Why would only negative mutations be inheritable while positive ones are not?

Question

Human souls are born in the immaterium, a spiritual realm that is a reflection of the mortal world. This realm is made up of light and dark energies that symbolize concepts of "good" and "evil". For a human to be born, its soul must pass through this realm into the mortal plane, a journey wrought with perils and dangers. Nevertheless, most humans make it to term unscasthed and are born normally.

A majority of souls are made up of equal amounts of light and dark energy. These energies exist in equalibrium and give humans a sense of balance. However, this is not always the case. When a soul is being formed, it can absorb an abundance of negative energy. This corruption of the soul bleeds into its biology and DNA, which causes deformities such as extra limbs, eyes, horns, etc. Mutations are passed down through their genetic line and inherited by offspring. These individuals, due to their mutations, may have certain enhancements such as strength or speed. However, they are feared and hated.

More rarely, a soul can absorb large amounts of light energy and become a demigod. These individuals are similarly faster, stronger, and smarter than normal humies, but their changes are not considered mutations. Their genetic structure is perfectly enchanced with no deformities. Demigods are considered very beautiful and physically flawless. However, any offspring will not inherit their abilities and would be born normal.

Why would this be the case?

Answer 1

Human DNA is only affected by dark energy. Light energy affects the subtle body, which is not physical.

The physical and subtle bodies interact with each other, and influence each other, thus a stronger subtle body means a stronger physical body and vice-versa.

By the way, the subtle body is not the same as the soul. In some religions it is called ka (not ki) or perispirit. It is an intermediary interface between the physical body and the soul.

Answer 2

The light energy makes them stronger, faster, smarter...and completely sterile.

This could conflict somewhat with the idea of them being physically flawless, but could just as easily be part of the reason why they are viewed as demigods while the dark energy cases are viewed as mutants. Being capable of breeding with humans, the dark energy cases are clearly also humans. Just really freaky-looking humans. Whereas the light energy cases may look like humans, albeit impossibly flawless ones, but that's merely convenient form for them to take; they're clearly some other, higher, form of life. The inability to interbreed with humans only confirms this.

Answer 3

Genetics vs Epigenetics

Dark Energy is Genetic

The dark energy focuses on making extra copies of the genes. More proteins for extra muscles, extra nerve connections, an extra finger, thicker ribs, a third penis. The dark energy does a blind wholesale duplication of code and traits making more of the same often to cancerous effects and in an entirely inheritable manner.

Light Energy is Epigenetic

Recently they have discovered semi-inheritable traits causes by methylation of the DNA. This prevents some proteins from expressing or causes other proteins to over express. The changes are only somewhat inheritable because the underlying code itself isn't changed, only the way that it is expresses. These changes are usually a result of the environment of the parent. A demigod whose genes were activated or silenced based on its parents' environment would pass few of those changes down because its children's epigenetics would be based on its life.

The latest research has shown that extreme conditions of the grandmother can affect her grandchildren, but it is a much smaller effect.

Answer 4

The obvious answer (to me) is that the excess of light energy doesn't constitute a mutation; it's an infusion.

Negative energy is, in this environment, a toxin. It is a form of mutagen that corrupts the DNA of the subject. What we know in genetics is that every change in an organism's DNA is a tradeoff; making a simple change that makes an organism 'better' in some respect often causes a failing somewhere else. Genetic therapy, if it ever comes out of the experimentation stage, will still be a balancing act of sorts. But, I digress. The point is that the negative energy changes the DNA so that certain mutations occur, but these often also bring a benefit along with the physical deformity.

Positive energy on the other hand is exactly that; energy. This may be absorbed by the organism, but it doesn't impact the DNA directly. Instead, it makes cell division more perfect (limits aging), provides higher absorption rates of oxygen or nutrients (giving more energy, either stronger or faster), etc. This, while beneficial, is an infusion of additional energy that enhances the cells, but does not intrinsically change the nature of the cell or its DNA, hence can't be passed on.

It would be a little like having a permanent medicine in your bloodstream and body through the course of your life; it provides a benefit but doesn't instigate a change.

