Information Flow Theory of Consciousness (IFT) is a materialist theory which defines consciousness as form of self-awareness which may arise within any system capable of processing information. IFT draws a distinction between computational complexity or intelligence from conscious self-awareness (CSA) as independent features of a system based on direction of information flow. IFT is distinguished from other theories of consciousness in that it provides a bottom-up explanation of the emergence of the conscious percept which scales through evolution, makes discreet predictions regarding both biologic and artificial consciousness, and is experimentally falsifiable.
Information processing units
IFT defines any information processing unit (IPU) as a discreet system which interacts with its environment through three fundamental components, an input (I), a computation or processing node (N<sub>0</sub>), and an output (O). Within the context of the IPU, “awareness” is operationally defined as its ability to both detect and process information received through its input. The IPU, by definition, cannot be aware of any information that may exist in its environment but is undetectable by its input stream. By extension, due to the strictly unidirectional information flow, the IPU cannot be aware of itself as its only informational input comes from information external to its processing node.
Computation within the processing node (N<sub>0</sub>) can be envisioned as scaling from simple to complex through the progressive linking of multiple subordinate IPUs together in any number of configurations. Regardless of the degree of processing complexity, this composite node remains “aware” only of the external information provided by the input stream. This description provides the rationale for separating the concepts of intelligence (e.g. processing complexity) from the concept of self-awareness as distinct phenomena (see Figure 1).
Internal model of external reality (IMER)
N<sub>0</sub> computation can be mapped onto biologic structures ranging in complexity from bacteria to formal nervous systems. Within this context, the evolutionary purpose of increasing N<sub>0</sub> computational complexity may be seen as an adaptive improvement in translating environmental sensory input into actionable behavior thereby increasing overall fitness. Organisms generally possess an array of sensory apparatus capable of translating a range of environmental stimuli into the input stream. This poses a practical issue as different aspects of information regarding a single event may arrive over a range of rates and times (e.g. visual versus auditory stimuli). In order to deal with this, nervous systems evolved mechanisms to integrate these temporal and spatially distinct information streams into a unified internal model of external reality (IMER) in a process sometimes referred to as “binding”. The IMER arising out of information binding is critical in order to encode for an appropriate output behavior to deal with a particular environmental stimulus (e.g. capture prey, defend against attack, mate, etc…). However, regardless the apparent computational complexity of the IMER and the array of behaviors it produces, the unidirectional flow of information precludes self-awareness at the level of the composite or C<sub>0</sub> IPU.
Self-awareness
Self-awareness within the operational definition of IFT indicates that a system is capable of both receiving and computing information regarding itself. This mandates interruption of unidirectional information flow through the addition of a minimum of two features to the C<sub>0</sub> IPU: a second computational node (N<sub>1</sub>) and a recursive information circuit (R<sub>1</sub>) capable of transmitting the output of N<sub>0</sub> into the input of N<sub>1</sub> . Within this arrangement, the new aggregate system (C<sub>1</sub> IPU) may be described as “self-aware”. Specifically, the N<sub>1</sub> node is “aware” of the computational output of the N<sub>0</sub> node, but critically has no independent access to environmental informational input nor may it directly influence the environment through behavioral output.
Conscious self-awareness (CSA)
A comparison of the C<sub>0</sub> and C<sub>1</sub> IPU architecture demonstrate a divergence in the concepts of computational complexity (e.g. intelligence) and self-awareness as neither necessitate the other. The term consciousness within IFT emerges, not as a discreet phenomenon, but rather as a description of how self-awareness is experienced through the integrated computational output of the N<sub>0</sub> node. This definition addresses why human consciousness is mediated through our disparate sensory experiences and yet is perceived as unitary. These same features are directly mirrored in the N<sub>0</sub> computation of the human IMER which binds distinct sensory input into a unified mode. This N<sub>0</sub>/N<sub>1</sub> symmetry suggests a shared basic computational architecture between the two nodes. “Conscious” self-awareness (CSA) therefore may be seen as the byproduct of algorithms which evolved to compute behavioral output in response to the environment now redeployed to compute consciousness in response to the IMER.
