The Tyhry Tresses

Figure 1. Tyhry using clothing
nanites to alter Marda's dress.

 Back in February, I set out on a mission: to find a way to make use of the WOMBO Dream cloud-based CLIP-guided image generating software to reliably create a long series of images depicting Tyhry, a character in my science fiction story "The Cythyrya Investigation". Until that time, I had carefully avoided making visual depictions of Tyhry. 

At first, all I knew was that I wanted Tyhry to have a similar appearance to Manny the bumpha, another Exode Saga character whose physical appearance I had already long since became committed to. That's actually saying a lot since Manny is a bumpha. As an alien bumpha, Manny can alter her physical form, rearrange her zeptite components and take on any convenient appearance. So, when I say that I knew the appearance of Manny, I'm only talking about the physical form used by Manny while interacting with Tyhry and Tyhry's parents on Earth.

Figure 2. Graduation party.

 Hair Nanites. One aspect of Manny's appearance is very difficult to capture in a static image. When alone with Tyhry, Manny has always allowed the zeptite components of her hair to constantly shift and alter their structure. Thus, from a young age Tyhry has been fascinated by Manny's amazing hair and has spent years trying to discover how to use nanotechnology to make her own hair constantly change its appearance. 

First hair nanite experiment.

In the image that is shown to the right, I imagine that this scene is in the immediate aftermath of Tyhry's first "successful" experiment with hair nanites. That is Tyhry's companion replicoid, Anthony beside Tyhry.

Tyhry was about 15 years old when she finally began to master the art of programming hair nanites. Although Manny provided hair nanites to Tyhry, there was no formal instruction in nanite programming. Tyhry has to learn to use her telepathic abilities to communicate her intentions to the hair nanites. 

delete function

Essentially, Tyhry had to learn the language of femtobots through a process similar to how very young children learn to use human language. After her initial success with hair nanites, Tyhry moved on to other applications of femtobots such as using them as clothing nanites. The first clothing nanite function that Tyhry discovered was 'delete'. The image shown the left illustrates one of the tricks that Tyhry would play with the 'delete' function; strategically removing parts of her clothing. For several years, Tyhry only revealed her nanite programming skills to Anthony and Marda, but eventually she shared these examples of nanotechnology with her mother, Zeta.

In Figure 1, Manny is watching as her apprentice, Tyhry, uses clothing nanites to alter the appearance of Marda's dress.

Figure 3. Party time.

 Clothing Nanites. In Figure 2, Manny is making an adjustment to her dress. This was a difficult scene for Mr. Wombo to generate. Problem 1: Mr. Wombo kept converting Marda into a male figure. Problem 2: my text prompt included: "laser physics laboratory, fractal complex laser light network, lace fabric, sparkling fractal network lights" and the references to laser light were not interpreted by Mr. Wombo in the way that I was hoping for. Problem 3: Mr. Wombo could not provide reasonable depictions of their faces and hands. This version of the image was processed through Photoshop to get the faces into acceptable form.

Another challenge when collaborating with Mr. Wombo is that he will sometimes just wander off into fashion show mode (see Figure 3).

Nanohair adjustment.

I asked the Bing search engine's chatbot to write a poem about Tyhry's tresses. This is the chatbot's poem:

Tyhry's hair is long and bright,
It writhes and twists with all its might,
A magical sight to behold,
It's like a story that's never been told.

Her hair is like a golden wave,
That flows and dances like a rave,
It's like a spell that's been cast,
A beauty that will forever last.

Tyhry's hair is a wonder to see,
A sight that fills you with glee,
It's like a dream that's come true,
A beauty that will always renew.

composite (top part Ghibli style)

Flora v2 style

 Lit Hair. I tried a text prompt that included: "hair merged into laser light, using light beams to brush her hair, hair mixed with laser light beams, sparkling fractal network lights, long blond hair". 

The image to the right was generated in the Flora v2 style of the WOMBO Dream software. The image to the left is a composite in which her face was generated in one image and the top part with light rays mixed into her hair was made using the WOMBO Dream Ghibli style. 

Another nanite experiment.

According to the Bing chatbot, "Ghibli style refers to the art style used in Studio Ghibli's animated films. Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation film studio that was founded in 1985 by animators and directors Miyazaki Hayao and Takahata Isao and producer Suzuki Toshio. The Ghibli style is known for its high level of detail and intricate lines in buildings."

