The Orangutans

The Orangutans are genetic modifications of the terrestial orangutan. These modifications include minor enhancements to the brain to increase sentience and gregariousness, enhanced vocal cords for human speech, and an increase in leg length and hip structure to improve upright watching. A less tangible alteration was an increase in the time needed for maturation, which was required by some of the other alterations. Improvements in hand and foot structure were not needed, given that orangutans already possessed opposable thumbs.

Other aspects of orangutans were left untouched, including the tendency of males to outbulk females by about a third, and the emergence of face pads in dominant males. However, both these tendencies have gradually become much less prominent as the Orangutans became adapted to a cultural life. Female Orangutans are now within 10% the size of males, and exaggerated face pads are now seen as atavistic, along with the males' competitive displays.

Since their re-creation, the Orangutans have gone on to create their own culture and colonize their own planets. However, although the Orangutans have become a successful species, many Humans point to the unexpected outcomes of the experiment as a reason for discouraging similar experiments with sentient or near-sentient species. By contrast, the Orangutans have been the chief advocates of such experiments, believing them a moral imperative for a species with their past.

Biology and ecology

Native to the equatorial rain forests of earth, orangutans were arboreal and often solitary creatures. Their closest ties were between children and mothers, who generally stayed together for about seven years. Males were particularly reclusive, staking out territories and defending them, and spending only a few days with females during mating. At other times, orangutans did little more than tolerate each other in their lines of sight.

During the development of modern Orangutans, this lack of gregariousness was identified as a major impediment to the development of sentient culture, as well as being a reason for a sub-replacement birth rate. For these reasons, considerable effort went into trying to make the species more socially oriented. However, these efforts were only partly successful. Modern Orangutans are indeed more social than the Sumatran sub-species, but still far less so than Humans.

Moreover, so far as the modifications worked, they had unexpected results. One such was that the efforts to increase gregariousness were most successful in female Orangutans. Rather than caring for their infants individually, female Orangutans undertake childcare communally, and have developed strong family ties, largely with other females in their families. In fact, such ties are the basis of Orangutan culture and economics.

In male Orangutans, the modifications have had more mixed results. The general trend in males does seem to be towards greater social interaction, but, currently, an uneasy compromise seems to prevail in their behavior. The average male lives a largely solitary life, and his need for social interaction is so slight that it is largely satisfied by verbal and written exchanges on planetary communication networks. This combination causes the average Orangutan male of breeding age to be immensely interested in gossip, as well as academic matters.

Similarly, the amount of territory claimed by each male is now reduced to little more than an area of about 400 square metres, as opposed to the up to 300 square kilometres often claimed by unmodified orangutans. No doubt a technological culture that reduces the area needed for foraging is partly responsible for this change. However, males continue to defend their territories from other males. They also seem to have transferred this territoriality to their ideas. As a result, heated intellectual discussions conducted via planetary networks are notorious among males, while intellectuals from other species are well-advised to avoid such discussions at academic conferences. It is only as the males pass breeding age that they modify their behaviour enough to participate in the governments of their planets.

The modifications were only slightly more successful in encouraging a move down from the trees. Although Orangutans often find walking convenient when among Humans, they still show a marked preference for life in the trees. The typical Orangutan settlement consists of a number of female-owned houses and businesses, each surrounded by fruit trees, with outlying houses for males, many of whom are too heavy to spend much time in the trees.

The buildings for females and children often have no access from the ground, although settlements that Humans or other intelligent species are likely to visit often have elevators and overhead walkways made of natural substances for their benefits. Male dwellings are more accessible, although visiting Humans are advised to approach them openly and making as much noise as possible, especially if they are male.

In many ways, the genetic modifications that produced the modern Orangutans seem not to have altered the behaviour of the original stock so much as softened and channelled it. Both Humans and Orangutans have discussed the desirability of future modifications, but the culture that resulted from the modifications has now become so much a part of Orangutan life that few would be willing to risk changing it.

History and Culture

For much of human history, orangutans existed chiefly as genetic specimens. Lack of sound environmental practices by humans amd the low birth rate for the orangutans made them extinct in the wild before the first human colonization of other planets, and the last breeding pair in captivity is recorded as having died in IY -7345 on the planet Aurora.

However, as with chimpanzees and gorillas, orangutans continue to fascinate biologists because of their evolutionary closeness to humanity. To this day, orangutan DNA continues to be preserved in genetic libraries, and from time to time, small breeding populations have been created for the edification of wealthy planets or patrons, including a number of emperors. Occasionally, too, attempts to create captive breeding populations have been made, notably on Aurora in IY 700 and 1496, and on Rawlins' Station in IY 2387. However, these attempts all failed, due largely to eventual budget cuts and the reasons that orangutans became extinct in the first place.

