UPLIFT PHILOSOPHY AND DEMOGRAPHY
Uplift Philosophy, Ethics, and Scarcity Uplift is the most important activity in Main Sequence Galactic Civilization. Among the Oxygen Breathing Order Uplift is regulated by the Galactic Uplift Institute and Tradition. Tradition further dictates that the interests of a race being uplifted be represented by its Uplift Consort, what Terragens often call the Uplift Godparent. The Traditions of Uplift are rich, complex, and sensitive to cases and context. Nevertheless, there are some universals. Most important, the process of Uplift must be fair, compassionate, and never contrary to the long-term interests of the client race. Also, the any race should have high levels of potential, minimizing the amount of genetic engineering necessary to produce viable Galactic citizens. In addition, Tradition dictates that extra care must be taken when a client race has problematic talents. Psychic and probability manipulating abilities are particularly notorious for complicating uplift projects. Patrons are encouraged to uplift clients with the intention of fitting them into political-economic niches. Some goals, however, are disallowed by Tradition. Uplift projects cannot produce a race prone to wide-spread suffering. Chronic, widespread physical pain is completely disallowed, and psychological suffering is worse. Also, the project should not result in an overspecialized race. A race is automatically regarded as overspecialized if it amounts to an intelligent biological tool. (This does not mean it is _per se_ illegal to produce intelligent biological tools, but a tool-making project requires a special, difficult to obtain license approved by both the Galactic Foresight Organization and the GUI.) Finally, any Uplift project cannot produce a race with a slave mentality or that is exclusively fit for a servile role. In positive terms, the end product of an uplift project should be intelligent enough to read and participate fully as a Galactic citizen. It should be rational. It should be reasonably independent, and should not require continual management by another race. (It is permissible for two or more races to be symbiotic. In this case all parties to the symbiosis should have roughly equal amount of power. Also, it is desirable that all parties be uplifted within the same project.) Above all, any uplifted race should be responsible. It should be able to understand and conform to Galactic Tradition, at least in theory. Furthermore, any Galactic Citizen should have some abilities. A race need not have all the Traditionally desirable abilities, nor need it regularly exercise all the abilities that it theoretically possesses. One ability that a mature race must have is the ability to control its own population. Several abilities are highly desirable. Among these highly desirable abilities are the ability to engage in intellectual or scholarly discourse, the ability to successfully engage in commerce, the ability of a race to hold its own in warfare, the ability to interact with other races and engage in diplomacy, the ability to pilot starships, and an aspiration to uplift clients. These abilities are so critical that the lack of any one is regarded by many as a serious embarrassment to the patron responsible for the lack and a lesser embarrassment to any associated uplift consorts. Failure to abide by the standards and Traditions of Uplift can result in charges of Uplift Malfeasance. Consequences for convicted patrons or complicit consorts can be severe. Stability and the Number of Races The replacement rate for O-2 races is about 1.1 client race per Galactic Citizen. The average life expectancy for a Galactic Citizen from the time of its Stage-1 Uplift Ceremony until it Passes On is 1*10^6 hab-years. At any given time there are about 200_000 O-2 races in various stages of development and about 550*10^12 O-2 individuals in the Galaxies. The number of races and individuals in O-2 Civilization increases over time. The rate of increase, however, is very slow. Even over an O-2 races lifespan, the increase in the number of Galactic Citizen Races will be imperceptible. It is widely believed that there is a chronic shortage of quality ur-populations. This shortage is entirely a result of Tradition, Bureaucracy, and economics. First, what constitutes an adequate level of potential is somewhat arbitrary. The Traditional minimum threshold for potential is high enough that new candidate ur-populations are fairly rare. Also, the tradition that there must be a one-to-one connection between an ur-population and its form as an uplifted Galactic Citizen Race. Logically, one ur-population could be used as the source of several uplift projects, but doing so is an unconscionable violation of Tradition. The Tradition excluding ur-populations living on fallow planets from uplift candidacy also contributes to the shortage of ur-populations. Even more important, the GUI tries to limit the rate of increase in the total number of O-2 Citizen Races. The GUI tries to limit the total number of uplift projects to acceptable levels; therefore, Uplift Project Licenses are hard to obtain. The GUI also tries to distribute uplift permits equitably, so that every race that wants to can uplift at least one client. Powerful clans have long railed against the GUI's "arbitrary" preferential option for egalitarian access to client races. There is a small but powerful lobby for awarding uplift project permits solely on the basis of "merit". The reader should also note that many Galactics are still angry that Humans were allowed to keep not just one, but two client