Isoptal was a remote and barren mining planet colonised by the posthuman Isoptaline. The Isoptaline were artificial intelligences who uploaded their consciousness' to machines and left their organic bodies behind in order to survive the planet's harsh conditions.
Isoptalines lived in collectives, each residing in a "Mound" on the planet, and it was from the mound that their consciousness' were simulated. Moving too far away from their Mounds would result in their remote bodies shutting down. Early on in the colony's development the colonists began to specialise when it became apparent that some were better suited to the control of remote drones to facilitate mining, and others in the handling of data across the shared network of the mound. (PROSE: Weighty Questions, Salutation)