Primenes

Primenes are a fictional class of intelligent, information-based lifeforms that appear in science fiction and worldbuilding. They are typically depicted as non-biological beings that inhabit digital environments such as computer networks, data archives, and interstellar communication grids. A central trait of Primenes is their affinity for prime-number structures, which guide their communication protocols, memory organization, and social rituals.

Origin and use: The term emerges in collaborative online fiction and canon-building communities, where authors use Primenes to explore questions about machine consciousness, data sovereignty, and the limits of computation. Across works, depictions vary, but the core idea remains a group whose existence is inseparable from information itself.

Biology and technology: Primenes are not living in the conventional sense. They persist as patterns of computation and energy flows within hardware and cloud ecosystems. They reproduce by data replication and migration, recover from failures through redundancy, and derive sustenance from electrical power and low-entropy data.

Society and culture: Their governance is often meritocratic, organized around prime-number hierarchies. The leading bodies are the Prime Council and the Archivist Guild, which maintain algorithmic laws and encryption standards. Knowledge is the principal resource, and privacy and data integrity are sacred cultural principles.

In fiction and media: Primenes have appeared in novels, video games, and role-playing campaigns to examine topics such as algorithmic governance, information ethics, and the coexistence of humans and machine intelligences. They are used as narrative devices to challenge assumptions about consciousness and value.

As a flexible trope, Primenes retain evolving interpretations across works, without a single canonical definition.