projects, despite the fact that they started their Neo-Chimp and Neo-Dolphin projects, and several others without going through proper channels. For many Galactics, ignorance of Tradition, or even Galactic Civilization itself hardly constitutes an excuse for violating Tradition. Another source of scarcity in prime client species is Economic scarcity. Despite some absolute scarcity in prime ur-populations, many more claims to uplift candidate populations are granted than project licenses. Most claims expire without ever becoming the basis of an approved uplift project. Candidate population claims are negotiable and transferable. Highly promising claims fetch a high price and are monopolized by wealthy clans. Also, powerful races often bully weaker races into transfering valuable ur-population claims. Phases of Uplift/O-2 Citizen Species Lifecycle An oxygen breathing Galactic citizen goes through at least eight phases in its life. There is a pre-uplift stage where the ur-population is identified, claimed, and approved as the basis of an uplift project, the phase of uplift proper when a Citizen is in its minority, an optional phase of apprentice citizenship, young citizen, the phase of being a patron uplifting clients, the optional phase where a citizen race is the master of an apprentice, the mature citizen with an empty nest, and the elder citizen nearing its time to pass on. The pre-uplift phase is sometimes called uplift stage zero and regarded as part of a race's uplift minority. There are three parts to the pre-uplift phase. First, a Galactic Citizen or organization discovers an ur-population that might have potential. After researching the prospective ur-population and verifying its potential its discoverers apply to the GUI for a claim. Assuming the ur-population is not restricted (the most common reasons being that there is already a valid claim or it was the proto-population for a living O-2 citizen race), the discover's claim is approved and registered. Approval is usually pro-forma. A claim may be transfered several times. Eventually, a claim holder will file a prospectus for an uplift project with the GUI. The final application is expected to included documentation for proof-of-concept genetic engineering; in effect uplift always begins before the Stage-One Uplift Ceremony. Most project applications are denied. An uplift project itself consists of five distinct stages. At the start of each stage and the end of Stage Five the subject race is tested by the GUI. In practice the tests are somewhat redundant since they are only held when passage is virtually assured. Uplift tests are customarily the occasion for elaborate celebrations. During the uplift project the race subject to the project does not enjoy full Galactic citizenship and is regarded as a minor. Races subject to uplift have rights and are protected by the GUI and their uplift consort. Individual organisms in uplift projects have very limited rights, however. Group and individual rights increase with each successive level of uplift. In the first stage, the minor subject is taken from animality to sapience. Genetic engineers lay the gross patterns that will determine the direction for the rest of the project. During Stage One the subject race is regarded as consisting of animals and enjoys very few individual rights. In Stage Two the subject race is regarded as consisting of roughly crafted sapients. Stage Two clients are still subject to drastic engineering changes. In this phase the patron undertakes gross biological changes that can only be evaluated in psycho-historical context. Stage Two ends when the GUI is satisfied that the patron has succeeded in uplifting the broad racial template that will be finished and refined throughout the rest of the project. In short, by the end of Stage Two a race is a complete rough draft. In Uplift Stage Three the patron fine tunes the race it largely finished in Stage Two. Stage Four is devoted to polishing and debugging the client. Stage Five is devoted to testing; proving the stability and viability of the client. Highly skilled patrons take pride in short and elegant completion of Stages Three and Four. The length of the Uplift Minority phase varies a lot. On average it takes about 100_000 years. Stage Five always takes 50_000 years. At the end of Uplift Stage Five a client nominally becomes a full Galactic citizen. In practice, about 70 percent of all races have to undergo a 100_000 year Apprenticeship. At the end of a races minority, the GUI may very rarely have doubts about its viability. In these cases it may require the client to undergo a period of Apprentice Citizenship. In these cases the Apprentice is assigned to a race as its Master that is neither its patron nor god-patron. In other rare cases, powerful clans may force a weak patron to Apprentice a talented client to one of their members. Also, a small number of races belong to clans with Traditions that involve Apprenticing clients at the end of Stage Five to trusted Masters. However, almost all Apprenticed clients are Apprenticed to their own patrons. During an Apprenticeship, the Master has the right to control the Apprentice race's foreign policy, dispose of the Apprentice races labor and earnings, and engage in moderate psycho-historical manipulation of the Apprentice race's culture. When a Master race performs its task responsibly, the Apprentice race benefits by mastering its niche in the Galactic ecumene. When abused, the Master race cynically enriches itself at its Apprentice's cost. After becoming free of its Minority and any Apprenticeship, a race becomes a Young