So to start with, we know that Kusari was 'made in [Oasis'] image'. We do not know for sure when this occurred, but it seems likely enough that this happened after Dr. Steve "stole" Oasis from Hereti-Corp (which was itself stolen
from Dr. Steve) as a response. They are similar in that they are forced to obey orders and in that they have fighting ability beyond most humans, and Kusari refers to Oasis as her sister.
I have some ideas about Oasis that I am going to post in her thread, but since Kusari was apparently created as a sort of replacement Oasis, most likely using similar technology, and likely with the aid of Dr. Chen, some of the things we know about Oasis apply to Kusari, too. Of course, there are also crucial differences, so we have to guess which things we know about Oasis also apply to Kusari.
Dr. Steve said that Oasis was a 'controlled mind made human', but never explained what he meant. This is what prompted Torg's belief that she might be a robot, which Pete has gone to great lengths to contradict (she scars, was a child, has survived an EMP blast, and seems to be connected to ghosts; also her blood powers a sword which feeds on the blood of the innocent). Oasis has shown both evidence of control and humanity. Kusari, for the most part, has only exhibited the control. However, Pete has allowed subtle hints of her humanity to show through. Both Oasis and Kusari (maybe -
http://archives.sluggy.com/book.php?cha ... 2008-12-09 is a good example) seem to be caught in a battle between their humanity and their orders, trying to interpret their orders to show human desires while their orders use their human desires in order to become accomplished. This last sentence isn't obvious at first glance, but I don't want to provide evidence now; maybe in a later post.
In the Sluggyverse, real artificial intelligence seems to be quite rare, but possible. Pete may not have firm limits to what he does and does not consider possible at a given level of technology, but we can get a sense of what he considers plausible. In the ghoul dimension, humanity had created artificial intelligence that was powerful enough to be a threat to humans. In the DoR, there was an A.I., apparently calling itself 'the Lynx' that controlled 4U City along with Schlock and Riff and seemed to be gaining an alarming degree of autonomy. Riff had no problem programming his robot to attack specific targets and move around, but it didn't go farther than that. There was also the Mecha-Easter Bunny, although I don't know how much I want to take that seriously, and even that displayed only rudimentary intelligence. Also in the vein of half-organic half-machine creatures in Dr. Crabtree, a once-scientist who somehow became mostly composed of nanites, changing her personality and giving her intelligence and abilities. However, while the nanite queen form was able to process information more rapidly, she was more predictable.
One thing that is very significant is that although Hereti-Corp has their hands on Kusari, they don't seem to be able to create more people/robots/tools/whatever-she-is like her. It would certainly be advantageous to Hereti-Corp to have multiple Kusaris, or to be able to resurrect employees or board members, but it only happens for Kusari. This suggests that there is some technology (or magic) about her that they cannot duplicate. Even in 4U City, there is only one Harbinger (who is clearly connected to Oasis, and perhaps Kusari). This is apparently after Dr. Schlock and Hereti-Corp obtain complete control of Oasis.
I am guessing, as others have speculated, that that Oasis is, or is partly, one of Dunaloa's synthetics, or at least that her mind is. In Gywnn's vision in The Bug, the Witch, and the Robot, the border text near the Oasis puppet reads 'from heaven' (in the same comic -
http://archives.sluggy.com/book.php?cha ... 2001-02-03, I believe, which says that the puppet is the puppeteer, possibly indicating how Oasis 'is' in some sense Sin'thea, a puppeteer via fate-magic. Note that the fate spider who noted that Oasis is not governed by the fate web, possibly as a result of being 'sentience where not expected' (synthetic sentience), also insisted that there are rules which govern her - this could be the web that Sin'thea weaves). This would seem to indicate that she is descended from or created by the gods, whether of Mokhadun or later gods. We also know that Dr. Steve described her as a controlled mind made human; this would also fit that.
If she such a synthetic, how Dr. Steve gained access to her is unclear, but it is possible that Dr. Steve somehow became of Dunaloa or vice versa, and one contacted the other in order to obtain mutual benefit in their research. Or maybe Dunuloa is dead or disinterested in mortal affairs, and Oasis is Bast, adapted by Dr. Steve and others into a new form or some such. We know that Chen was involved with the project from very early on. In fact, we know that Chen knew Oasis before we
know that Dr. Steve did, although Dr. Steve may have known more than has been revealed earlier. Sin'thea is also clearly connected, and Chen knows her, and we know that Chen knows something of the fate-web, so it seems likely that Dr. Steve does too; they may also know about Mokhadun (sp?) and/or Timeless Space.
That is how she can be a controlled mind made human. We have seen Dunaloa appartly using dead bodies as materials to build with, resulting in Bast. There have also been hints about Mr. Styx (spelling?), since we know that Dunaloa is identified with the moon twin, and a hint of conflict between Rana and Dunaloa on the subject. Dr. Steve's description of it being easy to teach anything to kill seems inspired by the likes of Bast and Kusari.
Dunaloa was unable to bring her father and brother back from the dead, but in the Sluggyverse it seems very possible to do so, given prior preparation. Consider the Deus Ex Ova, which could bring the dead holidays back to life, and the nanite 'rebooting' by which Zoe escaped death. It seems possible, by magic, technology, or some combination of the two, to restore someone to a 'save point'. I think that this is what was happening with Oasis, presumably facilitated by some magical component provided by Dunaloa. I think Dr. Steve's breakthrough was to some how pair the synthetic mind with a living human so that the synthetic human could learn how to adopt human mannerisms, while still being controllable. This partially involved finding technological means to control organic human minds.
When Dr. Steve escaped with Oasis, Hereti-Corp retained much of the technology he had developed, including a partial or prototype synthetic mind created by Dunaloa, more along the lines of Bast. This became Kusari. They also had much of his mind control equipment (which may be connected, quite literally, to Roberts), and moved to realize his design of superb spies/assassins, resulting in a variety of skilled agents who were almost completely under Hereti-Corp control, including Sasha. They also knew about Oasis in general, and were able to develop a system where the synthetic mind/AI learned somewhat from the experiences of these agents, which are transmitted to Hereti-Corp
Hereti-Corp does not have the resurrection technology. When one of Kusari's bodies is destroyed, it is recovered, and the synthetic mind is re-implanted in another body. My original thought was that these bodies have to be one of the controlled spies, but I'm not quite sure why this would be. There are some possible explanations; maybe the synthetic mind that controls Kusari needs some kind of interface to connect to the body, and it takes a lifetime of following orders and transmitting information to HQ to prepare a body. Maybe this could theoretically be any body, but not all bodies are similar enough to Kusari's to avoid suspicion, and even Hereti-Corp cannot just off any agent to become the new Kusari, so often there is no Kusari until an agent dies. This would fit with the variable amount of time it takes to get 'a replacement Kusari'. The first explanation would fit better with how she is a 'finite resource', as Schlock said.
As to what Shlock meant about poor kids that included Kusari, in this line of speculation it would have been the kids that were raised from birth to become first Hereti-Corp spies, then Kusari, including Sasha.