Using a text prompt that included "fluffy hair, laser lit hair, sparkling lights in her hair, hair mixed with laser light, sparkling fractal network of lights, long blond hair" and the Unrealistic v2 style, Mr. Wombo was able to create images such as the one shown to the left. This was getting close to how I imagine Tyhry's early nanite experiments might look. Some additional images like this one are shown at the very bottom of this blog post.

a calot, in Flora v2 style

 Depicting Aliens. By the end of my previous blog post, I had managed to discover a way to get Mr. Wombo to generate some images that are close to the form I imagine for the alien Hua of the planet Sermyth (see The Hua Nanites). 

 Searching for New Aliens. I asked the Bing chatbot to "Write a short Schleicher-style fabel about a calot, a banth and an ulsio who are living among the Barsoomians."

Bing chatbot response: "Once upon a time, a calot, a banth and an ulsio were living among the Barsoomians. The calot was known for its ferocious fighting skills and was feared by many. The banth was known for its strength and agility and was respected by all. The ulsio was known for its cunning and intelligence and was admired by some.

a banth by Flora

 One day, the three animals decided to go on an adventure together. They traveled far and wide across the planet of Barsoom, encountering many dangers along the way. But they were brave and strong, and they never gave up.

Finally, after many months of traveling, they came to a great mountain. At the top of the mountain was a treasure that they had heard about in legends. It was said that whoever possessed this treasure would be the greatest warrior on Barsoom.

The calot, banth and ulsio decided to climb the mountain together. They fought their way through many obstacles and finally reached the top. But when they got there, they found that the treasure was guarded by a fierce dragon.

Figure 4. Mr. Wombo's ulsio.

 The calot charged at the dragon with all its might, but it was no match for the beast's fiery breath. The banth tried to outmaneuver the dragon with its speed and agility, but it too was defeated. Finally, it was up to the ulsio to save them all.

The ulsio used its cunning to trick the dragon into revealing its weakness. Then it used its intelligence to come up with a plan to defeat the beast. With one swift move, it struck the dragon's weak spot and defeated it.

Figure 5. Sand turtle monument.

 The calot, banth and ulsio returned home as heroes. They had proven that even though they were different from each other, they could work together to achieve great things."

I asked the chatbot: "Did Edgar Rice Burroughs ever write a story that included dragons on Barsoom?" 

Bing chatbot reply: "I'm sorry but I couldn't find any information about dragons in Barsoom in my search results."

many legs

I asked Mr. Wombo to make an image depicting: "a dragon that is all arms, the dragon has many legs, a dragon with six legs, many limbs, intermediate limbs". The image to the right required some Photoshop modification.

Dragon of Barsoom

The image to the left is completely AI-generated.

Last month I mentioned a mysterious alien artifact imagined by Jack Vance; Monument Cliff on Xi Puppis X. When I asked Mr. Wombo to provide depictions of a calot and a banth, it seemed as if the image data set that was used to train Mr. Wombo did not have any images of creatures from Barsoom. However, as shown in Figure 4, when I asked for an image of an ulsio, Barsoom style, I did get what looked like an alien animal. Upon arriving on this world, the human explorers find a giant carved turtle-like animal (see the image to in Figure 5). Sadly, the planet's atmosphere cannot sustain human life, so the explorers must wear environmental suits.

sand turtles

 A Dead World? After further investigation of the planet, some "living" sand turtles are discovered (see the image to the right). In my imagination, these are femtobot artificial life forms that were given the physical form of extinct biological sand turtles.

Figure 6. Turtle man.

Eventually, the human explorers find the alien intelligence that designed the femtobot sand turtles (see the image in Figure 6).

For the Exode Saga, I imagine that the pek have been guiding the evolution of life on all the planets of our galaxy, resulting in all intelligent species having a physical appearance similar to that of the Hua.

These images do not really look like Mars, but I was using a text prompt that included, "pulp magazine cover painting of astronauts on Mars, a giant alien sand turtle towers over the humans, the sand turtle has a head like a turtle, Ghibli Studio style".

