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Integrating over a dozen brand-new, intelligent, but non-human species into the transhuman family was not an easy journey. The legal battles began even before the ﬁrst uplift embryo was created and continue on in numerous forms today. Culturally, the impact of uplifts has shifted from rejection to celebration to exploitation, and everything in between.
=Legal Issues= 
Simply gaining recognition as intelligent, sapient citizens with civil rights has been an uphill battle.
==Personhood== 
What is a person?
This seems like an easy question, but appearances can be deceiving. Throughout the long sweep of human history, the answer to the question of what a person is has continually changed. Was a woman a person, or was she a piece of property? Or was she even a liability, something that had to be compensated for with a dowry before a man’s family would agree to take her on? Was a man alien to their immediate culture a person? Not if you were of African descent in the United States of 1861 or if you were a Jew in the Germany of 1938.
As time marched on, human society liberalized and the deﬁnition of personhood broadened. By the end of the 20th century, in most Western nation-states at least, a consensus view emerged that implicitly extended the deﬁnition of personhood to all human beings. Seems reasonable. Problem solved, right?
Not quite.
That deﬁnition of personhood only seems stable until you ask a second question. What makes a human a human? To put it another way, what makes a being sapient? While religious-minded people had easy answers about god-given authority to shape the land and slaughter the beasts, philosophers and scientists struggled with the answer. In fact, the more humans studied other creatures, the harder it was to say what sapience was and why it didn’t apply to animals. The conversation went something like this:
**A:** //Homo sapiens// is sapient because they are tool users.
**B:** But sea otters use stones to crack open mollusks.
**A:** Those are rocks the otters just found lying around. Only humans make tools.
**B:** Except for wild chimpanzees, who modify twigs for termite ﬁshing.
**A:** But that’s just instinct. Humans are innovators. Animals don’t innovate.
**B:** Ever set up a bird feeder designed to keep squirrels out?
**A:** Sure.
**B:** Do those things ever work?
**A:** Well …
**B:** Doesn’t the squirrel always find a way to get the food?
**A:** That’s only because squirrels are evolved to break into bird feeders!
**B:** Really?
**A:** Then it’s language. Only humans use language.
**B:** That’s the worst example yet. Dolphins and whales use a quite sophisticated language. Bonobos and gorillas have shown an ability to understand human language, even inventing new words. Really any animal that can accept human voice commands has at least a rudimentary understanding of language. Even simple songbirds compose their songs according to linguistic rules.
**A:** All right, but it’s something. It has to be something.
By the late 20th century, human science was beginning to bump up against the possibility that it wasn’t really something, after all. Maybe humans and animals didn’t belong to two distinct groups, but //Homo sapiens// was just one species placed on a long continuum of intelligence. Sure, humanity was on the smart end of the stick, but the real question was, just how smart were their neighbors?
Why did it matter? Because once you start acknowledging other creatures as intelligent, you have to start thinking about the implications. Did other intelligent beings have rights? Were humans ethically bound to avoid causing them pain? Should these animals then be exempt not only from hunting, slaughter, and experimentation, but should they be //protected//?
This increasing awareness of animal intelligence began to filter through Western culture just as women’s suffrage, the repeal of slavery, and the expansion of civil rights had before. Animal welfare societies sprang up. Anti-cruelty laws. Endangered species lists. Restrictions on animal testing. Restrictions on whaling, eventually leading to a ban. By the early 21st century, leftist political parties in Spain and New Zealand had taken the ﬁrst steps toward an uplifted world: they argued for a legal definition of person that included the great apes. By defining other intelligent creatures as persons, they hoped to extend certain rights and protections that were otherwise reserved for humans.
Now that we have uplifts—who by humanity’s own definitions are as intelligent as humans—the issue is more relevant than ever. Almost all societies consider uplifts (as well as many smart animals and non-uplifted creatures) as persons and thus worthy of certain legal protections. Many, however, have not yet taken the next step of granting uplifts (and AGIs for that matter) the same full rights as transhumans. Until this era of institutionalized prejudice is past, uplifts will be considered second-class citizens in many parts of transhuman space.
