Mad Scientist Inventions

Dr. Elizabeth Rebecca Mabuse is the quintessential mad scientist, always inventing grandiose scientific devices that harken back to cartoon and pulp stories. She’s literally got her hands in all sorts of projects, but perhaps her two biggest accomplishments are the Proteinaceous Computer and the Decoherence Decompiler.

The ProCom grew out of research she did in college, and is a true quantum computer. This in turn led to the development of the Artificial Brain, which she uses in her robots, and true Artificial Intelligence. The Decompiler, however, is a bit more involved and will take some explaining.

In quantum mechanics, all particles are thought of as being standing waves. That’s a wave that doesn’t move, but just sits in one position and oscillates. This also means, however, that any particle can be described by a wave equation, which in turn means that anything made of particles can also be described by such an equation, from atoms to people to the whole universe. The generalized equation for all particles is known as the Schrodinger equation, and its solution, when used to calculate the properties of a particle, is called a wave function. This wave function not only describes the particle’s current properties, but also provides information on what those properties were in the past and what they will become in the future, as well as what the particle’s properties could be under any set of circumstances. And a wave function can be calculated for anything made of particles, from atoms to the whole universe.

The thing is, in quantum mechanics the wave function not only tells you what a particle’s properties could be like, it also tells you that that particle possesses all of its possible set of properties at the same time. We only see one possible set of properties because the act of observation causes the wave function to collapse so that only set exists, but until that happens, the particle actually possesses all possible properties simultaneously. This is called superposition, and a particle that is in superposition is said to be coherent. Decoherence is the process by which the wave function of a particle collapses down to just one possible set of properties.

Anything made of particles can be described by its own wave function, including people. A person is normally decoherent; that is, they have only one set of properties, established by the collapse of the wave function. However, all the other possible properties a person could have are not destroyed, but are buried within the structure of the wave function. What Mabuse’s Decoherence Decompiler does is read the collapsed wave function and reconstruct it to what it was before collapse. This can be done mathematically within a computer, but she has also developed a device that can do it within a person, making him coherent and possessing all his possible properties at the same time.

A coherent person cannot exist in normal space; his wave function would simply recollapse to one specific set of properties. Instead, the device creates a pocket of Hilbert space, which can support a coherent person. Within Hilbert space, a person isn’t technically alive, but he isn’t dead either, he just exists as multiple disembodied consciousnesses. At that point, Mabuse can then select from the other possible properties and force the wave function to collapse down to that specific set of properties by dissipating the pocket of Hilbert space, thereby turning a person into whatever that set dictates. She can also manipulate the wave function, reverting it back to an earlier form or causing it to evolve into a new form.

Mabuse’s development of the Artificial Brain pretty much resulted only in her robots, though she achieved her crowning achievements with the self-aware robot Xerxes and her own robotic replacement body. However, the Decompiler led to many other inventions. The first was a Transmogrifier, which she tested on Eile, turning her into a futanari, or shemale. She then blackmailed Medb into helping her perfect it so she could turn Eile back. Later, she created a Miniaturizer, and used it to reduce Team Girl and Medb down to the size of Barbie dolls. Eventually she was able to shrink a submarine and crew down to the size of a bacterium so it could save Aelfraed’s life.

It also led her to develop a Mind Recording device that could copy a person’s mind and imprint it into an Artificial Brain, which she did with her own mind into her new robotic body. That in turn led to true Mind Transference between living brains. Though she stumbled onto the principles of Time Travel through another source, the Decompiler allowed her to develop those principles into a true technology, by changing wave functions so that the traveler could only exist at a specific time in the past. The Decompiler in turn made it possible for her to invent Teleportation, by converting a person’s wave function into a signal that could be beamed to another physical location.

Another major breakthrough seems related to the Decompiler but was not derived from it. Building on research started by Medb, she learned that the universe, while infinite within its three spatial dimensions, was finite within four-dimensional space. This was because it was folded back onto itself, in the same way a sheet of paper can be crumbled into a compact ball. That also meant that various places in the universe, though uncountable light years away within the universe itself, might actually lie very close to each other across a fourth spatial dimension. Later she discovered, quite by accident, the ability to use vibrational frequencies to create breaches through this fourth dimension and access whatever points lie right next door. Known as Dimensional Breach technology, it allows her to locate and investigate other worlds that would otherwise be too far away to see, much less travel to.

The problem is, however, that all the worlds she’s found so far seem to be parallel versions of Earth, which defies statistical probability if they were just simply far away. This has led her to speculate that possibly the universe is not an infinite expanse of space as she originally thought, but a finite area with an infinite number of parallel quantum timelines, and her Breach device allows her to access these timelines. The point being, she really doesn’t know if these worlds are located in a different region of physical space or on a different timeline.

However, these were by no means her only accomplishments, just the ones that are the most grandiose. The majority of her accomplishments, while spectacular, are more mundane, in that they support her favorite work rather than being ends in themselves. To make her robots as sophisticated as they are required her to develop cutting-edge Cybernetic and Robotic technology. This in turn led her to develop Powered Armor and Mechs, as well as Bionics. The development of the software that led her to create Artificial Intelligence programs also allowed her to create a Matrix/Tron-style Virtual Reality system.

