Dandelion One

Design document for PC game

 

 

We don’t want to comprehend cosmos.

We want to extend the Earth up to its limits.

Stanisław Lem

 

 

 

Why?

Foundation Corp “Dandelion” manifest.

 

• Life

• Self-sacrifice

• Progress/evolution

• Artificial panspermia

• Humanism

• Addition by UN: humanity and culture.

 

 Science can help us to define our purpose. Science shows that life is unique, as it is allowed only by precise coincidence of physical laws. Life also creates intricate and ever more complex structures. In this case nature came to a unique point in life.

 “We are all united in Life by common gene\protein structures; by a common ancestry; by an exchange of genes. We share with all life it's logic, selection by survival. We also share with all Life a common future, may be one shaped by human design. We can be grateful to be part of the unique family of the organic Life. We can be especially grateful in bearing conscious life that is equipped uniquely to secure Life”.

 Seeding the Universe with Life: Securing Our Cosmological Future

By Michael Noah Mautner

 

“All Life is also united by the drive for self-propagation. Living being invest their best efforts to perpetuate their pattern, as if to pursue self-propagation deliberately. Any objective observer would have to conclude that life pursues self-propagation purposely. Where there is Life, there is therefore purpose”.

 

By Foundation Corp.

 

  We are striving for the most humane mission of all - to propagate Life in any form know to us, through science, self-sacrifice, and enormous computing power.  

 

By UNEC (United Nations Exploration Comity)

 

  Life propagation is a purpose of the greatest importance. Therefore, of greatest responsibility. Human is the only measure of what is good or evil. No such mission can be allowed without human supervision and evaluation. For however advanced this machine is, it may fail in judgment.

 

 

What is “Dandelion mission” exactly?

 

 Dandelion mission is a multitude of journeys hundreds and thousands light years long. Journeys ending is in seeding life on other worlds. From now on we shall send one “Dandelion” spaceship every two years. And I hope we we'll never stop.

 

 Every “Dandelion” spaceship is FTL capable. It can travel faster than light through space to reach other worlds. At its center is a quantum battery charged by the power of entire star. An actual star: Ross 254.

 

“Dandelion 1” will travel at 20% of light speed on conventional drive to Ross 245. Where the ship will consume 100% of star's remaining energy in one single moment. And then “Dandelion” will javelin itself at speed of 9 times faster than the speed of light to the planet of the ETU and crew member's choosing.  

 

 Each one carries an E.T.U. - Environment Transform Unit. A huge device controlled by the most advanced computer recent scientific breakthroughs made available for us. ETU's task is to provide necessary changes to planets found at the end of journey. Its power is such it's able to build suitable environment for biological gene/protein life on the bright side of Mercury.

 

 After “Dandelion 1” arrival to its final destination and planetary survey ETU module will detach from the main bulk. And land on the planet. Immediately it will start to introduce changes to environment based on survey data analysis. As soon as minimum requirements are met, ETU will release first of batch of Earth's native most tough survivors. A bacteria most likely. After that ETU will continue to assist natural process of evolution, study it in progress, analyze it, learn from it. Hopefully at some point environment will be developed enough for humans to exist without too much effort. Eventually ETU will have enough time and resource to begin production of new “Dandelion” ships. And the history will repeat itself.

 

“Hopefully”?

 

 Yes. Mission of Dandelions is to propagate Life. Not necessarily HUMAN life. Not necessarily intelligent Life. Just Life. Hopefully human too.

 

“Crew member”?

 

 Uh... yes... the crew. That was UN's demand. You see, they fear that ETU's programming may be insufficient for such complex task. It's UN's opinion that human is required to evaluate ETU's progress and results. So four crew members will enjoy our breakthroughs in cryogenics until “Dandelion 1” will reach its destination. Then specialists will assess the situation and give ETU a go or no go. After finishing this task crew will return to the freezers. They will be waking up by ETU periodically to decide if progressing biosphere, environment and ETU bear no immediate danger to each other.     

 

So fate of the whole planet will depend on opinion of 1 – 4 people?

 

Tough decision, yes. We believe that this can be done since life on every planet will be seeded with species indigenous to Earth. Therefore, new biospheres will be very similar to one on Earth. Thus facilitating decision.

 

But moral aspect of such decision? Responsibility is enormous.

 

 UN's position is: there's no one else there to provide such input. Humans are only consciousness possessing specie. But Foundation corp. believes that pure computation is enough in this case. You see UNEC have adopted panbiotic ethics principle according to which:

- The human purpose and the destiny of Life are intertwined. The results can light up the galaxy with life, and affect the future patterns of the universe. When the living pattern pervades all Nature, human existence will have attained a cosmic purpose.

 - Survival is best secured by expansion, and biological progress is best assured by diversification, in space. Adaptation to space will drive human/machine coexistence, but control must always remain with organic intelligences with vested self-interest to continue the organic life-form. With conscious intelligence in control, Life will continue only if the will to do so is itself always propagated.