Human CSA and language
Human CSA (CSA-H) is characterized by an additional property which is not allowed within the C<sub>1</sub> IPU architecture, namely the ability to communicate externally. This ability requires an additional link between the N<sub>1</sub> node and the IPU output stream. In order to avoid collapse into unidirectional information flow, this unique recursive circuit (R<sub>2</sub>) must be mediated through the N<sub>0</sub> node. An IPU containing a complete R<sub>1</sub>/R<sub>2</sub> circuit (C<sub>2</sub>IPU) gains the capacity for the N<sub>1</sub> node to both influence the construction of the N<sub>0</sub> IMER as well as externally communicate its computational state to the external environment. In humans this is observed in the process of learning and incorporation of scientific concepts in the way we organize and process the physical world (see Table).
Predictions of Information Flow Theory
IMER complementarity
From the perspective of the C<sub>1/2</sub> IPU, there is no external reality beyond that which it can sense and integrate into its IMER. As the IMER can never model the totality of independent objective reality (IOR), the degree to which the IMER approximates IOR may be expressed as the IMER/IOR ratio with a lower boundary of 0 and an upper boundary <1. In order for two independent C<sub>1/2</sub> IPUs to agree on the presence of mutual consciousness within one another, there must be some shared aspects of the two IMERs.
Information transmission directly influences consciousness
As CSA-H arises from the combination of information flow (R<sub>1</sub>/R<sub>2</sub> circuit) and information processing (N<sub>1</sub> node computing the output of the N<sub>0</sub> node). Multiple regions of the human brain have already been identified which correspond to centers of consciousness consistent with the composite N<sub>1</sub> node. These include the superior temporal sulcus and temporo-parietal junction. However, IFT predicts that manipulation of flow alone, independent of activity within these centers, should result in an altered manifestation of consciousness. This is evident in several examples derived from clinical medicine. General anesthesia has been found to work through the generation of oscillations or waves of neuronal activity which transiently interrupt normal information signaling between regions of the brain involved in consciousness. Similarly some patients who have undergone a corpus collosotomy (transection of interhemispheric connections) manifest the so-called “split-brain” syndrome in which each hemisphere exhibits an independent conscious experience.
IFT and artificial CSA
The principles of IFT apply equally to biologic and artificial systems capable of processing information. Even the most complex neural networks remain analogous to a C<sub>0</sub> IPU with individual neurons connected through multiple layers functioning as a composite N<sub>0</sub> node. Self-awareness at would therefore require a second network capable of receiving and processing the output of the first network. This C<sub>1</sub> IPU would “experience” awareness but solely within the context of its learning algorithm. The addition of an R<sub>2</sub> circuit within this artificial system would provide the IPU with the ability to communicate its state however this communication could only occur within the context of the information it is designed to process.
Of critical importance to future technology capable of artificial general intelligence, IFT teaches that there is no “reality” distinct from the constitutive components of the IMER. A sensory based human-like IMER built into the design would therefore enable a machine experiencing conscious self-awareness in silico (CSA-IS) to be able to communicate its state in concepts familiar to CSA-H through a common language. Perhaps most importantly, pro-social concepts such as altruism and empathy should be strongly represented within this IMER. To a machine, unless these pro-social concepts are built into the IMER, they would not even exist.
Language facilitates superhuman CSA (CSA-SH)
IFT predicts that human natural language functions as a type of input/output flow which uses formalized symbols to organize and transfer information regarding the IMER. Sharing of knowledge has facilitated an increase in the human IMER/IOR ratio over time, not within individuals but rather within the species as an aggregate. The capacity to extend the IMER beyond the limits of intrinsic sensory input represents a new functionality as it requires C<sub>2</sub> IPUs working in concert. This coordinated system functions as a superhuman consciousness which is able to dynamically iterate upon itself, increasing its collective IMER/IOR ever higher. The cultural and scientific progress of the human species may therefore be conceived of as a single C<sub>3</sub> IPU consisting of a collective of C<sub>2</sub> IPUs (e.g. individual humans) sharing input and output streams of information (e.g. language) both in series (e.g. over time) and in parallel (e.g. over space) to produce an aggregate superhuman CSA (CSA-SH) (see Figure 2).
