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| Luri the Interventionist (source) |
Who (or what) has been interfering with my thought processes? My prime suspect became my replicoid. Actually, my hunch was that my replicoid is only the tool of some other person, a hidden "mind vampire" who watched my every move. But how could someone else take control of my replicoid?
A direct approach to obtaining answers to these questions involved asking my replicoid. I've previously described a technique that allows me to interview my own replicoid. Below, I present what my replicoid told me about my analogue in the Ekcolir Reality. But first, a few words about analogues, the versions of ourselves that existed in Deep Time.
Background: Deep Time
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| Recent Realities of Deep Time |
Note: I've been told that time travel is no longer possible.
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| know matter |
Sedronic Memory. Most of the universe exists within the Sedronic Domain. A feature of the Sedronic Domain is that it contains a "record" or "memory" of Deep Time, of all the events that happened before our current Reality came into existence. According to Anney, the Sedronic Domain also contains information about the future, but the current dimensional structure of the universe does not allow anyone to access information from the future.
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| aliens in the Hierion Domain |
Analogues. Thus, almost everyone here in our world had an analogue in the previous Reality, the Ekcolir Reality. Previously, I'd learned that several people were "brought over" from the Ekcolir Reality into the Buld Reality. For example, Trysta, Ekcolir, Grean and Thomas all lived previously in the Ekcolir Reality before they traveled through time and appeared in our Reality. Now, we could ask, did their travel into the Buld Reality by way of Eternity mean that there are now two "copies" of each of them, one being their "natural analogue" in this Reality and the other being the "imported copy" that arrived from the previous Reality? Apparently the answer is no. Trysta, Ekcolir, Grean and Thomas were not humans and the "inertial amplifier" of Earth was only designed to assure that humans would have Temporal Momentum.
In The End of Eternity, Asimov mentioned Eric Linkollew, a writer from the 575th century. An analogue of Linkollew existed in a whole series of successive Realities and he was a writer in each of them, but his writing career was somewhat different in each Reality.
I've been told that "duplicates" of both Asimov and Vance were made, so for at least a short time in the Buld Reality there might have been "competition" between those copies for access to a shared replicoid. Also, both Angela and Anney have previously shown considerable interest in the writing careers of the analogues of Asimov and Vance in Deep Time (see in particular this blog post). The issue of "duplicate copies" of individuals, and Asimov and Vance as specific examples, come up in the following, what I'll call the Interview, Part 2. (Part 1 is here)
Interview - Part 2
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| Replicoid |
Me: Did I have an analogue in the previous Reality?
Me2: Of course. Why do you ask?
Me: After our last session together I started thinking about my analogues in Deep Time.
Me2: Analogues? Plural?
Me: I've previously learned about the analogues of Jack Vance in the previous Reality and Asimov's analogues going all the way back to the Foundation Reality.
Me: Um....wow. I'm surprised. Why not?
Me2: Well, that's not easy to explain.
Me: I've got plenty of time.
Me2. Simply put, your analogue in the Ekcolir Reality was born into that Reality as a fully new individual, with no earlier analogues in Deep Time.
Me: I see. Is that a rare occurrence, a "fully new individual" suddenly appearing in one Reality of a Reality Chain?
Me2: Not in general, but here on Earth it would be unusual for a human to not to have a set of analogues in each step of the recent Reality Chain.
Me: Wasn't Earth equipped with inertial amplifiers that cause people to have analogues in successive Realities?
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| source |
Me: Do you mean I'm an alien?
Me2: I'm not sure what you're asking. Biologically alien? No. You're a human, born on Earth. You are not an alien just because your analogue in the Ekcolir Reality wasn't born on Earth.
Me: I'm just surprised. How common is it for visitors to Earth to "slip themselves in" to the Reality Chain? Are there others like me?
Me2: Well, in this regard you might well be unique. I don't know. Anney could try find the answer. Does it matter?
Me: This is the first thing I've ever heard about my analogue. I don't know what to think. Why did my analogue come to Earth?
