Nov 10, 2019

Name That Clone

Original cover art by Edmund Emshwiller
Two years ago (see this blog post) I speculated that Earth was entering into a new Era during which telepathic communication would be absent from Earth. However, during the past few years there have been two unexpected changes: 1) the Bimanoid Interface was altered and 2) a new type of technology-assisted telepathy has been put in place, both on Earth and in the Hierion Domain.

Now that the Mind Clone Network has been established, it seems possible that Observer Base might become the place for further experimentation with technology-assisted telepathy. Previously I described the components of the Mind Clone Network, but then today Rylla reported the name of the last Mind Clone, so I'll now provide a list of all their names.
                                                                            Name that Clone
The final name on the list belongs to the first born Mind Clone and the only one who is a boy; the son of Stacy. The first clones for whom I knew the names (I got to see them on the day of their births) were the three daughters of Zeta, Rylla and Nora.

Rylla's daughter was named Marda, which is apparently a name for "red" in some language that Rylla is familiar with. Since Rylla and her family don't want their identities and location to be known, Rylla will say nothing more about the name "Marda". Rylla selected "Marda" because red is the opposite of Green, and Rylla is still harboring resentments over the way that Maria Green erased from Earth the discovery of negative mass hierions.

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Zeta's daughter was given the name Tihri. According to Zeta, "Tihri" (she pronounces it like tee-ree) is a tyrp'At name. Although I have no independent memory of this, Zeta also claims that my original tryp'At name was Tihri, and for that reason my replicoid at Observer Base was called Irhit. I asked Zeta if "Tihri" is a boy's name or a girl's name and she replied, "Don't be so old-fashioned."

Dysin
Nora named her daughter Dysyn. Nora can't explain why she likes that name. According to Zeta, the most likely reason for why Nora selected that name is that Nora previously worked with a clone of Grean who was named Dysin. It appears that someone erased most of Nora's memories from when she worked as an Interventionist agent.

Yōd.     source
Soon after Marda, Tihri and Dysyn were born, Yōd sent me a telepathic message announcing the name of her daughter: Roxzel. According to Yōd, that name was selected in honor of Azynov's mother. That explanation is a bit of a stretch since Azynov is an artificial life form, but I suppose it means that they are acknowledging the fact that Azynov is the replicoid of Isaac Asimov. Asimov's mother was named Rachel.

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The other two Mind Clones were born at Observer Base, about a year apart. Georgy's daughter is Alexina, named after Georgy's grandmother. Alexina was born about 10 days after Marda, Tihri,  Dysyn and Roxzel. Stacy's son is called Amiante as a tribute to another "Amiante" who lived in the Asimov Reality (see this blog post). So far, all six of the Mind Clones and their mothers are healthy and doing well.

Next: A 1949 short story by Jack Vance

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