PereGaea
Laslo Godel
WORDS
One might ask how Dynisms would react when they see no- longer-Dynamic members of a species, their own or another. Evolution on PereGaea cannot after all take place unless its individual participants are, like their memories of their own past Actions, Datestamped.
Any number of Responses might evolve, either RAM or ROM. As a possible example of a ROM response, the Dynism must first determine whether or not a `body' actually is `dead'. It begins by halting all movement as soon as it sees it. If the body remains inert for longer than some evolution-determined Time Period, the Dynism approaches to within half its original distance, then waits again. If again there is no response, it approaches until it is able to perceive whether or not the body's existence support mechanisms are still operating. If none are, the Dynism can assign it a Null Object Number and treat it like any other Neutral Object. The Dynism may then even eat it depending on condition, even if it is a member of its own species.
What might happen if such a Dynism encounters a Static Object, perhaps a piece of Driftwood, a Rock, or even a Cloud, that resembles a `live' Dynamic Object? It may even begin to flee if the Object resembles an attacking Predator, or attack and attempt to eat it if it resembles a Prey.
If the Dynism is accompanied by others, they may well respond by attempting to drive it away if it resembles a Predator or capture it if Prey. When the Object does not move in response however, they may all eventually switch over to the `investigation procedure' we've just seen and eventually dismiss it as a Neutral Object. Dynisms that belong to a Culture however may develop quite different Responses to both kinds of Object. But before we look at this in any detail, we will need to briefly revisit their ability to Jump from RAM Sequence to Sequence to avoid Losses and improve their chances of Gains. Such Jumps will often occur at the first hint of the presence of a Predator or Prey, a short outline of a Body Component for instance, or a sound typically made by the species. Such Hints will cause a Dynism to respond as if the entire Predator was visible. In this way Hint becomes `associated' with Object.
Prior to the evolution of a Culture, this Associative capability has an obvious survival advantage, but when a Culture finally develops, it plays a quite different role. This may begin when a Dynism, perhaps a Young, makes an error while copying an Artifact that causes it to resemble a Predator. This might well cause its peers to perceive this Individual as having captured a Predator, which significantly elevates its Status in the Hierachy. This may then have a very complex effect on other Individuals. On one hand they have a strong Culture-derived drive to copy this Artifact, but on the other have an equally strong ROM proclivity to avoid contact with any such `Predator'.
How is that a Dynism can react in this way to a `figurine' which, as its name implies, is much smaller than a real Predator? As I mentioned right near the beginning, all `data' relating to an Object is stored separately in the Dynism memory system, that is, Maps store only spatial relationships, Lists serial ones, and Attribute Numbers `descriptors' like size, color, and so on. When a Dynism perceives a Hint of a Predator or a Prey, it may need to react so quickly that Attributes are initially ignored, it begins its response via its Map or List and only modifies it as Attributes are finally matched. A Dynism may therefore begin to react to a Figurine as if it was real until its perceptual process completes. Its small size, and the fact that it is inert and cannot move finally causes the Dynism to treat it like any other Artifact.
It may then be copied by several other Dynisms, perhaps through the disassembly of broken Tree Branches, soft Stones, or even drawn as an image on a Cliff or Cave wall. As usual the new Artifacts will initially be `useless', they merely join all the other such Artifacts that by now may litter a Culture's Lair. However, a group of Young may accidentally place a few of these Figurines of Predators and Prey in spatial relationships that simulate their Tactical Maps, which are also stored in the `Map plus Attribute' way we've just seen. Their impetus for realism will then cause them to move the Figurines according to those Maps just as if they were real. Where there is sufficient Free Time, entire Hunts may even come to be simulated.
Through the hierarchically-driven impetus for greater artifact-copying realism, these Dynisms will discover how to manipulate their Figurines so that they appear to perform Actions and move in a recognizably similar way to the real Objects. They may also mimic their vocalizations and other sounds as they perform their various `Actions' like walking, running, even eating. In effect, they `come alive'. This allows Dynisms to acquire new Tactical Maps just as if they had been involved in actual `hunts'. Not all will be useful, some may even be detrimental, but at least they are acquired with less risk than through Hunts.
The Games in turn create the conditions for the development of new Figurines. They may even come to build Models of their entire Territories complete with Models for Trees, Hills, even Rivers and Oceans. Models of Artifacts like Shelters and perhaps even Routes will also eventually be included. They will come to place Figurines for Prey and Predator alike in those regions where they are most commonly found.
