original cover art work by Frank R. Paul |
"Chances overwhelmingly favor existence of life on Mars either past or present." - Hugo Gernsback
But what exactly did "life" mean to people who lived back in the 1920s and 1930s? In 'The Synthetic Men' by Ed Earl Repp, readers were introduced to an imagined biologist of the future (living in the year 2,000) named Pontius. On that story, Pontius has mastered the engineering of artificial protoplasm, resulting in his creation of artificial men.
In the Ekcolir Reality
According to Gohrlay, the concept of artificial life was introduced into science fiction by Helen Gernsback and Edith Rapp. Helen was the daughter of Rose and Hugo Gernsback in the Ekcolir Reality. Edith was one of the many science fiction writers who existed in the Ekcolir Reality as a female analogue of a male science fiction writer in our Reality.
Original cover art by Paul Alexander |
According to Gohrlay, 'Artificial Life' told the story of how a human variant was created on a world of the Galactic Core. The pek were depicted as artificial life forms who did the design work for the new human variant, but they worked indirectly through their control of Grendels.
In our Reality, Ivory Fersoni was the first Earthling to fully understand the origins of the human species. Much of what Ivory knew about the secret History of Humanity came to her from her clone sisters.
Paul Alexander |
C. L. Moore
1958 cover art |
1933 |
Archive World: Taivasila |
Some of Gohrlay's past lives were "lived" as an artificial life form on worlds like Taivasila where humans could not survive on the surface without a spacesuit. During those lives, her mind was instantiated within an artificial life form that could survive and flourish under the harsh environmental conditions of Taivasila.
Hierion Trilogy |
I asked Gohrlay if there have been occasions when artificial life forms resided on other planets (besides Earth) in our Solar System. Apparently all the nearby planets are infested with zeptites, but she doubts that the zeptites of Mars, for example, have ever taken on humanoid form. However, Gohrlay suspects that the replicoids of some science fiction writers in the Ekcolir Reality made sure that a few Earthlings received knowledge of Archive Worlds, possibly including Taivasila.
Related Reading: niaf
Next: more science fiction stories from Deep Time.
visit the Gallery of Book and Magazine Covers |
No comments:
Post a Comment