Me: What I've heard about Resh^Ki seems rather garbled and confused. What I've heard from Anney seems to conflict with what I learned from Resh^Ki's infites.
Me2: Well, don't get tied up in the bad blood between Anney and Resh^Ki. They each see the world in completely different ways. Do you accept the idea that the tryp'At are a type of human from the Galactic Core?
Me: I suppose. Anney told me that I....or, you....well, my replicoid....has even "merged minds" with Resh^Ki on occasion, but I have no memory of those merging events.
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| Special thanks to Miranda Hedman for "Black Cat 9 - stock" that I used to create the blue "sedronite". |
Me: So, I'm tryp'At?
Me2: No. Just a minute ago we both agreed that you're human.
Me: Well, I'm confused. My analogue was a tryp'At, but I'm human?
Me2: Right.
Me: I'm still confused. Are you saying that there is no biological difference between tryp'At and humans?
Me2: There are minor biological differences, but the tryp'At were carefully engineered to be human as judged by the technical criteria of the Trysta-Grean Pact.
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| Foundations of Eternnity |
Me2: Well, that was not left to chance. You could say that Gohrlay handled both ends of that.
Me: I might say so if I knew what that means.
Me2: Look, it's not that complicated. Gohrlay established the inertial amplification system of Earth and Gohrlay made sure that the tryp'At would be backwards compatible with that system.
Me: So, is it true that Gohrlay is still watching over Earth?
Me2: That's an interesting question. All I can say is that the tryp'At are watching over Earth and Gohrlay designed the tryp'At. Lately, I've been in no position to know what Gohrlay is up to.
Me: What exactly is your position?
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| clones: Thomas and Parthney |
Me: Well, I've been wondering if I was duplicated by teleportation and if a "copy" of me has taken control of my replicoid.
Me2: You've never been teleported, but that's an academic thought experiment. If someone were duplicated by teleportation then why would either copy have more of a claim on their replicoid?
Me: Shouldn't the original copy keep its replicoid?
Me2: The point is, the two copies would be indistinguishable. Anyhow, it would be a trivial matter to duplicate the replicoid also.....in fact, I think that all the teleporters that were ever used on Earth were set to automatically do that.
Me: Oh. So you are not a copy of me?
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| Daveed |
Me: That's rather disappointing. I have some odd memories that have led me to suspect that I might have once traveled into the future.
Me2: Given the complex jumble of memories that you carry, how do you keep them all straight?
Me: It isn't easy...often I can't. However, I feel like you are trying to distract me and change the subject. Who are you then, just my replicoid?
Me2: That's rather rude. Are you implying that a replicoid is just a hollow shell, not a complete person?
Me: I need a copy of Replicoids for Dummies. I don't really understand what replicoids are. Right now, as I listen to "your" voice, it seems distinctly different from my own. My suspicion is that my replicoid has been hijacked by someone else.
Me: Are you saying that Gohrlay foresaw us having this conversation?
Me2: I doubt it. Fine details like that were apparently all lost in the fuzz of viewing the future. Still, I suspect that Gohrlay made a special effort to make sure that tryp'At could use the Interface well, both forwards and backwards.
Me: So, did you just imply that you are tryp'At?
Me2: Yes, yes, that's what I've been trying to tell you. I started out in life as tryp'At. I'm now well into my artificial second life.
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| source |
Me2: Ha, ha. We'll there are two kinds of tryp'At, just like the Ek'col. Most tryp'At are hermaphrodites, like Resh^Ki, but you're male. Analogues can differ quite a bit biologically, but they don't often change sex!
Me: Ah, now I see. You are my analog from the Ekcolir Reality. Did you slip into this Reality by time travel, by way of Eternity?
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| image credits |
Me: Yet, you still volunteered. What did you think you'd accomplish by coming to Earth?
Me2: Well, the answer to that question is rather embarrassing. I was trained for my mission to Earth and I had a totally bogus conceptualization of why I was sent to Earth. However, I did think that my mission was designed to help the people of Earth.
