Generic TDEC Alien

"Maybe it's true that no culture is 'better' than any other in any ultimate sense. Whatever that means. But some cultures rule the stars and some don't. That ones that do have certain things in common. The ones that don't often lack those things." -- Mutz e'Maz, Third-Rank Chronospatial Technician, Grimmon

 

Basic description, appearance. Although the citizens of the TDEC member societies come in every form imaginable and many which are not, some types are more common than others. The discussion that follows concerns mainly those forms that arise from evolution. Once intelligent beings start redesigning themselves, anything goes.

 

Organic, carbon-based life is the most common. The elements which make up organic life are abundant throughout the cosmos and conditions which allow organic life to evolve occur with reasonable frequency. For organic beings with human-sized intelligence, a human-sized brain in a human-sized body is pretty close to optimal. Humans are around average size for organic intelligence.

 

A large brain uses a lot of energy, and is most useful to an organism with an active lifestyle, rather than one that is sessile, or one that just drifts in the currents or the winds. So, intelligent organisms need a lot of energy. Nonsapient photovores are common, but sunlight usually doesn't provide enough energy for creatures that move around and think. The most common way of getting energy is by eating other organisms. This usually results in a tube-like body arranged around the digestive system, with a mouth at the front and an anus at the back. Many kinds of technology work best on dry land, so most technological beings spend at least some time there. Large land dwellers need a rigid skeleton. Exoskeletons tend to be too heavy on large organisms, so endoskeletons are more common.

 

Most lifeforms with spherical or radial symmetry are sessile or drifters. More active lifeforms, including most intelligent ones, tend to have bilateral symmetry. Organs of locomotion and manipulation are usually arranged in pairs down the sides. Jointed limbs are common, so are tentacles. Even numbers of limbs are more common than odd -- the odd limb usually evolves from the merging of a pair. In large organisms, limbs take up a larger proportion of body mass than in small organisms like arthropods, so large, intelligent organisms tend to have as few as possible. Three legs form a stable tripod, but four make it even and give the organism a spare if one is injured. Quadrupeds are the most common, hexapods are rarer, and intelligent organisms with more than six limbs are quite rare. Multiple tentacles are more common than multiple jointed limbs.

 

The most useful location for the main sensory organs is at the top and front of the organism, usually near the mouth. This gives them the widest range and alerts the organism of conditions in the area it is moving into. The brain is usually near the main sensory organs to reduce reaction times. Mouth, sensory organs, and brain are often grouped together in a head, usually just one.

 

Since most organisms live within a fluid medium (air, water, or another gas or liquid), ears are common for hearing sounds carried by the medium. Echolocation or sonar are also fairly common. Air and water are transparent to humans call visible light, and the ability to detect light is very useful, so eyes are very common. Camera eyes like humans have evolved independently in large mollusks like squid on Earth, and often evolve in alien species as well. Manipulators tend to be located near if not on the head to allow good coordination between sensory organs and manipulators (hand-eye coordination in humans).

 

Some common body plans are: humanoid, bipedal with two or more arms; centauroid, four or more legs, two or more arms; elephantoid, four or more legs with manipulators on the lower face; cthulhuoid, a bipedal variant of elephantoid, may have arms as well as face-manipulators; medusoid, jellyfish-like, aquatic or gasbag floater, the only common type with radial rather than bilateral symmetry; gorgonoid, manipulators on the head above or behind the eyes, usually four or more legs, though bipeds are known, and may have arms as well as head-manipulators; octopoid, often aquatic or amphibian; the so called double-octopoid, with two sets of tentacles, the lower functioning as legs, the upper as manipulators; dirigible, a gasbag floater with bilateral symmetry; and vermiform, no legs, slithers on its tail, two or more arms. Of course, there are plenty of intelligent species which don't fit into any of these categories.

 

 

Basic homeworld description.

