How much do the humans know about protoculture?

[mech798]

It's a questoin that by and large never seems to be effectively answered. On the one hand, they evidently didn't notice the fact that the SDF-1 had a matrix on board-- deciding the bury the ship rather than take it apart. (Yes, it's the hunters again. If you have a choice between Consul Varro, A rock, or your pet turtle and the hunters, pick the first three. Seriously, it'll work out better). But equally,they somehow got a matrix onthe SDF-3, but by Shadow Chronicles, seem to have forgotten how to duplicate it. this is especially odd, because if there are now two where there were one, why can't they make a thousand where there was one?

[glitterboy2098]

it is suggested that the one on the SDF-3 is same one that was in the SDF-1, salvaged from the ruins by the remains of the ASC and then brought to the UEEF during the evacuation of earth, where it was repaired.

the 'inability' to make a new one is likely more that it would take a long time to build a new one.. the master's certainly would have built more if they had the tools and plans to make the parts, even if they lacked the knowledge of exactly how it works. most likely the UEEF had the same problem.. even if they'd been studying it to figure out how it works, duplicating it would likely require a lot of custom construction and assembly.. possibly requiring the creations of tools to make the tools. so it is possible that they could make a new one, might even be working on one right away.. but it wouldn't be finished or made operational in time to deal with the shortage of Protoculture. given that the Haydonites, as the UEEF's recent tech-advisors, would have inevitably been involved in the process it is likely that human efforts to build more were being subtly sabotaged as well, to delay progress.

[ShadowLogan]

On the one hand, they evidently didn't notice the fact that the SDF-1 had a matrix on board-- deciding the bury the ship rather than take it apart.

Considering that Rick and Minmei went for 2weeks undetected (even after opening an airlock that must have registered somewhere) early on, the 3 spies operating for even longer (and apparently with access to a Regult Battlepod), and even Miryia's insertion (who knows how she planned to get back), etc. Plus there are statements to the effect of humanity's actual knowledge on the matter concerning the SDF-1 that really isn't surprising. The ship appears to have been buried due to radiation ("Half-Moon"), though weather the radiation was as camouflage or not is anyone's guess really at this point.

But equally,they somehow got a matrix onthe SDF-3, but by Shadow Chronicles, seem to have forgotten how to duplicate it. this is especially odd, because if there are now two where there were one, why can't they make a thousand where there was one?

They might not have forgotten how to duplicate it (if it is in fact a duplicate as in the Novel continuity, though here to knowledge seemed to be limited to a handful in the REF/Sent.). It is entirely possible that they lack sufficient materials to construct additional units (assuming they actually built the thing) since we don't know what is required to build one.

[guardiandashi]

On the one hand, they evidently didn't notice the fact that the SDF-1 had a matrix on board-- deciding the bury the ship rather than take it apart.

Considering that Rick and Minmei went for 2weeks undetected (even after opening an airlock that must have registered somewhere) early on, the 3 spies operating for even longer (and apparently with access to a Regult Battlepod), and even Miryia's insertion (who knows how she planned to get back), etc. Plus there are statements to the effect of humanity's actual knowledge on the matter concerning the SDF-1 that really isn't surprising. The ship appears to have been buried due to radiation ("Half-Moon"), though weather the radiation was as camouflage or not is anyone's guess really at this point.

But equally,they somehow got a matrix onthe SDF-3, but by Shadow Chronicles, seem to have forgotten how to duplicate it. this is especially odd, because if there are now two where there were one, why can't they make a thousand where there was one?