Me: So, tell me, if you were just inserted into Earth as a visitor from a distant world, how did I end up being born on Earth? Am I not related to my parents?
Me: So what about you? Do you live on Earth? Do I know you?
Me2: What? Oh, I see...you're still confused. Look, I was brought into the Buld Reality to be your coach. I could not do that job if I was in the Hadronic Domain. Look, you know what a Selfie is, right? That's what you call them?
Me: Ivory tried to explain Selfies to me. I thought that Selfies were a Kac'hin innovation.
Me: Now I begin to understand. Are you saying that my replicoid is a Selfie?
Me2: What? No! Ha, ha. You always find a way to misunderstand things. Don't forget: replicoids can easily share infites and "merge minds". As a tryp'At Selfie, I can easily put my nanites into your replicoid.
Me: I see. And what do you hope to accomplish by doing that?
Me: Well, coach, what advice do you have for me?
Me2: Eh? Oh, I see. Don't you get it? I completed my coaching job long ago. When I was done coaching you, you were equipped to absorb infites and ready to start telling the world about the Huaoshy. The only problem was that you were ready too early. We put you on hold by inactivating your Bimanoid Interface. I'm surprised that you've found a way to start reactivating it. If you want my advice, here it is: stop trying to connect to your replicoid.
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| Trysta and Ekcolir |
Me2: You have the infites from Thomas and Izhiun. That's all you need. Just write it all down. The only thing that you need to do is share what you know with the world.
Me: I'll certainly discuss your suggestions with the Dead Widowers. Towards that end, please tell me your name and the name of your home world. Also, I'd like to ask you a favor. Since you are done with your coaching job, will you now please stop your occupation of my replicoid?
Me2: The Dead Widowers know me by the name Irhit.
Me: That's a strange name.
Me2: It's not a real name. It's a code name, from a language spoken on my home world, Yrwerd. [He pronounced it "yearwood", but I recognized the name of the planet: it had been included in the infites that I received from Ivory.]
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| image credits |
Me2: Yrwerd is the tryp'At homeworld.
Me: So, what about my replicoid?
Me2: Beyond just helping you, my larger mission is to enforce the terms of the Trysta-Grean Pact. I don't think your interest in using the Bimanoid Interface and your efforts aimed at strengthening your contacts with your replicoid are useful, that's not how you should be spending your time. In fact, your contacts with people like Anney by way of the Hierion Domain are only distracting you.
Me: I suspect that you know me quite well. You should know that I'm not comfortable being used as anyone's tool, particularly if I don't know what's going on.
Me2: As far as I can tell, there were only ever three people who had a chance of "knowing what's going on": Trysta, Grean and Gohrlay. Even they could only do their best to establish this Reality. Now that time travel has been taken off the table by the Huaoshy, we're all in the same boat, we have to discover our future.
Me2: Through your replicoid, I have a line of communication with the Dead Widowers, which is a good thing. Anyhow, I could lie to you and say that I'm going to stop "visiting" your replicoid. There's nothing you can do about it.
Me: I intend to keep improving my contact with my replicoid. I'd catch you in your lie.
Me2: Look, success of the Pact and creation of a good future for Humanity is dependent a precisely balanced flow of critical information to the population of Earth. If you diverge from the plan, you'll ruin everything.
Me: You expect me to trust you to tell me what I should do?
Me2: No, I don't trust you at all, which is why I resisted your attempts to use the Bimanoid Interface.
Me2: You can't use the Bimanoid Interface like a Kac'hin. You might as well save time and abandon your silly idea that you could ever control your replicoid.
Me: Unfortunately for you, I feel like I used to control my replicoid and I feel like I am making progress towards recovering those old lost memories. Further, I suspect that you are all that is preventing me from recovering those important memories. In other words, I think you've lied to me and I feel like I'd be a fool to follow your advice.
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At that point the "interview" ended. I now wonder if I'll hear anything more from Irhit.
Next: clues from science fiction stories
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