Kinkajou Interviews “ 
They Who Keep”
(Alan Dean Foster: Midworld)
They Who Keep: Ah! Kinkajou: Greetings of truth: We relished the prospect of communicating with you.
Kinkajou: Thank you indeed. I had never communicated with an intelligent tree before. I had initially attempted to communicate with Ruumahum. However, he explained that Furcots only have a limited intelligence. He suggested that I first talk with the keepers of the brethren, who know many things quickly.
They Who Keep: Yes indeed. I think it is most appropriate that you talk to us, the guardians of the life on this planet. We have not always had intelligence. There was a time when we neither spoke nor thought, before the persons came. This is a fact.
By incorporating the brains of humans naturally deceased within nodes of our life tree, we began to acquire facets of intelligence. The process is complex. Each burl node is keyed to respond rapidly to the presence of suitable organic material. A resinous sap is secreted, quickly isolating and controlling access by other bacterial agents. Special wood neurones invade the dead brain quickly replacing nerve tissue and preserving synaptic structures and memories.
Our capacity to feel or empathy is crucial to our ability to co-opt foreign neural material into our nexus, as it serves to guide the growth fibres into their proper pasts. It takes years of familiarity “communication” to train the wood neurones of the proper path to take to acquire intelligence.
The acquisition of human intelligence has proven to be crucial to our ascendance to singularity. Of all the animals on the planet only a human would sit and waste their time, watching things like lettuce and flowers that would neither nourish or kill. The process of survival, feeding and reproduction demands all the neural processing power of an animal be singly devoted to these tasks.
By acquiring human brains within our burl nodes, we also (They Who Keep), developed the capacity for the same thought and intelligence.
I have to admit that humans have been useful to have around. They are possessed of a sense of humour all of their own, much different to that of the other consciousness’s within our realm. The Furcots have said they have a way of finding good things to eat and making a very eating enjoyable. Even the Furcots say that in this they were willing to overlook their many faults.
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Kinkajou: Sounds perhaps a bit morbid.
They Who Keep: Remember we never take. We only accept what is offered. We do not take living brains away from their owners, any more than we would steal an immature flower from the bush. Our path allows an expansion of consciousness past the time when death negates all thought. We would never willingly force a consciousness or an intelligence to become part of us before its time without permission. In this we differ from “raw” humans in that our empathy makes us consider the needs of others as well as our own.
When we discovered humans, we realised the species was in danger on this world. It was we who initiated the introduction of humans to Furcots into the home tree. Partnerships and symbiosis is a powerful path to survival.
The relationship developed to the point with the humans kept the tree and in turn the home tree would keep them. Neither party would easily consider life without a relationship to the other, as is good and proper for this world. In the end it would be difficult to say who has adapted to whom.
Has man adapted to the tree, or has the tree adapted to man? It is only by an intervention that such a relationship has been able to develop so quickly and so fully. Few of the humans in our world would consider living in a dead thing, such as the houses of which I have heard. Marvels they are. Yet they are dead, not alive. You cannot empathise (emfol) with a dead thing.
Kinkajou: We do not empathise with our plants.
They Who Keep: Ah! That explains much.
Kinkajou: There are many concepts to be considered in animal husbandry, (albeit of humans). To understand animal’s behaviour and its susceptibilities you need to keep a record of the outcome of many events in the life of the animal. How do you do this?
They Who Keep: We form a distributed information storage network mediated by a plant analogy of human neurones. However the different structure, creates different constraints. Our Neural structures are well able to store information in wax like coalescences.
This is actually a better method of storing information than human neurones provide as information is more robust and less prone to deterioration. However, access is slower and cross node linkage requires physical transport of memory elements (wax) to specific processing centres. Information Processing is distributed to many centres (burls).
So the plant intelligence we are very well placed to store information, at a high density and with very low information degradation characteristics but with slower access times than is typical of many animals.
This type of situation matches the demands of biology and of survival. Animals need to react quickly and comprehensively to situational changes around them. Plants have evolved to take many of the same tasks but at different speeds.
I think the human analogy is the comparison between the tortoise and the hare in a race. The hare may race ahead quickly towards the finishing line. However, the tortoise can keep going far far longer and stronger and achieve the same result.
