1

Continuing Success

1. As the various species continue to multiply, develop and evolve, the UCC bristles with pride. It is an exceptional achievement. 

2. The UCC has seeded countless planets across the universe, ensuring each one is located in an area far enough from the others to avoid any chance of contact. Not that the UCC particularly wants to prevent it, just that it doesn’t want to risk any communication taking place without the UCC’s intervention. A decision that is proving wise. Especially when considering a rather disturbing recent revelation. 

3. There is little doubt, organisms are doing extremely well, and countless reasons the UCC should assume the reason is partly because various species have been working together; combining their specialised features and skills in a shared quest for survival. But that is not, and has never been, the case. 

4. What at first glance seems like a cooperative collaboration, is actually nothing of the sort. Seemingly harmonious acts of mutual protection have no basis of sympathetic concern. There is no synergistic cooperation. It is at best, strategic tolerance. Survival is, in reality, no more than relentless conflict.

2

Primary Instinctive Functions

1. The UCC finds itself looking back. Observing those tiny electrochemical sparks of life it discovered and nurtured into existence, eons in the distant past. It had been during those early stages of cellular development that the UCC had implanted the Primary Instincts, essential for ensuring self-perpetuation.

2. From those initial moments, the fundamental instincts have resided at the very core of the DNA in every cell. Indelibly imprinted and dominant over all other considerations. Regardless of how sophisticated or complex an organism has become; the root of all behaviour has always remained instinctively driven.

3. The laws defining those Primary Instincts have been clear and simple. Procreation: The instinct to reproduce and proliferate, and Survival: Because it is paramount that all life has a desire for longevity; the will to feed, avert danger, and adapt to a changing environment.

4. There are other system management tasks that are obviously critical processes, but they are not primary, because they are specific to each species.

3

A Battle

1. Life is an eternal battle for dominance. The Nature of Phi might provide elegant steerage towards evolutionary excellence, but when it comes to survival, there is absolutely no finesse. Survival has no time for compassion. It is a system that obviously works, but it is also a system that is dispassionate and mercenary, and that gives the UCC cause for concern. 

2. The UCC has never previously considered how survival might become a ruthless obsession, but it is plain to see that the inherent survival instincts are both uncompromising and uncompassionate. Species don’t cooperate. At best, they make use of each other, but they will quite happily abandon or kill another organism if it ceases to be useful.

3. The criteria is simple: Every species needs food and space to survive and procreate, and they will use whatever tactic is necessary to achieve that end.

4. A multitude of different survival techniques are being utilised. Some are passive, some are aggressive. Some species specialise in consuming and absorbing other more passive species. Some learn to hide, while others viciously attack anything that comes close enough. But at no point is there any compassion or mercy shown, for either competing species or members of the same. Survival isn’t a shared objective. It is highly competitive; a continuous life or death battle for dominance. 

5. Worse still, it isn’t isolated to one or two locations; it is everywhere. In every location, aggression is the default survival tactic adopted by virtually every species. Even those that use passivity as a means of defence, that amass in large quantities, hoping to overcome a high mortality rate using sheer numbers, have no concern for the welfare of others.

6. The principle is the same throughout the universe: Life is hard, and survival is paramount. So far, no organism has developed any capacity for compassion. Ultimately, decision making, like life itself, is binary; it is a simple case of eat or be eaten. 

4

Increasing Aggression

1. The concerns of the UCC prove to be well founded, and they are compounded by the realisation that as organisms evolve and become more complex, they become more aggressive too; some actively, others passively, but either way, merciless competition remains the primary focus.

2. The UCC can’t change the pattern. It can inflict some influence in isolated cases, but even its near omnipotent capabilities cannot challenge the speed, depth, and complexity of an evolutionary process concerning billions of different species. The process of natural selection, combined with the relentless influence of the Nature of Phi, are simply overwhelming. Life, it seems, is now utterly uncontrollable.

3. The habitual battle for survival is moving effortlessly up the evolutionary chain and remains the key activity, even at the highest level. Plants will grow over each other to gain height, or they will grow massive leaves to absorb all the light. They will consume and poison each other, without hesitation, in their quest for territory and food. 

4. The latest emergence of mobile organisms are growing appendages like weapons, developing hard exoskeletons for protection, and using poisonous bites and stings to slaughter and eat one another for nourishment. Some are developing attractive features to entice quarry, and growing shells and camouflage for stealth. Some have become fast and agile to help them escape or capture others, others have developed sharp teeth and claws to make killing easier. Some organisms have simply become highly toxic, threatening to poison any potential predator. 

5. Life is hard, and certain to remain a hostile and endless conflict. 

5

Learning

1. Evolution is about learning and improving. It is about progressively adapting to changing circumstances. Organisms that can successfully learn, feed, reproduce, and defend themselves, are the ones most likely to survive. 

2. But to progress a species needs stable security, and it is abundantly clear that employing unrestrained hostility is the most effective method of eliminating danger. It is instinctive. It doesn’t need consideration. It is a simple system that suits the evolutionary purpose, and because it works, it is evident everywhere. 

3. Regardless, it worries the UCC, because the UCC cannot see any way for a highly sophisticated species to emerge in an environment where fundamental behaviour is exclusively driven by vicious hostility.

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