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inside the acceptor, with the total loss to the acceptor of the functions which those modules controlled.
This was usually fatal, and no descendants came into being to repeat such mistakes. The successful
alternative was to create space by trimming nonessential code from many modules, which tended to leave
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the acceptor robot with some degradation in performance usually manifesting itself as a reduction in
agility, dexterity, and defensive abilities but at least still functioning. The sacrifice was only temporary
since the acceptor robot would be reprogrammed with replacement modules when it delivered its genetic
package at the factory.
But in return for these complications and superficial penalties came the immense benefit that the subfiles
presented at the factories were complete ones suitable for dispatch to the Schedulers without delay and
the attendant risk of being deleted by overworked Supervisors. The new method thus resolved the
reliability problem that had plagued the formerly universal  asexual mode of reproduction.
The information crisis that it also solved had developed through the  inbreeding caused by the various
Supervisors having only the gene pools of their respective  tribes available to work with, which made
recombination difficult because of the restrictive rules imposed by the alien programmers. But the robots
swapping genes out on the surface were not always averse to adventuring beyond the tribal limits, knew
nothing and cared less about programmers rules, since nothing approaching intelligence or awareness
was operative yet in what was unfolding, and proceeded to bring half-subfiles together haphazardly in
ways that the aliens rules didn t permit and which the Supervisors would never have imagined. Most of
the offspring resulting from these experiments didn t work and were scrapped before leaving the
factories; but the ones that did radiated functionally outward in all directions to launch a whole new,
qualitatively distinct phase of the evolutionary process.
The demands of the two sexual roles reinforced minor initial physical differences and brought about a
gradual polarization of behavioral traits. Since a female in a  pregnant condition suffered the loss of
some measure of self-sufficiency for the duration, her chances of delivering (literally!) were improved
considerably if her mate happened to be of a disposition to stay around for a while and provide for the
two of them generally, thus helping to protect their joint genetic investment. Selection tended, therefore,
to favor the genes of this kind of male, and by the same token those of the females who mated
preferentially with them. As a consequence a female trait emerged of being  choosy in this respect, and
in response the males evolved various repertoires of rituals, displays, and demonstrations to improve their
eligibility.
* * *
The population had thus come to exhibit genetic variability and recombination, competition, selection,
and adaptation all the essentials for continuing evolution. The form of life for it was, wasn t it? was
admittedly somewhat strange by terrestrial standards, with the individuals that it comprised sharing
common, external reproductive, digestive, and immune systems instead of separate, internal ones . . . and
of course there were no chains of complicated carbon chemistry figuring anywhere in the scheme of
things. . . . But then, after all, what is there apart from chauvinism to say it shouldn t have been so?
* * *
Afterword, 1996
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For those who read the book, we left Carl Zambendorf and his companions out on Saturn s moon,
Titan, waiting for the Japanese ship due in six months, and also for the possibility that a sequel to the
book might follow which a lot of readers spotted and asked for.
One of the most persistent requests was from Owen Lock, who succeeded Judy-Lynn as editor-in-chief
at Del Rey Books. Owen liked the aliens that the Prologue talks about, who had built the robot factory
ship, suffered from cost accountants, and who had conceived an alien counterpart of Murphy.  I want,
Owen said,  a sequel that shows us the aliens.
I didn t really want to write a book along those lines because it involved major difficulties that I assumed
Owen appreciated. But he somehow talked me into it, and I signed a contract, still with no real idea of
what form the story would take.
Then, one day, Owen and I had lunch in New York.  I reread  Code of the Lifemaker over the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]