"God"

> > Primordials are colonies of thousands of individual beings, living and working together. They work together to modify their collective DNA and structure in order to continuously evolve and grow stronger.

> > “A colony,” Lillian said.  “A hundred or a thousand individual lifeforms, operating as a coordinated being.  There are some very basic and very complex principles at work here, but once you create a balance, and get it to the point where it’s capable of self-advancement while maintaining a stasis where it doesn’t destroy itself while doing so…”

> > “You get life that designs itself,” Jamie said.  “Sometimes very rapidly.”

> > Lillian nodded.  “Right now, it’s trying things at random.  It barely has any intelligence at all.  If something works to any degree, then it’s going to keep that, but it’s going to keep stuff that doesn’t work, that gives it false impressions.  It’s going to run into dead ends, and it’s going to reach the limits of its confines and shed or self-cannibalize parts at random, hoping to discard loose ends.  This kind of thing crosses a certain milestone, and then it starts developing with purpose.  It starts to recognize the dead ends.”

> Bleeding Edge 8.11