==Sapience== 
In order to be considered a full uplift, of human-equivalent intelligence, a test was devised: the Applied Sapience Test (AST). This same test is used to analyze and rate AGIs. Initially developed and backed by a coalition of research foundations, corporate interests, and governmental agencies, the AST is now maintained and updated by the argonauts.
The AST is sufﬁciently rigorous that some humans have failed to pass it. It measures a wide range of aptitudes and factors, including critical thinking, problem-solving, deductive reasoning, creativity, empathy, adaptability, and more. Critics of the AST charge that the test is predisposed towards human models of cognition and question whether significantly alien forms of intelligence would pass.
==Know Your Rights== 
Laws regarding uplifts vary widely across the solar system. Smart uplifts will always know the law where they are—and where they’re going.
**Anarchist Stations:** Uplifts are generally regarded as equals in [[anarchists|anarchist]] areas, responsible for themselves just like everyone else. Many anarchists have a decidedly pro-uplift stance, and several groups actively aid uplifts that are ﬂeeing indentured service or otherwise seeking aid.
**[[Extropia]]:** Extropian legalities are entirely based on mutual contracts. According to the legal precepts adopted by Nomic and similar Extropian legal AIs, however, no sapient being may be enslaved nonconsentually by another. This means that in Extropian holds, hypercorps are not allowed to enforce indentured service on uplifts they raise. For most other purposes, uplifts are treated as sapient people just like everyone else.
**The Jovian Republic:** Uplifts have no rights on Jupiter’s Junta moons. They are banned from entering without special exceptions, and they are considered legally equivalent to animals for all intents and purposes. While uplift is legal in the Republic for raising smart animals, it is illegal to research or create sapient creatures. It is highly likely, however, that the Junta itself continues uplift research for its own purposes and potential military applications.
**The Lunar-Lagrange Alliance:** Often considered the most conservative inner-system power, the LLA holds a stance roughly equivalent to the Planetary Consortium when it comes to uplifts: leave it up to individual habitats. While uplifts typically have second-class status in LLA colonies, there is surprisingly less discrimination against uplifts than in the Consortium, possibly because most Lunars and Orbitals are more concerned about synthmorphs or their rival ethnic groups. Lunar and orbital habitats have been known to honor the extradition requests from hypercorps seeking runaway uplift indentures.
**Morningstar Constellation:** The Constellation holds the most liberal attitudes of the three inner-system powers. Uplifts are recognized as legal persons by the constitution and accorded the same rights and privileges of other Constellation citizens or visitors. Controversially, hypercorps that raise uplifts are allowed to enforce service contracts or liens for their upbringing, but these are limited by Constellation law to keep them from being too excessive.
**The Planetary Consortium:** The Consortium largely leaves uplift legalities up to individual habitats, giving each the mandate to apply their own rules. This has led to a wide disparity, from habitats that treat uplifts as property or ban them entirely to colonies where uplifts have all the rights and responsibilities of other citizens. This means that an uplift with Consortium citizenship from one station may ﬁnd that they suddenly have fewer rights or need a legal guardian to visit a more conservative Consortium habitat. Though the judicial Assembly has made some rulings regarding uplifts that affect the entire Consortium, these have made it clear that <span style="line-height: 1.5;">member hypercorps have the authority to breed new uplifts, restrict their reproduction, and contractually bind them to terms of indentured service as repayment for their upbringing at a rate they determine. The majority of Consortium habitats consider uplifts to have legal personhood and give lip service to their rights, but in practice they are often treated differently. It is common for uplift reproduction to be restricted and for uplifts to barred from certain positions of authority; some stations even require uplifts to make their nature public on their mesh proﬁles and to submit to periodic evaluations or extra security monitoring.</span>
The struggle for uplift rights is very much ongoing in Consortium memespace. The simple truth is that there is a widespread culture of discrimination, sometimes institutionalized.
**Titanian Commonwealth:** Like most other autonomists, the Commonwealth is very accepting of uplifts and treats them as full legal beings. It is illegal to force indentures into service in Titanian jurisdictions. Smart animals are also afforded some basic rights, such as shelter and medical care.
