Carbon Creek

The invention of earbuds. (Mr. Wombo)

 The Life of Brian. In my previous blog post I mentioned the the science fiction novel The Turing Option. The main character in that story (Brian) is explicitly described as being a genius. At the start of the story (set in the year 2023), Brian is eager to report to his boss (the chairman of Megalobe Industries) on a break-through advance in the field of artificial intelligence research. Strangely, Brian works at a facility that was established to carry out research on high-resolution display screens. Brian's boss, Dr. McCrory, an expert in communications, does not understand Brian's work. Sadly, we readers never understand why a company that was created to develop HDTV is called Megalobe.

 "Good luck looks to be bad luck". ←That's a quote from a character named Teehalt in Jack Vance's novel Star King. 25 pages into Star King, Teehalt is dead.😵 In The Turing Option, Brian reports that he has made a major break-through in the development of human-like artificial intelligence. However, he does not realize that his recent advance in AI technology is a kind of dead-end. Then, the Megalobe research facility suffers a dramatic security breech and the newly developed artificial intelligence system is stolen!

Edith Keeler's grand-daughter

 The Luck of Brian. That theft is actually good luck because all hell breaks loose and not only is Brian's AI technology stolen, but also during the theft, Brian is shot and his brain is damaged. His brain damage is actually good luck because it leads to his brain being re-built with Hi-Tek™ computer components. That surgical alteration to Brian allows him to function as a kind of bridge between the human species and the machine intelligence that he was creating in the Megalobe research facility. Without the damage to his brain, Brian would never have been able to create the world's first thinking machine, Sven.

 Alien Twist. In the case of Teehalt, while exploring the galaxy, he finds a beautiful Earth-like planet. This discovery is seemingly good luck, but Teehalt's view of the matter soon changes after he learns that while out exploring the galaxy he has actually been the puppet of an alien creature who intends to use the newly-discovered planet for alien purposes.

useful copy: Lexi Keeler

 Alien Twist Two. Another alien twist was included in John Campbell's story "The Last Evolution". I've long had an interest in John Campbell because of his influence on the science fiction stories that were told by Isaac Asimov. For the Exode Saga, I like to pretend that Campbell died in an accident at an early age, but a time-traveling copy of Isaac Asimov was able to take the place of Campbell and mentor a younger copy of Asimov in the art of science fiction story telling. In this way, the Older Asimov was able to feed information about positronic robots to the Younger Asimov.

 Machine Intelligence. In his story "The Last Evolution", Campbell depicted the development of advanced machine intelligence as being a response to the invasion of Earth by evil space aliens. I've never been a fan of the evil alien brand of science fiction. For his Foundation Saga, Isaac Asimov made use of an "all human galaxy" where there were no space aliens. Of course, Asimov needed a way to get around the galaxy in a reasonable amount of time and he made use of "hyperspace jump drive" technology which made travel from planet to planet in the galaxy rather like sailing from city to city on Earth in the 1800s.

Figure 1. Crysy Keeler; 1959

 Hyperspace. Writing in 1993, Michio Kaku wrote a book called Hyperspace in which he wrote much about the idea that there might be ten or more dimensions in our universe. For the Exode Saga, I adopted the idea that there are additional spatial dimensions where fundamental particles called hierions and sedrons can exist. Kaku ended his Chapter 14 in Hyperspace with an account of Isaac Asimov's story "The Last Question". In Asimov's story, an advanced machine intelligence (existing in hyperspace) discovers how to create a new universe.

 Machine Intelligence. Ever since I read "The Last Evolution", I've wondered how Campbell got interested in the idea of computers and machine intelligence. I have not read much of Campbell's fiction. I've seen it claimed that the first use of the concept of "hyperspace" as an imaginary means of allowing for faster-than-light space travel was in a story called "Islands of Space" which was published by Campbell in the Spring 1931 issue of Amazing Stories Quarterly. 

