3
$\begingroup$

A homoculus is an artificial human being that is created through the magical science of alchemy. These creatures are born in artificial wombs by a dark ritual that requires various materials, and the sacrifice of seven individuals. This dark process creates a fetus, which is housed in an anniotic sax and then quickly grown to adulthood inside the chamber.

An homoculus is born with no soul, which normally serves as the metaphysical "roadmap" to the design of a human being. As such, I have the freedom to manipulate and shape their biology to suit certain purposes. After they are completed, they are then released from the chamber. I have decided to make them hulking monstrosities of death, lacking higher brain functions and only meant to serve and defend. Therefore, I would like to cut out the "nonessentials" of normal human development and simply focus on size and muscle mass. A perfect example would be this:

https://www.google.com/search?q=sloth+brotherhood&client=ms-android-hms-tmobile-us&source=android-browser&prmd=isvn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwic5LWDn7TjAhWEVs0KHVz7DKgQ_AUoAXoECA0QAQ&biw=360&bih=615#imgrc=qnMwHhR0ID-vJM%3A

Being created in an artificial womb gives me more freedom to design them in the way I need as I have more control over their development. This object provides oxygen and nutrients to the fetus, as well as waste disposal. However, I need these creatures to be made as fast as possible in a suitable time frame. Based on these parameters, what would i need to be able to create these artificial humans?

Improve this question
$\endgroup$
8
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Not an answer, but Gorilla's seem to grow to full hulking size in 15 years. So its achievable in that time frame. However your creatures do not have to use input to grow, so it doesnt need to move, search for food, socialize etc to grow its muscles, joints, tendons, skeleton, heart etc to fit its function and growth curve. Without a need to teach it much this would mean almost all energy and building blocks put into the creature can be focused on growth rather than maintenance and movement, and the process can be accelerated... but by how much I cant say. $\endgroup$
    – Demigan
    Jul 14, 2019 at 11:23
  • 3
    $\begingroup$ I don't see how this can be science-based when it's cleary a completely magical process. It can grow as fast as the magic "allows" - i.e. as fast as you want. $\endgroup$
    – StephenG - Help Ukraine
    Jul 14, 2019 at 12:58
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @StephenG the creation of the fetus is magic. Everything else is done by science. $\endgroup$
    – Incognito
    Jul 14, 2019 at 13:09
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @StephenG because the process of creating and feeding the homonculus is magical, but the question is about how fast this homunculus could grow under those conditions. "Magic" isnt a free pass to get away with everything. If you use it like that your story will ineviteably suffer. $\endgroup$
    – Demigan
    Jul 14, 2019 at 13:09
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ To answer the question we'd then need to know what story technology is available to facilitate this. With existing science we know of there is no way to even do this. Again in the absence of any other limitations there's nothing to prevent the author from handwaving a bunch of stuff like the cloning equipment in the Judge Dredd movie or The Sixth Day or many other fiction works. The OP has to provide a framework for the answer to be constructed around. $\endgroup$
    – StephenG - Help Ukraine
    Jul 14, 2019 at 13:17

6 Answers 6

Reset to default
7
$\begingroup$

An homoculus is born with no soul, which normally serves as the metaphysical "roadmap" to the design of a human being. As such, I have the freedom to manipulate and shape their biology to suit certain purposes.

That's not how fetus development works. While I have no interest in discussing the soul's impact of the design on the human being in relation to this question, I can tell you that there's a very physical 'roadmap' to the design of the human being that you're going to need to deal with. Also, 'freedom to shape biology', in the human context, still gives you restrictions, like 'being an air breather', 'requiring protein to develop', or 'made of squishy, fragile meat'.

How do you control it? Hormones and gene expression. The human fetus, when developing grows at a fantastic rate, and if you use your magical alchemy to extend the development period (the time in the artificial womb), it's entirely possible to grow the creature to full adulthood within a matter of years. What you would do is take a cell sample from a human with desirable aspects, (if you're looking for a comparison to Sloth, than you'd want a DNA sample from this guy) then use your alchemical magic to turn that cell into a zygote. Implant that into your magical embryo, and manipulate gene expression so that the rate of growth isn't slowed and higher brain function never develops. Add a few hormone to specific parts to stimulate extra growths of muscle and give it plenty of nutrients as it develops. As for the development time - that really just depends on how magic you want your alchemy. Maximum magic will let you grow it in a matter of days, if you want to be on the more realistic end, it'd be closer to a year and a half. Once completed, the homonculus is dumped and then forced to spend a month or two of intensive training to solidify it's muscle mass and learn motor skills.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
2
$\begingroup$

Simple answer "A time bubble"

You don't need to hasten the development of the being, let it develop at a normal rate (say 20-25 years), all you need is a time bubble. Wrap your machine in a time bubble such that every year passed inside it, is equal to a day or an hour outside the bubble, depending upon your needs and the energy that it requires.

