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Astraea Asteroid and Clade Parthene |
After a short period of mining by autonomous Neumann replicator machines this asteroid was abandoned until colonisation in 220 AT by the all-female Parthene clade of superbright genetic tweaks; the Parthenes became active in mining many smaller asteroids in this band, and many were engaged in deep space astronometry using the long baselines available.
The research into inheritable genetic modification to improve human intelligence had a very high failure rate, and was long outlawed on the Earth's surface during the early interplanetary age; for this reason many new tweaked genomes were developed in the orbital habitats surrounding the Earth and Moon. One promising approach involved selecting the intelligence traits associated with female development and hormone balance; many profound behavioural differences were determined to result from the complicated interactions between the male and female chromosomes and the rest of the genome. After finding a way to induce parthenogenesis (the development of new individuals from unfertilised ova) at will in human females, the all female team at Biotopia (Asherah) produced a superbright all female genotype, the so-called Parthenes.
The first Adult Individual, Jenni Denley, led the colonisation of Astraea Asteroid in 220 AT, and her clone/daughter Julie became a famous astrometrist, working with the hyperturing AI known as 110001 to map the entire visible galaxy by 261.
The superbright Parthene culture was very rich and diverse, relying on advanced hormone control to regulate many social and physiological aspects of the women's lives; soon it was appreciated that simple cloning by means of parthenogenesis would lead to stagnation, so the Parthenes developed a way of introducing donor or designer genes at conception, allowing each new individual to be unique.
As time passed the Parthene clade diversified their artificial genome mix, some becoming adapted to life on planets and habitats with artificial gravity, others remaining primarily a microgravity clade; they have remained relatively close in appearance to baseline humans, although generally only develop secondary sexual characteristics when in reproductive mode.
