A Carnifern is a life form from the rather ancient game
SimEarth.
Carniferns are plants which, when found in the presence of a large number of insects, become carnivorous, much like some plants have done on
Earth in the 'real world'. However, in the case of Carniferns, the plants also evolve the ability to move around, and become increasingly effective
predators. Eventually they can possibly achieve sentience and technology, but usually only when they do not face competition from more vigorous life forms, such as
mammals.
Since carniferns were so neat looking, and so difficult to grow, it was always fun to encourage their ascent to technology. For some reason, they seemed to do the best in deserts, which is quite the opposite of reality (most carnivorous plants in 'real life' live in swamps, marshes, or bogs).
Interestingly, the game implied at one point that in addition to carniferns, sentient robots could also be brought into the game. Although i was never able to achieve this, i have heard rumors that setting a nuclear bomb off in a city of nanotech technology would cause the robots to achieve independence. Unfortunately, i no longer own the game and can not try this.