's movements with uncanny accuracy.

Of course, that still doesn't explain feats like our dear friend Mashymre Cello (choose your spelling) blowing himself and a mobile suit to kingdom come with a funky aura. :roll:
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Imperial wrote:Of course, that still doesn't explain feats like our dear friend Mashymre Cello (choose your spelling) blowing himself and a mobile suit to kingdom come with a funky aura. :roll:
Maybe he understood himself and his suit so well, he...
...ok, yeah, you're easily right there. :lol:
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That did manage to blow away some of the misconceptions I had about newtypes and especially Cyber-Newtypes.

So a Cyber-Newtype simply emulates the abilities of real newtypes, but only in regard to combat abilities. Where as with true Newtypes, it always seemed like they had a kind of pressure or something akin to it. I always took that for a kind "empath radar".

Does anyone recall there being mention of feeling pressure coming from any of the Cyber-Newtypes in the show?

Fascinating stuff. Personally I love Tomino's need to explain everything. Many thanks Mark. We'd be lost without someone to enlighten us about this.
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