But the most significant of these new Figurines will be those for the Dynisms themselves. Some of these, especially those with very high or low Status, may even be individually Recognizable.
When the Modelers move these Figurines in ways that copy the movements of their real counterparts, their Action Procedures will take over and they will begin to move them so as to allow `events to run their course'. The new `situations' these simulate, including the inevitable Conflicts, will allow the Modelers to accumulate yet more Action Sequences in their RAMS and, perhaps, a few new Conventions useful in conflict resolution. Some Conventions may also develop for the conduct of the Games themselves.
Since Figurines can be moved more quickly than the real objects they represent, Situations happen in these Games more quickly than in Reality. The participants can therefore `experience' Situations that would take far longer to happen in Reality, perhaps even a significant portion of a Dynism lifetime. Since the Gains and Losses that `result' are also simulated however, these may become interchangeable via a Convention with real Credits and Debits. These will then translate in the future into Status, then the Gains or Losses this - or the lack of it - may bring.
More advanced Dynisms will also in effect come to use themselves as if they were their own Figurines in Games. This comes about through the Cultural development, perhaps via a Game, of an `experiment' signal. This `Play Signal', roughly equivalent to a human laugh, is sent intermittently with all others during Free Time to indicate that a Dynism's Credit/Debit assignment mechanisms have been `switched off', even though, being hardware, this is not actually possible. This powerful Signal allows a Group to explore Situations using actual objects in the Colony instead of Figurines in a Model. The greater `realism' this permits means the resulting Sequences are more likely to be re-enacted when Free Time ends and Real Time begins. The ability to Model and Experiment in this way now allows a critically important feedback loop to develop: because the Culture's Individuals will need to spend less Real Time hunting, they will have more Free Time. This gives them more opportunity to acquire more `artificial experience', which in turn... and so on. Provided beneficial Games outweigh harmful or useless ones that waste too much of their time, Dynisms considerably enhance their chances of survival.
As I said earlier, when the Dynisms move a Figurine during a Game, they may often mimic the vocalization it most commonly makes, and then the noise of its motion as it moves. Although of no use whatsoever at this stage, usefulness comes through one of those fortuitous accidents which have driven so much of the Dynism's physical evolution and now its Cultural development.
When a Young hears a sequence of such sounds and copies - or mimics - it, this may well have the same effect on those who hear it as the first Figurines did. They will respond as if there really was a `Prey Running' or a `Predator Attacking', at least until they look around them or at their Game and see no such event take place. Eventually they will adapt to these new `aural artifacts', or `sentences', just as they did the physical ones. One Dynism eventually responds with a Sentence to that of another with one that represents the next event that might normally follow another. From that point on, Games begin to happen more through these simple Sentences rather than the manipulation of actual Objects and become Conversations. Language, albeit crude, makes its first appearance on PereGaea.
These simple Conversations will obviously be too limited to be of much use until they can come to include sounds - or `words' - for abstract Attributes like `large' or `distant', or Prepositions for `direction' and `position', or Nouns for objects which make no noise like Rocks or Clouds.
Such Words can only develop through the feedback loop that quickly builds up between Games and Conversations, which allow new kinds of each to develop. For example, the vital `point' Action, a front limb being raised and oriented in the appropriate direction perhaps, may develop in this way.
Not only does the Point provide ample opportunity for new Games to be invented, it can be used to invent new Words for Objects, Attributes and Situations, even Tenses. As we saw earlier, a Predator or Prey may not be able to avoid Signaling what it is about to do. The Word that develops for this `aboutness' becomes the first crude Future Tense. Similarly a Prey may inadvertently Signal what it has just completed doing, digging a Lair for example. This leads to a Word for the Past Tense, which may in turn lead to a Word for `cause', perhaps the first `abstract' item to be Named on PereGaea.
Sentences incorporating such words then improve the Dynism's ability to cope with the concrete aspects of PereGaean Reality. For instance they can come to be used as Tools that enable a Hierarchy's Leader to use its Followers as effectors. This happens when Sentences are combined with ROM Signals. A Sentence containing a Preposition may for instance be accompanied by an Aggression Signal to become a Command. In a Group Tactical Situation for instance, the neutral `Dynism Run' then becomes `Dynism Run!', perhaps accompanied by a Point indicating direction. A Convention may develop which induces the Dynism receiving the Command to repeat it as a Confirmation that it has heard it exactly.