They might not have forgotten how to duplicate it (if it is in fact a duplicate as in the Novel continuity, though here to knowledge seemed to be limited to a handful in the REF/Sent.). It is entirely possible that they lack sufficient materials to construct additional units (assuming they actually built the thing) since we don't know what is required to build one.

part of the big issue at least in the novel continuity was that the protoculture matrix is what I would have to say is partially physical and a whole lot metaphysical. I mean just look at how it works and then scratch your head wrapping your brain around that one for a while.

things stated about the matrix/protoculture (in the novels)
first you take the FOL and some of their "seeds", then you need unpolinated fol material, and you keep it from germinating... and somehow it produces protoculture material that can then be used to power all kinds of equipment and bring it to psudo life.

from what I remember from the novels, they had no clue there was a matrix in the sdf1 I think part of it was they just assumed the "fuel tanks" were a lot bigger than they were. for example there were some issues with size in the sdf1. like if you walked along the outside of the ship it was ~1 mile long. if you worked your way from end to end inside it. It was closer to 1.2 miles long??

anyway as I remember it the matrix that was on the sdf3 was built @ tyrol by a collaboration of lang and rem (a zor clone) and they didn't get it quite right. the protoculture they were making was only ~75% as good as what was made by the original matrix. or so.
additionally the "songs" that were played inside the matrix were somehow a key part and no one knew it. (of course some of this is all in the last book "end of the circle" which makes the whole saga into a temporal loop of events to finish or undo an experiment by the original haydon.

[Seto Kaiba]

It's a questoin that by and large never seems to be effectively answered.

Very little, it would seem... considering that even after something like twenty-one years of near-continuous war against the Invid Regent, they never noticed the Invid had the ability to detect a running protoculture power system until someone who knew better from outside the UEEF pointed it out to them. They seem to know how to maintain and repair robotechnology, but one of the recurring themes of every aborted Robotech project so far has been that humanity doesn't understand what they really have. In the aborted Robotech 3000 concept, that got taken to its illogical extreme, having made its main plot about protoculture itself getting sick of humanity's nonsense and deciding to respond with murder.

Of course, very few people in the entire human population understand Robotechnology too... that's the exclusive domain of just a handful of "robotechnologist" scientist-savants who work for the military, who not only control all development of new applications of the stuff, but aren't too keen on working together either.

it is suggested that the one on the SDF-3 is same one that was in the SDF-1, salvaged from the ruins by the remains of the ASC and then brought to the UEEF during the evacuation of earth, where it was repaired.

Well, in the old Waltrip bros. Sentinels comics, which were continued and resolved as Prelude, the UEEF actually DIDN'T KNOW where the matrix even was until they met Cabell and he started yelling at them about it.

[glitterboy2098]

the evacuation of earth meaning the time when the invid arrived and a bunch of people escaped earth (like we see in the love and war comics..)


also, guardiandashi, going by the dialog from the show, statments on robotech.com, and in various canon infobooks, protoculture is a physical fuel refined from the spores of the flower of life plant. so that 'seeds under pressure' stuff and much of the metaphysical aspect is non-canon.

[Seto Kaiba]

part of the big issue at least in the novel continuity was that the protoculture matrix is what I would have to say is partially physical and a whole lot metaphysical.

The novel continuity's take on anything is probably not worth considering... it was so far out in left field that Harmony Gold doesn't consider it a part of Robotech proper. Also, after the reboot of the Robotech franchise in 2001, the whole protoculture thing got seriously de-mystified... no more metaphysics, no more quasi-magic, it doesn't bring the mecha to a state of quasi-life. All it is now is an exotic power source.

The only time protoculture itself has been officially explained was in Robotech Art 1, but that explanation ended up a casualty of the reboot the way so much other material did. That was part of where the novel got the seeds thing... what the Macek explanation said was that the energy was literal life force derived by stifling germination in the seeds of the Flowers of Life, and the life force was released by the plant's desire to grow and reproduce. The RPG has its own version of the explanation, but all that we get from official sources nowadays is that the stuff is "refined from the Invid Flower of Life" and that it's a bioenergy power source.

Admittedly, if Harmony Gold's leaked outline for the rest of the "Shadow Saga" is anything to go by (and it may not be!), the making of a protoculture matrix is extraordinarily difficult... so much so that the Tirolians will supposedly clone Zor right this time to make it happen.