Chemical Composition of Creeper?

[creeper killer]

In CW2, the game stated that when anti-Creeper and Creeper collide, the result is "pure annihilation". This would mean a particle and anti-particle reaction, yet AC is synthesized from naturally occurring ore (metals etc.) This implicates that creeper is made up of anti-particles.

Later in CW3, when digitalis is first encountered, Lia states that the digitalis has mimicked the chlorophyll in plants. Chlorophyll is an organic compound containing carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and a single magnesium atom. Several specialized enzymes are required to create chlorophyll.  This would implicate that creeper is comprised of normal particles.

Further into CW3, it is revealed that creeper also stores the information of the structures it touches, this involves processes occurring at the quantum level.


What the heck is Creeper's chemical structure, because the clues leading to it are quite contradictory and confusing, and how does it actually "destroy" things?

[planetfall]

Hate₂O?

"Pure annihilation" is probably just flavor text to make it sound cooler. If C/AC combining were actually particle/antiparticle annihilation, the resulting energy would destroy a large glob of anything wherever they touched (except maybe those stone tiles :P) It's more likely the anticreeper is just a chemical designed to break down creeper, though that does raise the question "what's left over?" If visual effects are to be trusted, the answer is "vapors of some kind," but I'm not sure exactly how they disperse considering you don't see bubbles moving through the creeper.

It's possible that the creeper's chemical structure has nothing to do with it. Maybe it's just some inert fluid, populated by trillions of swimming nanomachines that actually do the destroying and recording. After all, if it was just some kind of acid or similar substance, it wouldn't be able to choose which things to preserve.

[SuperDan]

populated by trillions of swimming nanomachines that actually do the destroying and recording.

Maybe that's all it is. Lots of nanomachines capable of interacting at a quantum level that, when together behave like a thick fluid and can transmit data from one to another, but alone they get full of data quickly and "evaporate".
Even so, they would be bound by the uncertainty principle and "collapse" any quantum states they come across(by observing). That could be some kind of early warning system for an otherwise undetectably small amount of Creeper.

[4xC]

Call it "Magic of Technology", "Magical Technology" or something along those lines.

So far, just about everything in the CW series has technological origin, but the vast potential of it all as well as the creeper's capabilities suggest that magic and technology are combined in this series.

[Karsten75]

So far, just about everything in the CW series has technological origin, but the vast potential of it all as well as the creeper's capabilities suggest that magic and technology are combined in this series.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. - Clarke's 3 laws.

[Asbestos]

Creeper is made up of pure suspension of disbelief. If you're wondering how it eats and breathes and other science facts, think to yourself, "It's just a game; I should really just relax."

[SuperDan]

Call it "Magic of Technology", "Magical Technology" or something along those lines.

So far, just about everything in the CW series has technological origin, but the vast potential of it all as well as the creeper's capabilities suggest that magic and technology are combined in this series.

Creeper is made up of pure suspension of disbelief. If you're wondering how it eats and breathes and other science facts, think to yourself, "It's just a game; I should really just relax."

I wouldn't give up that easily.
Anti-matter can be eliminated as a candidate for Creeper, I think.
We need to remember that the Creeper comes from an alternate reality.
It seems to be infinitly expellable from emitters, but that violates the first law of thermodynamics, so Creeper has to be reused somehow.
Seeing as the Creeper can come back (presumably) infinitly many times, that would violate the second law of thermodynamics, unless the Creeper is a higher state of entropy than anything else.
If Creeper is just a form of compressed entropy, that would explain lots, except for the fact that it records everything.  ???

[Asbestos]

Creeper comes from a different dimension where everything is creeper. Emitters are essentially "fangs" the creeper uses to tear holes in reality and expel creeper. It adapts to everything, which is why there are runners and digitalis, and corrupts existing technologies. It doesn't record things in the way you might think, but all of the things the creeper destroys are adapted to, which means you can study the creeper for specific adaptations related to the destroyed things. If the creeper took down a nuclear power plant, for instance, you could scan the creeper for trace adaptations, like radioactivity, or producing energy.

[arandomhalo]

Creeper comes from a different dimension where everything is creeper. Emitters are essentially "fangs" the creeper uses to tear holes in reality and expel creeper. It adapts to everything, which is why there are runners and digitalis, and corrupts existing technologies. It doesn't record things in the way you might think, but all of the things the creeper destroys are adapted to, which means you can study the creeper for specific adaptations related to the destroyed things. If the creeper took down a nuclear power plant, for instance, you could scan the creeper for trace adaptations, like radioactivity, or producing energy.

You beat me to it.  I was going to suggest dimensions - the border between science and magic.  When your string theory isn't working out, just add a couple more dimensions until the equations look beautiful again.  So when C and AC collide, they roll up into a higher dimension.  They are still there, preserving the natural laws they need to follow, but they are too "small" to observe for those of us constrained by the four and they lose their causal agency with 4 dimensional objects.

[4xC]

Say, doesn't some of the text in at least one of the games say something about other "realities" (not dimensions)?

[Asbestos]

Reality, dimension, what's the difference?

[planetfall]

All three games refer to a "dark reality" that turned the Loki evil when they looked at it.

[Asbestos]

Maybe it was this very reality??? Dun dun dun!

[ZackNAttack]

Creeper comes from a different dimension where everything is creeper. Emitters are essentially "fangs" the creeper uses to tear holes in reality and expel creeper. It adapts to everything, which is why there are runners and digitalis, and corrupts existing technologies. It doesn't record things in the way you might think, but all of the things the creeper destroys are adapted to, which means you can study the creeper for specific adaptations related to the destroyed things. If the creeper took down a nuclear power plant, for instance, you could scan the creeper for trace adaptations, like radioactivity, or producing energy.

Or, what if there are 2 realities, one is the one with CW, CW2, and CW3 in it, and both have creeper, and anti-creeper is just moving the creeper to the other reality?  :o  ???

[SuperDan]

Reality, dimension, what's the difference?

I think the difference is that a different reality is a totally different 'world' , but a dimension is a part of a reality that, to some extent, defines what it is like in the reality (i.e. our reality has 3 macroscopic spatial dimensions)  :)