30 Year Grind

cover art by Wayne Barlowe

 In the November 1991 issue of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, 80 pages of Asimov's story Forward the Foundation was published as a novella, just five months before his death. The complete novel was finally published in 1993, but I like to imagine that Forward the Foundation was essentially completed before Asimov's death in 1992. However, it was heartbreaking that Asimov did not live to write any sequels to Foundation and Earth.

Dead but not Forgotten. Here we are, 30 years later, and Asimov's fans are struggling to accommodate themselves to Apple TV's Foundation series. As described previously, I recently watched Season One of the TV show and I was provoked to look back at the million and a half words that Asimov wrote in telling his story of the Foundation Saga. Also, I've looked back at my older blog posts about the seven novels that came to embody the Foundation Saga.

cover art by Gary Freeman

Here in this blog post, I'm going to reflect on my own fan-fiction extension of Asimov's Foundation Saga. While trying to imagine how Asimov might have continued writing more Foundation novels that would extend the Foundation Saga past the events depicted in Foundation and Earth, I was driven to develop my own science fiction story writing  project that I call the Exode Saga. The Exode Saga can be viewed as fan-fiction, having been inspired by Asimov's fictional universe of positronic robots and galactic empires.

Expanding the Foundation. My favorite Asimov novel is The End of Eternity. The Exode Saga is actually a sequel to both Foundation and Earth and The End of Eternity. It was Asimov himself who suggested a possible link between his positronic robots and time travel, and idea which I happily adopted.

cover art by Jim Burns

When I first read Asimov's Foundation Trilogy, I did not really understand that it originated as a series of short stories that had been published in Astounding magazine in the 1940s. In a way, serial publication of the Foundation short stories and novellas was a perfect medium for telling the saga of a galactic empire slowly collapsing over the course of centuries.

 After buying and reading the three novels in the original Foundation Trilogy, I threw away the first book and only kept the final two (Avon editions, printed in 1972). I felt that Asimov's story did not really become interesting until the telepathic Mule and Second Foundationers came onto the stage. Later, when Asimov extended the saga in 1982 with Foundations Edge, I was not impressed. Only with Foundation and Earth and the revelation that Daneel was part of the Foundation Fictional Universe did I achieve any real interest in the sequel novels.

genetically engineered Spacers

If Asimov could explicitly link his positronic robot stories to the Foundation Saga, then why not also bring time travel and aliens into the mix as two great Sci Fi plot elements that Asimov had included in some of his other science fiction stories? In Foundation and Earth, Asimov introduced the idea that a hermaphroditic human variant with telepathic abilities had evolved on the planet Solaria. The Solarians had been genetically engineered so as to have "transducer lobes" in their brains which they used so as to maintain a kind of telepathic control of their robots. I was impressed by the freaky Spacers that got included in Apple TV's Foundation series and I'll assume that they were inspired by the Solarians in Foundation and Earth.

cover art by Stephen Youll

 And Gaia, too. In Foundation's Edge, Asimov introduced the planet Gaia and the idea that its people had been genetically modified so as to link them into a telepathic group mind. Daneel's ultimate goal was to craft Galaxia, a galaxy-spanning group mind.

More telepaths. In addition to telepathic Gaians and Solarians, Asimov also included the telepathic Mule, the telepathic Second Foundationers and telepathic positronic robots like Daneel. I have the feeling that Asimov wrote himself into a corner with Foundation and Earth. Trevize expresses unhappiness with the idea that Humanity's fate is Galaxia and I suspect Asimov himself felt the same way. Since Asimov's death, I've tried to imagine a way to continue the Foundation saga beyond the ending of Foundation and Earth, and the method I arrived at involves a Reality Change. I also include many telepathic human variants in the Exode Saga.

Noÿs/Skaña/Trysta (image source)

 Earth's Reality Chain. As unhappy as I was that Asimov never wrote past Foundation and Earth, I've long been even more eager to craft a fan-fiction sequel to The End of Eternity. In some sense, The End of Eternity is a perfect novel that should not be messed with, but the concept of Reality Changes and the character Noÿs, a woman from millions of years in our future, are just too good to leave alone. 

