Line #38 Main/Biodata


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7	Information: the lifeblood of modern (and likely future) civilization.
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9	It can be stored in analog form, in digital form, or in organic form, on an organic or even biological matrix. When the latter is used, it's frequently depicted as persons smuggling information in a biomolecular format (amino acids, for example, seem to be a common matrix for this type of information storage). Related to (real world theories of) organic and biomolecular computing. It's an emergent technology in RealLife, but it's been played straight in SpeculativeFiction at least since the early nineties, and probably before that. It's present in CyberPunk and BioPunk, but also pops up in other subgenres of SpeculativeFiction like SpaceOpera, usually for the purpose of espionage, or as a message from an ancient race of {{Precursors}} to descendants. It's a given when dealing with OrganicTechnology, and {{Wetware CPU}}s. A retroviral encoding vector is another significant variation.
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11	This does not cover the opposite, where information about a biological organism is recorded by digital computers or otherwise non-organic devices. [[EverythingSensor That's a separate trope.]] Also does not cover inorganic storage system implants, for example in ''Film/JohnnyMnemonic''. A silicon memory chip in the brain is not an example of this trope, but a port implant that allows NeuralImplanting from computer to brain or brain to brain ''would'' count: it all depends on the storage medium.
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13	See also GeneticMemory, for which this is sometimes given as a HandWave. A staple of CyberPunk and BioPunk, but as mentioned, common in other genres such as SpaceOpera.
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15	Compare:
16	* NeuralImplanting: Downloading computer files, images, databases, or abilities into a person's brain.
17	* NeuroVault: Burying data in a person's subconscious through post-hypnotic suggestion.
18	* BrainUploading: Preserving consciousness organically or inorganically for transfer to a new host.
19	----
20	!!Examples
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22	[[foldercontrol]]
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24	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
25	* ''Manga/OutlawStar'': According to Gwen Khan, the information for navigating one's way to the Galactic Leyline and accessing its ability to [[spoiler:alter the laws of probability]], was contained within the BlackBox data used to create Melfina. Melfina was unaware of this herself, until [[spoiler:she reconnected with the Leyline]].
26	[[/folder]]
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28	[[folder:Comic Books]]
29	* ''ComicBook/{{Transmetropolitan}}'': Data pollen is literally pollen from plants that's encoded with newsfeeds, advertising and other information. Breathed in, it releases the information to the nervous system. It's linked to degeneration of the synapses in the brain and goes in and out of legality several times over the series.
30	[[/folder]]
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32	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
33	* In the 3rd installment of the ''Film/Zombies2018'' franchise, [[spoiler:Allison discovers that her alien grandmother had hidden the map to Utopia in her DNA]].
34	[[/folder]]
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36	[[folder:Literature]]
37	* In ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'', a distrans is a device for producing a temporary neural imprint on the nervous system of bats or birds. The creature's normal cry then carries the message imprint which can be sorted from that carrier wave by another distrans. In other words, it implants a message into the animal which can be later read in its normal vocalization, sort of like a modern-day telephone/radio scrambler.
38	* Biodata is a recurrent theme in the ''Literature/EighthDoctorAdventures'' novels, especially the ones involving Franchise/FactionParadox, in which it serves as a sci-fi counterpart to BloodMagic.
39	* ''Literature/TheRestaurantAtTheEndOfTheUniverse'': Earth is the computer that Deep Thought created to discover the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. Because he was a part of Earth's organic matrix, the Question (or a reasonable facsimile thereof) is stored in Arthur Dent's brain wave patterns. Near the end of the book he and Ford Prefect try to discover the Question by introducing a random element that can be shaped by that pattern -- drawing ''TabletopGame/{{Scrabble}}'' tiles from a bag without looking.
40	* ''Literature/SurfaceDetail'' provides us with the Intagliated, slaves whose bodily tattoos contain information detailing their pasts, why they're Intagliated and the markings go right down to the DNA.
41	* Simon Illyan of the ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'' had a chip that recorded everything he saw and heard, using a protein-based data storage, installed into his brain. Many who got such chips installed developed schizophrenia.