=Cultural Issues= 
A good starting point for understanding the cultural challenges uplifts face is the very beginning. When [[Somatek]] announced its ﬁrst uplift success, introducing Jumbles, the news struck like a thermonuclear device. At ﬁrst it was wonderful. Jumbles was a celebrity. The media hounded him. People ﬂocked to see him. They wanted to hear him speak, touch him. They wanted his autograph, which was awkward because he was still learning his letters. His scrawl looked like that of a six-year old trying to write his name—which wasn’t all that far from the truth. Journalists interviewed him and then they interviewed him again, this time in comms-shielded rooms so they could be sure it wasn’t a trick. It wasn’t.
The media and public attention went on for days. Then weeks. Then //months//.
Somewhere in there, things started to go bad. Maybe it was inevitable that the public would turn once they started to see past the rock-star celebrity and think through the implications. Humanity’s relationship with nature had just been radically redefined. The people of the Earth were living in a whole new world and no one had gotten a say in it or even knew the change was coming.
Bioconservatives had been speaking out against uplift for decades, but now they had a real chance to get their voices heard. The right-wing biocons railed against the abomination of nature, the threats posed by integrating animals with humans, the hubris of playing god. The left-wing biocons condemned the immorality of animal research and warned against this leading to a new wave of corporate animal and genetic exploitation. Their arguments were not ignored. Many listened. Governments and politicians listened and enacted legislation.
The biocons weren’t the only ones to raise opposition. The uplift of animals brought the whole range of animal exploitation throughout human society into question. Those who raised or harvested animals for food saw the potential for their livelihoods threatened. Corporations that relied heavily on animal testing and experimentation saw potential future roadblocks if animals were given increased protections. Religious masses felt threatened by the idea that an animal could have a soul—or feared the future if it didn’t. The starving and disenfranchised poor wondered why scientists were creating new life when so many humans still went without fulﬁllment of their basic needs.
The initial backlash drove much uplift research underground or offworld. A strong current of xenophobia impaired the integration of uplifts into human society. But technological progress was also exerting its inﬂuence. Corporations continued to research uplifts and introduce new uplifted species. AGIs were also introduced, taking some of the brunt of fear and hate away from uplifts for a while. In areas with more technoprogressive views, uplifts began living and working among humans. The news followed these developments closely. Over time, continued exposure to the existence of uplifts—especially living among humans—blunted many fears.
Still, a few unfortunate incidents in that first decade created setbacks. A stressed neo-orangutan was convicted of assaulting multiple people, raising fears of safety around uplifts. A silverback neo-gorilla was convicted in the murder of a rival silverback. Neo-bonobos faced multiple sexual harassment claims—and a neo-dolphin was charged with attempted rape. The biocons used these affairs to fuel their anti-uplift campaigns.
The Fall, horrible as it was, also created new opportunities for uplifts. Many uplifts survived where the corporations that had made and enslaved them did not. The Fall corrupted and destroyed some uplift records, making it hard for those companies to prove they had legal ownership or a right to their contract labor. The disaster also sent millions of infugees streaming away from Earth at the speed of data—some of them uplifted. Many of these uplifts started new lives with new identities. Other uplifts took the opportunity to run away from their self-declared masters.
Where many uplifts had previously been raised in isolated facilities and interacted only sparsely with transhumanity, the Fall forced many of them into cohabitation. Though this created tension among transhumanity’s xenophobic elements, the increased interaction largely helped to alleviate many people’s fears as they saw that uplifts were often just like other people—and in some cases less strange than other transhumans.
==Assimilation== 
There is no question that the relationship between uplifts and the rest of transhumanity is growing closer. The xenophobic resistance against uplifts is largely based on fear of the unknown, but as time passes even culturally isolated transhumans see, hear about, or interact with uplifts more frequently. Numerous uplifts have become media icons, and it is no longer unusual to see uplift characters in vids, in political debates, or in the news as regular citizens or contributors. As transhumanity itself changes and evolves, uplifts seem less and less unusual. Given the widespread use of resleeving technology, it is no longer uncommon to ﬁnd humans in uplift morphs and vice versa. Uplifts are slowly but surely being assimilated into the transhuman family.
