ENCYCLOPEDIA GALACTICA Edition 428193 - Earth English Civilization Gardener: Summary Civilization Gardener is the official IAU1 Language English2 name for a society of socially programmed omni-morphs found scattered through out the Milky Way galaxy and known to reside in twenty-three (23) other galaxies. They are also called the Gardeners or by comparable translations. The name 'Gardener' is not consistent with the IAU naming convention for confirmed alien civilizations. One reason is that the Gardeners are not native to the Milky Way. According to their history they came out of the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) with members first arriving in the Milky Way approximately 2.4 billion years ago. The unconventional name also stems from the fact that members are an engineered species and not a naturally evolved creation from a specific birth world3. Instead, this civilization is named metaphorically after their apparent social purpose. To summarize this social purpose: Members study, nurture and preserve biodiversity in the cosmos. Preservation is often accomplished through the construction of artificial planetoids as gardens. These bodies, averaging 1100 km in diameter, duplicate the environmental conditions of the biosphere being preserved. This duplication includes gravity, in spite of a planetoid's small size.4 Gardener planetoids are mobile and can be transferred5 (several times if required) to compatible stars. Whenever possible, these planetoids are positioned far from any existing civilizations to minimize risk of biosphere contamination due to the commerce of other societies. There are exceptions to this rule, such as times when a civilization may undergo Eden Crisis6 and request a preserve planetoid be created in the event of the worst. Preserve planetoids are often placed within reach of a civilization in crisis but safely outside any danger zone. Gardener planetoids are controlled by a small population of caretakers. Caretakers, sometimes called 'friars', are distinct species bioengineered during a planetoid's construction phase to be compatible with the environment and biology for which they will care. Thus members of the Gardener civilization can appear radically different from each other but think and behave largely in the same manner. They are the best living example of a practicing omni-morph civilization. Civilization Gardener is not regarded as a true civilization by some other members of the Community7. Two reasons are often cited.

1. Gardeners were initially bread by a forbearing civilization for a specific function and have never developed social goals independent of that purpose.
2. Biologically Gardeners do not evolve naturally and their common intellectual capacity has not increased significantly since their initial creation.

Of coarse, this designation is only a technical one and members of Civilization Gardener are treated as any other confirmed civilization. Though they are not regarded as having a Sphere of Influence8. Nor do Gardeners strictly observe the Ethic of the Community9. They will often survey regions of space that are well within the Sphere of Influence of other civilizations without making an overt effort to announce their presence. This has had some tragic consequences in the past as Gardener surveys have been accidentally destroyed by the activities of resident civilizations. But, these events have been rare. References: 1Civilization Humanity: International Astronomical Union 2Civilization Humanity: Linguistic Types 3Civilization Gardener: History, Social Order 4Civilization Gardener: Unique Technological Adaptations   Definition: Apparent Mass 5Definition: Non-Quantum Meso-scale Entangled Transference 6Definition: Eden Crisis 7Definition: The Community 8Definition: Sphere Of Influence 9Definition: Ethic Of The Community