42	[[/folder]]
43
44	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
45	* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'': The Ancients inscribed knowledge of wormholes into John Crichton's brain and his DNA. [[spoiler:Eventually he unlocked and understood it. Although the Ancients removed it from his head after he used it, his son was implied to inherit it. The Scarrans even tried to extract it from the DNA of Aeryn's unborn child.]]
46	* ''Series/{{Fringe}}'' has done this a couple of times, notably in the first season when ZFT leaves a "calling card" in the DNA of their genetically engineered weapons. A similar calling card is later discovered on the Nazi toxin in Season 2, in this case, the image of the seahorse, [[spoiler:a clue that Walter Bishop's father's research had been used to create the toxin]].
47	* ''Series/{{Lexx}}'': Assistant Deputy Back-Up Courier Stanley Tweedle had vital data about the Divine Order's superweapon, the Lexx, encoded in amino acids stored in a false tooth.
48	* In ''Series/OrphanBlack'', Cosima translates the clones' DNA using binary to find a message encoded. [[spoiler:It's a patent. "This organism and derivative genetic material are restricted intellectual property."]]
49	* ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'': In the pilot episode "[[Recap/StarTrekEnterpriseS01E01E02BrokenBow Broken Bow]]", the Klingon courier Klaang carries [[ArtisticLicenseBiology information injected directly into his DNA]], concerning the Suliban's attempts to destabilize the Empire. Probably intended as a CallForward to the ''TNG'' example, but the writers couldn't expect [[ViewersAreMorons the audience]] to recognize a graphic of an amino acid sequence as conveying information and all the dialogue was in un-subtitled Klingon so they used the instantly recognizable DNA helix.
50	* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'':
51	** In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E25Transfigurations Transfigurations]]", Data and Geordi examine a Zalkonian memory storage device from mysterious "John Doe's" EscapePod that is stated to use a chemical matrix for data storage. It's basically the escape pod's BlackBox.
52	** Klingons are ''not'' dumb. In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E21TheDrumhead The Drumhead]]", a Klingon scientist temporarily posted on the ''Enterprise-D'' modifies a hyposyringe with an optical chip reader, using it to transform digital information from the ship's computers into amino acid sequences. He plans to inject someone without their knowledge, with the information being carried in their bodies in their bloodstream as inert proteins, which could be extracted at any time by another spy. ''Damn, son!''
53	** The Ancient Humanoid {{Precursors}} in "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E18TheChase The Chase]]" encoded a message to their descendants -- humans, as well as the Klingons, Cardassians, Romulans, Bolians, Yridians, Vulcans... you get the idea.
54	[[/folder]]
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56	[[folder:Video Games]]
57	* [[EmperorScientist Ansem the Wise]] hides research data within [[TheHero Sora]] in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'', although it is left vague on how he does this.
58	* The ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}'' mod ''Rubicon'' starts on a crashed UESC spaceship, and Durandal at one point tasks you with finding him an ID card that can let him get at its computer systems, since they apparently store data in ''chemical'' form.
59	* ''Franchise/MassEffect'': Protheans possess BizarreAlienSenses that allow them to read biomarkers of any living creature (and even [[{{Psychometry}} from some inorganic objects that come into contact with the living]]) and store this information. This is how their Beacons work, too.
60	* A recurring theme in the ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' series -- ''VideoGame/DigitalDevilSaga'' and ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor2'' in particular -- is the concept that ''everything'' ultimately boils down to data. This is implied to be how [[spoiler:the Embryon were first reincarnated into the simulated world of the Junkyard]], and linked with the notion of the AkashicRecords to explain how [[spoiler:Polaris is systematically destroying the world, and how it can be restored afterwards]].
61	[[/folder]]
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63	[[folder:Web Original]]
64	* In one ''Webcomic/DresdenCodak'' comic, Kimiko can't find her flash drive, so she starts overwriting her own junk DNA. Then she finds something already written in it, [[spoiler:which turns out to be billion-year-old spam]].
65	* In ''Literature/NextBreedOfThief'', this is the mechanism behind MEPHISTO.
66	[[/folder]]
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68	[[folder:Real Life]]
69	* [[http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/12393/ This Article describes the phenomenon in Real Life.]] Portrayals in fiction vary considerably in their accuracy.
70	* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_computing DNA Computing]]
71	[[/folder]]

Context Main / Biodata