There are still challenges. Even among humans who are not outwardly prejudiced, there are those who unthinkingly condone or continue low-level discrimination or stereotyping. Almost every uplift can tell you about humans they have met who claim to have nothing against uplifts, but then go on to treat them as inferior, exhibit extra caution around them, or support politicos and groups with anti-uplift agendas. Humans are often privileged in ways that uplifts are not, and most are not cognizant of this fact. It is not uncommon for humans to be chosen over more qualified uplifts for jobs, for example, or for uplifts to endure extra “random” security screenings. Uplifts are sometimes considered less reliable witnesses for legal testimony, and so on. Even uplifts who have achieved power and inﬂuence are sometimes impacted, though these individuals at least have the sway to create a fuss.
==Anti-Assimilation== 
The Fall liberated or separated many uplifts from their patrons. For the ﬁrst time since the advent of uplift technology, there was a large and growing population of enhanced creatures who were free to assemble, to organize, to think for themselves. Uplift culture evolved rapidly.
Those who ﬂed practical enslavement or inhospitable treatments at the hands of the hypercorps were the least likely to look upon transhumanity with favor. Once they gathered with others who had endured similar experiences, that viewpoint was reinforced. These uplifts were not interested in assimilating into transhuman society; they wanted to forge their own direction. They began rejecting human rules and customs, human fashions, even human words. Many of these sapient creatures felt they had something to offer beyond simply aping or parroting human behaviors. Thus did the ﬁrst mercurials and similar uplift factions coalesce.
As uplifts cast about for something beyond the domain of Homo sap, they often found common cause with AGIs who similarly advocated a path of self-determination and non-anthropocentrism. Slowly, AGIs and uplifts began to come together, siblings growing up side-by-side in the same dysfunctional family. And so a political alliance was born.
Called mercurials because of their new and changing natures, it isn’t a perfect partnership, even to this day. There are many uplifts who fear what AGIs could become if left unchecked (especially those who ﬂed Earth during the Fall.) And since their entire agenda is about setting their own paths, both elements are keenly aware that their individual paths are quite different—and may even have conﬂicting goals. Some AGI mercurials, for example, feel that transhuman society is far too oriented towards preserving biological life, which they feel is fundamentally inferior, whereas many uplift mercurials see biological self-determination as a foundation of their interests and future. But in the end, uplift and AGI mercurials share many mutual concerns, not the least of which is keeping transhuman hands from controlling their cognitive futures.
The truth is, even many mercurials have issues deﬁning what uplift culture is. Each species has a different take on it, of course, but that’s not the real issue. The hard reality is that the individual uplift species are cultural infants. Before uplift, in their baseline animal form, their culture was rudimentary and primitive at best. Ever since uplift, any attempt to come to terms with who and what they are has been eclipsed by the overwhelming inﬂuence of human culture. The vast majority of uplift cultural actors are pioneers—they are literally making it up as they go along. In some ways, uplift culture is becoming a battleground. As the mercurials seek to identify themselves and stake their ground, their memes are engaged in an uphill battle against mainstream transhuman culture—and against their own mercurial peers. Though they have their own shared experiences to fall back on, that is not enough on its own. As is usually the case, the best memes will win.
If there’s one thing the mercurials have in their favor, it is an explosion of vision. Not only are there new tools for the artist’s talented hand, claw, ﬁn, or tentacle—XP, holography, sonic sculpture—but uplifts bring an entire new set of outlooks to the table. Ironically, this has helped to enrich transhuman culture, as much of the mercurials’ cultural output has been co-opted or commodiﬁed for mass consumption. Jungle clubs, once exclusive to neo-hominids, are popping up across the system. Ink painting, once exclusive to neo-octopi, is being taken up by human artists. Though mercurials decry the cultural appropriation, those with autonomist inclinations point out that culture has always been based on theft. Others are glad to see mercurial ideas and practices adopted by humans, feeling that all of transhumanity is enriched by the experience.
==The Culture Void== 
**Source:** Welcoming address by Dr. Kalifa Lulua to an incoming cohort of Uplift Studies students. [Link]
I commend you on being in the forefront of scholars seeking to better understand the rapidly changing forces that shape our world. In undertaking to more closely examine uplift and its consequences, you place yourself at the vanguard of a debate that is raging among some of our most learned and brilliant minds about how uplifts should confront the culture void.
Historically, when a people has freed itself from oppression and tragedy, they have had a past history to fall back on, a shared experience of times before or a long tradition of practices and beliefs. Whether it was former slaves brought to the Americas who were able to reconnect with their African roots or the displaced and decimated survivors of the Holocaust who founded the state of Israel partially on ancient Jewish principles. The histories of immigrant groups all over old Earth, at ﬁrst reviled but then embraced, is one where these communities found strength in their traditions while learning and integrating into the cultures of their new surroundings.