These failures came to obsess biologist Kade Bui, who graduated from the University of Safe Haven with honours in IY 5765. Returning to her home planet of Surga, Bui became an adherent of an obscure sect of the Empaths that sought not only to convert humanity to environmentally-sound practices, but also to correct past errors. Discovering samples of orangutan DNA in the College of Surga archives, Bui became focused on creating a population of orangutans that could survive the inconsistent stewardship of humanity. She soon gathered a large group of like-minded scientists, many of them Empaths.

Bui's research received funding from the oligarchy that ruled Surga at the time. Evidently, the oligarchy was under the impression that she would create a slave population for work too dangerous, dirty, or poorly paid for humans to do. Publicly, Bui encouraged this belief, but her journals reveal that she never had any intention that the revived orangutans would fill this role. Instead, Bui and her team were far more focused on the ethical imperative of recreating the species, as well as the challenge of the research.

Bui's main concern was to create a more gregarious Orangutan in the hopes of establishing a culture and increasing the birth-rate. However, what she actually created was less a removal of these problems than a culture capable of finding its own solutions to these problems.

Bui's first colony of about 200 orangutans was created in the lab, and its members indoctrinated from an early age in the belief that they were pioneers of a cause greater than themselves. Although some Surgan government officials questioned their sentience, the issue was too self-evident to ever seriously be in question. On reaching maturity, these early pioneers settled an island of tropical rain forest bought by both their own savings and the donations of well-wishers, and began developing their own civilization.

Despite the Orangutan's frequent jokes that a family unit consisted of a mother, her children, and two or three sociologists, the new species co-existed uneventfully with Humans for many decades. The government did begin to ask when the Orangutans would be ready for manual labor but, aside from a few early experiments, this potential issue was removed by the overthrow of the Surgan oligarchs in IY 5647. The Orangutans sent their own representatives to the parliament that replaced the old government, a practice that continues to this day, with grave Orangutan matriarchs brachiating their way down the corridors of power while Humans walk more slowly below them.

At the same time, as Orangutan numbers and pride grew, the new species began settling worlds of their own, such as Biru Pilau, Buah Pohon, and Socrates' Study. In these colonization efforts, they were aided partly by their own efforts over generations and partly by the Bui Foundation, the non-profit organization created to assist the new species in establishing itself. These worlds were all characterized as having large areas suitable for terraforming with equatorial rainforest ecologies, and a lack of near-sentient life forms. The Orangutans take seriously the idea of dispossessing another species the way that humans did theirs, and have consistently taken great care to avoid what they consider ethically questionable behavior.

All known Orangutan planets have not so much one culture as two. Both are defined by gender. The first is female oriented, and led largely by matriarchs, with one in six elderly males. This culture is concerned with child-rearing, politics, external diplomacy, and trade. The second is male oriented, occuring at the fringes of the female culture, and is concerned largely with scientific research and intellectual competitions for dominance that occasionally spill over into violence.

These two cultures remain largely separate. A male Orangutan remains with his mother until about the age of 16, when he travels to another district or another planet to claim a territory. This territory is much smaller than an unmodified Orangutan would claim; modern Orangutans do not require large territory for subsistence, but it seems a psychological necessity all the same. If the territory is disputed, the claimants settle the matter through long and noisy disputes on public information services, the reception of their scholarly research, physical posturing and, at times, outright violence.

Upon defeating all rivals, traditionally a male Orangutan abandons his birth name and takes a new one that is generally that of a Human or Orangutan scholar. This name is further specified by how many other males have had the same name on that planet, so that Erasmus XXIV of Biru Palau would be the twenty-fourth to have that name on that particular planet. The newly-named male then settles down to a life of research, and develops face pads as a sign of his dominance. Bar future challenges, he spends most of his life in intellectual dispute. In old age, he may become a Patriarch, acting as a mediator between younger males. If he is especially talented, he may even come to work with the Matriarchs in governing the planet.

By contrast, female Orangutans tend to remain in the settlement where they were born. In later life, they may travel extensively as representatives of their species, but their closest bonds remain their immediate genetic relatives. In comparison to their male counterparts, female Orangutans are far more pragmatic, with much of their education devoted to business, industry, and political science. Unlike the males, females tend to have three names -- a personal name, the name of their family, and the name of their settlement. For instance, Sujatmi Air Oldtree would be of the Air lineage and live in the Oldtree settlement. Since no Orangutan settlement is largely than a few thousand inhabitants, this nomenclature is usually more than enough to identify them.

These male and female cultures generally interact only in the most formal ways. Much of the time, the female culture ensures that the males are supplied with food and other goods, and leaves it alone. One exception is when competition threatens females or children, when the Matriarchs join with the Patriarchs in forcing the resolution of disputes or imprisoning the instigators. Another is when young males, either separately or in temporary bands, arrive in an area and attempt to rape females, and have to be driven off. In fact, the reaction to such attacks is so fierce and so unified that observers have suggested that, should the Orangutans ever go to war, it is the females who will be the line soldiers.

Males and females also meet several times a year in specially designated buildings for mating. These interactions generally do not result in relationships that last more than a few weeks -- nor, given the well-established female support networks, is there any need for males to support pregnant females. However, unlike their modified ancestors, increasing numbers of male Orangutans visit their offspring, and try to arrange for their sons to take over their territories. or those of aging acquaintances.

