Twin Paradox

Gohrlay recently reminded me that it was 100 years ago when the Jack Vance of our Reality was crafted and brought into existence. In our Reality, Vance had three brothers and a sister. According to Gohrlay, in the Ekcolir Reality, the individual who "should have been" born as the analogue of John Holbrook Vance was instead born as twins.

I recently learned (discussed in this earlier blog post) that one of the analogues of Jack Vance in Deep Time was female. In the Ekcolir Reality, most science fiction authors were female, but according to Gohrlay, Jackie Vance led a reclusive life and allowed the world to believe that she was a man: "Jack". Jackie and John Vance were both popular science fiction writers in the Ekcolir Reality.

in the Buld Reality

I'd previously been told that "Jack and John" Vance were identical twins. Now, Gohrlay also claims that Jackie and John Vance were identical twins and that was why Jackie remained in seclusion. If true, this raises the question: how can you have "identical twins" who are not both the same sex?

Amber G. by Marcus J. Ranum
in the Ekcolir Reality

According to Gohrlay, it would have been no problem for either Grean or R. Gohrlay to arrange for both a male and a female "Vance analogue" to be born at the same time. However, due to the risks that arise during twin pregnancies, Jackie and John were actually born almost two years apart.

Gohrlay claims to not know how Jackie learned that she was John's twin. She suspects that due to their similar physical appearance, the Vance family was able to "figure it out". However, I wonder if Jackie was contacted by the replicoid of Vance's analogue from the Asimov Reality and informed about her special genetic endowment.

Why was it so important that there by Vance twins in the Ekcolir Reality? Gohrlay claims that this is a silly question. We naturally feel that all the effort that went into making the twins had to have occurred for an important reason. However, according to Gohrlay, Jackie was born first and it was only after that chance event (apparently the Vance analogues had been male in all earlier Realities) that the decision was made to create John Vance. If so, the question becomes: why was it important that there be a male analogue of Vance in the Ekcolir Reality?

Jackie Vance: Ekcolir Reality
Jackie often used the name "Sam Jacky"

Gohrlay speculates that it was easy for a "copy" of the male Vance analogue from the Asimov Reality to be substituted for John Vance of the Ekcolir Reality. She thinks it would have "caused problems" to have the Vance analogue from the Asimov Reality try to pretend to be a woman.

Copies of Copies
I still don't understand where the "copy of John Vance" came from (the "copy" that was substituted for the Real John Vance in the Ekcolir Reality). According to Gohrlay there are three possibilities:
1) the copy could have been a clone, or
2) the copy could have been made by using teleporter technology, or
3) the copy could have been an artificial life form that was indistinguishable from a human.

Next: A visit to the Andromeda Galaxy.

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