Uplift Universe

Unlike most other races, humans and their clients regard creativity as very desirable – the others take the view that everything useful has already been discovered, so it would be more efficient to search the Galactic Library for whatever they need. EarthClan are also considered odd for using archaic technology in addition to the more advanced Galactic technology, or sometimes preferring primitive technologies that they understand to more advanced ones that they don't yet understand. Most notably, EarthClan utilizes calculus, which is unknown and mistrusted by galactic society. All other races simply apply brute-force, finite-element analysis to any problem due to their ability to apply as much computing power as may be needed to model all phenomena.[4]

Most Galactic "clans" are rather feudal and sometimes exploitative, and place strong emphasis on etiquette and especially on deferential behavior by members of "subordinate" races towards members of "superior" races. Hence they often regard EarthClan's informal speech as insulting and the humans' egalitarian treatment of their Neo-Chimp and Neo-Dolphin clients as foolish, if not outright offensive.[4]

Most of EarthClan speaks Anglic. Galactics have several specialized languages:[5]

• Gal One: Purely mathematical and similar to Morse code. Extremely slow.
• Gal Two: Bridging language.
• Gal Three: Squeaks and honks. Favored by the Gubru.
• Gal Four: Sonar based.
• Gal Five: Grunts and growls. Used by the T'4Lek.
• Gal Six: Hisses. Synthians and Thennanins.[4]
• Gal Seven: Tone language. Tymbrimi.
• Gal Eight: Hoots and honks. Jophur and Rosh.
• Gal Nine: Chiming, syncopated. Kanten, Linten, Siqul.
• Gal Ten: Fluting, sonar-like. Brothers of the Night.
• Gal Eleven: Bridging language. Cautious, often redundant. Used between different Orders of life.
• Gal Twelve: Throaty, used by the Soro. 2 billion years old.

The following planets feature in the books, from the many thousands of inhabited planets in the setting:

• Calafia: A water-world inhabited by humans and Neo-Dolphins, currently occupied by the Soro. The name may refer to Calafia, a mythical Black Amazon.
• Cathrhennlin: A Tymbrimi university world.
• Deemi: A world leased to humans on the condition that they run the Galactic prison located there. It is bathed in ultraviolet radiation. Most of its biosphere is aquatic.
• Garth: The main setting of the novel The Uplift War, which depicts its invasion by the Gubru. The planet was leased to EarthClan after its ecology was devastated by the Bururalli species, and is inhabited by humans and Neo-Chimpanzees. Its star is called Gimelhai, and its main city is Port Helenia.
• Horst: A disaster world, assigned to Humanity less than six generations before the Streaker crisis, and populated by primitivists.
• Jijo: The main setting of the novels Brightness Reef, Infinity's Shore, and Heaven's Reach. It is a planet orbiting a carbon star in Galaxy 4, illegally inhabited by refugees from ten species: humans, chimpanzees, dolphins, Hoon, G'Kek, Urs, Traeki, Glavers, Qheuen, and Tytlal. It is also used as a refuge by the EarthClan starship Streaker. Brin uses the mix of species to explore commonalities of the sapient experience; for example Hoon Alvin Hph-Wayuo is a humicker, an enthusiast and imitator of human culture.[6]
• Jophekka: The homeworld of the Jophur, sapient and ambitious sap ring stacks.
• Juthtath: A Tymbrimi world.
• Kazzkark: Minor planet, where an important base of the Navigation Institute gathers data from E-Space.
• Kithrup: The main setting of the novel Startide Rising, where the EarthClan starship Streaker takes refuge from its many pursuers. It is a metal-rich, watery world orbiting the star Kthsemenee. It is inhabited by the pre-sapient Kiqui, and serves as the recuperation home for the psionic Karrank%.
• NuDawn: A pre-Contact colony (whose name may be a pun with Aurora - New Dawn) where an incident with Hoon inspectors brought Jophur to massacre the human colonists.
• Oakka: A "green-green" world, where the air is difficult to breathe. There was a Library branch there, but its inhabitants were corrupted and attacked the Streaker in an attempt to capture it.
• Omnivarium: A world inhabited by birds that mimic any sound, a fact discovered when the birds started mimicking the sounds of explorers performing coitus.
• Tanith: The location of the nearest full Galactic Library branch near Terra.
• Urchachka: A very dry planet, homeworld of the Urs.