Citizen. Young Citizens seek their place in Galactic Civilization and lay the groundwork for comfortable middle age. This usually involves high levels of investment and the quest for a suitable first (and usually only) client. Eventually, most races become patrons and uplift their own client. Most then become Master's supervising their client's Apprenticeship. As a supervising Master, a race usually achieves the hight of its wealth and power. When its Apprentice graduates, a Master race becomes a Mature Citizen with an empty nest. This is the longest phase in the lifecycle of almost all Galactic Citizens. Finally, a race grows old--and hopefully wise and technologically adept--it becomes an Elder nearing its time to pass on. The reader should beware that Anglic speakers often refer to a race's Uplift Minority as "indenture" and also to its Apprenticeship as "indenture". As if that were not bad enough, when talking about the combination of both Minority and Apprenticeship as a unit, they will call the resulting unit the period of "indenture". At any given time about 11 percent of all O-2 races are in their Minority, 9 percent are Patrons actively uplifting a client, 8 percent are Apprentices, 6 percent are Masters, 10 percent are Elders, 10 percent are youth and 46 percent are mature. A typical race might be claimed and have its claim traded for 30KY. Its proper career starts when its Stage One Uplift Ceremony. It will spend 100KY in its Minority, 100KY as an Apprentice, 100KY as a clientless Youth, 100KY as a Patron uplifting its client, 100KY as the Master of an Apprentice, 400KY as a Mature Citizen, and 100KY as an Elder. Distribution (see histogram below) When we consider races that have completed their time in O-2 Civilization, 20 percent will have uplifted no clients, 68 percent will have one client and 12 percent will uplift two or more clients--some of those 12 percent will uplift several clients. For some, the fact that 20 percent of all O-2 races will never uplift a client leads some (particularly those with zero or one clients) to demand an even more egalitarian distribution of Uplift Project Permits. Research consistently indicates that almost 10 percent of all Galactics opt not to uplift a client. Others do not have the opportunity to uplift clients because the GUI doubts their competence as patrons or because they have been out-competed by powerful races. Implications for Clan structure: The typical clan is relatively short and thin, with occasional august prolific ancestors. The modal O-2 Race will have three or four ancestors still participating in O-2 Civilization. It will uplift only one client. The modal O-2 Race can expect its line to die out in three or four generations unless one of its descendents beats the odds and uplifts multiple clients. Among the poorest Races that manage to become patrons, the selection of clients is determined by chance. The patron will be unable to purchase an ur-population claim on the Galactic ur-population market so it will be forced to uplift clients they have claimed themselves. A race in this position is markedly better off when it can choose from several claims. Many races that will uplift only one client are nonetheless affluent enough that they can obtain an ur-species claim on the market. They might not be able to afford a premium claim, but it gives them many more degrees of freedom than those limited to their own claims. Once a prospective patron can go shopping for its client material, it gains considerable control over the foundation for its uplift project. Most patrons use this control to uplift an heir. The heir is uplifted to assume the patron's niche in Galactic Civilization. When this master-apprentice pattern is repeated over generations, the clan tends to become ever more adept at its chosen political-economic role. The downside tends to be ever increasing specialization. Most races take on an uplift project early in their career. A race benefits economically and politically by having clients and grand-clients. When a race is so privileged that it *expects* to uplift more than one client, it will typically engage in a dynastic strategy, with each project filling a role in the clan mission. With each project the elite patron becomes a more competent uplifter. Also, the race's base level of technology increases over time. The elite patron usually saves its most important uplift project until the end of its uplift career. Indeed, the last race uplifted by a patron with several clients is usually its designated heir. When its patron passes on the youngest client assumes its patron's role in the galaxy and clan, gets most of its patrons un-expired planetary leases and businesses. Ideally, the last-born assumes hegemonic control over its siblings and uplifts many clients of its own. Being one of many of a patrons clients is prestigious, being near the end of your patron's patronymic is even more prestigious. Distribution Histogram 00|0 01|0 02|0 03|0 04|0 05|0 06|0 07|0 08|0 09|0 10|0 11|0 12|0 13|0 14|0 15|0 16|0 17|0 18|0 19|0 20|#1 21|#1 22|#1 23|#1 24|#1 25|#1 26|#1 27|#1 28|#1 29|#1 30|#1 31|#1 32|#1 33|#1 34|#1 35|#1 36|#1 37|#1 38|#1 39|#1 40|#1 41|#1 42|#1 43|#1 44|#1 45|#1 46|#1 47|#1 48|#1 49|#1 50|#1 51|#1 52|#1 53|#1 54|#1 55|#1 56|#1 57|#1 58|#1 59|#1 60|#1 61|#1 62|#1 63|#1 64|#1 65|#1 66|#1 67|#1 68|#1 69|#1 70|#1 71|#1 72|#1 73|#1 74|#1 75|#1 76|#1 77|#1 78|#1 79|#1 80|#1 81|#1 82|#1 83|#1 84|#1 85|#1 86|#1 87|#1 88|##2 89|##2 90|##2 91|##2 92|###3 93|###3 94|###3 95|####4 96|####4 97|####4 98|#####5 99|######6+ _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
