Entry 2: Galton

     I will admit; I had doubts about our research at first. Others told me that this line of research had to be abandoned, that Bad Brain Disease (BBD) was incurable and our methods pointless, that all we would do is create new raiders. When I saw the remains of MacKenzie and the others spread across the area around the demolished lab, my heart sank; would we ever be able to do anything more than create homicidal monsters?
     All my doubts fell away when Galton found me in Hope's Edge. He was intelligent -- eloquent, even -- and had complete control over his raider band that he'd found. The signs of derangement were there, but subtle; he believed himself a God, a megalomaniac urge that was the flaw in his creation, and he succumbed swiftly to the natural raider urge to contaminate others. Unfortunately we do not have sufficient data to determine how much of this was due to his personal issues and how much due to the effects of BBD -- but it's clear that we were nearly successful. Continued research and adjustments to the formula should hopefully clear up this problem.

     The question that has not been asked is how this works. I have some theories. As I observed in my previous post, the nascent hive-mind that can be activated in a raider by a 'raider king' is clearly the sign of a new entity's evolution. Why was Galton able to retain his personality and thoughts with only minor deviance while still acquiring raider adaptations and the connection to their hive-mind?
     One must first ask where our consciousness lies. The brain is clearly the source of consciousness -- physical damage can alter it, and yet even if it were completely destroyed, the Gravemind can rebuild it with only minor deviance in most cases. This leads me to suspect that our consciousness is, in part, disembodied -- what the religious might call a 'soul', perhaps -- and exists partly within the hive-mind of the Gravemind. As we have seen with the Shard, and possibly the Blue Man (insufficient data regarding this entity is available), a single powerful personality can rise to the surface of the hive mind and express itself individually, if still influenced by the madness below the surface. As the first personality placed within the 'raider mind' with modifications to keep him from being completely subsumed by madness, Galton naturally became - to this 'raider mind' - a similar presence as the Shard.

     If my theories is  are correct, it means that even if the process is perfected, the more people converted via this process the more 'crowded' the hive mind may become. Given time and conversion, this may result in the same madness in the Gravemind. It may be that our inevitable destiny is one of singularity, where in one way or another, we all must become one. If that is so, let it be in a mind of our choosing, one of living flesh rather than rotting meat. If we are careful to cull the unworthy and only convert those pure of purpose and focus to the 'raider mind' as it grows, we may be able to avoid the madness. This will necessarily result in a loss of majority populace, but hopefully we can minimize this loss.