Testing for consciousness: beyond the Turing test
IFT predicts several experimental models to probe for the presence of the recursive N<sub>1</sub> processing within an indeterminate IPU required for CSA. The addition of N<sub>1</sub> computation to the output stream should have several detectable differential effects. Relative to information undergoing N<sub>0</sub> processing alone, the added R<sub>1</sub>/R<sub>2</sub>recursion and N<sub>1</sub> computation may be discriminated by a relative delay in the shortest possible output response to a given input signal. Similarly, N<sub>1</sub> processing would require a larger energy input resulting in information in a more organized or lower entropic state than that of N<sub>0</sub> computation only. Finally, as CSA arises not from isolated processing N<sub>0</sub>/N<sub>1</sub> processing but rather from their interconnection through R<sub>1</sub>/R<sub>2</sub> recursion, interruption of recursive information flow alone should be capable of reversibly eliminating CSA for the duration of the interruption. In fact, each of these experimental methods have already been demonstrated, to some degree, in human subjects. Time delays of 500ms have been documented between conscious and unconscious processing in classic experiments of the so called “readiness potential”. Similarly, functional imaging studies which rely on the differential use of blood and glucose uptake to detect active brain regions have identified discreet regions of increased energy use associated with the conscious performance of various tasks.
IFT and panpsychism
By providing a discreet architecture both necessary and sufficient for self-awareness, IFT introduces both upper and lower constraints on the presence of self-awareness. In principle, any system possessing two computational nodes linked by at least one unidirectional connection may be considered self-aware, regardless of degree of computational complexity. These arrangements may throughout nature both in isolation as well as within larger composite nodes. However, the character of their “awareness” will be dictated solely through their informational input. A unique IPU arrangement may also be predicted at the level of the entire universe where the input and output information streams themselves become recursive as there is, by definition, no external environment at this scale. Within this “universal” or C<sub>4</sub> IPU, all other IPUs may be seen as constituents of larger composite nodes allowing for the concept of a universe conscious of itself (see Figure 2).
Information processing units
IFT defines any information processing unit (IPU) as a discreet system which interacts with its environment through three fundamental components, an input (I), a computation or processing node (N<sub>0</sub>), and an output (O). Within the context of the IPU, “awareness” is operationally defined as its ability to both detect and process information received through its input. The IPU, by definition, cannot be aware of any information that may exist in its environment but is undetectable by its input stream. By extension, due to the strictly unidirectional information flow, the IPU cannot be aware of itself as its only informational input comes from information external to its processing node.
Computation within the processing node (N<sub>0</sub>) can be envisioned as scaling from simple to complex through the progressive linking of multiple subordinate IPUs together in any number of configurations. Regardless of the degree of processing complexity, this composite node remains “aware” only of the external information provided by the input stream. This description provides the rationale for separating the concepts of intelligence (e.g. processing complexity) from the concept of self-awareness as distinct phenomena (see Figure 1).
Internal model of external reality (IMER)
N<sub>0</sub> computation can be mapped onto biologic structures ranging in complexity from bacteria to formal nervous systems. Within this context, the evolutionary purpose of increasing N<sub>0</sub> computational complexity may be seen as an adaptive improvement in translating environmental sensory input into actionable behavior thereby increasing overall fitness. Organisms generally possess an array of sensory apparatus capable of translating a range of environmental stimuli into the input stream. This poses a practical issue as different aspects of information regarding a single event may arrive over a range of rates and times (e.g. visual versus auditory stimuli). In order to deal with this, nervous systems evolved mechanisms to integrate these temporal and spatially distinct information streams into a unified internal model of external reality (IMER) in a process sometimes referred to as “binding”. The IMER arising out of information binding is critical in order to encode for an appropriate output behavior to deal with a particular environmental stimulus (e.g. capture prey, defend against attack, mate, etc…). However, regardless the apparent computational complexity of the IMER and the array of behaviors it produces, the unidirectional flow of information precludes self-awareness at the level of the composite or C<sub>0</sub> IPU.
Self-awareness
Self-awareness within the operational definition of IFT indicates that a system is capable of both receiving and computing information regarding itself. This mandates interruption of unidirectional information flow through the addition of a minimum of two features to the C<sub>0</sub> IPU: a second computational node (N<sub>1</sub>) and a recursive information circuit (R<sub>1</sub>) capable of transmitting the output of N<sub>0</sub> into the input of N<sub>1</sub> . Within this arrangement, the new aggregate system (C<sub>1</sub> IPU) may be described as “self-aware”. Specifically, the N<sub>1</sub> node is “aware” of the computational output of the N<sub>0</sub> node, but critically has no independent access to environmental informational input nor may it directly influence the environment through behavioral output.
