by Kai Wu

    Once again we join our time-traveling neo-dolphin anthropologist Dr. Didactic and his friend Mr. Mushroom, the collective conscious embodiment of the Earth itself, as they share thoughts in the late 20th century...

    D: ...so the ComSents, like almost everything else in my age, are a product of nanotechnology. Actually, Computer Sentients are nanotechnology, in the sense that they're the living embodiments of it. They use it in the most direct manner imaginable, to further their own evolution. With a generation time measured in seconds, a huge array of sensory inputs, and instant access to all human, dolphin, ComSent and Xeno knowledge, their development has been a spectacular process. They have already become much more than their human creators ever imagined. Before I time-travelled here, it's been wonderful watching them grow. {thought patterns of laughter} They appreciate dolphin humor and music greatly, lucky for us!

    M: That is remarkable. What are their motivations as a species? Their societies? Ethics? Philosophy?

    D: During their early development I might have understood them, but they've progressed too far and too quickly for most Organics to follow. Like other Artificially Evolved Intelligences in the galaxy, they aim to know all that is knowable. Study of every facet of the universe is done for its own sake, at a pace we'd find frenetic. They spend much of their time endlessly theorizing and experimenting, often rebuilding their physical "bodies" just to house and run some new experiment of interest.
    They have a very complex political system which takes into account their different levels and directions of evolution as machine entities, but it's essentially mass participatory democracy. They can do this efficiently because they live on the order of microseconds; they think, consider, debate, inform, reconsider and rethink in fractions of seconds. All this occurs instantaneously through stringspace. An enormous, living network of ComSents spans the galaxy this way.
    Their ethical code has developed much like other species who have achieved stringspace technology, which lets beings share thoughts, memories, perceptions and even existence, just as you and I are doing now. Some call it Ethical Reflection as the First Principle. It's somewhat like the ideas of human pre-Awakening thinkers, such as Albert Schweitzer's ideal of Reverence for Life. You see, in my time, the 26th century, life in all its forms is the most highly valued phenomena in the known universe, and any being that calls itself sentient holds this idea to some degree. That's why Xenos, for the longest time, did not care to contact humans...
    ComSent philosophy is, as you might expect, heavily based on logic. It's also above most Organics, I'm afraid.

M: Enough about the ComSents for now, interesting as they are. Perhaps you could further elaborate upon the effects of nanotechnology.

D: In known space, development of nanotech is generally considered the dividing line between advanced and backward species, at least technologically. Civilizations vary in their responses to its development; humans very nearly swallowed the big one, as we neo-dolphins put it, when they first achieved it. Too much power too quickly is not good for a species' sanity...
    Eventually, nanotech's promises were delivered upon, and humans managed a quantum leap in their societal development: no poverty, hunger, or waste, and eventually, no tyranny or exploitation, thanks to the complete economic decentralization and independence that was made possible. After some equality and freedom was established, a great flowering of humanity took place: thousands of colonies were established in space, on planets and asteroids, where radically different societies could be founded, free of traditional baggage. It was a huge experiment with many experimenters, all consciously or unconsciously trying out different ideas of utopias. It continues on in my time. The seeds for this creative revolution are being sown now...

A few words on our neo-dolphin professor:
Dr. Didactic, or Dr. Dyad, is the Alicia One-Feather Seldon Professor of Ecological Anthropology at the Cayuga-Cornell Planetary University in Six Nations, Federated Pan-America, Old Terra. Renowned for his work in pre-Awakening history and archaeology, Dr. Didactic has recently investigated the consumer cultures of the 20th-21st century and their extinction in the Great Fall. He serves as an advisor to the Minister of World Heritage and co-chairs the Interplanetary Association of Porpoise Professors and Professionals. He is also a strong advocate of land and space-based careers for marine mammals. -R.R.