For the Exode Saga, I like to imagine that Noÿs originated as an Asterothrope named Skaña. While working to create a Reality Change that would end the Mallansohn Reality, she used the name Noÿs (as depicted by Asimov in The End of Eternity). I like to imagine that later, in the Foundation Reality, she began using the name Trysta Iwedon.

Reality Chain

 Deep Time. The Exode Saga encompasses all of Deep Time, from the invention of time travel in the First Reality and on through a series of intermediary Realities all the way to the Final Reality. I like to imagine that a Final Reality could be brought into existence by the alien Huaoshy who used their advanced technology to alter the Dimensional Structure of the Universe, making further time travel impossible.

Isaac Asimov was very interested in history. When crafting the Foundation Saga, Asimov used plot and character ideas from The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. In The End of Eternity, Asimov introduced the idea of keeping records of past Realities within a library system of Eternity. Since I love the idea of having access to records of past Realities, for the Exode Saga I imagine that the Eternity space-time bubble was never actually destroyed.

 The Big and the Little. In the early 1940s, Asimov began writing stories about an enormous Galactic Empire, but he was also concerned with the very small. Back in the 1930s, the first efforts were underway to map genes on chromosomes and as a chemistry student, it may have been obvious to Asimov that information could be stored in the structure of atoms and chemical bonds inside chromosomes (this idea became increasing popular after publication of Erwin Schrödinger's book What is Life? in 1944). Before anyone had figured out how to make electronic digital computers, Asimov imagined a fictional "postronic brain" that could be used to hold the thinking mind of a human-like robot.

In 1959, Richard Feynman gave a lecture called "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom" which pointed towards the near future when nano-scale transistors would allow for the efficient storage of large amounts of data in a small space. In the 1960s, the genetic code was deciphered and in the 1970s restriction enzymes became available for cutting DNA at specific sites. By 1977, Hal Clement was encouraging science fiction story tellers to make use of genetic engineering in their stories.

So, by the time when Asimov began publishing new Foundation Saga stories in 1982, the scientific fields of biology and computing had undergone major revolutions since the early 1940s. Asimov included in Foundation's Edge a new computer-controlled spaceship navigation system and genetically engineered Solarians.

small devices

I like how Apple TV's Foundation series is not afraid to make use of advanced technologies that Asimov never imagined, particularly nanotechnology such as nanobots (I prefer the term nanites). For the Exode Saga, I take nanotechnology to the next level by imagining that there are as-yet-unknown fundamental particles able to assemble like atoms, but using bonds that are much shorter than for electrons in covalent bonds. Specifically, hierions can form useful structures that are 1000 times smaller than nanites (I call them femtobots).

nanites are made of hadrons, femtobots are composed of M-hierions, zeptites use array sedrons

positronic brain (source)

 Positronic Brains. Asimov never explained the physical basis of positronics. For the Exode Saga, I imagine that the bumpha Many Sails made some M-hierions available to human scientists at Observer Base who were forbidden by the pek from developing electronics. The human scientists used the M-hierions to develop positronic circuits instead of electronic circuits. Asimov wrote several stories in which accidents with positronic brains resulted in telepathic robots. For the Exode Saga, I assume that positronic circuits are intrinsically sensitive to twitinos, a type of hierion particle that can carry information through time.

 Seldon's Plan or Daneel's Plan? Asimov did provide his readers with a sketch of how Seldon's 1000 year plan for the creation of a new Galactic Empire would play out. Eventually, the "psychologists" of the Second Foundation would have to merge with the First Foundation which specialized in physical science and was technology-oriented. 

Gaia

However, as depicted in Foundation and Earth, only half way through the 1,000 year Seldon Plan, Daneel unveils the existence of Gaia, a world with genetically-engineered humans who have the equivalent of the Laws of Robotics built into them. Also revealed is the idea of a future Galaxia, where the entire population of the galaxy would be organized as a telepathic group mind.

In the Ekcolir Reality.
Original cover art: Michael Whelan
and Fred Gambino.