Most of her inventions require the use of materials with properties that do not exist and cannot be reproduced with existing material, so she has developed Material Fabrication technology to make what she needs. She is also an accomplished engineer, not only creating the machines and devices needed to create her other inventions and developments, but using these other inventions and developments to create a number of devices that are ends in and of themselves. These include a particle technology-based Death Ray, James Bond-style vehicles, a gigantic zeppelin, an advanced assault rifle, and hand-weapon rail gun technology. Most of these, however, are the products of hobbyist tinkering, created during times of relaxation.

While her robotics and applied quantum mechanical technologies are what she is most famous for, she is also a biological and medical genius. She proved that, if any proof was needed, when in 1987 she combined eggs from Sunny’s parents, one of which produced Sunny, and then did the same for Team Girl in 2010 to produce their daughter Connie. This Two-egg In Vitro Fertilization process then went on to become a very popular commercial method for helping infertile or same-sex couples have children. She found cures for Eile’s Vampirism and Sunny’s Lycanthrope, as well as viral and fungal Zombie plagues and a disease decimating the cats in the Dreamlands. Study of the Vampiric parasite led to medical breakthroughs that saved thousands of lives, as well as a serum that suppressed the parasite for short periods of time, allowing Vampires to be active during the day and resist the Blood Hunger, and a serum that temporarily suppresses late-stage Alzheimer’s symptoms. And study of an alien larva that gestated in Sunny’s womb led to the development of drugs and medications that saved tens of thousands of more patients. Finally, she combined her knowledge of proteomics with her protein-based computer to develop a form of Nanotechnology. Just about the only thing she hasn’t done is create Frankenstein-type monsters, though some people believe it’s only a matter of time.

Her crowning achievement, however, was the development of a Cloning system. It begins with placing the nucleus of an undifferentiated cell inside an egg, then placing the egg in an artificial womb, which accelerates the growth and development of the clone at a rate of about 2-3 years per week. The clone is kept unconscious to prevent the formation of a mind, then she uses her Mind Recording device to implant a recorded mind into the clone’s brain. When the clone is awakened, she needs just a few days to a few weeks to train, condition, and orient the clone, and then it’ll act like the original person. She used that process in an attempt to replace Eile with a clone, but later used it to replace Differel’s destroyed body.

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Here is a list of her various inventions and discoveries, and the stories in which they will appear.

Advanced Assault Rifle
----- Any story involving Type 1 robots

Alien Larva Medications
----- The Alien Husbandry; numerous later stories

Alzheimer’s Suppression Serum
----- Happily Ever After

Artificial Intelligence
----- Masie’s Mind; The Machine Who Would Be Man

Bionics
----- Differel has her failing eye lenses replaced by bionic lenses; also, Differel uses a bionic lower left leg in later years

Cat Plague Cure
----- Mabuse is sent to the Dreamlands to atone for the cats she killed by finding a cure for disease ravaging the cats

Cloning System
----- Mabuse replaces Eile with a clone; Differel gets a new body after her old one is destroyed

Death Ray
----- terrorists try to steal the plans and working model of a particle beam weapon

Dimensional Breach
----- the Zombie Apocalypse trilogy; Gratuitous Crossover; numerous later stories including the Doctor Who stories

James Bond-style Vehicles
----- Differel recruits Team Girl to help save her household staff from being compromised by alien creatures (cameo appearance)

Lycanthrope Cure
----- Sunny is infected and becomes a werewolf; background in numerous later stories

Material Fabrication
----- does not feature in any stories but is present in the background whenever special materials are mentioned, such as body armor used in the Zombie Apocalypse trilogy or the story where Differel and Henry are kidnapped by the Jigsaw Killer

Matrix/Tron-style Virtual Reality
----- Differel becomes trapped in a horror survival video game; Team Girl enters a computer world to help Masie

Mega-zeppelin
----- after Differel’s command zeppelin is destroyed, Mabuse builds her a bigger one

Mind Recording
----- Mabuse’s robot replacement has a copy of her mind

Mind Transference

Miniaturizer
----- Mabuse shrinks Medb and Team Girl down to Barbie size; Team Girl accompanies a group trying to save Aelfraed from a fatal infection; Aunt Mandy shrinks Differel and flushes her into the sewers, and Team Girl and Aelfraed go after her to rescue her

Nanotechnology
----- background in numerous stories

Powered Armor / Mechs
----- The Macroviral Contagion; Eile and Sunny test new mech and powered armor designs, which Marseilles Sheraton tries to steal

Rail Hand Guns
----- The Cabin of the Dead

Robots
----- appear in numerous stories such as The Cat’s Peril and The Alien Husbandry; The Machine Who Would Be Man; Medb and Team Girl activate Mabuse’s robot replacement

Teleportation
----- Differel and Team Girl are teleported to a world of Greek mythological creatures; Differel is split into her good and evil sides; background in numerous later stories

Time Travel
----- Stranded in Time story; numerous later stories

Transmogrifier
----- Mabuse turns Eile into a shemale

Two-egg In Vitro Fertilization
----- background in numerous stories; Connie’s conception story

Vampirism Cure
----- The Bloodthirsty Eile; The Girly Vampire; background in numerous later stories

Vampirism Suppression Serum
----- Uallach volunteers to test the serum; background in numerous later stories

Zombie Plague Cures
----- the Zombie Apocalypse Trilogy