2040. Tyhry and her
wearable quantum computer.

 The Origin of Digital Computers. It is interesting that "Islands of Space" features slide-rules, but not the idea of machine intelligence. Then, published in 1932, "The Last Evolution" depicts Humanity as being replaced by thinking machines.

What might have changed for Campbell between 1931 and 1932? I don't know, but it might be relevant that Campbell was booted out of MIT in 1931, the same year that Vannevar Bush published a 40 page journal article on the Differential Analyzer. A few years later, what has been called the first digital computer (the Atanasoff–Berry computer) was conceived. I've previously fantasized about an alternate universe where Alan Turing made a breakthrough in artificial intelligence, but what if alien time travelers played a role in starting the computer age on Earth? 

Figure 2. winter-galactic type-setting for Campbell's story "Islands of Space"

Figure 3. Lexi, 1968

 What are these things called galaxies? Campbell's "islands of space" are galaxies, but Campbell seemed to try to avoid use the term "galaxy" (see Figure 4, below) in his story. Instead, he used the term "galactic nebula". It is probably a good thing for Campbell to have avoided the term "galaxy" because when he started writing about "inter-galactic" travel, the poor type-setter rendered it as "winter-galactic" (see Figure 2, above).

 1923. It was 100 years ago, in 1923, when Hubble began making the astronomical observations that finally proved that the Andromeda Galaxy is a large gravitationally-bound stellar system far beyond the outer edge of our own galaxy. Given a spacecraft with faster-than light capability, most writers in the 1930s would have been satisfied to explore our galaxy, but for "Islands of Space" Campbell was eager to send Arcot, Morey and Wade off to another galaxy. Maybe Campbell felt the need to go to another galaxy in search of adventure because he suggested that only about one star in a hundred million has planets.

The Bing chatbot on planet formation

Figure 4. a spiral galaxy

 Hyper-Imaginative Chatbots. According to Bard, the first use of "galaxy" in fiction was in in 1834, in the novel "The Coming Race" by Edward Bulwer-Lytton: "In the novel, the protagonist visits a subterranean world inhabited by a race of beings called the Vril-ya. The Vril-ya are technologically advanced and have a deep understanding of the universe. They tell the protagonist that the Milky Way is a galaxy, and that there are many other galaxies in the universe." I'm skeptical about this claim since the version of "The Coming Race" that I found online makes no mention of galaxies. However, never having read "The Coming Race" (I've only skimmed it), I must admit that I like Bard's creative idea that the Vril-ya be aliens from a distant exoplanet who have secretly lived inside Earth for many years.

Earth's Reality Chain

 More Fiction. According to Bard, the first "modern" use of the term "galaxy" in science fiction was in the story "Universe" by Olaf Stapledon, which was published in the August 1931 issue of Amazing Stories. This purported story ("Universe") seems to be an AI-hallucination.

For "Islands of Space", Campbell imagined that by making use of superconductivity it would be possible to create a high density of electric current that would allow a spaceship to slip into hyperspace where it could travel at very high rates of speed. The technological break-through of hyperspace travel is accomplished by a team of three scientists: Arcot, Morey and Wade. As introduced in Campbell's 1930 story "The Black Star Passes", Arcot is described as the "greatest physicist" on Earth and an inventor. Arcot invented a magical spaceship engine that can convert heat energy into motion. Using that spaceship technology, Arcot went to Venus and met the telepathic residents of that planet, which was good timing because almost immediately Earth and Venus had to fight-off invaders from another star system. Arcot is no theoretical physicist; he gets to investigate a damaged alien spaceship and have a cowboy-and-indians style shootout with aliens using his ray gun. In "The Black Star Passes", Arcot, Morey and Wade discover amazing alien technology in an alien spaceship: light-matter. The aliens had discovered how to make photons congeal into a solid material (Campbell called it a "metal" and gave it the name "lux"). That alien-created light-matter is what made possible the hyperspace spaceship drive that is used in "Islands of Space", allowing Arcot, Morey and Wade to visit the Andromeda galaxy.