In such a case, it's the nature of the two different forms of energy that cause the difference. One has a biological impact and causes mutations, the other simply enhances the existing biology by providing additional support to an otherwise unchanged body.

As such, it may even be possible for a human to be exposed to both, although it's also possible that the nature of the mutations could often impede the benefits of the good energy on grounds of changing the biological pattern to which the good energy affixes.

Answer 5

Consider reproduction a manifestation of the dark, a slight imperfection found in balanced persons.

• Reproduction requires sexual desire which leads to selfishness, jealousy, dominerance, and obsession.
• Reproduction without death leads to scarcity, hunger, and overcrowding.
• Reproduction with death leads to sorrow, pain, & fear.
• Children are parasites to their parents (or their parents abandon them). Both cause suffering

Basically, reproduction is a dark thing, because on its own, it only leads to suffering.

When balanced toward the dark, sexuality becomes an overwhelming force like a cancer not just to the host, but to all other living things. It seeks to consume all resources and destroy all competition for those resources. Dark born mutations bring power, but also shorter more violent lives. While dark individuals may rarely live very long, they tend to have large progonies that can spread like a plague over the world.

The darkness of sexuality when balanced with the light creates romantic, long-lasting love that turns this dark force into a catalyst for attributes of the light: kindness, altruism, and loyalty.

The light without darkness is free of all the suffering caused by reproduction. Their children do not inherit their gifts because they do not have children. They likely have no genitalia at all because their bodies are by design created to be perfect and last forever without knowing pain of death, or jealousy , or burden of children. Instead of loving only their family at the exclusion of others, they are driven to love and care for all life as though everyone is deserving of a child's love and protection. Not only are they powerful, but they live unnaturally long lives because they need not suffer or die. Light born can live for thousands, even millions of years. They can only die in the presence of a darkness that rivals their light, when such a darkness drags their body into balance making them mortal enough to kill.

Answer 6

Despite the fact that a person's forces are usually balanced, souls inherently like good energy, and dislike evil energy.

When they are overwhelmed by too much evil energy, they try to push it away, forcing it further from the soul, into the furthest portion of the human: the body. This is why evil energy corrupts the body so readily -- most of it is already located in the body, so excess energy easily starts mutations.

Similarly, since the soul clings to the good energy, it's only when they have Demigod-levels of good energy that it manages to leak into their bodies and being purifying them.

Then when a human is reproducing, the soul can't help but try to force out some of the evil energy in them to the physical masses they are trying to expel from their bodies (fun fact: snot and spit are also frequently heavily weighted with "evil" energy). The parent will return to balance after expelling this energy, as the soul's inherent energy production will return them to their natural state.

Since the parents' souls do not try to expel any "good" energy, even if they are a Demigod, the energy given to a child, both by the initial genetic contribution as well as fetal growth during their creation biases their initial natural state towards "evil".

Answer 7

well why are good "mutations" more rare in the first place if these energies are meant to be in equilibrium? If we take liberties that negative energy can also mean chaotic energy , we could argue that this energy thrives in our world. Perhaps dark energy enjoys a world of entropy like ours and would want to spread in this world. Light energy, being more centered around order, would probably reject this world and would try to return to the immaterial once the host dies.

On a DNA level we could argue that light energy would be more concerned with preserving the hosts DNA rather than inducing any heritable mutations. Conversely dark energy would want to cause mutations in dna that are heritable.

Answer 8

Somatic vs Gametes

Gametes are special cells preserved in your body from birth. These cells have their genetic repair systems tuned to over-drive and at the end of several decades their DNA is still almost identical to the DNA they started with.

Somatic cells are every other type body cell, and for the most part they aren't as hot on DNA repair. Which is why most cancers occur in these cell lines. They are by no means push overs, most of the DNA sequences are still intact decades later, but there are describable differences between the DNA in your hand, and the DNA in your liver.

Balanced

For the most part these energies are balanced, and any spikes are well within the cells ability to repair damage.