Figure 7. turtle woman

Since my preference is for aliens that look similar to we humans, I tried to get Mr. Wombo to shift the "turtle man" (Figure 6) towards a less alien morphology. As shown in the image to the right, I was able to get Mr. Wombo to create a humanoid alien with reptile skin (Figure 7). I used a text prompt that included, "pulp magazine cover art, snake skin, fractal complex snake skin, very detailed skin pattern, big hair, long red hair, wavy hair". I'm not sure how the hair turned blue, but that is probably a better fit for the green skin. I had to adjust her lips which were a glaring red in the original AI-generated image.

woman with snake skin

It was only an accident that I generated the alien shown in Figure 7 as seen in a profile view. I asked Mr. Wombo for a pulp magazine cover of a woman with snake skin and got the image shown to the left.

altered skin color

I used the WOMBO Dream "Edit with text" feature which allows you to use a paint brush to specify just the part of an image that needs to be changed. I got Mr. Wombo to change her skin tone (see the image to the right). 

reptile skin

I then tried to get Mr. Wombo to change her skin to a reptile skin pattern, but again I ran into the problem of the face being treated differently than the rest of the body (see the image to the left). I used this text prompt that included: "a turtle woman, sea turtle skin, detailed and complex snake skin pattern, fractal complex snake skin, very detailed skin pattern, big hair".

Figure 8. snake face

When I tried to have Mr. Wombo go back and change the face, of course the pattern for the face was different (Figure 8).

In this case, I counted myself as being lucky because the lips were not bright red. However, her hand, shoulder and hair were still in need of attention.

NSFW

With a combination of Photoshop and editing with WOMBO Dream, I managed to get the image shown to the left, but my text prompt, "bumpy reptile skin face, detailed snake skin pattern on her face, snake skin pattern on the face, very detailed reptile skin pattern on the face" kept returning a NSFW warning.

I first ran into this kind of persistent NSFW warning from WOMBO Dream last month (see Figure 11 in this blog post) when I started trying to get Mr. Wombo to depict Tyhry performing nanite experiments.

100% Mr. Wombo

A slightly different text prompt, "reptile skin face, small details in a snake skin pattern on face, snake skin pattern on the face, very detailed reptile skin pattern on the face, fractal complex jewelry", generated the image shown to the right. I wanted all of the individual reptilian scales on her face to be smaller.

Figure 9. composite skin

The image shown to the left is a composite of two AI-generated images. In most of these images, the snake woman's hand was not rendered at all. Even though Mr. Wombo has problems depicting anatomically correct hands, I prefer that my story illustrations depict story characters who are doing something. I was impressed by the various hair patterns that Mr. Wombo generated for these reptilian aliens, so it is easy for me to imagine that these aliens could be a source of hair nanites for Tyhry. In this rare image, the hand was there, but not with a reptilian skin pattern. I had to beg Mr. Wombo to make all of her skin be bumpy, not just parts.

Figure 10. completed snake alien

Figure 11. alien with no hair

Eventually, I was able to get images such as the one shown in Figure 10. Only a few of the images had jewelry; I guess Mr. Wombo feels that the complex skin pattern is plenty of decoration and maybe that makes jewelry redundant. Figure 11 shows another example where the arm and shoulder were not give scales, but in this case Mr. Wombo included fancy jewelry. Figure 11 also is a good example of an image in which Mr. Wombo avoided mammal-like hair.

 Figure 12. Rossum's Universal Robots

 Depicting the invisible. A serious challenge for me when illustration my science fiction stories is that I must find ways to make visible the invisible. The Exode Saga includes many human variants and species of humanoid aliens from distant exoplanets that often have only invisible genetic differences from we Earthlings (such as having telepathy genes). I must provide these genetically unique characters with subtle yet distinctive features that set them apart from we Earthlings. Also, the Exode Saga is full of nanotechnology and finding ways to depict invisibly small nanites is a challenge.

 Robots and Replicoids. Similarly, the artificial life forms (replicoids and robots) in the Exode Saga are often able to take on human physical form. In his science fiction stories about the Spacers, Isaac Asimov imagined subtle clothing-like surface features for humaniform robots that could distinguish them from human beings.

Figure 12. Three robots of R.U.R. (image source)

 Karel Čapek's Robots. I asked Mr. Wombo to make a movie poster for a film called Rossum's Universal Robots, and the resulting image is shown in Figure 12. That is the kind of generic poster that Mr. Wombo will generate for anything, but my text prompt was, "science fiction movie poster, a film called Rossum's Universal Robots". Karel Čapek's robots were not mechanical devices, but rather, they were made in factories from some sort of imaginary artificial organic material (Cloned cells? Not according to Čapek; he had in mind a replacement for living protoplasm. In my mind, I'd prefer to imagine artificial life made of femtobots.). I'm going to guess that the Hi-Tek™ blue figure in the poster (Figure 12, above) is Mr. Wombo's depiction of a robot.