 The Magic of Telepathy. There were multiple times during his Foundation Saga when Asimov rather abruptly pulled telepathy out of the box of Sci Fi plot elements:
1) The origin of telepathic positronic robots was "explained" as having been a chance occurrence.
2) The telepaths of the Second Foundation, starting with Wanda, just showed up on the stage of the crumbling Empire.
3) Gaia was a 20,000 year project by Daneel to create a society of telepathic humans, only revealed at the end of the project.
4) The Solarians were revealed after thousands of years their own project of genetic engineering and development of technology-assisted telepathy. 

Not being comfortable with magic in a science fiction story, I'd prefer to describe a logical way to use imaginary future technology so as to make possible human and robot telepathy.

aliens

 Revise with Trevize. I like the idea that Seldon's Plan was really a technology development project. Daneel needed a way to telepathically link the 25,000,000 worlds of Galaxia across vast trans-galactic distances. However, at the end of Foundation and Earth, Asimov left readers (and Trevize) adrift in a cloud of doubt concerning the alien force that threatened Humanity. For the Exode Saga, I depict the positronic robots of Earth as being locked in a struggle against ancient aliens called Huaoshy. The Huaoshy planned to replace humans with a primate variant called the Prelands, a species that could eventually transcend to the Sedron Domain. However, programmed to protect Humanity, the positronic robots of Earth resist the efforts of the Huaoshy.

In the Exode Saga, the positronic robots of Earth win a chance for Humanity to spread among the stars, but the specter of how Humanity can adjust to the existence of telepathy still hangs over the Final Reality. 

twitinos and telepathy

 Twitinos. Was most of Asimov's telepathy in the Foundation Reality twitino-based and not possible in the Final Reality, or was some Such as Solarian technology-based? Asimov made a big deal out of detecting electrical signals from brains, but how did mentalic mind control work?

  Bimanoid Interface. For telepathy in the FInal Reality of the Exode Saga, I make use of what was originally a Temporal Momentum system but it was later adapted for technology-assisted telepathy.

 Socio-history. What are the social implications of telepathy? I make use of the idea that the Neanderthals has a weak form of telepathy that aided in social cohesion. I imagine that later advancements for technology-assisted telepathy made use of human brain regions related to inter-personal relationships and that means that telepathic mind control can't be imposed on anyone against their will. In the Final Reality, telepathy requires empathy and resonance.

image made using "April" by karlwikman
available under the CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Endosymbionts. Further, all Final Reality telepathy is technology-assisted and requires not only certain neronal networks on the brain but also endosymbionts, sub-nanoscale devices of alien origin that exist within human brains.

For "The Cythyrya Investigation", I'm exploring how information from the future can reach Eddy and help make it possible for humans to develop a culture that includes telepathy. Eddy wants to find out if teleportation and FTL travel are still possible in the Final Reality.

Rylla's attempt to bring back useful nanites from the AR Simulator fails. The teleportation control nanites that work inside the simulator do not work at the Eternity teleporter of the Final Reality. Can information from the future of the Final Reality be used to solve this problem?

Next: Part 3 of "The Cythyrya Investigation" 

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Recurring Characters

Donovan and Powell on
Mercury.   image source

Back in 2010, I had a blog post called "Plotcharacter" in which I commented on the relative importance of plot and characters in science fiction stories. I'm rather amazed at the low frequency of recurring characters in science fiction stories. 

I suppose that in the era when almost all science fiction appeared in magazines, there was not much hope that readers would remember previously published stories that used the same character(s). Still, if you have invented an interesting character, why not recycle?

Arcot, Morey and Wade
original cover art by Ric Binkley

 Back in the 1970s, the first recurring characters that I came across in science fiction were Isaac Asimov's robot trouble-shooters Gregory Powell and Mike Donovan. Asimov is not known for his human characters, and besides Susan Calvin, the robots in I, Robot are more memorable than the human characters.

In his first published story "Marooned off Vesta", Asimov had Moore, Brandon and Shae struggling for survival. Then, 20 years later, Asimov published another story called "Anniversary" which brought back Moore, Brandon and Shae for a new adventure.

Back in the 1970s, I also read most of Asimov's "juvenile" planetary adventure stories about David Starr and John "Bigman" Jones exploring the Solar System.

In the Ekcolir Reality.
Original cover art by
Earle Bergey, Wojtek Siudmak and
also see this french cover.

