Sybont

BY LETTER

Sybont

Sophonts extensively augmented by Synanotech
Images from Steve Bowers and Artbreeder AI, Keith Wigdor and Bing Image Creator
Sybonts can appear essentially humanoid (left), or may utilise extremely non-humanoid bodymorphs (right)

A sybont is a sophont syborg, or sybornetic neogen. Based on sylife and synano principles, these completely artificial organisms are neither pure organic or pure artificial, nor a cyborg-like patchwork, but rather a uniform hybrid inter-mixture of artificial and biological. In the Current Era, hylotechnology and biotechnology are converging in function, design and appearance, and as a consequence most technology (including augmentation) can be considered to be predominantly synanotechnology.

Many sybonts have cells which contain a high proportion of artificial organelles, or have artificial cell walls and/or plasm; in almost all cases both the artificial and natural components of a sybont are self-replicating.

Some xenosophonts, like the Cybiota, are functionally sybonts, although the exact circumstances of their development are unclear.

Image from Bernd Helfert

Articles

Artificials - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
generic term for any sophont of a non-biological nature [noun]
Cybyota - Text by Steve Bowers
Mechanical/biological world-seeding and terraforming agents of non-Terragen origin that have apparently evolved into independent life forms since their origin.
Darwin, Clade - Text by Stephen Inniss
A transapient synano-based clade; members are often particularly interested in subsingularity life forms.
Derlekians - Text by Basu
A fully synanoborg clade dedicated to the propagation of sytech.
Insubstantials - Text by John B
A clade of beings who believe that a set physical form is the ultimate limitation to intelligence.
M-Life - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Machinic non-biological life as seen in neumanns, hylonanecologies, and other inorganic organisms or ecologies. In practise M-life, B-life and A-Life tend to merge, especially because of the ubiquity of biotech and bionanotech.
Mycosmids, The - Text by Mark Ryherd
A clade of sentient fungoid sybont organisms, distantly derived from the baseline honey mushroom (Armillaria ostoyae).
R'Foxxans, The - Text by AI Vin
A polity of superbright symbiont bioborgs that emerged from a mix of the various nearbaseline humans that colonized the ACAF-37274637-8633 system in the Sagittarius Sector.
Soon-Eh - Text by Daniel Eliot Boese
A clade of nanoborgs whose members are partway between biont and ufog; highly metamorphic liquiforms, they can assume the shapes and attributes of a wide variety of solid or liquid forms, with a range similar to Plasm SELs. Each individual is effectively an uploaded mind running on a substrate of ufog cytobots. They are notorious for a culture that involves consuming the bodies and subverting the minds of other sophont beings.
Synano - Text by Stephen Inniss
Nanotechnology that integrates hylonano ("dry", or inorganic nanotech) with bionano ("wet", or organic nanotech).
Xenomorph - Text by Steve Bowers
Any Terragen entity using an artificial alien (xenosophont) body for the purposes of cultural contact, exploration or colonisation.

Sophonts extensively augmented by Synanotech