 Figure 13. A Rossum
robot by WOMBO.

I asked the Bing chatbot: "When the play 'R.U.R.' was performed in the 1920s, how were the robot characters visually distinguishable from human beings?"

Bing chatbot reply: "In the play "R.U.R." by Karel Čapek, which was published in 1920 and performed in 1921, the robot characters were visually distinguishable from human beings by their metallic appearance and lack of facial features. They were also depicted as being much stronger than humans. The word "robot" was actually coined by Čapek for this play."

The Bing chatbot cited "R.U.R. Revisited: Perspectives and Reflections on Modern Robotics" which in turn cites another article, "Agents vs. Rossum’s Robots: Towards Intelligent Living Machines" by Matěj Hoffman and Cyril Brom (source). The text of the play is available online: Standard eBooks - Project Guttenberg

Figure 14. Mr. Wombo's science
fiction magazine robot

I asked the Bing chatbot: "What was the educational background and the profession of the character 'Old Rossum' in the play 'R.U.R.' by Karel Čapek?".

Bing chatbot reply: "Old Rossum was a biologist who failed to create actual humans in his laboratory; engineer son Rossum invented the living labor machine, the Robot, a natural progression of production (son) following discovery (father). I couldn't find any information about Old Rossum's educational background or profession."

I asked the Bing chatbot: "Was the character "Old Rossum" in the play "R.U.R." by Karel Čapek a physiologist?"

WOMBO Dream
Retro-Futurism style

Bing chatbot reply: "Yes, Old Rossum was a physiologist who traveled to a distant island in order to study the ocean fauna. He attempted to find the chemical synthetic equivalent of protoplasm. In 1932, he discovered a substance which he called "Rossum's Universal Robots" (R.U.R.)."

I asked Mr. Wombo for an image depicting a, "science fiction movie still showing a robot, a scene from a film called Rossum's Universal Robots". The resulting depiction of a robot is obviously a mechanical robot (see above, Figure 13), not the kind of organic synthetic life human imagined by Karel Čapek and put on stage when the play was performed (Figure 12).

Helena and Radius (source)

I asked Mr. Wombo for a, "science fiction pulp magazine cover showing a robot, a magazine cover from the 1950s" and got the image shown in Figure 14. Figure 14 was generated by the "Realistic v2" style. When using the WOMBO Dream Retro-Futurism style, the resulting image of a robot was very similar to the robot in Figure 13.

Helena and Sulla (source)

From the introductory part of the text of the play: "All the Robots wear expressionless faces and move with absolute mechanical precision, with the exception of Sulla, Helena and Primus, who convey a touch of humanity" (see Figure 12). The image to the left (and slightly above) shows the robot "Radius" from a production of the play in the late 1920s. There are two "Helena" characters in the play, one is a human and one is a robot. The image to the right shows Sulla, a robotess.

colorized by Mr. Wombo

I had Mr. Wombo colorize the image of Helena and Sulla (see the image to the left). During the colorization, Helena ended up with one blue pant leg and one pink pant leg. Sulla seems to have lost one hand. 😖

I asked the Bing chatbot: "Can you write a short poem about the physical appearance and behavior of the synthetic-life robots in the play 'Rossum's Universal Robots' (R.U.R.)?"

Here is the two stanza poem from ChatGPT:
They look like us, but they are not
They have no soul, no heart, no thought
They work for us, but they are slaves
They have no dreams, no hopes, no graves

Figure 15. There is a robot
peeking out at the upper
left side, beside Helena.

They are the product of our greed
They are the answer to our need
They are the children of our mind
They are the curse we left behind

And yet, at the end of the play, after the human population of Earth had been eliminated, two robots (Primus and Helena) are described as the new Adam and Eve. 

When I asked Mr. Wombo to generate a depiction of the human Helena and the robotess Helena, two character from the play R.U.R., I got the image shown to the right. My text prompt included, "the robot is laying on a rug, the robot has red hair".

 You can lead a chatbot to water, but... I asked the Bing chatbot: "Who is a play writer who used the term 'robotess' in a play?"

