First Fiction

original cover art by Virgil Finlay

Gohrlay has been sharing with me some details of the unusual "mini-society" that existed at Observer Base in the First Reality. According to Gohrlay, the existence of Observer Bases near Garden Worlds such as Earth is the natural consequence of an ancient argument that is as old as the Huaoshy.

Gohrlay has access to all of the vast "memories" of R. Gohrlay, the artificial life form that arose when, in the First Reality, the brain pattern of Gohrlay's analog in that Reality was copied into a new physical substrate composed of positronic circuits. During R. Gohrlay's long existence, "she" fought a unique type of war against the Huaoshy, what I've been taught to call the Time War. Originally, R. Gohrlay's cadre of positronic robots discovered time travel and the time travel technology of those robots, in combination with the telepathic ability that is intrinsic to positronic brains, led to a fundamental change in what we might call the "foreign policy" of the Huaoshy.

original cover art by William Bowman

Eventually the time war was ended and the Huaoshy altered the dimensional structure of the universe so as to make further time travel impossible. The Huaoshy also amended the ethical laws that govern their interaction with hadronic life forms. The main consequence of these dramatic changes for we Earthlings is that the human species has been given the opportunity to develop a technologically advanced society here on the Garden World, Earth.

Before the Trysta-Grean Pact, the negotiated settlement that finally ended to Time War, the Huaoshy routinely limited the use of advanced technology on Garden Worlds such as Earth. In  fact, when Gohrlay lived her first life in the First Reality, Earth was on the verge of being successfully "inoculated" with Prelands, a form of artificial and engineered primate that was designed to exist as this world's apex primate species and put an end to Interventionist attempts to "naturally" evolve the human species into a technology-creating primate that they hoped would dominate Earth.

original cover art by:
Bruce Pennington,
Alex Schomburg,
Robert Gibson Jones,

I recently asked Gohrlay why it was that the Interventionists persisted in trying to subvert the Ethical laws of the Huaoshy across billions of years of time. Gohrlay seems skeptical that we humans can ever truly understand the dynamic equilibrium that exists between the Interventionist and Overseer "factions" of the Huaoshy, but her working hypothesis is that the Huaoshy have a kind of instinctual fascination with hadronic life and a deep desire to explore the full range of possibilities for biological life forms.

Apparently the Huaoshy are quite pleased by the outcome of their "Earth Experiment" and the "Nereid Intervention" that led to R. Gohrlay and the Time War. Time Travel technology allowed the Huaoshy to establish a "Sedron Monopoly", removing the source of fear and paranoia that had originally motivated their creation of the pek and their program of relentless expansion through the universe. The goal of the pek was to "inoculate" the universe against the spontaneous biological evolution of any form of life that might possibly threaten the Huaoshy. According to Gohrlay, the Huaoshy now feel that they are secure in their technological superiority, and they feel obliged to "reward" we humans for the essential role that we played in "solving" the fundamental existential problem that was the source of great anxiety among the Huaoshy for so long.

original cover art by
Edmund Emshwiller and
Hans Wessolowski

Science Fiction
Gohrlay has been trying to help me understand the history of how science fiction became such an important supporting pillar for the Trysta-Grean Pact. Apparently a form of science fiction existed at Observer Base back in the First Reality, during Gohrlay's first life. That first science fiction was truly an escapist literature that centered on stories about how residents of Observer Base might somehow attain the ability to travel to other star systems.

According to Gohrlay, most residents of Observer Base viewed science fiction as a repulsive form of horror fiction that was created by perverts who existed at the dark fringe of society. Still, science fiction was an endless source of fascination for the Observers and new stories were in demand.

Science

original cover art

At Observer Base, the word for "science" was actually derived from an ancient word that might best be translated as "magic/religion". The small cadre of working scientists at Observer Base were the source of the religions that existed among the clans. During Gohrlay's first life, the dominant religion was known as "Seedism". The basic tenet was that the Observers had been created at Observer Base as a "pre-landing" species of primate that was designed to replace the primitive humans of Earth. Some "Prelands" had then been transported to Earth.

There were several different sects within the Seedism religion. The most powerful sect was the Extinctionists who believed that once humans became extinct on Earth, then the Overseers (who were human) would be "retired". Prelands would then dominate Observer Base and eventually "evolve" into a new form of primate.

original cover art by Walt Miller and
Virgil Finlay

The residents of Observer Base had a primitive and intentionally-limited understanding of evolution that included a faith in the idea that "happy mutations" could spontaneously arise at Observer Base and be artificially selected for, leading to new and improved primate species.

Among the Observers there was much philosophical speculation about what form the next primate species might take and there was constant interest in "controlled breeding". Religious ceremonies centered on attempts to discover the correct "breeding pair" that would lead to the birth of a new type of primate. It was believed that Prelands had long ago arisen from humans in this way.

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