hey new to the forum but not to blame.
this is a really interesting discussion and i thought i would add my (although sometimes misguided and totally wrong) opinions.

first off a couple questions...

-what exactly is the function of the GA, SG, and SC? i know that in the beginning the SG were killing all humans without the NTG. this is simple. am i right in guessing that the GA controls the SG and builders? if so then why would the GA want to kill humans without the gene? i thought they were fighting the SC. the SC want to perpetuate the chaos and i can understand why they wouldnt want killy to get ahold of the NTG. why then does killy fight sanakan and all of the SG in the beginning and later on shes trying to protect cibo? from what i gather sanakan was dowloaded to the base reality by the GA to help get cibo back/away from the SC. how come her mission is all of a sudden changed? this is all so confusing!
-i dont care about the fish at this point
-i dont care about dohmo either hes a minor player as far as im concerned.
-when that beam of light hits the L9 i was actually thinking she was teleporting or escaping the destruction. the L9 might have just knew it was low on power and to preserve itself it ran. thus the big beam of light that blew a hole through numerous levels. also sanakan is phoning in to the GA telling them she has found traces of the L9s trail (or something i dont have the scans here with me right now). i would assume that the holes she escaped through would be very big traces of her passing through -why does sanakan look sad when she says that killys reconstruction was incomplete? I know she was trying to transform him into a SG but hes too cool for that.

Ok I kow I have more but I cant think of them now.

About cibo L9 and the orb. Im assuming that cibo/seu, and sanakans genetic material were fused when sanakan was plugged into cibo. Why is it then that Nisei san didn’t make it clear as to whether all three of their genes would make up the NTG? I kow hes famously vague but my god! If it was in fact the NTG then I would guess either sanakan knew her gene would complete the NTG and purposefully placed it in cibo, or that cibo stole/took it from her.
Either way sanakan knew the transfer took place because she remarked about “our child”. Ok fine. Then if cibo took the gene from sanakan why would sanakan tell her she wouldn’t know what to do with the orb until later, leading me to think that she was the one who gave the gene to cibo.
If she gave cibo the gene then why didn’t se help out killy in the first place and avoid lots of graphically intense scenes of death carnage and explosions…? Oh I get it…we need the explosions… :^_^:
Or is the new sanakan just another version of “sanakan”?
I think that’s about it. Im sure ill think of more later but hot damn this forum seems to be a great place to exchange ideas 
agh its so complex and so exciting!

-hiro

Yay another Stephenson fan in the form! Welcome.

A lot of your questions are stuff we've already debated, and I feel a little bored putting out my own opinions again, but I'll point out a few things.

First, the GA do not control the Safeguard or the Builders. The SG and the GA are two entirely different groups. The Safeguard is like a program gone haywire within the megastructure. No one can control it. Builders are their own entities, performing pre set duties to maintain the immense world of BLAME! No one controls them, they just follow their programs.

There is still much speculation on what Sanakan was doing or is doing or did do or will do and what she has to do with the Safeguard, the GA, or Cibo. I don't think anyone knows any concrete facts about this, but we all have our own ideas.

Killy's fighting the Safeguard because they keep trying to kill him.

The fish rocks. The fish is my favorite character. You ought to care more about the fish.

I think it was really obvious that Seu's genes had the NTG, and it wasn't necessary for him to make it clear. Sanakan fusing with Cibo just gave the genes a body. I wish Nihei would have drawn the result! She must look so badass...

Cibo transferred the gene information into herself. That's how she got it.

All the other stuff is still up for debate.

-Jenshin

ah. thanks. i realise some topics (if not all of them) have already been discussed. its kind of hard to find them though when they could be replies that are off topic to a thread. anywho...
yes stephenson is awesome. i read snow crash twice a year religously, and am currently trying to tackle his new book. i cant get into it though.