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| Theaesta, an exoplanet. Would we recognize its life? |
The complete description of the planet follows:
Theaesta, a Planet, a Lifeform, an Intelligence. Imagined by Tim Holmes
Theaesta is a one of a number of
planets orbiting a sun-like star 2.5 times the mass of the sun. It's
a terrestrial planet about 16 times the mass of the Earth orbiting at
3.2 AU on a slightly elliptical orbit. Though it has dry land and
very much surface liquid, still it has some features of a gas giant,
like a heavy atmosphere composed of swirling bands and whorls of
chemical mixtures including hydrogen, methane, ammonia, ozone and clouds of other gases. The planet maintains a fairly steady 24˙
tilt from the orbital plane and spins at a high rate for its size,
completing one rotation on its axis every 4.7 hours. It has a heavy
iron core, creating a magnetic field that protects the atmosphere
from solar wind bombardment.
The planet was formed out of a gas
cloud and after the planet cooled, bombardment by solar system debris
introduced a rich mix of carbon dioxide, hydrocarbons, water ammonia
and other compounds. A long year, tilted orientation and fast
rotation rate leads to a fairly stabile but extremely varied
environment, from boiling seas to frozen poles that periodically are
baked. Oceans of fizzy water slosh against sulfurous lava mountains,
constantly churned by huge storms as winds race around the planet.
Wild temperature swings caused by periodic bombardments are modulated
by seasons of evaporation and precipitation. After a billion years
in the planet's history, the environment became somewhat regular if
never mild, with a balanced atmosphere largely composed of carbon
dioxide, methane, oxygen and nitrogen.
Detailed history:
Planet Theaesta
Theaesta's
lifecycle can be split into 5 chapters:
I Early
Lifeforms
With a steady planetary evaporation and
rain cycle– along with lightning strikes and geothermal activity–
conditions are ripe for the formation of basic organic compounds.
After some few billion years rudimentary lifeforms evolve that feed
on mineral compounds. In places where sunlight can penetrate life
evolves mechanisms for metabolizing mineral compounds using sunlight
as an energy source, using a variety of methane- , alcohol- and
water-based photosynthesis. As the planet maintains a hot mantel due
to tidal forces, in some places there are undersea heat vents where
primitive life forms evolve to metabolize minerals from the mantel
that spewed out of the vents. In areas of stable microclimates,
slimes and other tiny communities of organisms arise on ocean and
lake beds, some of which are water, some methane or other liquids.
Several distinct life systems dependent
on different biologies for metabolization arise in various
environmental regions. In the ocean, water-based forms develop both
at the surface where sunlight was available and at depth beneath the
reach of sunlight.
Eventually these various biotic systems
also become established on land and covered much of the lowlands with
a carpet of colorful lichen-like molds and fungi. These lands were
constantly bathed in sprays and rains from frequent storms and high
winds. Shortly thereafter there appear single-celled organisms that
take advantage of both water and dry land to feed on the various
fungi and slimes. Over time there develop parallel lifesystems based
on various biotic solvents like water, ammonia and methane, which
eventually grow into close proximity.
II Differentiation
Life- up from slime mold
From the outset there is great diversity within biotic systems as the winds and currents allow the spread of slime molds and simple life around the planet's oceans and wet surface areas. But as lifeforms diversify they find an advantage in small more or less uniform colonies which are resilient enough to survive when threatened by 'poisons' from outside their indigenous environments. These colonies introduce a new dimension of growth because they are different from each other and so possess complimentary characteristics. While each has a skill designed for its home environment, it benefits from cooperation with others who thrive in other environments. Over the next 2 billion years these simple organisms mutate into countless forms, often forming alliances and isomorphs to more fully utilize the resources around them. However, the strong gravity and very high winds prevent the growth of organisms beyond the size of a few cells.
