Several years ago when I finally got involved in writing a Space Opera story that included "mental powers" (The Search for Kalid) I tried my hand at formulating a "fictional science" of telepathy. I imagined that the key to human telepathy was the existence of imaginary "T-particles" and a fictional organelle called the "telastid". In a previous blog post I discussed my bias towards including such fictional science "explanations" of mysterious "future science" plot elements in science fiction stories.
When I developed the imaginary science of Telastids, I was struggling to create a physical mechanism that would allow people to have telepathic abilities. That physical mechanism depended heavily on conventional matter and the only new physics that I introduced were the imaginary T-particles and their associated twitinos, which in my thinking were the basis for telepathic information transmission.
More recently, I have developed a much more extensive extension of physics into the realm of imaginary science. For the story Exode, I imagine that the ancient Huaoshy long ago discovered many new fundamental particles that can be grouped into two types, hierions and sedrons. The advanced scientific and engineering skills of the Huaoshy allowed them to transform themselves into an artificial form of life with god-like powers. The artificial lifeform of the Huaoshy is composed of "sedronic matter" for which the bond lengths between sedrons are only about 500-fold larger than the Planck length.
Related Reading: Rooms at the Bottom.
Artificial Life
More photography by Chiara Fersini |
Time Travel
The backstory of Exode is built up around the conflict between the alien Huaoshy and humans from 10,000,000 years in the future. The plot of Exode does not involve a classic struggle between good and evil. The Huaoshy created the human species. Noÿs, a human from the far future, wants to make sure that the human species has a chance to thrive and survive. The Huaoshy have been hard at work crafting the Prelands, a new primate species that they hoped would replace we humans in the same way that Homo ergaster was replaced. Noÿs is able to force the Huaoshy to alter their plans and give we humans a chance to prove that we can survive within a technologically advanced culture without destroying ourselves.
I've read that George Lucas wanted God, good and evil to be included in Star Wars. As discussed above, Exode is not about good and evil and there are only beings with god-like powers based on advanced science and technology, no actual gods. What about religion in Exode? In my view, religion is a human enterprise arising from mistaken belief in supernatural/spiritual powers. It seems inevitable that pre-scientific societies formed by sapient beings will develop religious belief systems. People try to understand the world, but naked human senses can't reveal fundamental features of nature like tiny atoms. It is natural for people to imagine non-material spirits that might account for mysterious aspects of our world. In Exode, there is an additional source of religious beliefs.
The Huaoshy are about as interested in revealing themselves to humans as you might be in making your existence known to the scum of bacteria found growing on a plant pot. The pek are a type of artificial lifeform that acts as an intermediary between the Huaoshy and primitive creatures like we humans. The pek make use of the human penchant for religious mysticism. Due to the ethical rules of the Huaoshy, the pek are not allowed to explain the details of human origins and so it is often convenient for the pek to allow humans to hold religious beliefs about their Creators. In Exode, there are opportunities for information to flow from Noÿs to humans and I have been having fun imagining how some religious beliefs on Earth have been influenced by "cultural contamination" and human misunderstanding of the relationship between our species and the Huaoshy.
Clone humor. |
In Star Wars, Lucas had fun suggesting that Anakin had no father. I have no idea what Lucas had in mind, but I've seen it suggested that the midi-chlorians were able to cause the virgin birth of Anakin. In Exode, Parthney is "created from scratch" by the pek. It is a trivial technological trick for the pek to create a new human who has the exact genetic pattern of any other human if the pek have that genetic pattern on record. In this case, the pek have long had the genetic pattern of Thomas, the son of Noÿs. Parthney is simply the most recent of several "incarnations" of the Thomas genetic pattern on Hemmal. Why the pek feel it is important to keep making cloned copies of Thomas is mostly the result of a silly mistake, but shit happens.
Robin |
Pla'mak |
A great irony in Exode is that the human Interventionists have long struggled to speed technological development on Earth while they have never been able to make their own technological advances. The Fru'wu and the Nereids are potential sources of information about advanced technology, but the Huaoshy are rather ruthless is preventing aliens from interfering in the culturally development of Earth.
Gates of Light |
Previously I was imagining that while there had been earlier "incarnations" of Thomas on Hemmal, none of them had ever made their way to Earth. I've grown uncomfortable with that rather arbitrary decision. It would be more fun if other "incarnations" of Thomas precede Parthney to Earth.
Back at the end of last year I decided that Exode should include an example of "cultural contamination" dating to about 500 years ago. I'm now thinking that there can be an "incarnation" of Thomas who is on Earth early in the 1500s: he grows up on Hemmal as a "false" Buld named Rechmain and he uses several other names while living in Europe during the first half of the 1500s.
Rechmain was one of the "practice versions" of the Thomas genome that were "instantiated" on the planet Hemmal in the centuries leading up to Parthney, the main character of Exode. As such, Rechmain spent time at Lendhalen with Robin and Annike. Annike was one of the many sisters of Thomas that the pek created. Rechmain and Annike became intrigued by physics and learned the basics of dimensional engineering and the importance of compact dimensions for the behavior of hierions and sedrons. Robin provided Rechmain with a mental image of the canonical three dimensional representation of the higher dimensional structure of the universe as it is known to the Huaoshy. A simplified two dimensional map of the dimensional structure (Ground State) of the universe is shown in the image to the left on this page.
May the Fourth Dimension be Time?
Cigar: ready to explore the 4th dimension. |
Teleportation
One of the imaginary technologies in Exode is teleportation. Huaoshy teleportation terminals constantly perform a calibration routine and display a holographic representation of a ten dimensional manifold that allows quick identification of potential disruption of the teleportation process between two points in space. Huaoshy teleportation terminals are too small for use by adult humans, but a human who stumbles upon one can carry on a conversation with the terminal or Huaoshy who are linked into it from a remote location. In one of the more famous examples of "cultural contamination" on Earth, an Earthling once had such a conversation with a Huaoshy teleportation terminal and came away describing the diagnostic animation as a "burning bush".
cultural contamination |
Poor Paolo was baffled by Rechmain's description of the dimensional structure of the universe, but intrigued by the four-character labels that Rechmain had placed on each "leaf" of the tree diagram. Later, Paolo modified the tree for use in illustrating the names of God and the Sephirot. Rechmain was particularly interested in mathematicians and astronomers such as Nicolaus Copernicus, but he recognized the importance of breaking down the entrenched power of European religions for the future advancement of science. Towards the end of his time on Earth, Rechmain spent his time in England working to stabilize the religious schism between England and Rome. Rechmain finally departs Earth, teleporting back to Klyz with Jane Grey. While Parthney is in training at Lendhalen for his mission to Earth, Rechmain is used as an example of how not to behave as an Interventionist agent on Earth.
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Exode is still under construction...collaborating authors are welcome.
Size matters? |
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