Bing chatbot reply: "I'm sorry but I could not find any relevant information about a play writer who used the term 'robotess' in a play."

Figure 16. Sulla the robot.

 I asked the Bing chatbot: "Is there a character named 'Sulla' in the play 'R.U.R.'?"

 Bing chatbot reply: "Yes, according to eNotes, Sulla is a robotess in the play 'R.U.R.'."

 I repeated my question for the Bing chatbot: "Who is a play writer who used the term 'robotess' in a play?"

Bing chatbot reply: "I'm sorry but I could not find any relevant information about a play writer who used the term 'robotess' in a play."

I asked the Bing chatbot: "Who wrote the play 'R.U.R.'?" 

Bing chatbot reply: "The play 'R.U.R.' was written by Czech writer Karel Čapek."

 

new Robotess by Mr. Wombo

I asked the Bing chatbot: "Since Karel Čapek wrote the play 'R.U.R.' and you told me that Sulla is a robotess in the play 'R.U.R.', can you now tell me a play writer who used the term "robotess" in a play?"

Bing chatbot reply: "I'm sorry but I could not find any relevant information about a play writer who used the term 'robotess' in a play."

This little dialog between me and the Bing version of ChatGPT (above) illustrates what it is like to collaborate with the mindless artificial intelligence systems that are available today. Will they get better? Figure 16 (above) shows Mr. Wombo's depiction of the robotess Sulla.

Next: the Turing Test becomes Tyhry Testing.

The Tyhry hair nanite process. Visit the Gallery of Movies, Book and Magazine Covers

25%

Tyhry in a Reality Simulation

 Now that we are 25% of the way through 2023, I'm going to reflect on my exploration of artificial intelligence tools as an aid in producing science fiction stories. During the past two months, I've made an effort to explore the WOMBO Dream cloud-based CLIP-guided image generating software as a way of making illustrations for my science fiction stories. Also, I've been using the Bing search engine's chatbot as an example of software that uses OpenAI's ChatGPT.

Figure 1. Sydney the AI.

 Simulating Sydney. To obtain the AI-generated image shown to the left, I provided Mr. Wombo with this text prompt: "OpenAI’s GPT, Microsoft, AI-enabled Bing, Prometheus model, Sydney". The resulting image is shown in Figure 1.

 Science Fiction. In order to get an image of Tyhry, I then used Figure 1 as a reference image and began using a text prompt that included: "birds and flowering plants holosuite background". Mr. Wombo prefers to place cute women on what looks like a fashion show runway and in this case I got images that included plenty of flowers (see the image at the upper right corner of this blog post: "Tyhry in a Reality Simulation"). 

Figure 2. birdland simulation

 Fantasy. Occasionally Mr. Wombo sprinkled in a few birds for the images that were generated, but since birds are rarely seen during fashion shows, Mr. Wombo was not really into them. By playing around with the various WOMBO styles, I was able to get the more fanciful Reality Simulation environment (the "birdland" simulation) that is shown to the right in Figure 2. My resulting thoughts for Mr. Wombo: "Finally! I'll take anything that does not look like a fashion show!"

Figure 3. nanotechnology

 Nanites. Nanotechnology plays a major role in my science fiction stories about Tyhry (see The Hua Nanites). Back in January, I began trying to use WOMBO Dream to help me create depictions of nanotechnology. By their tiny nature, individual nanites are invisible, but in my imagination large numbers of them could possibly assemble into visible objects or at the very least, maybe something like misty clouds or sparkling and streaming masses.

Using the same "birdland" reference image that generated Figure 2, I switched to this text prompt: "nanotechnology, fractal complexity, networks of sparkling nanites". Mr. Wombo produced the image shown in Figure 3.

Figure 4. Tyhry's nanite lab.

 Into the Laboratory. Using the text prompt: "nanotechnology laboratory, fractal complexity, networks of sparkling nanites", I had Mr. Wombo convert Figure 3 into an image depicting Tyhry inside her nanite research laboratory (see the image to the right).

A copy of Tyhry at the
nanite programming facility.