 Unlike UNEC we at Foundation corp. adopted other principles from the same ethic system:

- Assuming free will, the human purpose must be self-defined. It is best derived from the core human identity as part of Life. Therefore, the human purpose is to forever safeguard and propagate Life and to establish the living pattern as a governing force throughout nature.

- The human purpose defines the axioms of ethics. Moral good is that which promotes Life, and evil is that which destroys Life.

 

When crew will return to Earth?

 

There’s infinitesimally small chance that any of the crew will ever return to earth. Main reason is relativity effect. By the time any of “Dandelions” will reach its destination eons will pass on Earth. They will have nothing to return to.

 

How will we know if any of “Dandelions” succeeded?

 

No one in many generations on Earth will. May be not ever. Radio signals will travel slowly over hundreds of light years through the clouds of dust, gamma radiation bursts and multitude of other obstacles. Any kind of signal will dissipate over such great distance. Only chance we have is a visit by the means of “Dandelion” drive. Which has very little sense.

 

 

Mission:

 

• Propagation of life in any form — priority 1

• Preservation of life in any form – priority 2

• Creation of self-sustainable environmental system able to support a biosphere – priority 3

• All other considerations are secondary

 

 

Why “Dandelions”, why not unmanned capsules?

 

• Numerous mission attempts possible

• Mission result evaluable

• Mission completion time shortened

• Мission successful completion chance increased

 

Principles of Panbiotic Ethics

Directed panspermia must rest on ethical motivation. The morality applied here can have far-reaching consequences for future of the universe. Insights from both biology and cosmology can be synthesized into a biotic ethics that must value and respect our family of organic Life and encompasses all present and future Life-forms. The ethical logic rests on the following points:

1. Life is a process of the active self-propagation of organized molecular patterns.

2. The patterns of organic terrestrial Life are embodied in biomolecular structures that actively reproduce through cycles of genetic code and protein action.

3. But action that leads to a selected outcome is functionally equivalent to the pursuit of a purpose.

4. Where there is Life there is therefore purpose. The purpose of Life is self-propagation.

5. Humans share the complex DNA/protein biophysics of self-propagation with all cellular organisms, and therefore share with the family of organic Life a common purpose.

6. Assuming free will, the human purpose must be self-defined. It is best derived from the core human identity as part of Life. Therefore the human purpose is to forever safeguard and propagate Life and to establish the living pattern as a governing force throughout nature.

7. The human purpose defines the axioms of ethics. Moral good is that which promotes Life, and evil is that which destroys Life.

8. Life, in the complexity of its structures and processes, is unique amongst the hierarchy of structures in Nature. This unites the family of Life and raises it above the inanimate universe.

9. Biology is possible only by a precise coincidence of the laws of physics. Thus the physical universe itself is also at a special conjunction in the living process.

10. New life-forms who are most fit survive and reproduce best. This tautology - the judgment of fitness to survive by the act of survival itself - is the logic of Life. Whereas the mechanisms of Life may change, the logic of Life is permanent.

11. Survival is best secured by expansion, and biological progress is best assured by diversification, in space. Adaptation to space will drive human/machine coexistence, but control must always remain with organic intelligences with vested self-interest to continue the organic life-form. With conscious intelligence in control, Life will continue only if the will to do so is itself always propagated.

12. The human purpose and the destiny of Life are intertwined. The results can light up the galaxy with life, and affect the future patterns of the universe. When the living pattern pervades all Nature, human existence will have attained a cosmic purpose.

Points 3 - 5 do not imply that biology recognises an objective consciously. Rather, they reflect the principle of equivalence that underlie also relativity and Turing’s test of intelligence. If biology was seeking to propagate purposefully, it would act as it actually does. Therefore the biological process is equivalent to action with purpose. The panspermia program may have the following objectives.

• The complex mechanism of replication and transcription must be present even in the simplest cell. This creates a large probability barrier to the origin of life. If we are alone, we must safeguard and propagate this unique creation of nature.

• Eukaryotic and multicellular life emerged on Earth only after 3E9 yr. This shows a large probability barrier to higher evolution. Eukaryotes and simple multicellular species should be included in directed panspermia to induce higher evolution and maybe to new intelligent species who will promote Life further in the galaxy.

• There is no evidence now for extraterrestrial intelligent life. Should such civilisations exist, panspermia can serve as interstellar communication. The nature of our life-form is best communicated by samples. Competition for survival is intrinsic to Life, and directed panspermia may extend this to space. Our first duty is to our family of organic life.

Directed panspermia requires a permanent ethical foundation. The principles of panbiotic ethics derive from the scientific world-view and are consistent with the respect for life innate in human emotions, civilisations and religions. The Life-centered panbiotic purpose to propagate Life can therefore serve as a lasting basis for human ethics.

The panbiotic enterprise will extend Life to new solar systems through the galaxy. It will secure Life, allow diversification and lead to higher biological forms. Eventually, all the material in Nature will become living substance and its sustaining resources. Self-propagating Life will encompass all matter and the universe will become an interconnected living being. In fulfilling the ultimate purpose of Life, our human existence will have assumed a cosmic meaning.

 

Velkin Labs (c)