From the outset there is great diversity within biotic systems as the winds and currents allow the spread of slime molds and simple life around the planet's oceans and wet surface areas. But as lifeforms diversify they find an advantage in small more or less uniform colonies which are resilient enough to survive when threatened by 'poisons' from outside their indigenous environments. These colonies introduce a new dimension of growth because they are different from each other and so possess complimentary characteristics. While each has a skill designed for its home environment, it benefits from cooperation with others who thrive in other environments. Over the next 2 billion years these simple organisms mutate into countless forms, often forming alliances and isomorphs to more fully utilize the resources around them. However, the strong gravity and very high winds prevent the growth of organisms beyond the size of a few cells.
Life has established a solid presence,
distributed easily around the planet by constant movement of winds
and ocean currents. The cooperation and interdependence of various
species of small organisms that use the environment differently
create a kind of network of communication that spreads around the
planet and occupies all the regions from land to shallow sea to deep
ocean vents. Life squeezes into every available slot on the planet
and the variety of collaborations allows life forms to thrive in
every environment from methane– to carbon dioxide– to ammonia–
to oxygen–based forms, each with a unique alliance to best utilize
its local conditions. These alliances become key to survival, as the
more specialized cells are incorporated, the better the utilization
of resources became.
Though life cannot survive the
molecule-ripping extremes of high temperatures or the
activity-killing lows, it can find a means of surviving those states
by,
at high temperature:
- burrowing to survivable depths and using heat to metabolize the surrounding minerals,
- building protective shells, pods and shelters against harsh conditions, and
- constructing cells that can enclose more favorable environments, such as for sloughing off excess heat in boiling seas to maintain cool enough temperatures for cell function.
at low temperature:
- burrowing into soils to find environments heated by mantle activity heated by tidal forces.
- living in light cycles, gathering light to energize metabolism when it is available and going into dormancy when it is not (during periods of orbital freezing).
- Forming communities of intra-connected organisms live on the heat generated by other species that operate as in 1. and 2.
Differentiation and
intelligence
The process of differentiation is the secret to the formation of an eventual super intelligence. As lifeforms become more varied they find advantage in small distinct creatures. Each unicellular creature has a distinct advantage of being able to develop a perspective different from others. This creates the possibility for synapses as one creature communicates with another with a different perspective from its own. Thereby both creatures benefit from the other's differences. (This makes Earthly biology seem terribly primitive in comparison. Earth creatures tend not to cooperate but rather compete with each other for scarce resources. Although creatures like humans host microorganisms to help with their own digestion and other functions, for the most part their use of other species amounts to enslaving them for their own very narrow and immediate purposes. This results in a lack of foresight and the opportunity for cooperation that would incorporate perspectives different from their own to increase their own awareness and intelligence to address changes that might come in the future.)
The process of differentiation is the secret to the formation of an eventual super intelligence. As lifeforms become more varied they find advantage in small distinct creatures. Each unicellular creature has a distinct advantage of being able to develop a perspective different from others. This creates the possibility for synapses as one creature communicates with another with a different perspective from its own. Thereby both creatures benefit from the other's differences. (This makes Earthly biology seem terribly primitive in comparison. Earth creatures tend not to cooperate but rather compete with each other for scarce resources. Although creatures like humans host microorganisms to help with their own digestion and other functions, for the most part their use of other species amounts to enslaving them for their own very narrow and immediate purposes. This results in a lack of foresight and the opportunity for cooperation that would incorporate perspectives different from their own to increase their own awareness and intelligence to address changes that might come in the future.)
III Cooperative Explosion and
Intelligence
Reverse Tribalism
Unlike an environment of isolated species competing to survive in an environment of scarce resources, Theaesta never evolves to develop competition for resources. Because the environment is constantly changing cooperation is much more valuable as a strategy than competition. Although there is competition between individuals of the same species, evolution selects for cooperation with other species, creating a kind of “reverse tribalism” where different skills are more valuable than those of one's own species. Therefore since the entire evolution of the planet depends on successful collaboration between diverse lifeforms,cooperation is selected for and mutation becomes common. Life on Theaesta depends on the “attitude” that every species different from itself offers an advantage to dealing with environmental extremes that it cannot handle on it's own. Cooperation therefor becomes the life-strategy for the entire planet.