What then of the uplift? What traditions, what beliefs, what culture existed before the lab? None. There is nothing uplifts have to call their own. For them there is a void, an emptiness of history, of practice, of heritage to build upon going forward. So the question becomes, where do uplifts go from here? Do they accept the tabula rasa and begin afresh, rejecting all transhuman culture and attempting to create a new social order and tradition organically such as groups like the mercurials advocate? Do they play to stereotypes and take those anthropomorphized traits that pre-uplift humans gave them in their fables and myths as culture and practice? Or do they assimilate and stop looking for a separate “uplift” identity? Do they concede that anything they might come up with is socially constructed and inauthentic and join the rest of transhumanity as just slightly different-looking [[Barsoomian Movement|Barsoomians]], [[Titanian Commonwealth|Titanians]], and [[Lunar-Lagrange Alliance|Loonies]]?
These questions, above all else, will shadow your research and shape your work over the years you are here. While they are intensely interesting subjects of academic study for us, we should never forget that they are also very much important to people we live and work with to the point where they will ﬁght, and some possibly die, over them.
=The Work of Uplifts= 
One measuring stick for the depth of uplift integration in transhuman society is the professional roles in which they have gained noticeable representation or scored major achievements. Though many uplifts work as indentures, some of them take this work quite seriously and exceed their patrons’ expectations. In the outer system, uplifts have proven themselves just as capable at achieving recognition for creativity, innovation, or reliability as their human peers. For some tasks, uplifts are simply more well adapted and are a damn sight better at it than just about anyone else.
==Science== 
Contrary to those who assume uplifts are inferior in intelligence to their human counterparts, uplifts make brilliant scientists. Part of it is that their minds are designed, so they are intentionally built to be smart and methodical. Uplifts were quite speciﬁcally bred for genetic traits linked to logic, rigor, and innovation as part of the uplift process. These same cognitive tools were also emphasized as part of each uplift’s upbringing, socialization, and education. And who designed these cognitive upgrades and learning courses? Scientists, of course, who were already predisposed towards scientiﬁc processes and thinking. It is no surprise that so many uplifts have exhibited aptitudes for scientiﬁc work. The apple does not fall far from the tree.
But there’s more to it than that. The very nature of uplifts is an advantage in scientiﬁc research—that is, their capacity for non-human modes of thinking. Despite being engineered and socialized to think like humans, uplifts come to this position from a different starting point and each species retains some non-human cognitive traits. Uplifts can see around the corners of human logic. More than once, uplift scientists have resolved problems that vexed human scientists by approaching it from their own unique perspectives. The ability to think outside the (human mind) box is key to many uplift researchers’ careers.
The evolutionary past of each uplift species also brings certain traits to the table that uplift scientists can use to their advantage. This usually involves exploiting their natural gifts. Neo-cetacean scientists, for example, excel in ﬁelds like acoustics, ﬂuid mechanics, medicine, non-Euclidean geometry, and organic chemistry, benefiting from their natural aptitudes with sonar and aquatic conditions and their intuitive sense of space. Likewise, neo-avians have an instinctive feel for complex atmospheric dynamics and are good with languages.
There is one scientiﬁc endeavor that attracts more uplift minds than any other—the science of uplift, of course. Raised-up creatures are much sought after as psychologists and physiologists to design processes that reduce both mental and physical stress on uplift subjects. They have excellent insights into the most effective ways to engineer cousin species. And, of course, they make the best minders. While some corporations bar uplift scientists from participating in research related to their own or similar species—citing “security concerns” or “conﬂict of interest”—others have made successful careers out of enhancing their own phenotypes. Among uplifts, the science of raising up animals is more than just a job; some feel it is a calling.
==Security== 
A signiﬁcant percentage of uplifts have found work as security contractors. Security companies favor uplifts because they bring a number of useful skills and natural abilities to the table, often meeting certain security needs at a fraction of the cost it would take to hire a human freelancer with an expensive security morph. Neo-hominids, for example, are good operatives for any job that requires climbing and they are typically stronger than your average splicer. Neo-avians have the aerial advantage, are great for recon and surveillance ops, and excel in microgravity. Neo-octopi have natural camo, can hide easily, are more comfortable in zero g than your average transhuman, and can ﬁnd clever and lethal uses for all of those extra arms.