 

Advantages and Disadvantages¹

 

ST	10	0 points
DX	11	20 points
IQ	11	20 points
HT	11	10 points

Total Attributes: 50 points

 

Racial Advantages: Attractive (4 points), Extended Lifespan 1 (2 points), Extra Life (Copy, Requires Body, -40%, 15 points)², Immunity to Disease (10 points), Language (Society Standard, Native, 6 points)³, Longevity (2 points), Sanitized Metabolism (1 point), Telecommunication (Radio, Video, +40%, 14 points)⁴

Total Racial Advantages: 54 points

 

Racial Disadvantages: Code of Honor ("Always behave rationally, always think before acting except in immediate life-or-death emergencies," -5 points)

Total Racial Disadvantages: -5 points

 

Racial Quirks: Quirky (-1 point)⁵

Total Racial Quirks: -1 point

 

Features: Taboo Traits (Genetic Defects, Irrationality)

 

Total Racial Package: 98 points

 

Notes:

¹ Based on the Gilgamesh-Series Parahuman, GURPS Bio-Tech, 3rd ed., p. 50. Point costs are GURPS 4th ed.

² This is considered to be a "mind child," not the original person.

³ Learned as a second language in addition to native dialect. "Mind children" may or may not take clone bodies. Some live and work on the data net as Ghosts, instead. Varies by culture. Mind child may or may not inherit original's Wealth, Rank, or Status; again, varies by culture.

⁴ Represents implant communicator or the equivalent. Still working on how, and whether, to represent Datalink in 4th ed. According to the GURPS Update, Interface Jack is no longer an Advantage, so maybe Datalink isn't, either.

⁵ Should take at least one Racial Quirk to help define the species/culture since they can't take most Mental Disadvantages.

 

Psychology

Basic interaction.

 

Mental traits explained.

 

Living arrangements.

 

Family/reproduction.

 

Rank and status. Almost all TDEC societies are classless meritocracies as described on B28. Getting the higher levels of Status requires high levels in the skills used in one's profession, a good Reputation, Rank, and Contacts. Wealth can help, but is usually an effect rather than cause of high Status. Talent helps a lot more. Status 6 represents being the a focus of a large, influential "area of activity." Higher levels are not generally possible, though exceptions exist -- the Empress of Khenkra is Status 8. That only applies within Khenkra society -- outside it, she's likely to be treated as Status 6.

 

Crime?

 

Arts and literature.

 

Philosophy and Religion. The Infofield has feedback loops that keep it internally consistent across different frames of reference. In structure these loops resemble those that give sapient beings their self-awareness. Some TDEC aliens believe the Infofield itself has a kind of awareness, a Universal Overmind which is at least somewhat like a god. Others believe it's just a mechanical process with no awareness of its own. If the process does represent some kind of god, it is not a benevolent one by any mortal definition of the term. It enforces universal law absolutely, regardless of whether this results in good or evil (in D&D terms it's pure Lawful Neutral). Praying for miracles is blasphemy -- a miracle would be a violation of universal law. Some argue that It (with a capital I refers to the Deity -- no gender) is metabenevolent, since it enforces the laws that make good possible, and It can't make good possible without making evil possible as well. A tiny minority see this entity as positively malevolent. Maltheists are a small but vocal faction among the Grimmans, for instance.

 

So far, none of the aliens has taken more than an academic interest in Earth religions. Compared to their own, they find Earth religions crude and primitive, full of ignorance and superstition.

 

"Asking the meaning of life, the universe, and everything is like asking the meaning of a blank sheet of paper. It doesn't mean anything until you write something on it." -- Gimmel Strel, SAI Search Agent, ThreaNet, in response to a human's query

 

Enthalpism. The existence or nonexistence of God is actually a minor concern among TDEC aliens, a question of how to interpret a certain branch of physics. The dominant philosophy is Enthalpism. The aliens believe that the universe has no meaning or purpose of its own. It only derives meaning and purpose through the activities of sapient beings. The citizens of TDEC's member societies see this as the primary purpose of their existence. By "adding value" to the data nets, colonizing planets and building space habitats, they bring order and meaning to a chaotic, empty universe. TDEC was formed to allow its member societies to "add value" to the universe on a higher level than they could achieve by themselves.

 

Enthalpism comes from the physics term enthalpy, a measure of the amount of energy available to do useful work in a closed thermodynamic system. The aliens use the term Enthalpy in an extended sense to refer to the amount of order and information in a system. In this sense, Enthalpists work to increase the Enthalpy of the universe in defiance of entropy.