Kinkajou: I begin to see how plant intelligence is in fact possible and how it may in many aspects be complimentary to animal intelligence. Humans use computer systems to store information. Your natural biological system can store compatible volumes of information with similarly low degradation rates, longer term and with less energy expenditure in maintenance. Have you ever been forced to deal with the problem of information theft? (Human computer systems deal with this by encryption).
They Who Keep: We have a different priority. Individuals of the “They Who Keep” are designed to interface and share with their brethren. So we tend to use a similar information coding regimes. The situation of information theft for us has really never arisen. Physical security is easy. We are able to communicate with and co-opt many different animals to cooperatively assist us in maintaining our integrity and that of our information.
The ability to empathise means that a consensus always tends to develop between us. We essentially function as a single intelligent individual occupying the entire planet. I suppose the human description would be a Gaean type of intelligence. We have very different priorities to individual animals and are responsible to every animal and every plant within our embrace. Humans and many others will never be able to come and go with impunity in our realm.
Kinkajou: How do you act to assist helpless individuals within your realm?
They Who Keep: Our emphasis is to the long-term. Every species to survive must obtain energy, generally by eating others or obtaining access to sunlight. So our emphasis is to create interdependent niches for our Lifeforms. If a Lifeforms has a niche or a role, this is often sufficient to enable it survival.
For instance the combining of humans, Furcots and the HomeTree is a powerful symbiosis almost guaranteeing the survival of the species. Because the species can all empathise, they take from the environment only what the environment can give, damaging little and allowing all the species with which they interface to continue to survive.
Species such as the human often do look after their own. The village social structure which humans introduced allows individuals who may be temporally injured or unwell to be cared for until they can return to full function. This was indeed an interesting innovation which caused us to really look and take stock of the new human resources available to us.
In the event that individuals break with community empathy, it is the community that can act to enforce its will on the individual. This forces many to act within the framework that guarantees community survival in a nexus of species.
You must also remember that the food chain analogy becomes almost a religion with us. Animals higher up the food chain are entitled to eat those animals and plants lower on the food chain. Existence demands this. Life and death are intertwined and interlinked.
Kinkajou: Would you call your world a Paradise?
They Who Keep: Our world is indeed a paradise to us. It supports us, it nurtures us and it makes life possible for us. From our acquaintances with humans, we know that many other worlds cannot support life to the extent that this world can. Our multitude of species with their multitude of biological and biochemical attributes creates strength available to us all.
Life here supports other life.
The giant trees which go down to the lowest level of the world support the huge mass of the layers of the world above. Mirror vines reflect light deep into the multiple layers allowing photosynthesis to occur well below the canopy of our world, from reflected light. Cubbles form the roadways of our world allowing animals access to different habitats and hunting grounds.
Our world is indeed our paradise.
Gold Coast Paradise
However, I can see that it is not a paradise to others. Humans could well have become extinct here if not for our intervention.
I’ve heard tell from humans of the concept of the paradise game. Paradise worlds are created by the intent of a higher intelligence or higher power to capture creatures such as humans.
Once captured, they can be infested and controlled. Humans have often wondered why the skies are not filled with intelligence. It seems to us that it is an act of intelligence to defend one’s territory from others. Perhaps to some more paranoid species, defending one’s territory involves the destruction of other species. This is not our way. We will defend ourselves and our own. However, we prefer to incorporate into blend with others not to exterminate them.
Kinkajou: Do you realise that humans have discovered burl extracts capable of substantially prolonging life? Extracts from single “burl” are capable of doubling the lifespan of 200 to 300 people.
They Who Keep: Yes an interesting realisation for us. To steal a burl is to steal the mind and soul not only of a once living animal or Furcot, but also to steal a mind from one of us. It seems unrealistic and foolish to us, that humans seek to strip these burls from our world.
We are capable of knowingly synthesising these chemical compounds ourselves. To emfol or to ask permission would be our way. Why steal when a gift can be freely acquired and freely given? Why destroy when this would damage other lives? It is such considerations that weigh heavy on us in our relationship to humans on this world.