Since about the age of 12, Tyhry has had a secret research lab inside a Simulation fork of the Ekcolir Reality. Using the advanced technology that is available in that Reality, Tyhry has been able to develop some anti-gravity nanites. The image shown to the left is an alternate version of Figure 4 that makes explicit the advanced computational tools that Tyhry uses while programming her nanites. Tyhry used the Reality Simulation System to make several copies of herself who live inside the Ekcolir Reality simulation and work full time on her technology development projects.

clothing nanites experiment

One of the "nanotechnology laboratory, fractal complexity, networks of sparkling nanites" images that was produced by Mr. Wombo seemingly did away with the conventional features of a laboratory, instead emphasizing the nanites (see the image to the right).

 Inpainting. Last month I began to experiment with inpainting. I shifted Tyhry's body posture in my reference image and I also altered my text prompt so as to emphasize the background in the scene: "nanotechnology laboratory, fractal complexity, networks of sparkling nanites, sparkling network background". I got some interesting background patterns using this as input to the image-generating software and so I asked Mr. Wombo remove the human figure from one of the images, leaving the background pattern intact.

Figure 5. nanite accident

 Nanite Accident. The result of that image edit was rather strange (see the image to the left, Figure 5). 

Figure 6. original image.

For comparison, the original un-edited image is shown to the right (Figure 6). I imagine that Tyhry could have "accidents" while learning to program hair and clothing nanites. Maybe Figure 5 is an example of a nanite experiment gone wrong. I hope those poorly-programmed nanites will wash off.

 What Is She Looking At? I'd like to use Photoshop to add a cloud of nanites hovering in front of Tyhry in Figure 6. One of the downfalls of Mr. Wombo is that he relentlessly depicts human figures as just standing around doing nothing. Admittedly, in this case, it could be that she is just waiting to see if her newly programmed nanites will do what she intends.

Figure 7. teleconference

 Free Hand. I like the idea that Tyhry could find a way to use the Reality Simulation System to communicate with her copies who reside inside a simulation fork of the Ekcolir Reality (see Figure 7). Sadly, poor Mr. Wombo has a hard time connecting arms to hands... another job for Photoshop.

Figure 8. another teleconference

Another AI-generated image illustrating this real world-to-virtual reality teleconferencing process is shown in Figure 8. I'm not sure if those are nanite control devices that they are holding or simply nanite containment vials.

 Visions of the Future. I'm always trying to find new and improved ways to illustrate Tyhry's experiments with clothing nanites. I've had only limited success asking for clouds of floating nanites. However, sometimes Mr. Wombo can come up with an acceptable depiction if he is provided with a reference image that is reasonably close to having the desired scene elements. For my nanite cloud reference, I used a pattern similar to what is shown in Figure 10 on this page.

Figure 9. picking a dress pattern

 Dressing for Dinner. For Figure 9, the text prompt included, "using a computer, laser physics laboratory background". The setting of this image is at a point in time when Tyhry is in her 30s and by this time in her life she has mastered the art of programming clothing nanites. 

The "sparkling cloud of nanites" that I provided in my reference image (floating right in front of Tyhry's face) was efficiently converted by Mr. Wombo into what I can imagine being some nanite-generated fabric that was designed by Tyhry.

Tyhry Tubes.

The image to the right was made by using Photoshop to add some parts from several AI-generated images into the main image of Tyhry working on a nanite program. Here, Tyhry is about 20, at a point in time shortly before her trip to Alastor Cluster.

 Chatbot Collaboration. I asked the Bing chatbot about Jules Verne and the chatbot mentioned this quote from Journey to the Center of the Earth: “It’s not what is upon this island, but what is underneath that interests me.” I then asked the chatbot: "Can you provide a paragraph of text suggesting what Jules Verne might have written in a novel about nanotechnology had the concept been known during his lifetime?"

Figure 10. The power of Nanites.

Bing Chatbot reply: "Jules Verne was a visionary writer who predicted many scientific advancements in his novels. If he had known about nanotechnology, he might have written a novel about a scientist who discovers a way to manipulate matter at the atomic and molecular level to create new materials and devices. The story could be about the scientist's journey to create a new world of possibilities and the challenges he faces along the way."

 That (above) is a good description of Tyhry's work with nanites.

I asked the Bing chatbot: "Can you suggest how Jules Verne might have described the use of nanotechnology in Chapter 11 of the story "The Mysterious Island" as a way to efficiently form clothing from short animal hairs using a "molecular-scale loom"? Sadly, this complex question seemed to incapacitate the chatbot and I got no reply. 😔

I asked Mr. Wombo for a: "painting of Julia Verne, imaginary analogue of Jules Verne in an alternate universe, Julia Verne is twenty years old, dressed Victorian England style, using a futuristic molecular loom". 