Since a major element of security is intimidation, uplifts have an advantage in that they automatically strike fear in xenophobic humans. Not that there isn’t ample reason to fear a silverback neo-gorilla with enhanced reﬂexes and a chip on their shoulder. Even humans who aren’t openly prejudiced tend to equate uplifts with animals and thus with wild, feral danger. It’s a human survival instinct, back from the old days when getting eaten by a tiger was a daily concern. Security corps exploit this to maximum advantage.
There is also the underestimation factor. People often see a club-toting neo-chimp or neo-neanderthal and think “stupid.” The fact that uplifts are often just as smart as they are makes them doubly dangerous. That small advantage could give them the critical edge in that tight spot.
When attempting to inﬁltrate an uplift group, such as a purist terrorist cell, using another uplift is a must. The only choice for counterinsurgency contracts like this is to go native. A human sleeved in a neo-chimp morph is going to have a very difﬁcult time passing muster with real chimps. They’re just not wired that way.
As it turns out, many uplifts are happy to work security. It is often seen as a better alternative than working with an uplift corp like Somatek. And frankly, there are a lot of uplifts who have good reasons to be really, really angry. Working security gives them an excellent opportunity to knock some heads together. Even better that those heads are usually human. High-risk work usually means high pay too, so security can be a fast track to paying off an indenture and being able to do your own thing all the sooner.
Full uplifts are the high end of the animal security spectrum, but they aren’t the whole shebang. Smart animals are routinely used by police and security forces across the system, particularly canines and baboons, but others as well.
==Gatecrashing== 
[[TerraGenesis]], [[Pathfinder|Pathﬁnder]], and [[Gatekeeper Corporation|Gatekeeper]] like uplifts for the same reason that the security ﬁrms do: special talents. Aerial recon, ocean exploration, micrograv versatility—uplifts bring many useful abilities to the extrasolar table. On top of that, their non-human mindsets could potentially be an aid when dealing with alien artifacts or a ﬁrst contact scenario.
A proportionally high number of uplifts apply for gate lotteries or seek out other gatecrashing opportunities. There are many reasons for this. Some uplifts are simply looking to escape the conﬁnes of human society, trying to ﬁnd a new life on the frontier. Some are hoping to prove themselves. Others are drawn to a situation where they and humans are on equal footing—out of their element, surviving on their own capabilities, and potentially dealing with artifacts or creatures unlike anything we’ve seen before. Many uplifts, particularly the neo-hominids, are driven by the same monkey curiosity that motivates humans.
More than a few uplift groups have sought and even established their own extrasolar colonies. They see it as a perfect opportunity to pursue a future for their species outside of human interference.
==Media and Entertainment== 
Uplifts have shown repeatedly that we are just as artistically inclined as humans. Many uplifts, particularly neo-cetaceans, neo-orangutans, and neo-neanderthals, have exhibited incredible musical abilities. Others have excelled at acting, reporting, sculpture, game design, writing, dance, digital media, and numerous other arts. In fact, uplifts have introduced humans to a number of artistic forms previously unknown to them such as acoustic sculpture and aerial dance.
Uplift penetration of the spheres of cultural production is still a mixed affair. Many uplifts appear in human vid/mesh/X dramas, but they are rarely the lead role. Uplifts are often cast as non-threatening sidekicks to human stars, as terrorists or criminals, or even baseline creatures. Even roles meant for uplifts are usually not written by uplifts, so we’re usually reduced to the same dumb stereotypes. Bonobos are sluts, gorillas are brutish thugs, ravens are thieves, octopi are evil plotters, and dolphins are immature. Many of my people ﬁnd this kind of programming to be exploitive (especially mercurials). The justification given by uplift actors—that they are just taking the work they can get—does little to salve the anger and humiliation caused by these programs. Likewise, where many uplifts succeed as performers, journalists, musicians, artists, etc., they rarely achieve the status of their human peers.