Conscious self-awareness (CSA)
A comparison of the C<sub>0</sub> and C<sub>1</sub> IPU architecture demonstrate a divergence in the concepts of computational complexity (e.g. intelligence) and self-awareness as neither necessitate the other. The term consciousness within IFT emerges, not as a discreet phenomenon, but rather as a description of how self-awareness is experienced through the integrated computational output of the N<sub>0</sub> node. This definition addresses why human consciousness is mediated through our disparate sensory experiences and yet is perceived as unitary. These same features are directly mirrored in the N<sub>0</sub> computation of the human IMER which binds distinct sensory input into a unified mode. This N<sub>0</sub>/N<sub>1</sub> symmetry suggests a shared basic computational architecture between the two nodes. “Conscious” self-awareness (CSA) therefore may be seen as the byproduct of algorithms which evolved to compute behavioral output in response to the environment now redeployed to compute consciousness in response to the IMER.
Human CSA and language
Human CSA (CSA-H) is characterized by an additional property which is not allowed within the C<sub>1</sub> IPU architecture, namely the ability to communicate externally. This ability requires an additional link between the N<sub>1</sub> node and the IPU output stream. In order to avoid collapse into unidirectional information flow, this unique recursive circuit (R<sub>2</sub>) must be mediated through the N<sub>0</sub> node. An IPU containing a complete R<sub>1</sub>/R<sub>2</sub> circuit (C<sub>2</sub>IPU) gains the capacity for the N<sub>1</sub> node to both influence the construction of the N<sub>0</sub> IMER as well as externally communicate its computational state to the external environment. In humans this is observed in the process of learning and incorporation of scientific concepts in the way we organize and process the physical world (see Table).
Predictions of Information Flow Theory
IMER complementarity
From the perspective of the C<sub>1/2</sub> IPU, there is no external reality beyond that which it can sense and integrate into its IMER. As the IMER can never model the totality of independent objective reality (IOR), the degree to which the IMER approximates IOR may be expressed as the IMER/IOR ratio with a lower boundary of 0 and an upper boundary <1. In order for two independent C<sub>1/2</sub> IPUs to agree on the presence of mutual consciousness within one another, there must be some shared aspects of the two IMERs.
Information transmission directly influences consciousness
As CSA-H arises from the combination of information flow (R<sub>1</sub>/R<sub>2</sub> circuit) and information processing (N<sub>1</sub> node computing the output of the N<sub>0</sub> node). Multiple regions of the human brain have already been identified which correspond to centers of consciousness consistent with the composite N<sub>1</sub> node. These include the superior temporal sulcus and temporo-parietal junction. However, IFT predicts that manipulation of flow alone, independent of activity within these centers, should result in an altered manifestation of consciousness. This is evident in several examples derived from clinical medicine. General anesthesia has been found to work through the generation of oscillations or waves of neuronal activity which transiently interrupt normal information signaling between regions of the brain involved in consciousness. Similarly some patients who have undergone a corpus collosotomy (transection of interhemispheric connections) manifest the so-called “split-brain” syndrome in which each hemisphere exhibits an independent conscious experience.
IFT and artificial CSA
The principles of IFT apply equally to biologic and artificial systems capable of processing information. Even the most complex neural networks remain analogous to a C<sub>0</sub> IPU with individual neurons connected through multiple layers functioning as a composite N<sub>0</sub> node. Self-awareness at would therefore require a second network capable of receiving and processing the output of the first network. This C<sub>1</sub> IPU would “experience” awareness but solely within the context of its learning algorithm. The addition of an R<sub>2</sub> circuit within this artificial system would provide the IPU with the ability to communicate its state however this communication could only occur within the context of the information it is designed to process.
Of critical importance to future technology capable of artificial general intelligence, IFT teaches that there is no “reality” distinct from the constitutive components of the IMER. A sensory based human-like IMER built into the design would therefore enable a machine experiencing conscious self-awareness in silico (CSA-IS) to be able to communicate its state in concepts familiar to CSA-H through a common language. Perhaps most importantly, pro-social concepts such as altruism and empathy should be strongly represented within this IMER. To a machine, unless these pro-social concepts are built into the IMER, they would not even exist.