Excess Light

Excessive Light energy encourages genetic abnormalities, and particular protein complexes that are generally hyper-beneficial. The overall health, and function of the particular creature is increased. The powers begin to manifest shortly after birth, and continue to accrue as they age, causing older individuals to be quite god-like in comparison to their younger selves, while also allowing their own parents to raise them before they become too god-like. This hyper-beneficiality however is not without its downsides.

A fetus coming into existence with X+ years of demi-god like evolution is simply too risky for a mother to carry to term. If the father was the god-like individual the likely-hood is that the baby would drain the mother of all physical resources essentially killing her. Conversely a god-like mother carrying a god-like child would be able to carry the fetus into a much later term but would likely suffer serious injury when the fetus begins to kick. After all the mother is not protected from a herculean punch from within her. At best the baby would be born premature, the only thing helping it would be the god-like powers. Unfortunately though the baby would likely die due to lack of care. Anyone who attempted to render that care would likely be harmed, the bottles used to feed it snapped like twigs.

This is a problem for evolution, because all the women, or all the men wish to mate with a single demi-god (because they are by far the best), and demi-god like fetuses kill the mothers. This would be disastrous for a species. It would be better if those abilities had not been passed on. Hence biology suppresses these changes from occurring in the gamete lineage. The species that did not adapt this way have already died out.

Excess Dark

Excess dark energy tends to afflict the gene responsible for body-layout and alters the production of certain protein complexes. For any specific individual these induced changes are relatively stable, and manifest at the developmentally appropriate age without further negative effect genetically. This has the effect of produce poisonous bile (even to its ownself), extra legs, no legs, and other abnormalities.

Generally speaking these mutations are horrible for the individual they are inflicted on. However from a species perspective these are a great chance, every now and then the mutation is successful, and repeatable. This encourages speciation: Snakes from lizards, whales from land predators, pegasi from horses.

Due to the advantage in the long run, most species do not overly suppress the genetic deformations caused by dark energy in the gamete lineage. Some may in fact encourage it, hoping to increase the rate of speciation.

Which is better

Obviously light is great for individuals, but horrible for the species. This tug of war ensures that individuals do not confer their god-like propensities.

Dark energy is better for the species giving them more baskets to store their proverbial eggs in. This allows entire families of similar species to handle changing environments, and extinction events - some of them are likely better suited to living and survive. The unfortunate downside is that many afflicted individuals experience short, brutish lives until normal evolution smooths out the issues. Imagine a horse with skinny protrusions from its back, that horse is going to have a bad life, but perhaps its descendants learn to use those protrusions to fly, now they are a gift allowing escape from many predators.

Answer 9

Simple recessive traits

Assuming demigods can interbreed with humans, the demigod type alterations are recessive, and simply do not exist in the normal human population. The human's dominant genes will always override the demigod's recessive. If human offspring of demigod's are common enough, then you might have a respectable percentage of humans carrying the recessive traits, and so the following detail comes into play - the traits expressed by the genes are an all or nothing proposition (or maybe you can get some minor effects that might indicate heritage, but nothing near the flawless appearance or power of the full demigod).

One of two things could happen, depending on how you want such offspring to be in your world:

1. Incomplete demigod gene sequence just fails to produce the godlike abilities, but the offspring is otherwise normal or even slightly enhanced (still exceptionally beautiful, but not inhumanly so; stronger than usual, but just slightly; etc.)
2. The incomplete sequence causes congenital defects - perhaps not on the order of the corrupted souls, but noticeable and severe and not supernatural - likely resulting in a higher than normal number of still births or miscarriages.

Why doesn't this affect the dark souls?

The dark soul mutations are simply less powerful, and less genetically complex. They are dominant, they might have an elevated nutritional requirement, but nothing unmanageable without the help of a "special" soul, etc.

Which leads me to a third option...

Because the souls will it thus

In fact, this may be by "intent" - evil wishes to spread, good tempers its influence on the material world since such power could corrupt an insufficiently good soul. As such, the evil souls warp the body in a way that is easy to pass on, with the expectation that power corrupts, and a normal soul born into such a body will then be corrupted and spread more evil and chaos.

Good souls, on the other hand, realize that a normal sould given such power is much more likely to abuse it than not, and so not only exercise safe sex (perhaps), but also go the extra mile to ensure that their offspring would be normal or unviable by manipulating the ova or sperm they produce.

