The Tree Hugger - SMACX AI Growth mod version 1.52

[bvanevery]

The Tree Hugger
a Planet drama starring

Lady Deirdre Skye - ecologist
CEO Nwabudike Morgan - capitalist
Foreman Domai - socialist
Aki Zeta-5 - cyberneticist
H'minee, Marr - Alien menaces
Cha Dawn - slick cult leader

Details I am the Sequoia

I am the Sequoia

[bvanevery]

Details planetfall

planetfall

The USS Unity broke apart in animosity.  The politics of some, were not compatible with the new world they found themselves in.  Chairman Yang of the Hive, Brother Lal of the U.N. Peacekeepers, and Sister Miriam Godwinson of the Believers - all perished.  Whether by mutual annihilation or inability to respond to their new environment, we never knew. 

We suspected similarly of 'Colonel' Santiago and her spartan survivalist faction.  Whatever they knew how to survive, it wasn't this.  And we imagined professor Zhakarov in his ivory tower, stepping out into this very new, real world, and being eaten.

Morgan, who sought to dominate Planet, burned away its fungus.  Domai, who sought collective democratic action, amassed enough labor to force their frontier.  Aki, the half-cyborg, simply bean counted her way to a viable populace, sacrificing many of its members along the way.

And we, grew the trees.

[bvanevery]

Details the new reality

the new reality

We took bold risks in the early days, asking every person to take their step over the next horizon.

Details aqueous inhabitant

aqueous inhabitant

Aside from rummaging our supply pods, we found abundant specimens in the creeks and rivers.

Details taming of the wild

taming of the wild

But somehow, we had a faith in ourselves, that if only we remembered we were not on Earth, we would do well here.

Details very well

very well

Even when we thought we must fight, sometimes we found, we did not have to.  The lesson impressed us deeply, and we remembered it for all our time forward.

[bvanevery]

Details settlement

settlement

Mission year 2102.  In the great commons at Gaia's Landing we have a tall and particularly beautiful stand of white pine, planted at the time of the first colonies. It represents our promise to the people, and to Planet itself, never to repeat the tragedy of Earth.

[bvanevery]

Details choice of existence

choice of existence

Our people were mostly scientists, deeply concerned with how our knowledge and progress had been abused for evil.  We believed in science, but also in the need to deal with life as it actually came to us.  This was the environment, and we were in it.  We were empirical.  We listened, we watched, we found what worked.

[bvanevery]

Details the unfortunate event

the unfortunate event

Mission Year 2105.  We were not the only aliens to arrive here.  If we had sought refuge in the stars, and found life here against all expectation, then surely, life more advanced than our own must exist somewhere else.  This did not answer the thorny question, of why such life must exist here.  We were not happy to share our fledgling existence, as we knew the potential import.  But we did accept it.

[bvanevery]

Details floating to farther shores

floating to farther shores

The behemoths of the sea, are quite serviceable, when properly tamed with a few stores of fish.

[bvanevery]

Details evidence

evidence

Their many tendrils accumulate all manner of drifting ocean junk.  The skeletal specimens were fascinating, and gave us insight into the planet's oceanic cycle.  But this one, indigestible, opened a whole new field of study.

[bvanevery]

Details election

election

Mission Year 2114.  With no threats in our immediate environment, and easy exploration of Planet's surface, we saw our tiny settlements as prosperous and secure.  The most ethically high minded among us, pronounced that we should formalize our governance.  Being mostly a monoculture of concerned scientists, the perils of organized politics did not meet with much consternation.

Details everyone wants democracy

everyone wants democracy

Apart from ethics, a convincing case was made for the practical benefits.  No one saw any downside to proscription against the experimental practice of nerve stapling.  Although an inevitable discovery in our efforts to control mindworms more successfully, most regarded it as an abomination.

Details practical matters

practical matters

If we had put it to a vote, our Constitution would surely have passed unanimously.  But in reality, we were tiny.  We did not even have a spare battery, to run an electronic voting machine.  Someone proposed the use of paper products, which didn't go over well as an industrial cycle.  Someone else proposed the return to cuneiform.  The matter was tabled when democracy was recognized as an ongoing administrative duty.  People would have to be diverted from other labors, and presently, this we could not afford.

[bvanevery]

Details Johnny Appleseed

Johnny Appleseed

The first forests of Planet were not in fact planted by us.  Not deliberately.  We stumbled upon a Unity supply pod containing a genetic bank and stockpiles of ammonium nitrate fertilizer.  The conditions of crash resulted in an oily mix just perfect for spreading seeds for many, many miles.  We could literally say, that forestry on Planet, was booming.

[bvanevery]

Details further evidence

further evidence

Although we were scientists, with requisite curiosity, we just didn't enjoy that this new Planet was so... traveled.  We found these sturdy ruins, and eventually more of the same, but no evidence of any urbanization or industrialization.  What happened here?  Something must have happened here, to wipe out any other trace of a clearly manufactured past.  Was this entire planet, some kind of a farm?  Was this monolith, its version of a maintenance shed?  Would some entities come by, someday, to collect the "crops" ?  What form would this collection take?

Those of us with firsthand experience of mountain strip mining back on Earth, shuddered to think of what form a planetary engineering operation could take.  What if giant alien ships showed up, to sweep everything off the surface and leave nothing behind?  Others argued that we mustn't let irrational fears and projections run away with us.  First, we might be the only aliens.  They might be native to this system.