There is an entire subset of media programming that is speciﬁcally tailored to uplift sensibilities. This programming is very different than standard human fare. Not only are there the obvious political and cultural differences reﬂected in news and opinion pieces, but the entertainment itself is different. A romantic comedy designed for bonobos needs to take into account their matriarchal social structure and one for dolphins needs to be shaped by our inability to keep secrets. XP recorded for uplifts is also quite different, as we focus on different senses than humans.
===Solarchive Search: The Uplift Avant-Garde=== 
**Blue Long Fin:** This uplifted blue whale is widely regarded as the finest neo-cetacean song stylist in the solar system. Long Fin resides in Atlantica and is a major tourist draw for the habitat. His songs have an unequaled emotional resonance. For those who are lucky enough to experience his music in a neo-cetacean or sonar-capable morph, his songs actually form three-dimensional sonic constructs. Not to be missed.
**Li Cao:** This neo-octopus’s watercolor portraits hang in every major gallery in the solar system, including, remarkably, the Jovian National Center. The biocons are willing to overlook Li’s uplift nature. She’s that good. Media personalities always seem to focus on the fact that she uses all eight arms simultaneously, but this is little more than a stunt. What really separates her out from other artists is her ability to capture a subject’s emotion and her innovative use of color.
**Delio Cortez:** Celebrated for his oils, this neo-orang painter of landscapes is not only an artist, but a gatecrasher as well. He will typically join a mission to a new world and stay behind to paint a score of canvases. Then it’s off to the next exoplanet. Cortez’s paintings bring alien landscapes to life. Gatecrashers say his work is just like being there.
**Andromeda:** This gray parrot is noted for his holosculpted abstracts, a three-dimensional swoop of light and color and a rush of sound that is computer projected in a darkened theater. Andromeda is currently on a celebrated tour of the outer system with his show: Speed.
==Crime== 
It is common in transhuman culture for members of disenfranchised, low-status groups to turn to crime. Or to put it another way: “If the law has no respect for me, why should I respect the law?” So it shouldn’t be shocking that many uplifts have turned to a life of crime—a proportionally larger percentage than in the broader transhuman culture as a whole.
Many of these law-breakers are not at all criminal-minded. Any uplift who manages to escape a hypercorp before their contract is fulﬁlled or tries to hack their own reproductive system or shares their medical history with an unapproved doctor is a criminal—at least according to many inner system jurisdictions. And there is a whole network of people, including many free uplifts, who work to get runaway uplifts out of the inner system. Again, this behavior is illegal, and certainly dangerous, but it’s hard to really call it criminal.
There are, however, plenty of real uplift criminals. Those who just want to make a buck (like yours truly) often become smugglers. It’s high proﬁt, and since it’s only an economic crime, it’s relatively safe. If you’re caught, you usually only have to pay a ﬁne—or a bribe. Another good thing about the trade in illegal goods is that it gives you the opportunity to smuggle out runaway uplifts.
Among the larger, more established criminal cartels, uplifts have only a small presence. Many of these syndicates are conservative-minded and frankly prejudiced towards synthmorphs. Others see us primarily as a commodity in which to trade. Nevertheless, many recruit uplifts as security, pit ﬁghters, prostitutes, couriers, mules, and so on. Uplifts have a larger presence among smaller, more localized groups.
A few uplift-specific gangs and outfits have formed. While most are small, the most notable is the Hidden Concern, a cartel run entirely by uplifted octopi, which holds sway in the sub-crustal Hidden Sea of [[Ceres]] and maintains a stranglehold on water extraction operations. Cerean octopode morphs are specially adapted to survive in the ammonia-rich waters of the Hidden Sea. The Hidden Concern can best be described as a collection of robber-barons growing rich from their control of a key natural resource. All those who live in the belt know it’s dangerous to cross them, as their response is likely to be an unsettling combination of ruthless and playful. It’s said by some that the cartel employs a modified giant squid living in the depths of the Hidden Sea to dispose of its enemies. Whether this is the truth, or just an exceptionally terrifying lie, no one knows.
=Biology is Not Destiny= 
One of the fundamental beneﬁts of transhuman culture is that you’re not stuck in any one body. You can switch bodies if you like—or if you’re a bit more cautious, your fork can try something new and then reintegrate, giving you a totally new experience with very little risk. Which all has fascinating implications for uplift. Talk about walking a mile in another species’ shoes.