Exploitation is far less sustainable than trade. Why do humans insist on exploitation?
Kinkajou: A good question. It is in the nature I’m afraid.
They Who Keep: Our knowledge tells us that there are many ways to extend life. Though currently we are only a new intelligence, already we have discerned the different life expectancies of different species. In our world predation and the food chain cause many of the losses/deaths.
We have begun to appreciate how even microscopic biological agents infest larger organisms causing damage and a truncation of life expectancy. Microbes are also predators of a sort. Microbes belong in the food chain. To this extent they fit within our food chain model of life expectancy.
However, Microbes do not empathise. It will be some time before we attain the capacity in understanding to be able to extend lives and to extend capabilities, by controlling microbial action. In this respect you’re far in advance of us.
Microbes in the Paill Plus model are significant causes of human injury and disease. These germs are becoming an important consideration in our planning to preserve human neural functions for our collective benefit.
I think the only form of life extension that is an anathema to us, is the development of cyborgs. We are biological entity. We develop as an empathising community living organisms. At this point we cannot see machines developing enough empathy to fit within our social matrix on this world.
The extent that we wish to preserve life or extend life is of course a serious question, suitable for serious consideration. The answer would be that this is valuable to the extent that it enhances the whole not the individual.
Kinkajou: So old one, where to next? Why are you not at rest like others of your brethren?
They Who Keep: I study “man” little one.
Kinkajou: May wisdom and understanding flower with your branches. Goodbye.
HealthRecord True.html |
Alan Dean Foster |
They Who Keep |
Midworld |
HelpingHopelessTrue.html |
Alan Dean Foster |
They Who Keep |
Midworld |
LifeExtensionTrue.html |
Alan Dean Foster |
They Who Keep |
Midworld |
Paradise Game |
Alan Dean Foster |
They Who Keep |
Midworld |
Kinkajou interviews Jim Kiel (Wolfling: Gordon R Dickson)
Kinkajou: Tell us how the worlds of your era developed.
Jim Kiel: The centre of our civilisation is the throne world. When it was decided to make it the centre of our civilisation, people drifted there, inevitably the better academic and inventive minds of the colony worlds.
It became the intellectual hub of the human universe. Its intellectual population began developing into an elite, added to only sparingly by the best minds of the colony worlds. The elite became the highborn – with special breeding controls giving them the physical marks of the aristocracy.
They are a true aristocracy. Not only are their reflexes faster than those of others such as their bodyguards, but their memory is better, their intelligence is greater, their discernment and perceptions are sharper than those of any other human beings.And yes, the “highest of the highborn” are even more superior to those “normal highborn” of the throne world themselves.
The development of health records and the ability to plot the coalescence of genetic traits across generations facilitated the development of this aristocracy. Knowledge is the key.Sub – Specialisation is a feature of our civilisation. Bodyguards are not only trained, but bred to be bodyguards. The highborn do not show their age. None of the highborn are ever sick.
Instead of badges or escutcheons to mark their aristocracy, they gave themselves outsize bodies and minds, at the same time ensuring that none who do not belong to their elite could compete with them as individuals.
Kinkajou: It is interesting how the generational use of health information can facilitate such a development. How about yourself? You do not seem to have the marks of this aristocracy – the highborn.
Jim Kiel: I was this tall when I was 10 years old. I was stopped from growing. Some of our medical practitioners ran a lot of tests on me, because I was so big for my age. They couldn’t find anything wrong with me, but they put me on an extract of the pituitary gland to curb my growing and it worked. I stopped growing physically. But went on growing in other ways. So although I do not appear as a highborn, I do in fact bear many of the traits of these rulers of our civilisation.
Kinkajou: Thank you for your indulgence. Is interesting how technology: namely even lowly tech like health records can be used to change humanity itself, hopefully for the better.
In my world we do not try to fit ourselves into a common mould. Instead we prize the differences. Civilisation developed due to presence of different traits in the people on our planet. And different traits built very different civilisations. It’s almost as if the genes built the civilisation.
HealthRecord True.html |
Dickson, Gordon R. |
Jim Keil |
Wolfling |