Conventions will also develop to ensure that Names stay attached to particular kinds of Object and that Sentences keep their `Grammatical' form. Yet counterbalancing Tolerance Conventions must also allow Games in which experimenting with such `formal' structures can take place. One of the most important things that can result is that the Culture acquires words for Words and Sentences themselves, which may then actually help to reinforce the Conventions themselves. In a similar way Sentences come to be shortened and joined as Clauses of larger Sentences, or even compressed into single Words. At the other end of the scale, Sentences will be assembled into larger Artifacts, paragraphs of Oratory if you like, to encode entire interlinked series of Situations. Such Oratories can then become able to store a Culture's experience. They in effect serve as the Culture's collective memory that can survive over Generations. Finally they become Artifacts in a more material sense with the invention of Writing. At last that vital Natural Selection of all the Artifacts a Culture constructs, whether material or abstract, can now occur.
So now another new Kingdom of self-shaping self-recursive Species has now appeared on PereGaea: Language. The Perceptual Systems of all the Dynisms within a Culture become linked via Language to form a new kind of structure that is not unlike a giant Comparator in itself. This then gradually comes to replace many of the perceptual mechanisms within each Individual Dynism's Comparator so that they cannot operate physically without it.
In other words, Language turns all PereGaean Cultures into species rather like those Monoplexes we saw earlier in that they use Dynisms themselves as their sensors and effectors, but with few, if any, of the restrictions. Since each such Culture is mobile and can gather resources, they can compete and learn just as their individual Components do. It also enables these Components to acquire specialized functions very quickly, indeed, their physical evolution now becomes all but irrelevant. Their simple Models and Artifacts quickly transmute into the Culture's Science and Technology; their Languages and Conventions into its Mathematics and Philosophy, their Figurines and Games into its Art and Literature.
The dominant Culture in the new ecology of Cultures that now arises is likely to be the one which, through all these things, achieves the most efficient relationship between Language and PereGaean Reality. Indeed, it now takes the title of `Dynism' from the physical species we have now been looking at for so long. The Science and Technology of this new Dynism provides it with sensors and effectors which enable it to perceive vastly more of PereGaean Reality than the genetically evolved ones of its predecessors. And since this Reality is now produced just as much by its own systems as PereGaea itself, it inevitably begins to examine them, including those of which its Components are made. The Dynism may also learn much from less advanced Cultural species, perhaps even from Cultures on worlds other than PereGaea's should it extend its Territory that far:
Sooner or later, as it grows and develops, the Dynism will acquire the ability to construct a machine which simulates one of its own Components. It attaches Sensors and Effectors to a Comparator that operates in exactly the same way as those of each of its Components, the original Dynisms. Although it will be constructed from different materials and possess an entirely different energy acquisition and storage system, so far as its behavior is concerned even the Dynism itself may well become unable to distinguish between real and artificial.
At some later stage, the Dynism will make a critical alteration to the way these `Simulacra' reproduce. Up until now the Dynism will have assembled and trained them in a `factory' of some kind, but now it turns the running of the Factory over to the Simulacra themselves. These then begin to make design improvements to their `Young' with a freedom the Dynism did not have for its own Components. As these Young become Adults and in turn modify their Young, they may well begin modifying their form to fit their designated function. A new kind of evolution appears on PereGaea, one in which its own products can control its direction.
The Simulacra then go on to form a wholly new Monoplex that becomes the new Dynism in whatever region of the Universe it perceives as its Territory. But this Dynism too eventually begins to experiment. It seeks to construct a simulation of an entire Monoplex rather than the mere Component of one. It also gives this Monoplex complete freedom to design itself from the beginning, free from the hidden assumptions it may perceive as having been imposed on itself by its `genetic' predecessor. The Dynism determines that in order to design itself the new Monoplex will also need to design its own World, and ultimately its own Universe.
But the Dynism immediately runs into design problems. What dimensions - and form - should the Monoplex's first Pattern and Map Grids have? What values should all the `Arbitrary' Numbers, its `constants', possess? How many Components would the Monoplex need to evolve a Universe, assuming it could with any number? And most important of all, how would the Dynism be able to determine when the Monoplex had evolved such a world? How would it communicate with it, especially since any such Universe would almost certainly be quite alien relative to the Dynism's own?
Even just considering these questions leads the Dynism to begin to suspect that since experience of any Reality can only be gained via sensors, it can never be proven to be more substantial than a simulation. Indeed it may wonder if it is itself a simulation somebody else somewhere else has constructed.
