Last year I blogged about
technology-assisted telepathy (
TAT) and I've continued to be obsessed by that topic. Both
The Alastor Network and
Meet the Phari are concerned with describing the origins of human technology-assisted telepathy. In those two novels, the humans of
Alastor Cluster are allowed to believe that all you need for telepathic communication is two people who share the correct pattern of genes.
Of course, TAT is not that simple. In the Foundation Reality, the positronic robots of Earth tried to use their knowledge of hierion physics and positronics to make a form of human technology-assisted telepathy that would unify the entire population of the galaxy into a vast group mind known as Galaxia.
However,
R. Gohrlay's ultimate telepathic defense system for Humanity was never completed because the
Huaoshy made use of their technological superiority in
sedronic physics to thwart
Gohrlay's plan.
Upon first arriving in our galaxy, the pek infected every planet with zeptites. Those sub-nanoscopic artificial life-forms had two main purposes. First, zeptites continually work to locate and harvest sedrons. This endless hunt for sedrons is all part of maintaining the Huaoshy monopoly on sedrons. Second, zeptites guide the evolution of life on habitable worlds, making sure that all developing forms of life are chemically and morphologically similar to the biochemical pattern characteristic of the Huaoshy.
In the First Reality, when the pek arrived in our galaxy, there was already an advanced civilization: that of the Phari. Phari technology was based on the use of hierions and femtobots, but with their mastery of sedronic physics and zeptites, the Huaoshy quickly contained the Phari. All elements of the Phari civilization slipped away into the Hierion Domain, seemingly leaving the pek in complete control of our galaxy. However, the bumpha remained at work behind the scenes, constantly experimenting and creating opportunities for change.
In the Asimov Reality, R. Gohrlay sent R. Nyrtia back into the far past in order to make contact with the Phari and prevent the Phari from turning their attention away from events in the Hadronic Domain. The Phari were masters of the Hierion Domain who, in the Asimov Reality, worked steadily for 2,000,000,000 years to help all humanoids in our galaxy transcend their physical existence in the Hadron Domain and take up a new form of existence as artificial life-forms residing in the Hierion Domain.
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| Chyryq travels to Alastor Cluster |
Working in collaboration with R. Nyrtia, the Phari designed and established the
Phari Network, a system for telepathically linking together all of the humanoid life-forms that evolved in our galaxy. With their advanced hierion technology, the Phari could even move stars and planets around the galaxy. Working with R. Nyrtia, the Phari collected all the planets with humanoid life-forms in one convenient place: Alastor Cluster.
To facilitate the formation of the Phari Network, the Phari made use of
femtobot endosymbionts that were implanted in humanoid species such as humans. Thus, in the Asimov Reality, every human on Earth contained both a Phari (femtobot) Endosymbiont and a
Zeptite (pek) Endosymbiont. During the era of the
Trysta Truce, R. Gohrlay worked to develop a form of human telepathy that made use of Phari Endosymbionts and hierions to transmit telepathic communications. At the same time, the pek had a parallel technology-assisted telepathy project aimed at using Zeptite Endosymbionts and sedrons to provide another form of human telepathy (see
G-sym).
As part of a vast cosmic joke, the Huaoshy did not mind letting R. Gohrlay and R. Nyrtia struggle to create human telepaths. The Huaoshy were planning to alter the
Dimensional Structure of the Universe and that act of dimensional engineering would ultimately make both hierion-based telepathy and all further time travel impossible. During the Asimov Reality, when R. Gohrlay was using Alastor Cluster as a giant laboratory where human brains could be adapted for technology-assisted telepathy, the pek were able to develop their own alternative form of human telepathy based on sedrons.
As told in Chapter 11 of Meet the Phari, the pek were willing to share some of their sedronic technologies with humans during the "disposable" Asimov Reality. Thus, Chyryq has been sent to Alastor Cluster where her special genes will become available to Grean for inclusion in the human mind clone network that is being created as the tool by which humans will be able to telepathically communicate with the Phari.
Chyryq's special gene combinations allow her (and her descendants) to access and use information about the past and the future that is present in the
Sedron Domain. I've previously written about other humans (see the
Atlantis clones) from the
Ekcolir Reality such as
Angela who retained the genes needed to link their femtobot endosymbiont to their zeptite endosymbiont as needed to make it possible for them to see into the past/future. Given my interest in technology-assisted telepathy, I'm always pleased
to find other stories that involve this kind of imaginary technology.
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In the Ekcolir Reality.
Original cover art by John Bunch
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1951 Recently, while reading the stories that
Jack Vance published 70 years ago in 1951, I came across Peter Phillips and two of his stories that were published in 1951: "
At No Extra Cost" and "
Field Study". The entry at the Science Fiction Encyclopedia for Phillips then led me to his 1949 story "P-Plus" which was described as including techniques "
not too distant from those put forward the following year by L Ron Hubbard in Dianetics". I don't really see a significant link between "P-Plus" and
dianetics, but I was amused to see the following in the story as a method for altering brain function: "
electronically reducing the resistance offered at the synaptial junctions." This sounds like Isaac Asimov's imaginary "
synapsifier" technology. I suppose it seemed "natural" to many science fiction story writers in the 1940s to imagine that the neural networks in our brains might be similar to electronic circuits.
