|
|
|
|
Botworld |
Depending on the machines from which it is descended, a botworld's basic level of technology may be anything from early Information Age components such as solar panels, metals, and microchips and digital magnetic records up to the most advanced dry nanotech known. The key ability of the bots concerned is that they are capable of reproduction and mutation. If left undisturbed in the natural world for a sufficient period of time, a botworld will develop an increasingly complex network of relationships and begin to evolve and produce new forms by natural selection; in some cases they breach new technological barriers in this way. Sentience comparable to that of biont "animals" evolves early in such systems, and true sapience is a possible outcome just as on any natural biological world.
With the possible exceptions of Stanislaw and the remnant Doreen mechosystem, all known botworlds to date are less than 10,000 years old, and are of Terragen origin. Some are accidents, produced by the unsupervised activity of Neumann machines or the abandonment of an established mechosphere by sapient life forms, while others are the intentional: the result of hobbies or research projects. Most botworlds are relatively simple, with one or at most a dozen "life forms", but sometimes as in the case of Perihelion the results are spectacular. Some other advanced botworlds of are the embodied results of virch simulations by some of the higher-toposophic entities. Several fine examples of these are known in the Sephirotic core areas, especially in vec-dominated empires such as Metasoft. Others have been discovered, some of them apparently abandoned, in systems controlled by Diamond Belters or by other transapients of unknown affiliation. Interference by nearbaseline or lower S level sentients in botworlds created by ahuman AIs, while always interesting and occasionally very profitable, has in some cases been fatal to the investigators.
Given that a large number of xenosophont civilizations are known to have existed in the past within the Terragen sphere, and given that many of these were clearly capable of producing self-reproducing machines, some researchers consider it surprising that non-terragen botworlds have not been found in large numbers. It is thought they should equal at least to the number of biont gardenworlds, and perhaps should exceed them. The recent discovery of the Cybyota in the Vela/Puppis region has only sharpened interest in the question. Some believe that whatever factor is responsible for the extinction of past xenosophonts also terminates nascent botworlds. Investigation of this question is considered to be a high priority by some research groups, especially those in vec-dominated polities.
In addition to their great aesthetic and artistic value, some of the more highly evolved botworlds are a source of software and hardware innovations. Many unique forms arise by natural selection that might not otherwise have been invented by sapient life forms. Some significant Terragen trends and breakthroughs in art and technology owe their inspiration to designs copied from or inspired by botworlds. There is some danger in the investigation and utilizing these, however, as some of the more mature mechosystems are highly competitive, and have developed to some very sophisticated replication strategies. After several unfortunate incidents, the adoption of botworld technology has been placed under a set of testing and quarantine restrictions, similar to that employed in the exploitation and study of biont gardenworlds.
The enigmatic world of Stanislaw
may prove to be the oldest and most highly developed non-Terragen
botworld that consists entirely of inorganic life forms.
