So, I’ve been wondering about the biology of the MU inhabitants. I wanted to discuss this with you guys, as it’s very interesting.
Anyways, I was wondering what the purpose of the lungs in the bio-mechanical bodies was, as Farshtey has said, there is organic tissue, but the team has never considered it “muscle mass.” Also, there is, as far as I can tell, no circulatory system inside the beings to transport Oxygen and shizz to the organic tissue.
Also, wtf’s the purpose of the organic tissue, if it’s not muscle?
Perhaps, but Mr. Farshtey has also said that they have AI, not brains. Also, what would the immune system be protecting/be needed for if that’s all the organic tissue was?
P.S. When I say Mr. Farshtey, I’m referencing the disscussion topic on the community.lego dotcom site.
Well, in my honest way of interpreting it, the MUIs are kinda just your normal set of organs inside a suit of mechanical armor and muscle, enhanced in certain places with tech and such.
I alwaysed imagined everyone to be like General Grievous from Star Wars. Or an Eva from NGE. You know armor/machinery over little amounts of fleshy gubs
Hmmm… We do know that they have mouths, so it can be assumed that they can breathe. Maybe their lungs are directly connected to their heart, which is much more powerful than ours. They breathe in air, use the oxygen to make an energy molecule (like ATP, the main energy molecule for our cells) to power their organs. Their organs would basically be digestive (to make energy) and circulatory (heart and lungs). The heart would be different from ours; instead of pumping blood, it would basically be an organic electrical generator.
For this whole theory to work, they would have to eat, but there are numerous subtle references to this in the story. I believe that their Kanohi allow them to obtain energy from their surroundings. In this case, their organ systems don’t have a purpose anymore, besides as a backup to keep them going without a Kanohi. But since they have been wearing the mask for so long, they haven’t eaten in a few thousand years, and so that is perhaps why they matorn will die without a mask. And when you think about it, the weakness they all feel when they are mask-less is very much like the fatigue felt by somebody who is starving.
So perhaps when they were made, their organs were meant to have a more prominent role, but by the time of the events of the Bionicle Story, their biological side was more of a leftover from a bygone age. It made them more interesting to think of as biological beings though, with a heart and soul of their own. Anyways, that’s my long wordy take on how their biology might work.
This is the kind of discussion I wanted to generate!
Anyways, I do agree with you, it does seem like the more organic systems are out of date, and unnecessary. It would also make sense for the Kanohi to draw in energy from the surroundings, but I wanna get like really deep in here. How does the Kanohi transfer the energy from itself to the being wearing it?
Unless the mask was made up of cells, which could perform something related to photosynthesis and transfer the sugar and energy it generates through the little mouthpiece. I can’t see a Kanohi doing that personally, being as they are made of solid protodermis.
Also eating, I think that it could be possible, but what would they really eat? The only references to eating are to the glatorian, but I don’t think that the MUI actually could eat. So far, the only confirmed organs are the lungs, which makes it even stranger that there are only lungs and tissue. It seems really nit-picky I know, but I am now on a quest to fully explain the functions of all beings in Solis Magna. I also want it to be as canon as possible. =D
I do think that rahi eat something, but we’ve never really been given details on how much of them are mechanical, as they were created by Makuta. It would make sense for most of them to be herbivores, eating fruits and whatever else grows. But, for the ones that seem to have teeth made specifically for eating other beings, as well as having a predatory nature, we cannot be sure exactly what they eat. It is safe to assume that they would eat other rahi, but that brings us to the problem of how much of them is organic, and how much is mechanical.
Also, what seems strange is that there is a way for a being to be unconscious, as they do not have organic brains. Maybe it’s a fail-safe in case a being becomes too heavily damaged?
Okay, to get more in depth on the Kanohi transferring power to the wearer:
The purpose of the mask (besides it’s actual mask power) would be to act as an amplifier/gatherer for any source of power, like magnetic, heat, solar, static electricity, radiation, ambient light. The mask would work almost like a lightning rod. For this to work, we have to assume that the type of protodermis from which it was made is highly sensitive to a change in any of the sources mentioned above.
Basically, when surrounded by energy, the mask gathers it (sorta like a satellite dish or solar panel strapped to your face) and transfers it to the wearer’s head. I think that those clear head-stalks are where the energy is stored/processed. (battery) Some of the energy goes to maintain the lungs/other organs, and the rest of it is used to power the articulation of their limbs. I feel like most of it would have to be saved tough, because when they want to use their elemental power or mask power, that probably takes a lot of energy to maintain.
When using their mask/elemental powers, the energy probably goes back through the mask, but instead of being like a solar panel, the mask acts like a big transformer. This would let it use up less of it’s stored energy while still giving a lot of power for whatever the Toa needs to do. It also explains why the Nuva masks are better than the regular masks, they simply are better at gathering/converting/releasing energy.
I know for a fact that MU inhabitants did not require to eat (Although I’m sure they would if they felt like it, maybe they can taste ((???))), the Mata Nui Robot somehow sustained them. However, Matoran and Toa on Mata Nui itself obtained nutrients by coming into contact with food and water. They absorbed it, but didn’t actually ingest it. Basically, if you were in the robot, you were fine.
Oh yeah! I forgot about that one! What did they eat, if it said?
And @SammySpartan That’s what I was getting at. Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but the Bara Magna inhabitants were already there when the Great Beings arrived right?
I remember specifically something about eating berries for the MU inhabitants.
As for the spherus magna inhabitants, I don’t recall if it ever said when the great beings arrived, they very well might be native there. But the glatorian, agori, and others native there do have to eat like we do. I would assume that means fruits and vegetables, but also meat, probably from animals.
As for the MU inhabitants, I would tend to think the Rahi can and do eat one another. I always figured the biologically the great beings must have had to base their creations on what they knew already, using the inhabitants of spherus magna as an example. However, they saw the mechanical implants as an improvement and made them built-in to the MU inhabitants. So I always figured that they had muscle tissue, which has been referenced a few times throughout the story, and a few vital organs, as well as a metal/mechanical skeleton. I also found it clear that any organs related to reproduction did not exist, and organs related to excretion were replaced. Since we never see any sign of any characters or Rahi having to take a dump, I always figured that the organs we have that convert unwanted nutrients into waste were instead replaced by an organ that either incinerates those unwanted and unuseable nutrients or uses acid to disintegrate them.
Well, I can confirm that it was explicitly stated that Toa and Matoran do have lungs at the end of 2006, when Hahli attempts to save a drowning matoran and talks about how her lungs are bigger as a toa, but not big enough to hold air forever. We talked about this on the “Building Metru-Nui” Minecraft realm, where it was suggested that matoran need oxygen for fuel combustion. However, I don’t believe this is the case as matoran eat fruit and other ‘normal foods’, not petrol or any other kind of combustible fuel. Furthermore, matoran have biological muscles and digestive tracts, and I think it’s safe to assume that these require oxygen, probably delivered by blood. Also, in 2006’s novels, matoran do naturally sleep, which would suggest that the ‘AI’ Farshtey spoke of are constructed like human brains with the need to process information without new stimuli. As a side note, I think Mr. Farshtey didn’t really mean AI as much as electronic brains, because, well, matoran have souls. (Unlike HF characters :3) Overall, I would say that matoran are constructed like mechanical/electronic/biological humans, with a few differences.