This same kind of thinking was present in the 1948 story "
Dreams Are Sacred" where Phillips imagined that it was possible to make use of a complex electronic device to not only participate in another person's dreams, but also make telepathic connections to people.
"Dreams Are Sacred" features a science-fiction/fantasy story teller named Marsham Craswell who enters into a fantasy world of his imagination and who will seemingly never emerge from this strange dream-like state. We are told that poor Craswell "lost conscious control of his imagination".
However, science comes to the rescue! We are also told that a psychiatrist named Stephen Blakiston has developed an "electronic therapy" device that allows a second person to "step into" the on-going thoughts of Craswell. That task falls to Blakiston's old college buddy, Pete.
When Pete "arrives" inside Crasswell's fantasy world, he sees all sorts of odd things including giant snakes and other imaginary creatures (image to the left). Eventually, they meet the lovely Sorceress Garor (see the image above, right). Finally, (the "dream" sequence is
way too long) Pete and Marsham emerge from the shared fantasy "dream" state. Pete is so disturbed by the experience he goes on a drinking binge which leads him to a night club where he discovers the real world woman who inspired Marsham's fantasy about Miss Garor. Now Pete is eager to continue using Blakiston's "electronic therapy" device to enter into his own lucid dream state from which he will be able to use telepathy to woo this beautiful woman while she sleeps.
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Schwartz achieves telepathic superpowers
after one session with the synapsifier. |
I've previously complained about the many science fiction stories with silly plots that rely on fantasy "explanations" for how to speed up bodily functions. Yes, long distance signals in the brain are electrical, but synapses between neurons are not like electronic circuit components that can be adjusted so as to speed up their operation. Readers are told that Blakiston's "electronic therapy" device is a sensitive electronic device that works with a "field" that represents a person's imagination. If you "step up the polarity reversal of the field" then suddenly you can slip your mind inside that of another person. Here is how poor Pete described the appearance of the complex electronic "mind reading" device: "like something from the Wacky Science Section of the year 2,000 World's Fair."
Phillips' 1948 story "Dreams Are Sacred" has similarities to Hubbard's 1950 story "The Masters of Sleep". It would not surprise me if Hubbard first read "Dreams Are Sacred" and then wrote "The Masters of Sleep".
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Hubbard's magic crystal (1950)
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I've
previously complained about the prevalence of magic crystals in old science fiction stories. The fantasy adventures of Marsham Craswell that are described in "Dreams Are Sacred" concern a magical diamond. In his imagination, Marsham plays the role of the heroic adventurer named "Multan" who says, "
We must search the plains of Istak for the Diamond". In Hubbard's "The Masters of Sleep", it is the "Two World Diamond" that allows a "soul" to escape from the Earthly flesh, in particular, it allows the main character, Jan Palmer, to act out great adventures as the heroic adventurer named "Tiger" who resides in the Land of Sleep.
I'm glad I looked at some of the stories that were written by Peter Phillips. His imaginary method for electronically endowing people with telepathic abilities makes no sense, but I'm intrigued by how his 1948 story "Dreams Are Sacred" seems to be related to Hubbard's "The Masters of Sleep". The best source of information about Peter Phillips that I was able to find is an article by Mike Ashley in issue 18 of the
Relapse fanzine. Apparently Peter's parents wanted him to become a scientist, but he decided to become a journalist.
Ashley's favorite story by Philips is "
Lost Memory", about a man who crash-lands on a planet populated by robots. I'm more intrigued by the 1951 story "
At No Extra Cost", another robot story which seems to be related to Asimov's 1946 story "
Evidence" and also Asimov's "Paradoxical Escape" from 1945. In "
Escape!", Asimov imagined a future in which the U. S. Robots & Mechanical Men Corporation was in economic competition with Consolidated Robots.
For his robot story "At No Extra Cost", Phillips has Servotron National in heated competition with Automata Corporation. Automata Corporation tries to drive down the price of Servotron National stock so that they can afford to buy Servotron National. Automata Corporation creates a robotic "preacher" who makes public speeches condemning the biomechanical robots made by Servotron National because they look human but have no soul.
Nobody realizes that the eloquent and persuasive "preacher" is a robot until the end of the story. "At No Extra Cost" reminds me of Asimov's story "Evidence" which concerns a robot who becomes a famous politician, but nobody can ever prove that he is a robot.
I could not resist looking at two more Peter Phillips stories with the intriguing titles "
Lila" and "
Sylvia". Like Phillips' first published story ("No Silence for Maloeween"), "Sylvia" is pure fantasy. "Lila" is supposed to be science fiction but I'd categorize it as planetary romance. The only part of "Sylvia" that intrigued me is the issue of whether the two main characters (identified as the succubus named Sylvia and her incubus brother) have telepathic abilities. I wish Phillips had written the story as science fiction about Sylvia as an alien who was visiting to Earth. I could not get the
Star Trek episode "
Catspaw" out of my mind while reading "Sylvia".
Next: making contact with aliens in 1953
Coming Soon: Chapter 12 of Meet the Phari.
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