What is an Endeme Set?

An endeme set is a list of characteristics which when combined or ordered, result in an emergent property. An endeme is a particular ordering of these characteristics therefore having a particular emergent property. Endemes and endeme sets are often coded with a different letter for each characteristic. Endemes and endeme sets occupy a conceptual space between bit-wise enumerations which unlike endeme sets may not be ordered, and words which unlike endemes may use the same letter more than once. In other words an endeme is a permutation of letters in a particular coded endeme set context which results in an emergent property. Endeme sets can be described in a particular format which shows both which letter applies to each characteristic and which other letters might have been used. Here is an example:

A fantasy humanoid species endeme set

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUV|   characteristic	opposite	description
----------------------+
A]         -M-        |A. Aquatic		vs mountains	how much lives in or under water
[B]C-                 |B. Brave/courageous	vs cautious	how much does not hide
 [C]  -H-             |C. Centauroid		vs humanoid	number of appendages
A-[D]            -S-U-|D. Delving/underground	vs aerial	enclosedness of environment
   [E]          -RS-  |E. Equestrian/steeds	vs walking	prevalence of riding
  -E[F]         -R-   |F. Freedom		vs enslavable	desire for freedom
-B--E[G]              |G. Good			vs evil		level/amount of goodness
    -F[H]             |H. Hostile		vs friendly	initial/long term reactions
       [I]       -S-  |I. Intelligent/smart	vs not smart	level of intelligence
        [J]-MN-       |J. Jungle/natural	vs material	preference for things of nature
         [K]  -P-     |K. Killing		vs peaceful	tendency/effectiveness at killing
          [L]    -S-  |L. Large			vs small	size of species members
A-         [M]        |M. Magical		vs antimagic	amount of use of magic
-B-         [N]       |N. Noble			vs base		refinement vs earthiness
-B-       -LN[O]      |O. Ocean-going/boats	vs land based	how much do they use boats
          -M- [P]     |P. Patrilineal		vs matrilineal	how much male or female oriented
 -C-           [Q]    |Q. Quick tempered	vs cool/reserve	quickness or reactins to emotion
     -G-        [R]ST-|R. Robust/short/wide	vs gracile/tall	robustness of features
                 [S]  |S. Social		vs solitary	how much they live in groups
            -N- -S[T] |T. Traveling/nomadic	vs sedentary	how much they will travel
A-C-               [U]|U. Urban/cities		vs agrarian	preference for built up areas
 -C-  -H-           [V|V. Vegetarian/herbivour	vs carnivourous	vegetable/meat balance
----------------------+
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUV|

Endemes are coded little endian, so the characteristics on the left are strongest (and when they have opposites on the right their opposites are strongest). Here are some particular endemes for some particular species:

Fantasy humanoid species endemes

fairie

MVF.TJQE.IGBONSUA-CHPR-KDL

elf

FNI.SJVM.GBEKPOLD-CUAT-HQR

dwarf

DRB.KSFU.QGIPHNLT-CVMA-OJE

hobbit

DSP.GIJB.FVRETNUQ-COHK-LMA

human

SOK.TBLI.EUPAFRGQ-CVNH-JMD

ogre

KLQ.HJRB.DFPMUTSA-CIGO-ENV

centaur

LCT.BFIQ.RJKSPVGH-NMOU-AED

mermaid

AJF.MQTG.IBNSLEKU-DHRV-OPC

The punctuation accentuates which characteristics are high, above average, average, below average, and low. It also helps when an endeme is also only partially filled. Often the top three characteristics are the most important and 'define' the endeme, so they need to be ordered with especial care.

Endeme sets allow for controllable ambiguity and randomness. For example, a random endeme can create a new species as an emergent property:

FAM.TEIC.TPHRVBJQ-GONK-LDS new species

This new species loves freedom, lives in the water, is magical, travels, rides things, is intelligent and has 6 limbs. It is also very small, lives in coral, alone, is somewhat malicious, despises boats and is nonetheless fairly peaceful.

Interpreting this I have decided that it has the tail of a lobster and a couple pairs of its legs, and the arms of a human. It is about the size of a very large lobster, and has the tendency to attack shipping. It rides sharks, rays and large fish, caries a small trident and can adhere itself to the hull of a ship and transform things within its cargo from outside the hull. It can also zap things. It has gills and antennae. It lives in warm seas inside coral mansions or in harbors.

It sometimes takes years to develop a good endeme set. It has to be both compact in its length and perfect in its application and excellent in its ability to combine its elements. By perfect, I mean its combinations cover what it needs to cover and its combinations do not generate bunches of 'invalid' results.

MORE...

Very interesting as always. It strikes me that the endeme structure would work very well with genetic algorithms. Endemes seem to fail very gracefully, and this means there would have to be a lot less work writing validation code for the gene sequences.

The endeme structure is tailor made for genetic algorithms, since in theory there is no wrong answer. If an endeme is designed properly, all items in the list will conceptually combine with all other items on the list. The challenge then becomes writing a program that can handle the combinations.