Language facilitates superhuman CSA (CSA-SH)
IFT predicts that human natural language functions as a type of input/output flow which uses formalized symbols to organize and transfer information regarding the IMER. Sharing of knowledge has facilitated an increase in the human IMER/IOR ratio over time, not within individuals but rather within the species as an aggregate. The capacity to extend the IMER beyond the limits of intrinsic sensory input represents a new functionality as it requires C<sub>2</sub> IPUs working in concert. This coordinated system functions as a superhuman consciousness which is able to dynamically iterate upon itself, increasing its collective IMER/IOR ever higher. The cultural and scientific progress of the human species may therefore be conceived of as a single C<sub>3</sub> IPU consisting of a collective of C<sub>2</sub> IPUs (e.g. individual humans) sharing input and output streams of information (e.g. language) both in series (e.g. over time) and in parallel (e.g. over space) to produce an aggregate superhuman CSA (CSA-SH) (see Figure 2).
Testing for consciousness: beyond the Turing test
IFT predicts several experimental models to probe for the presence of the recursive N<sub>1</sub> processing within an indeterminate IPU required for CSA. The addition of N<sub>1</sub> computation to the output stream should have several detectable differential effects. Relative to information undergoing N<sub>0</sub> processing alone, the added R<sub>1</sub>/R<sub>2</sub>recursion and N<sub>1</sub> computation may be discriminated by a relative delay in the shortest possible output response to a given input signal. Similarly, N<sub>1</sub> processing would require a larger energy input resulting in information in a more organized or lower entropic state than that of N<sub>0</sub> computation only. Finally, as CSA arises not from isolated processing N<sub>0</sub>/N<sub>1</sub> processing but rather from their interconnection through R<sub>1</sub>/R<sub>2</sub> recursion, interruption of recursive information flow alone should be capable of reversibly eliminating CSA for the duration of the interruption. In fact, each of these experimental methods have already been demonstrated, to some degree, in human subjects. Time delays of 500ms have been documented between conscious and unconscious processing in classic experiments of the so called “readiness potential”. Similarly, functional imaging studies which rely on the differential use of blood and glucose uptake to detect active brain regions have identified discreet regions of increased energy use associated with the conscious performance of various tasks.
IFT and panpsychism
By providing a discreet architecture both necessary and sufficient for self-awareness, IFT introduces both upper and lower constraints on the presence of self-awareness. In principle, any system possessing two computational nodes linked by at least one unidirectional connection may be considered self-aware, regardless of degree of computational complexity. These arrangements may throughout nature both in isolation as well as within larger composite nodes. However, the character of their “awareness” will be dictated solely through their informational input. A unique IPU arrangement may also be predicted at the level of the entire universe where the input and output information streams themselves become recursive as there is, by definition, no external environment at this scale. Within this “universal” or C<sub>4</sub> IPU, all other IPUs may be seen as constituents of larger composite nodes allowing for the concept of a universe conscious of itself (see Figure 2).
Frostbite, (real name Leon Carver) is a character from the DV8 comic book series, published by Wildstorm.
Fictional character biography
Leon grew up with his mother in West Memphis, Arkansas. The identity and fate of his father is so far unknown. Leon went to Howard University in Washington, D.C., but quickly found himself in financial trouble. Due to his low grades during the first semester, he wasn't awarded a scholarship trustee, despite his good grades the second term and a position on the football team. He was visited by a government agent who told him that they were aware of his difficulties and that he had been selected for a special program. Believing he had no choice, Leon accepted and became a part of Project: Genesis, a special program of International Operations. Leon like all subjects, had been tested positive for the substance that could give regular humans superhuman powers. The subjects were fed a special activator drug during the program. Leon's first signs of Gen-activation were a discoloration in his hair, which went from black to yellow. At first he hid his hair and considered shaving it all off, but then he decided to just accept it. He also started to have nightmares and high fever. In the infirmary, he was cryogenically frozen.
Interference from John Lynch and Project Genesis subjects Gen¹³ meant the end of the program and Baiul escaped, taking the frozen subjects with her. Several months later, Leon was the first to be thawed. His powers and competitive nature made him ideal soldier material to Baiul, who added him to DV8. DV8's original leader was Threshold, but he and his sister Bliss were never considered part of the team by the other members, presumably because they already were involved with I.O. before Project: Genesis. DV8, nicknamed the Deviants, was sent on many dangerous missions and Baiul always made it clear to them that they were expendable to her. To survive in this lethal environment, the Deviants became tough and amoral. One of the few Deviants to retain any sort of moral compass, Leon became sick of the death, depravity, and violence that were a part of being in DV8.