So for you, it's only a few hours or a few days, but for your being its 20 years or so.

Additionally, you require 2 things, one is nourishment, which you are already providing.

and second is memories for your being, during the 20 years of development, inject some artificial memories and pieces of training into your beings, such that when he comes out he is fully trained and ready to serve.

Please note that in one in a million case, memories are not injected properly to this being, then he uses the development time to gain intelligence and when deployed for work, can learn the truth and become a rebel.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
2
$\begingroup$

You have limited your answers to a science-based response, and because of this I am sorry to tell you that the womb has nothing at all to do with the outcome of your homunculus, the "roadmap" determining what muscle mass, size, intelligence, and other characteristics of your monster is the DNA formed during fertilization of the egg. Science tells us that changing the womb environment can not shape the fetus, it can only inhibit it's normal development.

SPEED: The speed of development is limited by science, and the human fetus grows at the optimized speed for a human being, regardless of the DNA roadmap. For example, any organism grows by the process of cell division (mitosis). This is a CHEMICAL process, and the laws of physics determine how fast it can happen. We start out as a single fertilized egg. Then we double in size when the egg splits into two and the daughters absorb nutrition. This takes a fixed amount of time to happen. When those cells have "eaten" enough nutrients, they split into 4 cells, which then must also eat nutrients. And this goes on until the organism is complete. No science-based answer will allow your homunculus cells to speed up the mitosis process just by changing the nutrition; the process is dictated by chemistry. If you speed it up somehow, you will greatly increase the likelihood of DNA transcoding errors, and your fetus will likely suffer many fatal mutations (it will die). You also can not force the cells to "eat faster" by changing their nutrition. That process is also dictated by chemistry, so the cells will gain mass at a predictable rate.

Your world will have to abandon the "science-based" tag if you want to change the rate of development or the physiology of your homunculus just by changing the womb environment. The end creature is determined in the DNA - before it starts growing in the womb. Most modern sci-fi monster stories rely on manipulating DNA to create their abominations for this reason. Some times writers modify the DNA of a mature organism as well (The Human Fly, World War Z, and Leviathan are a few of the many examples).

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
1
$\begingroup$

Your artificial homunculi are basically made out of cancer.

They were designed with epigenetic features on their DNA that emulates how cancer cells grow. This allows them to grow many times faster than a normal human, but also drastically shortens their lifespan and causes health and mutation problems down the road.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
1
  • $\begingroup$ -Pree grown cells: Maybe they can pre-grow lots of special cancer cells in large vats. -Command cells to form body: Then using dark rituals they create an embryo core that takes over the cancer cells, turning them into stem cells that can then form a body much more quickly. -The process is quick but not perfect, so they sometimes might look grotesque. $\endgroup$
    – Grand Phason
    May 5, 2022 at 13:33
0
$\begingroup$

Strictly science based - what you need is advanced genetic and embryonic engineering capabilities. Your average human isn't going to develop the way you want, so you're going to have to modify the template. Of course, you can start with a human template as close as possible, which will probably not be as strong or as dumb as seems to be required.

So, assuming that you can modify your template cell's genetics, how fast can you grow an adult example?

Given that you can genetically engineer your template to grow quickly... probably 3 to 5 years in utero. After that... however long it takes to train your giant musclebound idiot baby. It isn't too smart, so it might take a while...

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
0
$\begingroup$

3D printer

Organ printing is No Longer Weird though it is anything but mature technology. You've sacrificed seven people to make your homunculus, so you have plenty of tissue to work with - even some naturally occurring stem cells in places. Where those are lacking, use collagenase, do FACS sorting with some fluorescent antibodies, transiently transfect them with constructs to dedifferentiate their cells ... voila - you have a magic palette to paint your new creation. Provided you have the talent and know what you want to sculpt, of course.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .