Date: Wed, 15 Nov 1995 18:14:28 +0100 (MET)
From: Anders Sandberg <nv91-asa@nada.kth.se>


The Soft Ones

"I saw something come sliding across the brownish-white ice
towards me. At first I couldn't shake away the image of a big
water-balloon some child had thrown in my direction; it moved
and wobbled in a way that was definitely liquid, and it was
somewhat translucent. As it got closer, I saw that it actually
consisted of a big central balloon (on which it slid like a
penguin on its stomach) surrounded by six podlike balloons,
which it apparently used to speed up its rather slow glide. It
didn't seem to notice me until it was very close, and then it
slowly glided to a halt and just stood there for a minute.
Then, without warning, it began to jump and down like an
insane rubber ball." 

The Soft Ones are probably the oldest members of the galactic
community, a minor race whose constant presence still has left
many traces. 


Biology and background: 

The Soft Ones evolved on a cold world, with great oceans of
ammonia solved in water. Due to complex interactions between
geothermal heating, solar insolation and orbital eccentricity
the amount of liquid and solid water vary a great deal, giving
rise to slowly varying environments and biochemistries. At
some times much of the water is frozen, and there are
stratified seas of organic brine, at other times all of the
hydrosphere is liquid and the concentrations drop. 

Life on this planet never developed the cell membrane as on
most other worlds, and instead based itself on gels and
networks of macromolecules. The counterpart to a cell is a
fractally branching ball of "proteins" (instead of amino acids
this biochemistry uses various fatty acids) where different
active groups control what substances move into and out from
the structure. Changes in salt or nutrient concentration or
even freezing seldom hurt such networks;  most lifeforms on
this world can stand being frozen solid for a long time. On
the other hand, this form of life has a very slow biochemistry
compared to most other lifeforms. 

The Soft Ones are descended from hunters who hunted on the
huge brine-covered ice plains of their planet when it was
coldest. They slid along the slippery surfaces on their smooth
bellies, propelled by their pod-like extremities. 

Soft Ones have a central balloon-like body around a meter in
diameter, surrounded by six pod-like arms/legs which usually
extend at least 80 centimetres. Despite their low and round
shapes, they are quite massive; adults often have a mass of
more than 1000 kilograms. 

A Soft One is covered by a very flexible and resilient skin,
which protects its gelatinous interior. It completely lacks
any internal or external skeleton, and instead of muscles it
has specialised gels linked to the skin which contract and
expand. I rip through the skin can be quite deadly, as the gel
inside quickly pours out. 

The skin of the pods is more flexible than the rest, and also
functions as a kind of simple hands. Soft Ones are able to
control their shape by extending or withdrawing parts of the
skin so well they can manipulate objects like a rather clumsy
human. On the other hand, they can also get as many opposable
thumbs they wish if they need them by changing pod shape. 

Soft Ones traditionally feed on smaller prey which they
silently glide towards, subdue by gliding on top of, and then
carefully crush using ice pieces. They then scoop the remains
into its mouth- orifices located on the undersides of the
pods, where the food is digested and the wasted finally
expelled as a liquid helping them to glide. 

Soft Ones see through light-sensitive spots arranged in
irregular patterns on the skin of the pods. While they are not
as versatile as eyes, the number of them gives an effect
roughly equal to a 360 degree compound eye that is
surprisingly light-sensitive (Soft Ones become very
uncomfortable in strong light). They have an excellent sense
of touch, temperature and vibration located in their bellies
and near the ends of their pods; a listening Soft One stands
completely still and holds all its pods to the ice beneath.
Soft Ones talk by vibrating and jumping to cause
ice-vibrations, a sight most humans find quite absurd. 

Soft ones, like practically all higher life on their
homeworld, reproduce by buds. Due to the loose structure of
their cells, genetic material is exchanged between different
individuals or even other species by close contact; after
being 2infected2 with genetic material one or more pods begin
to loose their strength and grow secondary pods. After a while
they simply drop off as independent, if smaller, soft ones.
For a while they remain with their parent and are taught the
basics, and latter entered into the schools of the community
(today teaching is often done by giving them artificial
memories and new skills, making childhood very short). 


Psychology: 

Soft Ones have a peculiar gelatinous brain, able to reorganise
itself even after some rather severe scrambling (a must for a
semi-liquid lifeform). Lower centres are distributed
throughout their bodies, often in several copies. Higher parts
of the nervous system form diffuse nexi between different
organs and 2nerves2, fibrous parts of the gel which transmit
signals using chemicals changing conformation. If hurt or
disconnected, the brain will quickly (for a Soft One) develop
new connections and links, often restoring practically all
information and intelligence. Memories are stored in pockets
containing special macromolecules which modern Soft Ones are
able to analyse and store, an important ritual in their
society. 

Their psychology is rather fluid, and individuals often change
personalities and preferences over their lifetimes even
without outside influence. This is regarded as quite natural,
and individuals who doesn9t change are usually seen as
disturbed in some way; one common method to help them is
simply to scramble their brains somewhat. This is
traditionally done by friends, who subject the patient to a
rather severe pushing, although today soft medicine has
developed drugs which make the liquefaction of the personality
less traumatic. 

Over their long history the Soft Ones have studied their own
psychology to a great extent, and they seems to have
understood it to their own satisfaction. They are able to
store memories and some skills from dead individuals for
posteriority, they are able to manipulate their own brains
into developing desirable traits using therapy, medication or
surgery and they have essentially tried out every reasonable
mental pattern and recorded its uses and drawbacks. Important
memories, skills and personalities can be stored in chemical
form, and inserted if needed. Many Soft Ones have personal
libraries of useful mental traits, many based on 2classic
personalities2. To completely change mood or personality
depending on situation is quite common for Soft Ones involved
in important work, and regarded as completely natural. 

Soft Ones are quite slow thinkers like most low-temperature
beings and this has shaped their relations to other species to
a large extent. Other species are too quick and changeable for
their taste;  making quick deductions and acting on them
without realising that such rash actions will only entail even
more speed. The Soft Ones see the universe as an immense flow,
where wise beings first carefully observes the patterns and
then aligns with them, not the other way around. 

Each individual is just a tiny streamline in this whole flow,
and important only in relation to the whole. To retain an
unchangeable identity is foolish and neurotic, its better to
fit in with the flow.  They have very little fear of death or
loosing their identity, since such events are rather
unimportant. If someone thinks a great thought or discover
something, it should be shared with everyone else so that it
can become part of the flow; the brilliant mind of the
discoverer might be worth preserving for future generations,
but that is as far as hero worship goes. Most Soft Ones are
quite convinced that there is very little to add to the
accumulated wisdom of the ages. 


History: 

The Soft Ones are an extremely old race, and have changed much
during their history. Their original societies were probably
nomadic packs of hunter/gatherers which slowly developed one
or more technological cultures over a very long time, probably
several hundred thousand years. One of these cultures
developed further than the others, and eventually expanded to
cover the entire planet. The oldest recorded history date from
this time, 5 million years in the past. During several
thousand years it slowly developed more advanced technology,
and finally reached slower than light spaceflight (this is the
slowest transit from a pre- technological state to spaceflight
known, and it seems to have been very smooth and uneventful). 

The Soft Ones spread across space in huge multigeneration
starships built from enormous cylinders of ice. They made
contact with other races and seems to have gradually explored
a large region of the galaxy in their typical slow and
methodical way, often using second hand technology. Under the
influence of these new experiences the old culture gradually
split into different new cultures which gradually began to
diverge more and more. 

During this period the Soft Ones 2terraformed2 several planets
and seems to have essentially turned them into images of their
homeworld. The Soft Ones responsible for this seems to have
been a more conservative fraction than the others, who
experimented with new forms of existence inspired by alien
races. The conservatives wanted to live lives according to the
flow of the universe, and that would imply living on
ammonia-water planets. These conservatives also saw to that
all the different worlds they lived on had detailed copies of
all the knowledge and history of the race, just to make sure
that the mind of the race would be as safe as the mind of the
individual. 

At the same time several divergent offshoots became important
in the interstellar community in various ways. At least one
group are known to have underwent complex biological re-design
and became some kind of artists-administrators near the
Hyades. Another group became partners to the Old Ones; they
seem to have helped them in their uplifting experiments,
something which proved to be their undoing in the Great War
where that offshoot was exterminated completely. A third group
seems to have left the galaxy in a great exodus some 100,000
years ago. Today only the stable planet- dwellers remain, and
those in the vicinity have quietly joined the Coalition. 

During the War the Soft Ones were largely ignored. They
remained neutral as long as possible, apparently accepting the
destruction of several of their worlds. Eventually they sided
with the Coalition, giving some helpful hints on how to deal
with the Herders, but not taking any direct action unless
gravely in danger. During the Restoration they remained
passive, leaving the division of space to the younger species.
They had very few interests off-planet, so they simply traded
the volumes of space the Coalition awarded them for defence
treaties with their neighbours. 


Relations to Other Species

Today the Soft Ones remain a passive but respected member of
the Coalition. Their old age and inscrutability have lended
them an air of wisdom among many of the younger races,
especially the more stable ones like the Gools. The more
dynamic races like the Ikkadju regard them more as an ancient
curiosity and sometimes an irritating hindrance of their
visions of a renewed Coalition. 

The Soft Ones have become the archivists and historians of the
Coalition, recording all important information in their great
libraries. These underground constructs filled with
ion-recorded metal needles and computer archives record
history at least 5 million years back, describing several
races now thought to be extinct and describing several remote
regions of space. They are the best source of information
about the Old Ones and their empire, including their many
philosophies and sciences. Many scholars want to explore these
treasures of knowledge, but dealing with the slow and often
unpredictable Soft Ones requires a great deal of patience. 

Most worlds dominated by the Soft Ones have a single spaceport
where visitors live. There are no real limitations of where
visitors may move on planet, but there are few provisions made
for tourism or exploration by aliens. Most aliens find the
Soft Ones hard to deal with. 


Society

Today the Soft Ones have an old and very static culture. They
have explored their own minds to the limit (which in itself is
no mean feat, no other race has ever succeeded), studied many
other races and experienced a longer recorded history than
anybody else. Their culture has not changed in structure or
character for at least a 100,000 years, despite the upheavals
in the galaxy around them. 

Soft Ones live in communities of around 500 individuals
forming small towns of peculiarly twisted buildings (not
unlike earthly seashells, connected by a network of sloping
ramps and glideries).  Each town is run by a council of a few
Soft Ones who have proven their merit in some way, but usually
the rather rigid society runs itself according to custom. Each
town is independent from all other towns. To a human it would
give the impression of a conservative hamlet, where everybody
knows everybody and everything is done as it always has. 

On a planetary scale the towns keep in touch using a rugged
communications network, but most of the time they do not
interact much. The only exception is the irregular
pilgrimages, where the inhabitants begin to move from place to
place. At first just a few individuals move from one town to
another, driven by a need for change. This makes other
individuals begin to move, and gradually millions of people
shift from one city to another, reforming society.  After a
while everything returns to normal. 

If necessary the various towns coordinate their actions into a
planetary 2town meeting2. This is very rare, and have seldom
occurred after the War. This town meeting is the only one able
to authorise the use of weapons or violence. The Soft Ones
have a simple but stable society and do not want to change it. 


Culture

The libraries have an important function among Soft Ones. They
store all kinds of information, and especially the mental
macromolecules used to change personality and memories. In
immense arrays capsules containing famous personalities,
important emotions or great insights are stored. Through a
nanotechnological process these capsules can be replicated,
and used to change an individual. This has developed into a
kind of art among the Soft Ones, where psychologists and
artists try to create new mental states that are recorded (but
many feel this art has long since passed its apex, today most
interesting states have been discovered). Memories are often
enjoyed, and a Soft One that has experienced something
interesting is often recorded. 

Beside mental arts, the Soft Ones are meticulous in storing
and recording everything due to their own imperfect memories.
This in turn have forced them to develop elaborate indexing
schemes to deal with archives several million years old.
Studying and dealing with old archives is a popular pastime,
and sometimes interesting discoveries are done. Especially
popular are attempts to find correlated or beautiful patterns
in ancient and new information, showing the patterns of the
flow. 


Technology

The Soft Ones left today have never been fond of technology
like most other species. The civilisation that reached the
stars was technophilic, but still took millennia to develop
even simple machines. The conservatives who terraformed new
planets simply regarded it as a tool to use and then put away,
and today most Soft Ones agree. Technological or scientific
development among the Soft Ones have been practically zero for
a long time. 

The technological level of an ordinary town is amazingly low,
roughly on the level of the late 19th century. People glide
along the streets, large transports are moved on sleds drawn
by animals (flat, flounder-like beings) and buildings are
sparsely lit by electric lamps.  This doesn9t mean the Soft
Ones are technologically underdeveloped, just that they don9t
use advanced technology very much. In the libraries and town
centres powerful computers are placed, medical personnel have
access to nanotechnology and records with detailed
descriptions of advanced science are easily available. Less
obvious are the hidden bases where weapons and starships are
stowed away. 

Most of the technology owned by the Soft Ones is based on the
designs of other species, the result of aeons of trading,
observation and sometimes downright theft. If they would one
day choose to apply all their knowledge, they could easily
become the most technologically advanced race in the
Coalition, but they have chosen not to develop it in order to
follow the flow. 

