SYNOPSIS
The artificial stimulation of evolution and natural selection under sapient direction is a progression both fraught with risk and ripe with potential. By inducing specific changes to the ecosystem, adaptation and mutation can be hurried, sped along to its ultimate end. The Accelerated Evolution Model uses both fractal induction to predict various scenarios by their behavior in phase space, via data mining (compiled with the assistance of the Maui High Performance Computing Center and controlled laboratory experiments done under isolated and varied conditions. In essence, a four stage progression has emerged from this research.

STAGE ONE - Complex Global Ecosystem (CGE)
As the global ecosystem becomes more and more affected by the rapid interactions of humans and other species, it becomes clear that the dominant form of progression will be the 'Red Queen' syndrome (where species adapt rapidly in reaction to one another, running constantly but always staying in the same place - as the Red Queen told Alice to do in Lewis Carroll's 'Through the Looking Glass"). This progression will force extreme interdependence in the ecosystem as nutrients in the primary biofoundation are depleted by rapid changes to the environment. Soon (within several thousand years) even simple interactions between species acquire millions of possible factors and ramifications. Elements of terrain worldwide are occupied by the same select groups of species, but interacting with other environments globally.

This stage of development is evidenced in rainforests, marine reefs and mid-oceanic environments.

STAGE TWO - Widespread Rapid Mutation (WRM)
As competition intensifies between species and the food chain increases in complexity (as does the entire process of species interaction), the model begins to display a cycle of extinction and mutation that accelerates and changes the CGE from the Red Queen progression to one of unpredictable and chaotic conditions.

During WRM the very complex interactions of CGE break down into a violent and deadly morass. Some species become extinct as others mutate and replace them in rapid fashion. Cycles of extinction begin to coincide with explosions of biodiversity. The presence of complex organic chemicals (such as superlong nucleic acids or SNA) developed during the previous stage serve as mutagens and catalysts for the WRM. The presence of sapience and sentience nearly disappears in this stage, replaced with an almost Gaian order to mutation and species interaction.

This stage of development can be evidenced in Pre-Cambrian non-fossilized ecosystems.

STAGE THREE - Interspecies Cellular Convergence (ICC)
As chaos increases in the WRM, stability is sought by species unable to maintain a rapid pace of mutation. The interdependence seen in the CGE intensifies down to the cellular level. Species become indistinguishable from one another. Exchange of nutrients via symbiosis and parasitism becomes common among stable remnant CGE species. Genetic material begins to pass from species to species allowing instant and radical mutation. Soon the boundaries and dividing lines between species become blurred and indistinct. The competition between the ICC progression and the WRM progression leads to the fourth stage.

This stage of development can be evidenced by recent Antarctic findings beneath the Ross Ice Shelf (see FB-RD 8/SEPT/90).

STAGE FOUR - Interplanetary Diaspora (ID4)
Rapidly mutating species among those with cellular convergence leads to a case where cellular convergence begins to envelop and overwhelm rapid mutation as a viable adaptation. Species that do not develop an interplanetary range are consumed by the emerging global entity of cellular convergence. Modeling this stage has produced wildly disparate results and cannot be confirmed by direct observation under controlled conditions.