Unlike an environment of isolated species competing to survive in an environment of scarce resources, Theaesta never evolves to develop competition for resources. Because the environment is constantly changing cooperation is much more valuable as a strategy than competition. Although there is competition between individuals of the same species, evolution selects for cooperation with other species, creating a kind of “reverse tribalism” where different skills are more valuable than those of one's own species. Therefore since the entire evolution of the planet depends on successful collaboration between diverse lifeforms,cooperation is selected for and mutation becomes common. Life on Theaesta depends on the “attitude” that every species different from itself offers an advantage to dealing with environmental extremes that it cannot handle on it's own. Cooperation therefor becomes the life-strategy for the entire planet.
Cooperative Life theory
Life might expand into whatever form
allows it to take advantage of the resources that it needs at the
time, including those that may come in handy in the future. In fact,
it stores in its biological database the “memory” of each of the
extreme states it has survived previously in a morphic resonance.
This allows a kind of super-intelligence to survive in the very
chemistry of its makeup that can respond to any change the
environment can undergo. The lifeforms evolve as a kind of cross
between individual specialized species and a fully-integrated
community that really cannot be separated into individual units. It
might be easiest for us to think of a city where one day the doctors
rule due to a medical emergency, the next, there are plumbing issues
and the plumbers take over the whole city, then there is a plague of
rats and the cats rule. Eventually those roles become confused,
skills becomes dispersed among individuals, who become more widely
skilled, but in less distinct ways as the depth and breadth of
collaboration complexifies.
Because the environment is not conducive to large body forms, life tends to evolve smaller rather than larger. There is a great proliferation of nano creatures that are selected for since on the nanoscale the environment has fewer restrictions. As widely varied as species become, so they increase the resiliency and capacity of the entire community to thrive. Since each makes a living in a different environment, by collaborating the whole community becomes more robust and resilient. This capacity becomes the Genesis for the growth of super intelligent, solar system-wide life form.
This network forms a kind of
intelligence network like the internet. Since the distances between
areas of local variation in conditions were far too great for
individual creatures to negotiate, these lifeforms learn how to
modify their own makeup in oder to change their needs and abilities
as well as to re-form alliances to better take advantage of
oscillating environmental conditions. This creates a kind of
planet-wide intelligence that can only be described as a single
de-centralized creature also called Theaesta.
IV Flexibile Planetary Expansion
and the Planetary Organism
We Earth creatures have evolved to take
advantage of a very narrow slice of environmental resources. Humans
for instance metabolize and use materials to stay alive and reproduce
but then also appreciate and celebrate the environment through
enterprise and art. We live comfortably only within very narrow
conditions: a dry, airy, interesting environment with about a 20°
temperature range.
But on Theaesta organisms thrive by collaboration from the start in order to take fuller advantage of resources, allowing for communication on a scale that earthly biology is not familiar with, where creatures can communicate at many levels with many different species at once. The only way to conceive of such a network of life forms is as a single planetary organism. As such it is able to adapt to any environment it encounters and to use the advantages of the resources available with those conditions presented by the changes in the environment.
This allows for the existence of the kind of life form that is a quantum leap beyond biology. On Earth, much of the resources available are not used by life. But on Theaesta the resources are used to such an efficient degree that the entire planet essentially is covered with life forms; it is essentially a terrestrial planet covered with a “skin” of life. In fact such cooperation allows life to build up in layers from some distance above the surface to some distance beneath the liquid oceans and even into the solid rock surface. In this case the organism can use any and all resources available to it for life. This means that there is essentially no surface on the planet that is not inhabited by a layer of more or less thickness depending on the richness of the resources available. This allows for not only the immediate use of resources but the ability to anticipate changes in the future and so to transfer, store and remember resources that will be used when the environment next changes.
But on Theaesta organisms thrive by collaboration from the start in order to take fuller advantage of resources, allowing for communication on a scale that earthly biology is not familiar with, where creatures can communicate at many levels with many different species at once. The only way to conceive of such a network of life forms is as a single planetary organism. As such it is able to adapt to any environment it encounters and to use the advantages of the resources available with those conditions presented by the changes in the environment.
