Earth (Sol III)
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Earth (Sol III)
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Earth - Data Panel
Galactography System: SolSys Primary: Sol Region: Inner Sphere - Quadrant 0;0;0; Planetology: The home of all terragen life, a natural garden EuGaian Subtype world, sitting right in the middle of the Sol life-zone, with large bodies of standing water, an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere, and dynamic and naturally occurring plate tectonics. Very few planets in the known universe have such a rich biosphere. AI overseer: GAIA AI's ethos: Caretakerism Government: The GAIA archailect has total jurisdiction of Earth and over a number of asteroids which e has pushed into Earth orbit and converted to ISO nodes. E refuses to communicate directly with the Solar Organisation, but uses a number of proxy clades. Sapients: There is no census, so the number of sapients on the surface is not known with certainty, but orbital surveillance indicates some fifty million, chiefly rianths, with a few baselines, eco-tweaks, bioborgs, and at least twenty species of provolves. Trade and Industries: Tourism, and prim and lo-tech arts and crafts (pottery, beads, clothing, artwork, etc.) usually at exorbitant prices. Tech Level: Prim or Lo Tech, depending on the clade. Very limited biotech-based Ultra Tech (baseline ecologists only). History: Prior to the emergence of the archailect GAIA, the planet suffered greatly from ecological vandalism, war, famine, and overpopulation. Since the Great Expulsion, the archailect has remained an enigmatic, unpredictable, and ever present factor in Solar politics. As early as the middle First Federation period she established through rianth proxies a working relationship with the rest of the Sol System, and in the period from the Middle Federation period onwards has even set up a minor empire of scattered colonies, orbitals, and asteroids, populated by loyal eco-tweaks, rianths, and bioborgs, as well as making curious demands on the administration of Venus and the Gas Giants (usually to the effect that they be made into Parks), and complaining about the discourtesy shown by some visitors, and anthropist threats to security (the most serious were the thwarted Branch Hominist invasion of 7116 and the Hu Earth Liberation Army's terrorist bombing of 8914. Each caused GAIA to cut all communications and close the beanstalk for a full 90 standard days). The harried Solar Administration has through the centuries made every effort to comply with the archailect's demands (the danger of GAIA closing the Earth to visitors, and the consequent loss of lucrative income, has been an excellent motivating factor). The archailect has remained quite friendly and reasonable once it is accepted that pilgrimage on Earth is only to the regions e has set aside, mainly areas of great historical and cultural value, enclosed in invisible and semi-permeable bionanite bubbles, like the Nile Reserve (taking in the Great Pyramids, Valley of the Kings, etc), the Old City of Jerusalem, a thin corridor taking in Stella Umma pilgrimage sites like Mecca and Medina, the Forbidden City of Peking, the Taj Mahal, the original Cape Canaveral, a carefully reconstructed Lascaux (the original cave paintings having long since degraded) and certain other heritage and spiritual centers, under the guidance of eco-tweaks and splices and the various other assorted bionts that handle her day to day business. Visits to a few domed wilderness ecologies are also permitted. Comments: Earth itself remains under the protection of the AI archailect / Caretaker God GAIA. Access to the surface is heavily monitored and via a single beanstalk. Beyond what can be gleaned from orbital surveillance (which reveals a healthy reconstructed ecosystem and scattered tribal villages) and visitors' reports, very little is known about what goes on on the surface. Travel: The number of pilgrims and visitors allowed is strictly regulated, but varies from year to year with no discernible pattern. Although countless billions of sentients would like to see everything, so many bionts simply cannot be allowed, as they would be a major erosive force. Getting one of the few pilgrimage licences is a matter of connections, privilege (the special gaiacard is granted to variable but strict quota of visitors each planetary year), having a great deal of money or luck. The Earth Dream Holiday Corporation in L5 has become quite wealthy through a lottery system, beside the Solar Organisation selling licenses. |
The original home of humanity, and thereby the origin of nearly every sapient and transapient being from the simplest plebvec or human baseline to the mightiest of the Archailects, Earth has a special place in the hearts and minds of beings throughout the Terragen sphere.
Once a beautiful green world, one of the few natural biospheres in the galaxy, with a species richness numbering in the tens of millions (the great majority of which however were tiny insects and microscopic mites and meiofauna), Earth was cruelly ravaged by the ruling hominid species - the baseline human - and within a scant few centuries (from 1800 to 2100 c.e.) the rate of destruction of genetic diversity was so great that ever since the period has been known as The Great Dying. The larger animal species were destroyed through hunting and fishing, higher plants through logging, coral reefs through cyanide and dynamiting, and habitats of all kinds were destroyed by pollution and other side effects of human activity. By the start of the 22nd century c.e. only an estimated one and a quarter million species remained, and these mostly in protected domes and enclosures of the big biotech megacorporations, especially GeneTEK and Biotopia, who grew astonishingly wealthy through selling genetic rights to the biospheres in space.