Scientists engaged in uplift research often upload themselves into an appropriate morph to gain some insight into the species they are enhancing. The same is also true of diplomats and trade representatives negotiating with uplift groups and those humans who believe in experiencing the great diversity of morphological possibilities.
There is a big market for humans seeking an uplift experience. Some are hoping to sleeve a neo-hominid or neo-neanderthal and get a taste of what it was like being a primitive human. Others want to literally ﬂy like a bird or swim like a porpoise. Those with more taboo desires pursue any number of carnal delights. Not all humans who upload into an uplift morph do it for a transcendent experience—or even just for a quick thrill. For some transhumans it’s nothing more than a day’s work. Just about any advantage that an uplift has can be exploited by a Homo sap in the right morph.
Sleeving an uplift morph is not always so easy for humans, particularly the neo-cetacean and non-mammal morphs. Not every human ﬁnds it easy to adapt to ﬁns, wings, or a beak and four extra limbs. Their mental architecture may simply not mesh well with the body, so they may ﬁnd their hormones, urges, and emotions to be off-kilter and unsettling. In fact, many humans ﬁnd sleeving into uplift morphs to be particularly distasteful. It squicks them out. Others love it so much, they never go back.
Humans who adopt an uplift sleeve soon ﬁnd that there are repercussions, of course. They quite often encounter the same prejudice and discrimination that uplifts deal with on a daily basis. Many humans don’t care if the ego behind the snout was born human, they ﬁnd the concept of uplifts to be unnatural, or creepy, or weird. Others won’t be overtly discriminatory, but they may subconsciously harbor a concern that a human in an uplift morph will be somehow affected by the experience and made more animalistic. There is in fact some truth to humans in uplift sleeves taking the opportunity to “go wild” and embracing their feral natures. Groups of human hooligans that sleeved up to “go ape” and cause a disturbance have hit the news more than once.
In the same vein, uplifts are often contemptuous of humans who decide to go joy-riding in an uplift morph. While some humans are honestly looking to learn, experience something new, or expand their knowledge, many have less than honorable motivations. Even those with good intentions are not expected to fully grok the uplift experience, though, that being something only a lifetime of living as a second-class citizen can convey. Some uplift radicals go so far as to side with human biocons who think that each species should stick to their own kind.
Though uplifts often try to stick with morphs from their own species, these are rare and hard to come by. Uplifts commonly make use of human morphs as an alternative (as well as synthetic and pod options), though more than a few resent the fact that uplift interests are not more respected and so they are forced to play human. On the other hand, wearing a non-uplift sleeve can be a welcome respite from the daily chauvinism uplifts encounter, assuming they also hide their public proﬁles. Looking human gives them a chance to work in or travel through places they otherwise wouldn’t be able to without repercussions, and it can be nice to punch through the glass ceiling that stands in their way. Some grow to prefer it. Bioconservatives and those with anti-uplift prejudices react poorly to uplifts in human sleeves, however, and hate crimes against them are not uncommon in the inner system.
For neo-cetaceans, choosing a non-uplift morph is a simple matter of practicality. The solar system just isn’t built for us. It used to be. There used to be a beautiful blue jewel in the heavens. Not any more. Outside of Ceres, [[Atlantica]], [[Europa]], and the [[Sol|solar corona]], there are few places for a neo-cetacean to be themselves.
This is slowly starting to change, but only slowly. Viable biological uplift morphs are just too rare and expensive to really mass produce, and the market for cheaper pods and shells is mostly humanoid, so unless you’re a neo-hominid you’re often stuck with something less than ideal when resleeving.
Fortean, the exomoon where they’re trying to recreate mythical species, has been vital in addressing this need. Already they’ve gained notoriety for the [[Morphs#ripwing|ripwing]] pod but their newest creations have raised the bar even further. The [[Morphs#Chickcharnie|chickcharnie]] and vodyanoy were designed as utilitarian options for neo-avians and neo-cetaceans, respectively. Likewise, the engineers of [[Feral Robot]] and similar studios are designing shells like the [[Morphs#Takko|takko]] for commercial use, sacrificing little of an octomorph’s natural dexterity for greater durability and the other advantages of a fully synthetic body.

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