During his time with the team, Leon is telepathically assaulted by one of the more brutal aspects of Copycat's fragmented mind. That aspect plans to force him to have sex with her. He only escapes by draining off much of Copycat's heat. During this encounter, Leon reveals that his first sexual encounter was with Bliss and not pleasant at all.
Leon also participates in a mission to save a neighborhood from a homicidal drug gang. He was approached by a young girl, who pleads for help. Later, after the gang is neutralized, he learns the girl had been bed-ridden all this time.
When Ivana blackmailed herself back into I.O., the team became I.O. agents. Leon saw this as an opportunity to atone for their crimes and when Threshold betrayed the team, Leon decided to quit. Frank Colby, the I.O. agent who had taken over DV8, convinced Leon to stay and become the new field leader of DV8. Colby convinced Leon that he was the only one all the others in the team looked up to and that without him DV8 would disband. Leon didn't have any loyalty towards I.O., but he knew that Colby was right when he said that some of his fellow Deviants wouldn't be able to survive in the outside world.
On a mission, Frostbite came into contact with the villain Arthrax, who used his addictive touch upon him. During this mission, Leon was forced to push his powers beyond their previous limits and was taken back, seriously injured. When he recovered, his powers were gone. Shortly afterward, Ivana fired Leon. Outside, Frank Colby talked to Leon and asked him to join a conspiracy against Ivana. Leon, who was sick of Ivana and her ways, agreed and went home to his mother. There, Colby's men exchanged Leon with a body-double and transplanted the tracker Ivana had implanted in all DV8 members into the double. Ivana had the double killed shortly afterward and Leon was now officially dead. Colby's men introduced Leon to his fellow conspirator, Stephen Callahan, father of Threshold and Bliss. With Callahan's help, Leon's powers were restored. Shortly afterward, DV8 member Sublime joined the conspiracy as well and they went against Ivana and I.O. The battle would mean the end of DV8.
Leon joined with teammates Sublime and Copycat to try to lead a normal life. They were joined shortly afterward by Genevieve Cray, a female clone of Michael Cray, Sublime's father. Under Cray's leadership, the group battled the villain Trance and his group. Trance captured Leon and Sublime and used his mind-controlling powers to make them kiss each other. Frostbite and Sublime had had some sexual tension towards each other for a long time and Trance noticed this. He ordered them to go further when Cray and Copycat stopped him. Trance and his team were defeated, but Leon and Sublime admitted to each other that it hadn't been all bad and tentatively started a relationship.
Powers and abilities
Frostbite can absorb heat from any object leaving it frozen solid. He can also store heat inside him and release it as blasts of heat. He has limits to the amount of heat he could absorb and store and he used to wear a special belt and gloves that helped him control his powers.
Distinctive tattoos
Like most Deviants, Frostbite has red tattoos: 43 is tattooed on both sides of his head, three parallel horizontal stripes are tattooed on his upper arms and BITE is tattooed on his chest.
Fictional character biography
Leon grew up with his mother in West Memphis, Arkansas. The identity and fate of his father is so far unknown. Leon went to Howard University in Washington, D.C., but quickly found himself in financial trouble. Due to his low grades during the first semester, he wasn't awarded a scholarship trustee, despite his good grades the second term and a position on the football team. He was visited by a government agent who told him that they were aware of his difficulties and that he had been selected for a special program. Believing he had no choice, Leon accepted and became a part of Project: Genesis, a special program of International Operations. Leon like all subjects, had been tested positive for the substance that could give regular humans superhuman powers. The subjects were fed a special activator drug during the program. Leon's first signs of Gen-activation were a discoloration in his hair, which went from black to yellow. At first he hid his hair and considered shaving it all off, but then he decided to just accept it. He also started to have nightmares and high fever. In the infirmary, he was cryogenically frozen.
Interference from John Lynch and Project Genesis subjects Gen¹³ meant the end of the program and Baiul escaped, taking the frozen subjects with her. Several months later, Leon was the first to be thawed. His powers and competitive nature made him ideal soldier material to Baiul, who added him to DV8. DV8's original leader was Threshold, but he and his sister Bliss were never considered part of the team by the other members, presumably because they already were involved with I.O. before Project: Genesis. DV8, nicknamed the Deviants, was sent on many dangerous missions and Baiul always made it clear to them that they were expendable to her. To survive in this lethal environment, the Deviants became tough and amoral. One of the few Deviants to retain any sort of moral compass, Leon became sick of the death, depravity, and violence that were a part of being in DV8.
