Naturally, since I stopped publishing the Encyclopedia, I have had a burst of creativity with Uplift Universe created topics. One topic leads to another. In the course of thinking about the Tothtoon, the question arises of how uplift, in a political and demographic sense works.
The first questions that come to mind are for the interval in question how many O-2 habitable planets are there, how many of them are currently leased for habitation, and how many uplifted main-sequence O-2 species are competing for those planets. At one point I suggested that there might be 10,000 to 12,000 uplifted species, but now I think this might be a bit low. (See: http://www.geocities.com/allianceforprogress/encyclopedia/gray/grymtrb1.html ) I also think that the encyclopediest or writer working in the Uplift Universe should assume that the number of available habitats is growing slowly, the total biomass of sapient O-2 species is growing slightly faster than the available habitat--despite the best efforts of the Migration Institute, and the number of uplifted species is growing faster than the increase in population of individuals. Nevertheless, the rate of increase in the number of uplifted species is still pretty low. We are led to believe that uplift is pretty rare. Some causes for this scarcity might be natural. The implication is that it is just very rare to find a new species suitable for uplift. But the level of Galactic technology is very high. If they let themselves, Galactics could uplift insects. The critical causes of uplift scarcity must be artificial. For some reason, each ur species can be the subject of no more than one uplift project. Second, even though it damages no ecosystem, potential ur populations living on fallow planets cannot be uplifted. Most important, the Uplift Institute sets an arbitrary threshold for how promising a candidate population must be before it can be adopted as the root-stock for an uplift project. Then there is the question of how many clients each mature species needs to uplift to achieve replacement. Even in the best of circumstances some patrons will not want to uplift clients and some clients will become extinct before reaching maturity. The replacement rate must be just over one client per mature citizen species. So for each mature citizen species the GUI needs to award something like 1.1 clients. There are several ways that clients might be distributed among patrons. First the allotment could be random. If a species finds a potential client, then it can uplift it. Rich species can buy potential clients if they can find anyone willing to sell. (This is a good role-playing model since it results in type of adventure seed: find the client.) Even in other types of distribution systems randomness could play a part. For example, explorers might discover lots of potential clients but the GUI is reluctant to issue more than one permit per patron. In this case potential isn't rare and mature species are likely to be very selective about picking an ur population. In another scenario the GUI forces very successful explorers to sell surplus claims. Distribution of clients could be fairly equitable. In this case nearly every species who wants a client gets one. However, being allowed to uplift a second client is a rare privilege and only the most powerful patrons get permission to uplift three or more clients. In this scenario there is a lot of resentment for the Human clan *because they are so wealthy!* Galactics feel about Humans the way others feel about Kuwait--they are rich without having to earn their wealth. In a slightly less equitable system of distribution most would-be patrons uplift one client, a significant minority will never uplift any client, and a few patrons have two or more clients. From a writers perspective this can make for moral subtlety --is the Human resentment of the Galactic order justified? With moderate inequality the plurality of citizen species uplift only one client, the next most common category will never uplift clients, there is nothing remarkable about having two or three clients even though this is an unusual level of wealth. More successful patrons often designate heir-apparents. In a situation of heavy inequality uplift is dominated by powerful clans. Maybe half of all citizen species will never get a client, another quarter consider themselves fortunate to uplift a single client, and the last quarter uplift two or more clients. Powerful patron lines dominate oligarchal Galactic politics. Lesser lines usually die out in two or three generations. They are replaced by less favored clients of the great patron lines. In a situation of extreme inequality Galactic civilization takes on a feudal quality. Great Patrons almost always designate a lucky client as their primary heir. Junior clan members may get to uplift one or two clients. These unfavored grand-clients are poor and clientless. The great patrons run the Uplift Institute. (An interesting option for authors who like to condemn crypto-feudalism in science fiction, not that we know anyone like that.) Uplift may entail inheritance. This may mean patrons carefully uplift a favored client as an heir to further concentrate and leverage a clan's wealth and power, or it may just mean that a patron designs a client to take over the patron's political-economic niche in galactic civilization. The most common kind of "inheritance" is likely to be _ad hoc_. A patron finds potential clients and uplifts them. Any meaningful inheritance is limited. Ad hoc inheritance will be nearly universal in egalitarian systems where suitable ur-species are rare, randomly distributed, and seldom sold. With some level of inequality Patrons are likely to try to uplift their designated heir toward the end of their careers as uplifters. They will be wealthier, more powerful, and more experienced. Thus, the youngest client species is likely the be the most favored, or at least the species uplifted to take a patron's place in galactic society. On the other hand, if a species doesn't like its political-economic role in its clan or doesn't like conducting uplift projects they may make uplifting their replacement their first uplift project. In cases of mild or moderate uplift inequality patrons with more than one client may have little incentive to concentrate their assets on a designated client heir. Inheritance, such is it would be, would be equalitarian. In the case of either egalitarian or concentrated inheritance, a clan might practice generation skipping. A clan might plan to replace a senior patron's political-economic function not with the senior patron's own client, but with a grand-client or great grand-client. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