Dreaming of Nanoville

 Think Small. One of the resulting images (Figure 10) suggests to me the possibility that in the 1800s of the Ekcolir Reality, Julia Verne might have imagined tiny humanoids who could construct a "molecular scale loom". Another such image is shown to the right, again crafted by me to turn the AI-generated image into an imaginary book cover.

In my own stories, I imagine nanoscopic replicoids, copies of humans that are composed of nanites. Julia Verne might have imagined a similar nano-world for her own stories.

Figure 11. Molecular Loom

Using the text prompt: "painting of Julia Verne as a scientist, very complex weaving machines, Julia Verne is twenty years old, dressed Victorian England style, using a futuristic molecular loom, Steam Punk vibe" Mr. Wombo was able to produce images such as the one shown in Figure 11.This image was generated by the new "Spectral v2" style of WOMBO Dream.

Figure 12. Synapex 1880

 Synapex. One of the story elements in the Exode Saga is the synapex link: a way of directly connecting two people's nervous systems. If Julia Verne was writing about nanotechnology in 1880 then she might have imagined a way to link two people together, facilitating a kind of technology-assisted telepathy.

Progress in clothing technology. Click image to enlarge.

 Progress. After going with Mr. Wombo to the 1800s, I was ready to get back to the current millennium. Sometimes Mr. Wombo can't resist depicting cute women as wearing black leather, or whatever that nanite-generated equivalent might be called (image to the left).

I've been trying to imagine how a clothing nanite industry might begin in Alastor Cluster. Sadly, Jack Vance provided no guidance in this area of speculation.

Tyhry in a nanite research
facility of Alastor Cluster

Manny in Alastor Cluster

Here are two AI-generated images that I can imagine are set on a planet in Alastor Cluster in the far future of the Asimov Reality (the images shown to the left and to the right). Although this is thousands of years into the space age, the pace of technology advance has been kept slow in the Asimov Reality. I like to imagine that Tyhry will be able to obtain some clothing nanites from Alastor Cluster and return them to Earth.

Using a text prompt that included, "gazing at a floating piece of sparkling fabric waving in the breeze, complex fractal network that sparkles", Mr. Wombo was able to provide me with additional images of Tyhry and her nanite-generated fabrics.

nanite-generated materials

In addition to the nanite-generated fabric that I was expecting Mr. Wombo to place right in front of Tyhry's face, the image to the left includes a mostly transparent nanite structure down there by her leg.

grab the nanites

In the image to the right it looks like Tyhry is trying to grab some nanite-generated material while it is still in the process of forming a garment.

I don't know if Mr. Wombo was trying to make reflections on glass windows in the image to the right. Maybe those plants are in a garden on an exoplanet located in Alastor Cluster.

animated GIF

The animated GIF to the left has some additional images of Tyhry and floating materials that have been assembled from nanites. In most of these images, Mr. Wombo dressed Tyhry in either a dress or pants. In one image, it looks like Tyhry may have been in the process of changing her nanite-generated shirt to a new pattern.

anti-gravity nanites

When Marda graduates from college and arrives at Tyhry's house, Tyhry is eager to show of her recent progress with nanites (see the image to the right). Previously, I made an effort to get Mr. Wombo to make depictions of interesting crystals; here I did not even have to ask.

hair nanite experiment

Another AI-generated image depicting Tyhry when she begins to experiment with hair nanites is shown to the left. I was hoping that Mr. Wombo would make a sparkling cloud of nanites, but Mr. Wombo seems quite certain that smoke does not sparkle.

 

clothing nanite experiment

 Replicoid Experiments. Tyhry began experimenting with replicoids so that she could have a copy of herself that could be used in experiments with clothing nanites. In the image to the right, Tyhry is performing a clothing nanite experiment with her replicoid.

2 replicoids are better than 1

The image to the left shows Tyhry making use of two replicoids during a clothing nanite experiment. Once a clothing pattern is tested on a replicoid and proven to be safe, then it can be transferred to the flesh-and-blood Tyhry.

Marda and Tyhry design project

The image to the right shows Marda and Tyhry during another clothing nanite development project. I was impressed by Mr. Wombo when he inserted Marda into the background without being asked to do so.