This allows for the existence of the kind of life form that is a quantum leap beyond biology. On Earth, much of the resources available are not used by life. But on Theaesta the resources are used to such an efficient degree that the entire planet essentially is covered with life forms; it is essentially a terrestrial planet covered with a “skin” of life. In fact such cooperation allows life to build up in layers from some distance above the surface to some distance beneath the liquid oceans and even into the solid rock surface. In this case the organism can use any and all resources available to it for life. This means that there is essentially no surface on the planet that is not inhabited by a layer of more or less thickness depending on the richness of the resources available. This allows for not only the immediate use of resources but the ability to anticipate changes in the future and so to transfer, store and remember resources that will be used when the environment next changes.
Thus the life community has within its
memory all the possible forms of life that thrive in all the
extremes. This allows Theaesta to “design” new forms to inhabit
all the available territory up to the very borders of the extremities
of survival, which is essentially to the limits of atomic integrity.
The “spores” of all these forms might be encoded if not in DNA
then in some sort of mineral crust dispersed across the landscape
that– like silicon chips– are encoded with the memory banks to
thrive in any specific chemical environment.
Architecture
Theaesta develops the capacity to engineer the environment for various purposes. Just as hollows are etched into rock, primitive sponge structures could be formed for protection from the sun or wind or other environmental obstacles. Over time the creature develops the capacity to utilize every resource in the environment. Theaesta architecture is that of a kind that we could not imagine. It might be used to amplify communication over great distances, to develop sophisticated art, or build pressurized pods or farms or capsules containing resources like a stocked liferaft that– upon an impact blasting material into space, could be used to colonize every bit of matter blown up in the resulting explosion.
Theaesta develops the capacity to engineer the environment for various purposes. Just as hollows are etched into rock, primitive sponge structures could be formed for protection from the sun or wind or other environmental obstacles. Over time the creature develops the capacity to utilize every resource in the environment. Theaesta architecture is that of a kind that we could not imagine. It might be used to amplify communication over great distances, to develop sophisticated art, or build pressurized pods or farms or capsules containing resources like a stocked liferaft that– upon an impact blasting material into space, could be used to colonize every bit of matter blown up in the resulting explosion.
Then a very strange thing happens.
Theaesta's orbit is elliptical though
once it was fairly circular. After 4 million years of relatively
peaceful planetary history there is a monumental event. Approaching
from a great distance, a very dense passing planet from a great,
elongated orbit that only takes it past its home star every trillion
years passes quite close and pulls Theaesta into an elongated
elliptical orbit. Suddenly the environment of Theaesta is pitched
into even greater chaos.
First the planet is thrown closer to
the sun than it has ever been since its formation. This heats the
planet to the point of nearly boiling the liquid off its surface. But
the encounter also increased the spin of Theaesta by a factor of 3.5.
This has the effect of evening out the new temperature flux across
the face of the planet. At the same time Theaesta begins to adapt to
these dramatic changes. It does so by changing the format of its own
biology to compensate for the temperature extremes. This happens not
so much as a conscious process of “learning” the facts of the new
environment, but by being so biologically flexible and responsive
that Theaesta's changes include anticipation of the next phase of
change. As the temperature increases, Theaesta anticipates the change
and arrives at the optimal position before the next stage is reached.
Response time grows to be almost instant.
This served the creature very well
because when Theaesta then swings around the sun and out into the
next leg of its orbit– newly distant from its sun– it is able to
adapt to the challenges of a newly world that is mostly frozen for
years on end. Theaesta compensates through a whole host of strategies
such as burrowing into the mantel, building light– and
heat–concentrating structures, transforming kinetic energy into
heat, hibernation, etc.
V Solar System Expansion
What we have is an ultra-responsive planetary organism that incorporates incredible ability to change, adapt, and take advantage of any and all environmental changes. In fact on those rare occasions when the planet is bombarded by a stray astroid the result is not a mass extinction but little more than a body wound to the planetary organism. Particles generated by the collision become spaceships for the organisms as those particles are blasted into space; and so the neighborhood is seated with life, leaving a solar system of three kinds of material: burning star, “black” matter (uninhabited) and “red” matter (inhabited by Theaesta).
