Far Out and Far Away: A Novel of Emergent Evolution

FAR OUT AND FAR AWAY A NOVEL OF EMERGENT EVOLUTION portrays humankind's colonization of a planet called Lichen some fifteen thousand light years distance from Earth's solar system and some fifteen thousand years into the future. Scientist-poet-author Johnny Dolphin has imagined what we humans could become were we willing to consciously participate in our own evolution. He sings a vivid story of space exploration beyond our Sun by nomadic explorers called Mongols, all told with humor and poetic delight. The Mongols have been split into two groups for several centuries: one group populates Lichen through terraforming biospheres, while the other retains a nomadic lifestyle to continue exploring the galaxy to seek new planets. Power struggles erupt when the Mongol expedition prepares to depart and the Lichenians, who are now people of the planet, must face taking control of their own culture and resources while ensuring Lichen's autonomy, threatened by an expedition en route from Terra (Earth). Fearing Terran intrusion, the Lichenians try to persuade theMongols to stay and help them deal with the impact upon their culture.When persuasion fails, they attempt to force the issue by seizing two of the Mongol leaders. The Terrans meanwhile take advantage of the Lichenians' reliance on theater as their cultural unifier to transmit data calculated to influence their thoughts and manipulate their actions. Ultimately, a duel between Mongol and Lichenian leaders brings about a dramatic resolution and an entirely new social contract between them emerges. Johnny Dolphin is the pen name of John Allen, pioneer in biospherics and ethnospherics, inventor of Biosphere 2, and Chairman of Global Ecotechnics.