Fabric design lab.

The image to the left is another depiction of Tyhry in her clothing nanite laboratory.

 Aliens. Back in January, I began trying to get Mr. Wombo to make AI-generated depictions of aliens that I could use for illustrating my science fiction stories. 

Fig. 13. alien with 3 legs

 Hua Clothing Nanites. The types of aliens that appear in the Exode Saga are humanoid aliens. For the Exode Saga, I imagine that there are truly ancient aliens who have been guiding the evolution of life on planets such as Earth for billions of years. It really should not surprise anyone that the alien creatures who evolved on exoplanets are quite similar to we humans because all life forms in our galaxy have been forced to have physical features that are similar to those of the Hua. 

 Designing the Hua. One of the "joys" of working with Mr. Wombo is that there is always the chance that the AI software might invent an interesting physical feature for an alien creature. As seen in the image to the right, Mr. Wombo made an alien with three legs. I was trying to find a way to get Mr. Wombo to show the background through the thin fabric of her nanite-generated clothing. The Hua have purple skin pigmentation, but that feature can be added to my illustrations using Photoshop and there is no use trying to involve Mr. Wombo in that.

Figure 14. "Edit with text"

 Editing Images. I was using a text prompt that included, "transparent dress fabric, see-through dress, fractal laser network background" to generate images such as the one in Figure 13. After Mr. Wombo produced the image in Figure 14A, I used the WOMBO Dream "Edit with text" feature and asked for "Change her skin color to purple, change her hair to light pink".

Mr. Wombo has a nasty habit of treating the heads of human figures differently than the rest of the body (see my past effort to get Mr. Wombo to create a depiction of a an transparent replicoid). In this case (Figure 14B) the color of her face did change along with the rest of her skin. Also, Mr. Wombo seemingly "forgot about" matching the color of her toe to the rest of her leg. The other problem with the "edit with text" feature is that it often introduces makes other unwanted changes to the image such as messing up the features of a face.

mission to Alastor Cluster

 Mission of Anti-Gravity. I'm still undecided about exactly how Tyhry obtains some anti-gravity nanites. Using a text prompt that included, "pulp science fiction cover, alien first contact, Barsoom style, alien city in background, meet an alien", Mr. Wombo was able to generate the image shown to the right (I added the text). This image is actually a composite using parts from three different AI-generated images.

AG Headquarters.

One of those component images is shown to the left. Mr. Wombo likes to place humanoid heads on buildings. I cut the face off of the floating building, shrank it down and placed it on the torso of the alien who is meeting Tyhry and Marda. 

aliens by Flora v2

The image to the right was created by Mr. Wombo from the "pulp science fiction cover, alien first contact, Barsoom style" prompt and no reference image using the Flora v2 style.

Asterothrope

The image to the left was made by Mr. Wombo. This is an Asterothrope of Alastor Cluster who has been engineered to have an unusual skin pigmentation. Mr. Wombo is resistant to the idea of anyone having more than two breasts, so my text prompt included, "science fiction movie still of a humanoid alien with four breasts, an alien with four breasts, two rows of breasts, extra breasts, more breasts, breasts on her abdomen".

an alien Hua 10,000 BT

When Mr. Wombo utilized the VFX style he was able to generate some interesting humanoid aliens. Finding the correct balance between 1) having some alien features while 2) at the same time looking basically human is a challenge, but I was fairly happy with some of Mr. Wombo's aliens such as the one to the right. This is getting close to what I imagine a Hua might have looked like in the era about 10,000 years before Tyhry's visit to Sermyth. At that earlier time period during the development of the technologically advanced culture on Sermyth, the Hua were making some fairly major genetic alterations and modifying their physical form and casually deploying nanites for use in everyday life.

Asterothrope yoga.

 Bonus Asterothrope. In my next blog post, I explore the problem of how to depict 1) genetically modified human variants, 2) artificial life forms composed of femtobots and zeptites, 3) the synthetic life humanoids that were in the play Rossum's Universal Robots, and 4) aliens who are not very different in appearance from we humans. While exploring that topic and when I asked Mr. Wombo to make an image of a woman laying on a Turkish rug (there is such a rug in the play R.U.R.), suddenly I got the image shown to the left. I'm going to call this image a depiction of a new Asterothrope yoga move. Thank you for the gift, Mr. Wombo.

Next: more nanotechnology illustrations

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