Eventually the solar system becomes mostly red matter as Theaesta inhabits all the space debris that it encounters. The resulting life ranges from fairly simple lifeforms on specks of dust and rock to extremely complex ones that inhabited large gas giant planets. It might be that over billions of years a cloud of red material that coalesced into a planet might have life even in deep layers of the mantle, living off heat and chemical interactions between mineral salts. There may even be architecture built into the planet from its inception. This could raise the possibility of a planet that is actually designed by fiesta to most efficiently or beautifully use the coming together of the planet for its own life and enjoyment.
To Theaesta all matter from grains of sand to planetoids are seen as resources. Whereas to us an asteroid may look like lifeless rock floating through space, to Theaesta it is a warehouse of rich resources with waves of energy bathing the rock from every direction.
Theaesta could grow to be as large as the solar system, with each element of red matter being in instant communication with every other through morphic resonance. This allows Theaesta to communicate with a red matter asteroid hurtling toward its star. It could think about how to seed its star as the asteroid approached, and might even be able to adapt to make use of the newer higher energy conditions it encounters there, who's to know?
Network Intelligence
Theaesta's intelligence is nothing like ours. Though there is morphic resonance on a molecular level, individual creatures have no awareness or consciousness. Self-reflection only develops on a mass scale, as an outgrowth of the exchange of information across the face of the planet. This intelligence does not proceed out of individuation and so finds its apogee not in devices or communication with other solar systems but in responding to ever-expanding natural challenges it encounters. Though it cannot be said to understand time or possess forthought, Theaesta is able to respond almost instantaneously to environmental changes, a kind of capability we can only dream of. Rather its memory allows for an extremely flexible response that seems super-biological to us creatures imprisoned in individual consciousness.
Playing God
Theaesta might in fact decide to play God by creating life forms of its own imagining. Using some of its planets in the habitable zone it might create simple water-based biology and other life structures that could produce bodies of all kinds, large and small, fit for the environments of those planets. Such creative activity would no doubt provide endless interest, not to mention humor!
Time
Composed of creatures whose lives span only hours, Theaesta's experience of time is exponentially faster than ours, making something like a falling rock more akin to human experience of planetary motion. We would see the lifeforms clear from underneath the impact area just before the rock hit and perhaps even colonize each of the shards as they scattered. Their experience of time is so rapid that we could share only a few common experiences, like lightning flashes or impact explosions.
What if we met?
I wonder if– should the two
intelligent species of Theaesta and Earth meet– they
would recognize each other as intelligent? Of course we would be
able to see that this planet is covered with microbes, but their
intelligence would be invisible to us. All we would see is this
remarkable ability to adapt to any environment by dumb creatures.
Likewise, what Theaesta would likely see in humans– in all plants
and animals perhaps– is nothing but frozen habitable space to move into.
Having no science, Theaesta would not recognize high technology. SInce time for
Theaesta would be orders of magnitude faster than ours, trying to
determine the “activity” of human life would be like our looking
at plate tectonics and trying to determine if the earth shows signs
of life through geological movement. Communicating as it does largely by morphic resonance– of which humans are ignorant– they would not see any intelligent communication except perhaps in the animals, though even that would be so slow as to be probably
undetectable by Theaesta.
I wonder if humans will one day look
back on this period of our development with an amazement that we
could be possessed of such hubris and anthropomorphism. Future
humanity will of course have a much clearer picture of the state of
reality (or at least our prejudices will have evolved) and will look
back at we 21st century inhabitants as such primitive
creatures to so believe that the world is as it appears at first
glance. We formulate opinions and then they have to be wrested from
us by force of proof of how silly our former beliefs were. But,
unfortunate as that is, it is the way of things.
Research:
Forests are an example of an ecosystem where "individual" plants communicate with and support each other, making the whole a great interdependent organism.
A team drills thousands of feet into the West Antarctic Ice Sheet to reach a lake buried for millennia. By Douglas Fox, Discover Magazine, 2013
Feeding under the ice: mineral
salts could serve as food for microbes.
New research suggests that the collision of icy comets with our planet billions of years ago may have produced a 'cosmic factory' for early life on Earth.
By Amelia
Pak-Harvey, Chiristian Science Monitor, September 16, 2013
Tim
Holmes Studio
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