Last October, I commented on "The Double Minds" by John W. Campbell, a story that features the recurring characters Penton and Blake. Campbell also published a series of Arcot, Morey and Wade stories. I suppose Asimov was strongly influenced by Campbell and mentored to make use of recurring characters.

I've also previously commented on all of Jack Vance's Magnus Ridolph stories. However, Vance is probably most well know for his character Kirth Gersen who was the protagonist in all five of Vance's Demon Prince novels. I wonder if Vance had more fun writing his stories about Gersen or those that followed the life of Glawen Clattuc.

I suspect that Asimov's most popular recurring character was probably Daneel, the positronic robot. Daneel became something of a guardian for the entire human species and was written by Asimov so as to be a humanoid robot who had an admirable human-like personality.

interior art by Leo Summers 

Lefty Baker.
I recently read the six "Lefty Baker" stories that were published by Roger Phillip Graham between 1947 and 1961. Readers are told that Lefty never graduated from high school and his I.Q. is 84 + 420i, making him the "greatest imaginary genius in the known universe". In "... But Who Knows Huer, or Huen?" (1961), readers are told that Lefty's 420i can be measured with a psychometer, a device which measures his ability to have hunches that turn out to be true.

Poor Lefty has a series of encounters with assorted crazed psychologists, inventors and aliens... all of which lead to comic adventures and it seems that Lefty is destined to remain institutionalized for the rest of his life, either because he is a magical magnet for weird events or because he is simply too imaginative.

James the robot with a loose nut. Interior art by Leo Summers

I've previously commented on the 1950 short story "Love My Robot" by Roger Graham. The third Lefty Blake story (1949) was called "The Insane Robot". Having previously gotten himself locked up in a mental institution through his "chance" run-ins with an inventor who devised a wish-granting machine and a scientist who made immortal rabbits, now Lefty meets a robot, a mechanical man, named James. The robot explains that he was invented by professor Hamfeather.

However, readers are told that since James believes in impossible things (such as dehydrated water), Hamfeather institutionalized the poor robot. That cover story begins to fall apart when Lefty has a visitor: Helen, the cute niece of professor Hamfeather. She asks Lefty to help James by being his friend, explaining that is just what the robot needs to get over his psychosis.

James tells Lefty to start taking notes on the staff of the mental institution and soon enough that is taken as a good sign of mental health and Lefty is released into the custody of professor Hamfeather.

Huat (left), Marge and Lefty (bottom).
interior art for "It's Like This..."

Sadly, I get the feeling that either 1) "The Insane Robot" was truncated by the editor or 2) Graham simply got tired of the story and quit writing. However, it may be that the correct interpretation of this story is that the whole series of events with James, Helen and professor Hamfeather was all the creation of Lefty's imagination. The next story in the Lefty Baker series, "It's like this..." begins with Lefty back in the mental institution as if none of the events in "The Insane Robot" ever happened.

Ancient Aliens. For "It's Like This...", Lefty meets an alien named Huat who explains that long ago humans were sent to colonize Earth, but something went wrong and the species degenerated. 

Lefty helps make
immortal rabbits.
interior art by Bob Keyes

However, Huat has discovered that Lefty and Marge (she's the cute switchboard operator at the mental institution) have the needed genes to get the human race back on track. Huat ends up using his advanced alien technology to quickly make millions of babies with the "corrected" genes, and Marge picks out one to raise as her own. Sadly, at the end of the story, poor Lefty is still locked up in the mental institution.

Graham clearly had a lot of fun crafting the Lefty Baker stories, but I suspect he was mostly having fun at the expense of over-used plot elements from the science fiction genre. I think Graham probably also wrote his female characters Helen and Marge so as to poke fun at the way human sexuality was often made invisible in the pulp magazines. When Lefty and Helen kiss, readers are told nothing. Later, readers are made aware that the kiss took place, but only in Lefty's memory of the event. When Huat must mix together Lefty's and Marge's genes, Lefty and Marge seem to black-out, so readers don't get even a dark-washed sex scene. Later, Marge is making plans to marry Lefty, but he gets thrown back into the mental institution and in the next story of the series it is again as if Lefty's latest girlfriend (Marge) never existed.

Next: a 30 year grind

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