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What non-human intelligent species have been described in Eclipse Phase?

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Sat, 2011-09-17 20:21
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rfmcdonald rfmcdonald's picture
What non-human intelligent species have been described in Eclipse Phase?
For my curiosity as much as anything else, I was curious as to a census of the various non-human intelligent species, living and dead both, that feature in Eclipse Phase. The Factors, representatives of an interstellar civilization of broad extent that may include multiple different species/civilizations, are the only extant technological species currently in contact with transhumanity. Additionally, Gatecrashing mentions that about ten different non-human intelligent species, all long gone, have been found via gatecrashing. (Spoilers below.) [collapse] The most prominent of these is probably the Iktomi, with detailed descriptions of their presences on Droplet, Echo V, and Sunrise provided, along with passing mention of the Iktomi ruins on the world of Haplopelma inspiring xenodeists. (Nice name, Haplopelma, by the way, for a world of sentient spiders.) Single-planet intelligent species include the extinct but revivable Lucans on Luca II and maybe also the extant oct hives of that world, too, the Moravecians wherever they went, and the Amphib of Droplet. Artifacts were left behind by whoever created the Toadstool on Droplet, the separate fixor-maker and truck-making civilizations on Portal, by several non-Iktomi civilzations on Sunrise, and by the makers of Olaf. Civilizations as yet unknown to transhumanity at large include the starfaring civilization of 300 million years ago that left a probe on Venus (as detailed in Sunward, the civilization that made the Bracewell probe that got the TITANs started off, and--depending on whether or not they are separate from the Bracewell probe-makers--the civilization that made the massive dust-shrouded computronium planetoids shrouded in the dust cloud near Corse. [/collapse] Did I miss anyone?
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Sun, 2011-09-18 10:19
Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture
Re: What non-human intelligent species have been described ...
Vorhaul?
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Extropian
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Mon, 2011-09-19 05:38
nick012000 nick012000's picture
Re: What non-human intelligent species have been described ...
Don't forget all the uplifts transhumanity has made as well.
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+1 r-Rep , +1 @-rep

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Thu, 2011-09-22 15:42
BlackJaw BlackJaw's picture
Re: What non-human intelligent species have been described ...
I've tossed together a nice list of what I think are the known "intelligent races" in Eclipse Phase. I've hidden it so as to not spoil things for people, as there are a lot of interesting bits from Gatecrashing, but also a few hidden bits in other books. [collapse collapsed] Races associated with Humanity: [list] [*]AGIs [*]TITANS [*]Prometheans [*]Uplifted Octopuses [*]Uplifted whales/Dolphins (various) [*]Uplifted Apes (various) [*]Uplifted Ravens & Parrots [*]Uplifted Pigs [*]Uplifted Neanderthals [*]Uplifted Elephants (Extinct/lost) [*]Synergy Collective Mind [/list] Alien Races are not all extinct, although most of the technological ones are. The rest are either somewhat primitive, or are very strange. In most cases humanity doesn't know about them. The black boxes of Giza are an odd case of not being sure they are real, and only having limited access to them. [list] [*]Factors [*]Iktomi (Extinct) [*]ETI (Godlike) [*]Aliens that left a probe on Venus in the distant past (long gone) [*]Organic Space Craft in Babylon's Sun [*]Amphibious Race of Droplet (extinct) [*]Deep Aquatic Race of Droplet (extinct) [*]Lucans (extinct) [*]Moravec Race (Extinct or uploaded and hiding) [*]Tanaka Megalifeforms (not understood by transhumanity yet) [*]Vohaul natives (undiscovered, yet) [*]Races contacted through Giza Black Boxes (Maybe a trick) [/list] Smart Animals, which aren't considered sentient but are intelligent enough to make use of speech in many cases. [list] [*]Standard "dumb" AIs [*]Smart Dogs (various) [*]Smart Wolves [*]Smart Horses [*]Smart Camels [*]Smart Rats [*]Smart Monkeys (various) [*]Smart Apes (various) [*]Smart Cats (various, including "Swarm cats") [*]Smart birds (pigeons are mentioned) [*]Oct hives of Luca II [/list] There are also lots of clear examples of places with technology implying alien races, but are to vague to list. The Exoplanet Portal has signs of colonization multiple times by many races over massive amounts of time, but most are vague or undifined in the books. Clearly someone built Penrose station, but it might be the ETI instead of some new alien race. Do we count the Bluewood trees as intelligent or are they more an organic computer system left by someone else? [/collapse]
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Sat, 2011-09-24 23:24
rfmcdonald rfmcdonald's picture
Re: What non-humbuan intelligent species have been described ...
The makers of Bluewood count as an unknown intelligence, but I don't know about the bluewood forest itself. I've joked with a friend that the world-forest appreciates the extra bandwidth from the transhuman settlements, to be sure ... ;-)
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Sun, 2011-09-25 13:28
Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture
Re: What non-humbuan intelligent species have been described ...
rfmcdonald wrote:
The makers of Bluewood count as an unknown intelligence, but I don't know about the bluewood forest itself. I've joked with a friend that the world-forest appreciates the extra bandwidth from the transhuman settlements, to be sure ... ;-)
It's Eywa, of course! a good idea for a semi-intelligent alien species would be the one shown in Attack of the Block. Those are nasty little fuckers, that's for sure!
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