 

Entropism. Even among Fourth-Level mentalities, there's always some who swim against the current. Entropists believe the existence of order in the universe is an accident, a fluke, a mistake. They recognize entropy as the dominant force in the universe and see the purpose of sapience is to help hurry the universe on to its final heat death. Life is suffering; the only way to end suffering is to end all life, and the end of life will come with the end of usable energy. The Enthalpists are only fooling themselves -- any attempt to increase order in a system increases the entropy more.

 

Enthalpists respond that the universe is infinite, therefore the usable energy in the universe will always be nonzero. Entropy is just a measure of the decrease in density of usable energy. Sure, in the far future energy levels will be too low to support organic life, but that problem has already been solved with mind scanning and uploading. Cybernetic systems can be refined to run as long as there is any available energy at all. They may run slower, resulting in a slowing down of subjective time as measured by certain subatomic processes. But since only intelligent activity has any meaning, subjective time is the only meaningful measure of time.

 

Most Entropists exist as very small minorities within largely-Enthalpist TDEC societies. There are a few mostly-Entropist societies within TDEC. The Drogue are one such society. But Enthalpism is by far the majority philosophy.

 

"Our ultimate goal is for every particle and wave in the universe to be carrying intelligently-generated information." -- Ambassador Sejinsk Peace-Harmony-Prosperity, Earth Resource Management, Threan State, when asked what the purpose of TDEC was

 

Ecology

Evolution, environment.

 

Sci/tech development.

 

Diet, physical needs.

 

Settlement/living patterns. Almost all TDEC member societies are high-density, living in arcologies or space habitats housing tens of thousands to tens of millions of incarnate beings, and an average of ten times as many AIs, Ghosts, and Shadows.

 

Life cycle. "Natural" life spans average twice the human lifespan. Almost all use anti-agathics. Most biosapients eventually "retire" as Ghosts on the data nets.

 

Culture

Social structure. Very complex, hard to explain to humans. Networked societies, neither hierarchical nor anarchic. Network of mutual obligation, different for every person. Specific areas of activity organized around "foci," high Rank, right to create obligations for participants. Thousands of "areas of activity" overlap in complex patterns. Highest level of organization is usually a discussion group used by foci to coordinate activities. Any interested and qualified citizen may contribute to the discussion.

 

Economic structure. Universal health care, organized as utility -- biological unit maintenance.

 

Education/Socialization.

 

History

TDEC as a whole. "Main sequence" development of TDEC members. "Ascension" to Fifth Level, most joining the Gateworld Complex, a minority joining the Worldmakers' Empire.

 

Politics

Expansion, colonization.

 

Military. Usually run as a service. Civilian oversight is by contract. Militaries that break contracts are usually recommended for liquidation by TDEC economic analysts. TDEC has no Community-wide military, though protocols exist for coordinating members' military activities against common threats.

 

Government. Often no formal "government" as such. Various institutions and organizations enforce standards and practices. Many services provided by governments on Earth are handled by non-profit or for-profit organizations in alien societies. Service fees for services used. Services that benefit all (like military and police protection) charge fees to all. Utilities monitored by sci/tech or professional organizations. Social insurance is built into the financial system. Mandatory saving against risk of injury, property loss, loss of income. Emergency loans from pooled savings available to those who don't have enough savings of their own. Personal disputes often taken to professional arbitrators. Crime dealt with by restitution. Habitual criminals have their "mental defects" corrected by nanoneurosurgery. Transparent society -- any citizen can monitor any other. Those being watched know who's watching them, and usually watch back.

 

There is no TDEC government -- the Community is an alliance of equals. Members with larger economies tend to dominate the smaller, but the smaller are more numerous and can gang up on a larger member they feel is abusing its power. Credibility Ratings for member societies are an important regulatory mechanism.

 

There is an accreditation process for TDEC economic analysts. The analysts can recommend individual societies for inclusion or exclusion from TDEC, hostile takeover or liquidation (i.e., destruction). The latter is rare -- a society has to be really, really Entropic to get recommended for liquidation rather than a hostile takeover. The Housekeepers are one society that has managed to earn this "honor." Although the analysts' recommendations are not binding, going against the consensus usually hurts a member's Credibility Rating.

 

Disclaimer -- Steve Jackson Games

 

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Copyright © 2007 by Richard C. McCluney, III