Second, what little we had seen of other aliens, who might nevertheless be visitors like ourselves, had ships of not terribly impressive size.  Third, we saw no indication of storage or processing facilities, no indication of earth moving equipment.  One would expect such things of a farming operation, a staging and orderly movement of goods.  Here, we saw no trace.

Geological core samples, revealed nothing.  We could tell that this planet had been through transitions of lesser or greater fungal growth, much like the rings of a tree.  And that the size of the rings, was increasing.  But otherwise, it was a mystery.  At least we had something to do.  To research, if we ever otherwise thought we lacked for things to do.

[bvanevery]

Details the triage expert

the triage expert

Mission Year 2116.  Quite far from our settlement, we meet the 'android' who simply jettisoned any crew member, she thought would not make a meaningful contribution.  There is no humanity in her.  We don't know what she currently calculates as a benefit or liability, but if she cannot see value in this new Planet....

Details no autumn harvest dances then

no autumn harvest dances then

She speaks of rationality and order, but life simply isn't like that.  The machines she aspires to, are not evolved systems, at least not yet.  They have not been tested against the empirical rigors of reality.  Aki Zeta-5 is, perhaps, the ultimate idealist.  Incapable of conceiving anything, except in its ideal form.

Details tempting offer

tempting offer

For a scientist, she certainly hasn't come far in her thinking about the basic tradeoffs of moral systems.  Including commerce!  If you want me to trade, you must have something I want.  We think, you are over there.  We think, you haven't the slightest clue about mindworms, core samples, or alien fungal farms.  We think, anything you know about this part of the world, we will know 5 years from now.  We think, if you plan on expending us, to make your puny colony basically work...

Details her inflatable dinghies

her inflatable dinghies

Yes yes we're so impressed, you managed to preserve rubber upon landing.  Same as we all did.  Well, everyone who lived, in fairness.  You should join Zhakarov patrolling the rivers in circles in your rubber dinghies.  I'm sure we'll find him in the bowels of an Isle one of these years.

Details why am I not surprised

why am I not surprised

A chip brain that doesn't understand basic human amusement.  Yes we're scientists too, we like to geek out same as the next one.  But we do play tether ball, and pinochle, and a few video games... you truly have none of this possible for yourselves?

Details a calculated peace

a calculated peace

Despite her history of immoral decisionmaking, or leading minds correctly observe that she is no threat, at present.  We needn't expend any additional resources concerning ourselves with her foolishness.  And who knows, she may have a use some day.  Or at least serve as a trip wire for a real threat.

[bvanevery]

Details free and fair elections

free and fair elections

In light of our new neighbors, and our formal Treaty status, our leading moralists urge that a formal governmental structure is absolutely necessary.  And that furthermore, we must send a strong and united diplomatic voice, as to what will or won't be tolerated from them.  I run for the office of Colonial Governor, on a platform of strict non-interference in the workings of the human brain.  Such as for nerve stapling disobedient citizens into submission, an act we're sure Aki would not think once of.  I win easily, as no one actually disagrees with the premise, and I am the senior xenobiologist.

In truth, my campaign is less a matter of personal conviction.  It is more a matter of, making sure the cyborgs do not harm the planet.  And if they do so, we will need to make war upon them.  And for that, the people need reasons to hate them.  Scientific debate is lively, vigorous, and unpredictable.  Anyone who has worked on a large research project, knows the difficulty of herding cats.  The one researcher who is sure, they have broken the paradigm.  Everyone else is wrong...

If we must act, and turn our mindworms against the cyborgs, then we must have long since understood them, to be a threat.  Not just fellow researchers making brilliant logical deductions.

[bvanevery]

Details reformation

reformation

Mission Year 2117.  A massive earthquake, the second we have experienced since planetfall, utterly and irrevocably altered the water channel south of our continent.  Our land scout somehow became the epicenter while pushing about in a supply pod.  Our rubber dinghy observed it from the east, and narrowly escaped the tidal waves with their lives.  We wonder if we will now be barred strategic access from some part of the world, but our long range scans do not look quite so grim.  Shrugging, the more ineffable of our research teams simply headed south on foot.  "Planet happens."

Details effects at a distance

effects at a distance

In another remarkable turn of events, a sea salvage operation suddenly galvanized our citizens to leave Gaia's Landing.  They set off to found our 3rd city, perhaps near that wonderful grove of trees we 'planted'.  Not all accidents on Planet are bad.

Details gaining resources

gaining resources

We have not honored our Treaty with the cyborgs, and don't plan to, until asked.  After all, they inconveniently interrupted our explorations with their presence.  This artifact is certainly proof that we were right to keep plodding along in the bush.  We will escort it all the way home though, for fear that some cyborg scout doing much the same in our own territory, might take it from us.  The rather slow and languid movement of our mindworm handlers to our border, will also give the appearance of honoring the Treaty.

[bvanevery]

Details defensive road

defensive road

Mission Year 2118.  We have built our first terraformer.  With a clean fission reactor, it is completely self-sustaining.  Although by definition such a machine does ecological damage, we can put such a machine to positive uses.  A big debate ensues over whether to immediately begin planting forests, or to build roads connecting our cities.  It is not a trivial concern as cut roadways tend to interfere with the natural spreading of trees.  A compromise is reached: build roads along rocky prominences that could never grow trees anyways, and on riverbeds that are inevitably destined for hydroelectric harnessing.  We are ecologists, but we know human civilization can never have zero impact.