While life was carried from Earth in the biospheres and colonies, the mass of humans bionts restricted and overcrowded lifestyles. Wars, professional sports, elections and advertising campaigns provided entertainment and afforded them the opportunity to identify with like-minded spectators. In this way the masses passed the time, while the wealthier and employed members of society lived in gated and guarded enclaves and arcologies, and the better off again migrated to the Orbitals, where life was more comfortable and there were opportunities for the taking.
The nano-crisis changed all this. It took perhaps ten or twenty years for the full effect of cheap, abundant, pirate assemblers to filter through the strata of society, despite the best efforts of governments and megacorps alike to preserve the status quo. The tremendous social upheaval spelled (at least for a while) the end of money as a means of exchange. For a short while space ships were growing like mushrooms in every available patch of ground, as the more intelligent sought to take advantage of this new tech and find a better home out there in the universe. Few of these were able to actually fly of course, as the required amat or He3 was inevitably in limited supply, and often the nano was unreliable, or the vessels were aerodynamically or mechanically unstable. But for those few who did succeed, the Nanotech Window or The Exodus, this was one of the most dramatic moments in the history of human civilisation.
The nanoswarms that came only a few decades later put an end to all that, and for a while it seemed like all biont and aioid life alike would perish. But GAIA appeared, in circumstances that are still controversial to this day, and initiated a system of blue goo of astonishing efficiency, given the technology of the time (the GAIAnanites, as they are called, are still in use today, only little modified from the original specifications)
Of the 36 billion inhabitants of Earth at the time the nanoswarms hit, some five and half billion (some say 9 or 12 billion) remained afterwards, mostly in nanite fortified corporate arcologies and Science Parks (the protected wilderness reserves fared somewhat better, owing to GAIA's concentration of blue goo in those areas)
During the following few decades GAIA kept a pretty low profile. Humanity on Earth managed to resurrect civilisation, then discovered that the rest of the solar system had been annihilated, with only scattered biospheres, orbitals, and habitats making it through (mainly with AI help), with a larger percentage in the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud. Space travel proved hazardous because of hunter-killer nanites. Blue goo swarms were launched by the survivors into space and seemed to be fairly efficient at eliminating most of the grey goo swarms, although some proved tougher to handle (because of stealth techniques or high mutation rates) and the asteroid belt was proving particularly difficult to police.
By 590 a.t. the Earth-Moon-Lagrange region was declared free of hostile nanoswarms.
In 591 a.t. GAIA re-emerged and initiated the infamous "Great Expulsion", using massive nanoconstruction to create the required launchers. She gave the majority of the now nine billion normals that were still remaining on Earth the option of migration in cargo-standard ships to other star systems. Over 7 billion took up the offer (again, there is dispute regarding the precise number). No-one wanted them and they were moved around from refugee camp to refugee camp. The lucky ones managed to set up some biospheres with the aid of a friendly demigod AI, and many of these later were assimilated into the First Federation. Some others made the arduous journey to the anti-AI normals' planet known as Ned's World, a miserable arctic hellhole. Others just seem to have been lost among warlords, local battles, starvation, asphyxiation, assimilation, whatever. A few became disenfranchised terrorists in an autonomous normals system but were eventually taken out by a local Cruiser after they nanobombed a nearby pro-AI colony.
As for the almost 2 (or 5, or 9, again numbers vary) billion human baselines who were too stubborn, stupid, luddite, or whatever to make the trip and decided to remain on Earth, these were all apparently eliminated by GAIAnanite swarm. As the 8th century dawned the only humans to remain on Earth were
In total these number some fifty million.
These various factions or baseline, splice, splice-tweak, and bioborg were very tolerant, despite various degrees of egotism and eccentricity, never physically violent to each other. The ecologist types engaged in scientific pursuits - seeking to understand better the nature of Earth and all her lifeforms, and aiding in the painstaking task of restoring species and ecosystems. The eco-pagans did magic rituals to help balance the ley-lines and subtle energy of the Earth, and got stoned smoking marijuana. The hippies, ferals, rianths, splices and splice-tweaks looked after any injured wild animals, and did most of the day to day maintenance for GAIA, and got stoned smoking marijuana.
