BY LETTER
Kammerer
Warning: Restricted World | |
 Image from Steve Bowers | |
| The Restriction Swarm around Kammerer prevents unauthorised contact with the xenosophont ecology of this world. Each swarm element displays the glyph of the Caretaker Gods to inform intruders that this planet is a protectorate. | |
Kammerer - Data Panel | |
| Star | Anaximander, YTS 955673 7889 00 |
|---|---|
| Stellar Type: | G3v |
| Companion: | YTS 955673 7889 00B K2 orange dwarf 2000 AU distant |
| Region: | Carina Rush, 3667 ly from Sol, constellation Carina, (1050 ly from nearest alien species, the Cthonids) |
| Planets | Lysenko, Kammerer, Saint Hilare, Koestler (See entry for the Anaximander System) |
| Controlling Entity: | Transapient overseer: Lady Mondegrin Oncehuman (ascended form of Gimelbenedita Bluesky Dacosta) AI's ethos: Caretaker God |
| Polity: | Name: Kammerer Symbol: Standard Caretaker God Warning Symbol Affiliation: Caretaker God Protectorate- ex NoCoZo Discovered: 7981 AT; became a Caretaker Protectorate 10000 AT |
| Psyche, Art, Culture: | Metapsychology: Thanks to exchangeable chemically tagged chromosome microplasmids, desirable traits are selected by the organisms of Kammerer during its lifetime. This eventually resulted in the development of intelligence, and intelligent self design, in a naturally evolved, all encompassing, intelligent ecology. Naturally evolved environmental minds (envomes) of this kind, are very rare, and the dominant mind on Kammerer, the The Festuca sophonce, is the most advanced xenoenvome yet discovered. The Festuca sophonce: (the so-called 'Decider' entity which makes conscious decisions for the envome) is noncommunicative, and the Joker mobiles are the only elements of the ecology that use sound communication. The language of the Jokers was eventually deciphered, and their conversation was discovered to be almost completely dedicated to verbal display (known as 'wit') and dominance assertion (known as 'sarcasm'). When a Joker mobile dies it is apparently remembered by the sum total of its spoken wit over the period of mobility or 'lifetime'. Metaethics: These have to be inferred, from the fact that the other two continents on Kammerer seem to hold remnants of defeated hyperecologies of different genetic makeup. The Festuca ecology also seemed ready to engage in bloody warfare with the NoCoZo expedition, having first displayed hospitable behaviour. It is postulated that violence is used internally by the ecology as a kind of entertainment, but this may be Terragen bias. Religion/Ideology: Each Mobile is instinctively devoted to the hyperecology, yet in competition with other mobiles of a similar design- this may be a modified form of Darwinian evolution running in parallel with the designed evolution. Culture and Art: Baroque boasting, Wit and Sarcasm, and Advanced genetic Horticulture Language: Leafant Lingua Franca, decoded by the Bluesky ship AI (Complicated Shadows III) |
| Territory and Population: | Population: The entire remaining Ecology on Festuca Continent can be regarded as a single SI:>1 Individual. However the designed mobile forms are independently intelligent, and due to their sarcastic method of dominance assertion seem also to be conscious and self aware, on a similar level to a baseline human. However the self preservation instinct seems to be absent, and individuals have no sense of physical danger as opposed to that of personal insult (which seems to have been artificially enhanced by the Ecology decider). Population breakdown: 700 million biological morphotypes of various types with approximately modosophont-level mentality; (many trillions of less sophisticated mobile forms also present) Territories: Continents: Festuca now the only sophont ecology Spartina remains of a defeated moss-like sophont ecology, now managed by browsing Festuca mobiles Agrostis remains of a defeated algae-like sophont ecology, blue green in colour, managed by browsing Festuca mobiles |
| Government and Administration: | Government Type Caretaker God |
| Travel: | Stargates: nil (Dismantled 10004) Major Spaceports: Nil Hazard Rating : 9.0 Relativistic explorers advised to comply with all Caretaker God instructions |
The Festuca intelligent ecology (envome) on Kammerer is the most complex form of naturally evolved macrospecies known in the Terragen Sphere. A macrospecies in this context is a single genetic species of organism, which produces a large number of different phenotypes from a single gene pool held in common.
When such a macrospecies colonises new territory, it transfers all the available genetic material it has collected to its offspring ecology. However when it produces specialised phenotypes within its own ecology, these phenotypes only express part of the available genome. These suborganisms are in some ways similar to gametes produced during sexual reproduction on other worlds; however the suborganisms concerned are fully functional and independent, fulfilling a function within the ecology concerned. Some suborganisms are autotrophs, collecting sunlight or chemical energy. These autotrophs feed heterotrophic organisms, also produced from the macrospecies genome. Further subspecies prey on the heterotrophs, or act as decomposition agents when other suborganisms die or discard waste matter.
Non-Darwinian Evolution
Macrospecies are known on several worlds, and they will often fill an available environment to exclusion of other species. Sometimes competing macroorganisms interpenetrate each other's territories and come into conflict, while in other cases the macroorganisms enter various forms of symbiosis or commensalist relationships. Sometimes more conventional speciation occurs on these worlds, and the lesser species enter into symbiotic relationships with the macrospecies. On occasion the macrospecies will co-opt the genetic material of their symbiotes, until the independent species are themselves absorbed into the macrospecies genepool.
On Kammerer the selection process, which decides which gene collections are to be expressed and which are not, appears to have started to select for increased intelligence approximately a hundred million years ago. The ecologies on this world swap genes around like viruses, and several million years ago several ecologies became intelligent enough to self-modify the elements of the ecology at will.
Less than two million years ago there were at least three advanced intelligent ecosystems on this world; two ground-cover steppe macrospecies and one forest-like species. However during a conflict which occurred on a worldwide basis the two ground-cover macrospecies were eradicated or suppressed, and are now managed by the victor, the so-called Festuca sophonce. This entity, an ecology covering an entire continent, appears to have attained a self-awareness and intelligence approximately equal to a first-level transapient (albeit a rather solipsistic one), but some of the self-designed species are also comparable to humans in intelligence.
It is believed that the defeated macrospecies could be reconstituted on other worlds, if the Caretaker Gods permitted it; it is also known that the Joker Leaf-ants are capable of independent existence away from the macroorganism, as several were smuggled away from the world before it was closed; but they are known to be dangerous and aggressive, and possession of such creatures is illegal in most polities.
 Image from Steve Bowers | |
| Kammerer from Orbit (taken before the Restriction swarm was introduced) | |
Articles
- Anaximander (system) - Text by Quantum Jack
System containing the Kammerer xenosophont biome - Benedita Blue Sky (Benedita Dacosta) - Text by Steve Bowers
Long-lived bioxox paraterraformer (949 to recent, various copies). - Envome - Text by Tony Jones
Environmental Minds; entire ecosystems which have become intelligent. - Garden Worlds - Text by The Astronomer, Steve Bowers 2020
Worlds that support a complex biosphere and macroscopic life forms. - Joker Leaf-ants - Text by Steve Bowers
Sarcastic and dangerous alien lifeforms - Xenobiont - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Generic term for alien (non-terragen) lifeform. May be animal-like, plant-like, protistan, exotic chemistry, or any other possibility. Does not have to be sophont. In fact just as on Earth, very few alien species ever evolve any measure of cognitive intelligence.
Related Topics
Development Notes
Text by Steve Bowers
Initially published on 22 July 2002.
Initially published on 22 July 2002.
Additional Information