Answer 10

I can think of a few reasons why this would be the case. So I am going to put it simply and do my best to be clear as I list the probable causes:

1. The absorption of dark energy is much easier than light energy. For every 1 light energy "unit" you'll have 100 dark energy "units". This could be because there are more binding zones for dark energy than there are for light energy. Using enzymes as an example dark energy is an extremely common type widely used and produced; with the supporting energy receptors being likewise common. Thus it is also easier for things to go wrong and for dark energy to be absorbed in excess due to environmental and biological factors. On the opposing spectrum we have light energy,a rare but valuable form of energy that can create great benefits when absorbed. But is rarely absorbed in high quantities due to the infrequency in which it is needed and produced.

Ideally the soul has equality and balance. But if dark energy is more common,being a "physical" energy (one affected the most by biological and environmental factors) it will always have the advantage in conditions for propagation and absorption. With those born with higher levels of dark energy also having more advanced and potentially useful adaptations. Which would favour survival of the fittest,as variety is king until proven otherwise. While light energy is the base "mental" energy of the soul. It is the energy of the spirit which has the primary purpose of keeping balance with the physical energy of dark. However unlike dark,there is a much lower rate of expression in light energy as it is less likely to bind to energy receptors on the body. The reason being simply that there is far more potential dark energy than light energy. Leading to the dark energy crowding out the light energy in most cases or being at best in equilibrium.

The rare cases when light energy is dominating could be because the host body has energy receptors "shaped" to take only light energy. Which ironically could result due to the individuals parentage having high amounts of dark energy;triggering mutation in the unborn to attempt to reach equilibrium upon sensing the massive presence of dark energy (that of their parents while in the womb) but end up absorbing far more light energy due to it being produced in such vast quantities to try and counter the dark energy sensed by the soul all around it.

This in turn means that demigods would most often be born to mutant parents as a sort of species variant resembling a perfected version of their ancestral human form. Which in turn could lead to primitive mutants regarding these beautiful,strong and intelligent individuals as demigods. While in more civilized realms who discover this secret,having a mutant surrogate carrier for a child to try and force a demigod birth could become a risk rich individuals are willing to take.

2. Dark energy could be produced naturally but also result from converted light energy. Just as proteins can be deformed and denatured creating bad DNA,dark energy could bind to light energy itself or to light energy receptors. Causing it to be unable to bond with the host body,either through blockers or denaturation of the light energy. Thus resulting in an artificial surplus of dark energy. While the light energy is rendered useless due to it becoming twisted. With the unaltered bits maintaining equilibrium.

This could also be a result of biological factors favouring dark energy for the purpose of evolutionary diversity. So it is the body itself which tries to make conditions ideal for dark energy while maintaining equilibrium. Thus if the DNA (?) was damaged which controlled and regulated this function (the body was sick,genetic disease,malnourished in the womb,curses or hexes upon the unborn,or being predisposed towards mutation) you'd end up with a mutant being born.

While in ideal conditions (think the miracle birth) the body would be in a low dark energy environment (artificial birth?) allowing it to take in strictly light energy.

3. Demigods could be artificial. They in effect would be designer babies created by siphoning the dark energy out of the unborn child into another receptacle. (Such as another child from a less well-off family,an animal or even a premade "dump" clone) Thus they are rare due to the unethical means and expense by which they are born most commonly. With a very small amount being born due to mutation or birth in isolation.

Just my opinions on the matter,I hope it makes sense and aids you in finding your answer.

Answer 11

There is no light. There is only a lack of dark.

Consider real dark. It is not a thing. It is a lack of light. In your world it is reversed.

Humans at equilibrium (and everything else) have a certain amount of dark energy acquired from their environment during gestation. It is normal. Demigods thwart that normality thru luck or skills or effort, jettisoning the dark energy that is their birthright and so becoming relatively light. Their progeny acquire dark energy at birth, like everyone and everything else. The demigodly individuals have a deficit, not an excess. You cannot give your progeny something you don't have.