During his time with the team, Leon is telepathically assaulted by one of the more brutal aspects of Copycat's fragmented mind. That aspect plans to force him to have sex with her. He only escapes by draining off much of Copycat's heat. During this encounter, Leon reveals that his first sexual encounter was with Bliss and not pleasant at all.
Leon also participates in a mission to save a neighborhood from a homicidal drug gang. He was approached by a young girl, who pleads for help. Later, after the gang is neutralized, he learns the girl had been bed-ridden all this time.
When Ivana blackmailed herself back into I.O., the team became I.O. agents. Leon saw this as an opportunity to atone for their crimes and when Threshold betrayed the team, Leon decided to quit. Frank Colby, the I.O. agent who had taken over DV8, convinced Leon to stay and become the new field leader of DV8. Colby convinced Leon that he was the only one all the others in the team looked up to and that without him DV8 would disband. Leon didn't have any loyalty towards I.O., but he knew that Colby was right when he said that some of his fellow Deviants wouldn't be able to survive in the outside world.
On a mission, Frostbite came into contact with the villain Arthrax, who used his addictive touch upon him. During this mission, Leon was forced to push his powers beyond their previous limits and was taken back, seriously injured. When he recovered, his powers were gone. Shortly afterward, Ivana fired Leon. Outside, Frank Colby talked to Leon and asked him to join a conspiracy against Ivana. Leon, who was sick of Ivana and her ways, agreed and went home to his mother. There, Colby's men exchanged Leon with a body-double and transplanted the tracker Ivana had implanted in all DV8 members into the double. Ivana had the double killed shortly afterward and Leon was now officially dead. Colby's men introduced Leon to his fellow conspirator, Stephen Callahan, father of Threshold and Bliss. With Callahan's help, Leon's powers were restored. Shortly afterward, DV8 member Sublime joined the conspiracy as well and they went against Ivana and I.O. The battle would mean the end of DV8.
Leon joined with teammates Sublime and Copycat to try to lead a normal life. They were joined shortly afterward by Genevieve Cray, a female clone of Michael Cray, Sublime's father. Under Cray's leadership, the group battled the villain Trance and his group. Trance captured Leon and Sublime and used his mind-controlling powers to make them kiss each other. Frostbite and Sublime had had some sexual tension towards each other for a long time and Trance noticed this. He ordered them to go further when Cray and Copycat stopped him. Trance and his team were defeated, but Leon and Sublime admitted to each other that it hadn't been all bad and tentatively started a relationship.
Powers and abilities
Frostbite can absorb heat from any object leaving it frozen solid. He can also store heat inside him and release it as blasts of heat. He has limits to the amount of heat he could absorb and store and he used to wear a special belt and gloves that helped him control his powers.
Distinctive tattoos
Like most Deviants, Frostbite has red tattoos: 43 is tattooed on both sides of his head, three parallel horizontal stripes are tattooed on his upper arms and BITE is tattooed on his chest.
Dodo NKishi is a singer-songwriter, composer and multi-instrumentalist, best known as the drummer for the band Mouse on Mars.
Background
Reggae and Soul form the basis to his approach towards music. Growing up a multi-racial child (his father being from Kinshasa, Congo and his mother from Kleve, Germany), has had a strong influence on his perception and interpretation of sounds and music.
History
NKinshi founded "La Vie", his first group, in 1979. A reggae outfit, which made a name for itself for their mature lyrics and compositions, as well as their entertaining and tight performances. Although they never officially released any recordings, their consistent live performances assured them a fast-growing and loyal fan base, and the founders continued to explore various forms of reggae until 1985.
Following his move to England, in 1986, Dodo soon began working with a variety of bands, musicians and producers, as well as engaging in a brief stint in the world of acting, participating in Ray Shell's musical "Street Angels". Following a sudden signing of a major publishing deal with Warner Chappell Music Ltd., in 1991, the indirect result of winning the first prize for the Grolsch Question of Style song-writing contest, he started work on his debut album and began putting together a band. But although his efforts made it to the release of the 12 inch single "Bringing in JAH Love" (1991, Node Records), as well as a handful of concerts in London, by the end of the same year, he split with his manager and soon after, found himself bankrupt.