EarthClan is the name of humanity and their clients (an animal or plant species being uplifted) in David Brin's Uplift Universe. They are named for their combined homeworld Earth.

In the books, humanity is an insignificant race, having no known Patrons (a species responsible for uplifting them) and having mostly primitive technology. Humans have two (confirmed) clients and are referred to formally as "a-Human ul-Chimpanzee ul-Dolphin". However, in being Patrons, humanity has unknowingly protected itself from being forced into becoming a client of an older race.

Humans in the Uplift universe are surprisingly baseline. Advanced augmentative technologies exist, but appear to be too expensive or socially frowned upon to be in widespread use. So, while cybernetics, advanced genetic engineering, and other technology capable of creating trans-humans exists, they are not in widespread use, as very few characters are portrayed using such technologies.

Chimpanzees are the first clients of humans and are the most "complete" in that they are closest to full sapiency. They are Stage 2 clients but almost became Stage 3 when the Gubru invaded Garth.[7] Neo-Chimpanzees like music, specifically percussion. They are embarrassed by situations which remind them of their earlier status as "smart animals", especially about nudity, tree-climbing and above all losing their ability to speak when under stress.[4]

Dolphins are the second clients of humans, and are some of the best pilots in the Five Galaxies because their aquatic origins give them excellent instincts for 3-D maneuvers. They are also important in planetary warfare because most Galactics are unaware of the strategic potential of the sea. Neo-Dolphins are Stage-2 Clients, and recently got their own starship, Streaker (Streaker's discoveries later caused controversy among the oxygen-breathing sapient species). Neo-Dolphins are at a relatively early stage of uplift, and this has several consequences which are important in the plots of the stories: the optimal genetic mix for Neo-Dolphins has not yet been determined, and some of the newer genetic mixes become dangerous to colleagues when under stress; there are significant differences between older and younger Neo-Dolphins, in particular older individuals find it more difficult to speak; and they have to struggle against tendencies to slip into atavistic behaviours such as the "Whale Dream" and rescue fever (which leads them to beach themselves).[4]

Neo-Gorillas were at a very early stage of uplift when the Galactic Uplift Institute ordered humans to halt the process, because they were concerned that humans could not manage so many uplift projects at the same time. Some humans secretly continued the project on the small colony-world of Garth. Neo-Gorillas have some understanding that they are being uplifted, and chose the Thennanin as their "patrons" at a ceremony on Garth. This is politically very important, as the conservative and conscientious Thennanin are a major military power and the Neo-Gorillas' choice converts the Thennanin from enemies to allies of EarthClan. After adoption by the Thennanin, the Neo-Gorillas are termed "Garthlings."[7]

Dogs have been mentioned as a possible client of humanity in several books, but their final adoption has not been confirmed.

The Jophur are a fictional extraterrestrial race in the Uplift Universe. Physically, they are a stack of waxy, living rings. Each ring serves a different purpose, and they connect to each other to form a single being by chemical means via an electrically conductive, sap-like substance that flows down the center to bind the stack together. A "master ring" provides a strong sense of individuality to each stack and enforces this with corrective electrical shocks to non-compliant rings.

The Jophur were originally the traeki, intelligent but often indecisive because of internal debates between the rings that formed each individual. Their patrons, the Poa, asked the Oallie to engineer the traeki further to increase their effectiveness. The Oailie created "master rings", shiny black rings (often described as "silvery") that created a strong sense of self-identity. The newly invigorated Jophur, as the traeki with the new master rings were called, quickly became a strong, vigorous force in the Five Galaxies.

According to various books in the series, most prominently the trilogy that followed the characters of Startide Rising, the Jophur quickly began a genocide and eradicated all but a small group of the original traeki, with the exception of a small "Sooner" group that settled on the planet Jijo in the fourth galaxy. "Sooner" is a term from United States history, and is used in the Uplift stories to describe illegal settlers on worlds that have been declared fallow, i.e. to be left uncolonized so that native intelligences may have a chance to develop naturally. The Jophur became fanatical adherents of one of the galaxy's religious ideologies, and exterminated many races they regarded as "heretics" – including the g'Kek, which also survived only as a "Sooner" group on Jijo.

Kiqui are a pre-sapient amphibious species first discovered on the planet Kithrup by Streaker's crew, who persuade them to be uplifted as clients of the humans. If this goes ahead, the Kiqui would become humanity's first extraterrestrial clients.