Unfortunately, the genetic modifications implemented by Bui and her team were not enough to increase the Orangutan birth rate. Orangutans are aware of the problem, and some have investigated the possibility of further modifications. But, for now, the solution has been artificial insemination, with sperm samples collected by the Matriarchs and distributed after careful studies of genetic charts. Orangutans are reluctant to discuss the matter, but the statistics seem to show that, with this cultural assistance, Orangutan birth rates now approximate the lower ranges of Humans'.

For both sexes, the most intense relations tend to be with others of the same sex. Female Orangutans live their lives in a network of mothers, aunts, sisters and cousins, and often prefer to go into business with people from their families. Male Orangutans are outwardly aggressive to their fellows, especially in person, but some do develop an intellectual respect for each other, and learn to work together as Patriarchs. Unsurprisingly, both sexes find human sexuality ludicrous, and their poker-faced mockeries of humans often relate to love and what the Orangutans consider other ridiculous pre-occupations.

Because of their own origins, Orangutans show considerable interest in reviving other terrestial species. To date, male researchers have succeeding in producing sentient versions of dolphins and orcas, elephants, crows, and several species of parrot. These revived species are being nursed by Orangutans into independence, and several are likely to have their own planets in the next few decades.

The Orangutans Today

Although Orangutans now claim their own small network of planets, they retain close ties with Humans. Female orangutans often send trade delegations to Human planets, and more than one scholarly conference has been disrupted by the aggressive physical posturing of a male Orangutan who makes a brief appearance before hurrying home to make sure that a rival has not claimed his vacated territory. Often, too, wandering young males spend some time on Human planets before attempting to stake out a territory on an Orangutuan world.

Some humans are noticeably uneasy about the interactions with Orangutans, either because they dislike being reminded of their kinship with them, or because they feel guilty because of the extinction of their forebears. The average Orangutan shows a dry sense of humour about both reactions. They delight in solemnly addressing the humans they encounter as "Cousin," and engaging in exaggerated displays of atavistic behavior. More than one human has been unnerved on hearing the long, drawnout hoots of a male Orangutan and being told that they have been identified as a rival and need to get out of his territory. Another favourite game to bedevil humans is to pretend that they don't understand chairs, and to insist on perching on the highest piece of stable furniture at a social function. Many males also delight in showing humans their superior strength, although usually in non-threatening ways.

More seriously, many Orangutans regard themselves as the conscience not only of Humans, but of terrestial life in general. A popular sect among Orangutans is the Way of the Brachiating Conscience, which holds that their recreation was divinely ordained to give Humans a mirror in which to see their shortcomings, and Orangutan scholarship is full of analyses of how humans failed to act ethically. The first and most famous of these is History and Notes on Human Culture, started by Socrates I of Surma and continued by his descendants, a multi-media work that is intended to be a complete history of Humanity and terrestial life-forms. In this role, they show the greatest affinity for the Empaths among Humans, although even this Clan is often solemnly mocked by Orangutans.

Unsurprisingly, Orangutans also enjoy close relations with the Ferrets, with whom they share the same amused tolerance at what they consider the foibles of humans. However, unlike the Ferrets, few Orangutans settle on Human planets other than Sutra for any length of time: Female Orangutans are apt to miss their extended families, while males in their prime are nervous about leaving their territories.

But, for all their enjoyment of human pretensions, Orangutans seem to feel themselves at a disadvantage as a new, artificially created species. Both females and males are sometimes hear to lament a lack of tradition, and to feel vulnerable compared to longer established species that have colonized hundreds of planets. In fact, such feelings suggest that Orangutans have revived other terrestial species as a way of compensating for these feelings -- from one perspective, these experiements might be seen as an effort to claim the role of Humans in relation to other species.

One notable social movement in Orangutan society tries to compensate for this lack of history by claiming Human accomplishment as the common legacy of all sentient terrestial species. However, this attitude is decried by other Orangutans as degrading, and efforts to find Orangutan cultural institutions -- or even to return to the behavior of their ancestors are almost as common.

Another growing social concern is the role of males. Perhaps because of a cultural selection by females, each generation of male Orangutans seem to be increasingly less aggressive to other males and more social than its predecessor. In a few cases, male Orangutans have even been seen to assist in family businesses, and to live in female villages. Unsurprisingly, though, this change leads to conflict between generations of males, with older ones decrying the younger as effeminate or Human-like and younger ones dismissing the older as uncouth. Nor do some females welcome an increase role for males. This issue is likely to become more heated before it is resolved, but, meanwhile, it remains one of the most avidly discussed issues in Orangutan society.

In general, Orangutans remain firm Human allies. Admittedly, whether Orangutans would be useful in combat is an open question, since, despite male posturings and female police efforts, only a few have ever fought a battle. However, both economic and scholarly links are now so strong that the political ones follow naturally.