Soon after meeting and thereon co-producing their only release T.O.T. for the project Loophole, together with Andi Toma and Raoul Walton in 1993 in Germany, Dodo met and began his long-term collaboration with Mouse on Mars in 1994, and has since been their drummer and vocalist, as well as continuing co-writing and programming with the influential duo.
He is also official drummer and backing-vocalist of the Berlin-Milan based quartet Pet, founded by Andre Abshagen, and co-wrote on their 2006 release Rewind The Sofa Lady.
Over the years, Dodo has continued to intensify his live and studio collaborations with such international artists as Stewart Copeland (Gizmo), Herbert Grönemeyer (Mensch), Vittorio Cosma, Charles Bullen (This Heat, Circadian Rhythms), Changuito (on the album Syncopation), Stefano Ghittoni and Cesare Malfatti of The Dining Rooms, with whom he started Sembro, an electro-acoustic soul-folk oriented project, as well as many others, and further continues to spread his message of one love.
Background
Reggae and Soul form the basis to his approach towards music. Growing up a multi-racial child (his father being from Kinshasa, Congo and his mother from Kleve, Germany), has had a strong influence on his perception and interpretation of sounds and music.
History
NKinshi founded "La Vie", his first group, in 1979. A reggae outfit, which made a name for itself for their mature lyrics and compositions, as well as their entertaining and tight performances. Although they never officially released any recordings, their consistent live performances assured them a fast-growing and loyal fan base, and the founders continued to explore various forms of reggae until 1985.
Following his move to England, in 1986, Dodo soon began working with a variety of bands, musicians and producers, as well as engaging in a brief stint in the world of acting, participating in Ray Shell's musical "Street Angels". Following a sudden signing of a major publishing deal with Warner Chappell Music Ltd., in 1991, the indirect result of winning the first prize for the Grolsch Question of Style song-writing contest, he started work on his debut album and began putting together a band. But although his efforts made it to the release of the 12 inch single "Bringing in JAH Love" (1991, Node Records), as well as a handful of concerts in London, by the end of the same year, he split with his manager and soon after, found himself bankrupt.
Soon after meeting and thereon co-producing their only release T.O.T. for the project Loophole, together with Andi Toma and Raoul Walton in 1993 in Germany, Dodo met and began his long-term collaboration with Mouse on Mars in 1994, and has since been their drummer and vocalist, as well as continuing co-writing and programming with the influential duo.
He is also official drummer and backing-vocalist of the Berlin-Milan based quartet Pet, founded by Andre Abshagen, and co-wrote on their 2006 release Rewind The Sofa Lady.
Over the years, Dodo has continued to intensify his live and studio collaborations with such international artists as Stewart Copeland (Gizmo), Herbert Grönemeyer (Mensch), Vittorio Cosma, Charles Bullen (This Heat, Circadian Rhythms), Changuito (on the album Syncopation), Stefano Ghittoni and Cesare Malfatti of The Dining Rooms, with whom he started Sembro, an electro-acoustic soul-folk oriented project, as well as many others, and further continues to spread his message of one love.
Shining Legend is a Korean action role-playing game currently being developed for the Nintendo DS by Blueside.
Plot
The protagonist of the game is Luchs, the prince to the small kingdom of Alterrain. At the age of fourteen Luchs is forced out of his kingdom and is banished to the "Land of the Sand". Five years later, Luchs returns home only to find out that Alterrain has plummeted into great debt, and now that his father has disappeared, this great debt is cast upon Luchs. Shortly after, seven princesses from a neighboring nation break out of their palace, and a huge reward is given out to anyone who can find the princesses. Hoping to get his kingdom out of debt, Luchs ventures out to find these princesses.
Plot
The protagonist of the game is Luchs, the prince to the small kingdom of Alterrain. At the age of fourteen Luchs is forced out of his kingdom and is banished to the "Land of the Sand". Five years later, Luchs returns home only to find out that Alterrain has plummeted into great debt, and now that his father has disappeared, this great debt is cast upon Luchs. Shortly after, seven princesses from a neighboring nation break out of their palace, and a huge reward is given out to anyone who can find the princesses. Hoping to get his kingdom out of debt, Luchs ventures out to find these princesses.