As noted some humans, either by their misfortune or efforts, acquire more than the normal amount of dark energy. They do have something to give. This excess bleeds off and contaminates their progeny and also other things which have prolonged contact with these individuals.

Also, once an individual is out of equilibrium it will continue in that direction. A concentration of dark energy in excess of that naturally around it will tend to attract more dark energy, like a gravitational mass. Those with an excess of dark energy will tend to get more and more as time passes. The reverse happens to the demigods because their lack of dark energy means that they have less "gravity" than other things and so remaining dark energy will tend to slip away from them causing their power to increase.

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This leads to potentially interesting things for the story. An individual powered by dark energy and interested in getting more will find the most in other individuals similarly powered by dark energy. A dark individual with more "gravity" can pull energy away from another individual. This could have the effect of curing that individual of afflictions caused by dark energy. The proximity of a person or object with a lot of dark energy could pull energy away even from normal persons, shifting them towards demigods.

Answer 12

There were light particles emitting light energy, without any dark particle around. Then somehow, arrived a bunch of dark particles emitting dark energy.(Or both arrived at the same time in a big boom, or there was a neutral "0" particle that somehow divided itself into "+1" and "-1" particles).

Light and dark particles attract each other, but dark energy repel light particles, and light energy repel dark particles. So they attract each other but once they get too close, they start repelling each other.

They both have different behaviours when it comes to interact with their own kind. Dark particles will try to occupate as much space as possible, while light particles will try to concentrate into one tight big light ball.

The total available space where both light and dark live in would be something based off the amount of energy turned into repulsion.

To be able to take as much space as possible, dark energy would try to put itself in between light particles.

If there are as much light as dark particles, it leads to nice geometrical forms, but not as perfect as a nice spherical ball of light. If there is more dark particles than light particles, there will be some weird geometry surrounded by dark particles moving all around the thing or causing perpetual movements and shape changes, causing difformities.

As most of the energy gets turned into repelsion when dark and light particles get close to each other, things that have more of one kind than the other will emit more energy, thus, being stronger.

As light prefer being in only one ball, it will not transmit its particles to its offspring.

Darkness takes as much space as it can, the dark particles moving around the shape will try to enter inside other shapes that have less darkness particles than the one it actually rotate around, they somehow have shape memory, thus, transmit difformities to their offpsring. (Or, differents human DNA have different ways of dealing with excess of dark energy . Instead of transmitting DNA difformities, you transmit both the excess of dark energy and your DNA, and your DNA dictates the shape your soul will take if there is dark energy excess)

In this scenario, DNA could just be the physical "mortal world" representation of the shape of the soul, or could dictate the shape your soul can take, your choice.

And as it is actually, it's neutral, light doesn't mean good and dark doesn't mean bad as is. Human interpretation tho, will quickly turn this into: "Light is better because it tries to bring stuff together" and "Dark is bad because it tries to separate stuff to conquer more space".

Answer 13

Light energy simplifies genetics; Dark energy increases the complexity of genetics.

The genetics of demigods have almost none of the randomness and variation of a normal human. The most well-established, dominant evolutionary traits of humans are expressed in their most efficient and stable forms. Physical features are highly symmetrical and without outlying or exaggerated features, traits that are commonly considered attractive. Demigods may even have a distinctive look common to them, an almost unnatural geometry and smoothness in their faces. They could also have an androgynous appearance, with many of the differences between male and female bodies being simplified and brought closer together.

The Light energy is essentially "cleansing" the genetic material of unneeded "waste"; the genetic potential that would have been diffused across all those other random characteristics is now focused on expressing the remaining traits to maximum potential. A side effect of all this is that breeding becomes impossible; essential genetic material for reproduction has been discarded in the process.

Dark energy does the opposite, it accelerates the complexity and randomness of genetic material. Recessive genes long dormant in human DNA can have new connections made to them in the explosion of genetic complexity, reactivating characteristics from far back in human evolutionary history (tails, horns, etc). Size, shape, colour and all aspects of physical characteristics can vary wildly from human norms with exaggerated increase or decrease in effectiveness and potentially completely new structures and uses birthed from the chaotic hyper-evolution of the genes.