It is half way through "Islands of Space" before Arcot tells his chums that he learned telepathy from the Venusians. Everything happens fast in "Islands of Space". They build their Hi Tek™ interstellar spaceship in two months and Arcot passes on the secrets of telepathy is just a few minutes, just in time to use it against some war-like aliens who want to take the Hi Tek weapons of the Earthlings. In "Islands of Space", Campbell mentions that our sun is part of a "galactic system" and orbits around the core of the galaxy. With its intergalactic travel, "Islands of Space" is quite an ambitious sequel to the "The Black Star Passes" in which humans never get out of the Solar System.

 City on the Edge of Tomorrow. Back in April, I tried to get help from ChatGPT and Bard to write a sequel to the Star Trek episode "Assignment: Earth". Now, I want to create another fan-fiction Star Trek episode that will be both a prequel to "Assignment: Earth" and a sequel to the episode called "The City on the Edge of Forever". Also, as a fan-fiction story, I want this new story ("City on the Edge of Tomorrow") to fit into my Exode Saga.

As shown in the very tall "Reality Chain" image to the right, I have previously imagined that in Earth's Reality Chain, the Ekcolir Reality followed the Asimov Reality and then led to the Buld Reality. In "City on the Edge of Tomorrow", Marda and Tyhry discover that some of the rapid technological advances of the Ekcolir Reality were made possible by a Time Loop that involved a "Guardian of Forever". Back in 2015, I wrote another fan-fiction time travel story called Star Trek: Galactic Core.

Original image generated by Bymgyr (DALL-E)

Here in 2023, I've been experimenting with Bing search, both the ChatGPT interface and the associated DALL-E image generator, which together I call "Miss Bymgyr". I asked Miss Bymgyr to imagine a sequel to "The City on the Edge of Forever" in which Kirk saved Edith's life and then Edith's daughter (I want to call her Crysy, see Figure 1, above) and Spock invented earbuds in 1959. Miss Bymgyr suggested a plot for that sequel episode, but then I had a suggestion...

Question for Miss Bymgyr: In my imagination, it would be more interesting to have the plot of "City on the Edge of Tomorrow" involve the Vulcan's who are living in the town of Carbon Creek in Pennsylvania (Star Trek: Next Generation, episode "Carbon Creek"); can you write a script for the cold open start of the episode "City on the Edge of Tomorrow" which takes place in Carbon Creek in Pennsylvania?

generated by DALL-E for this text prompt:
"high resolution movie still of Jolene Blalock
in the role of a Vulcan woman,
Jolene Blalock has long blond hair
and a Star Trek officer's uniform,
pointed ears, greenish skin tone"

 Okay, I'll try to write a script for the cold open start of the episode. Here it is:

 ```
[EXT. CARBON CREEK - DAY]

The camera pans over a small town in Pennsylvania in 1959. We see cars, shops, houses, and people going about their daily lives. The narrator's voice is heard.

NARRATOR: The year is 1959. The place is Carbon Creek, Pennsylvania. A typical American town, with one exception: three of its residents are not human. They are Vulcans, survivors of a crashed spaceship, who have been living among the humans for over a decade. They have adopted human names and appearances, and have learned to blend in with the local culture. They are Mestral, T'Mir, and Stron.

[INT. MESTRAL'S HOUSE - LIVING ROOM]

We see MESTRAL, a middle-aged Vulcan man with a mustache and glasses, sitting on a couch and reading a newspaper. He is wearing a suit and tie. He looks up and sees T'MIR, a young Vulcan woman with long black hair and a dress, entering the room with a tray of tea and cookies. She is his niece.

T'MIR: Good morning, uncle.

MESTRAL: Good morning, T'Mir.

generated by Prompt Hunt

T'MIR: I brought you some tea and cookies.

MESTRAL: Thank you. You are very kind.

T'MIR: It is only logical to show hospitality to our guests.

MESTRAL: Guests?

T'MIR: Yes. We have visitors.

MESTRAL: Who?

T'MIR: Two men from the future.

MESTRAL: The future?

T'MIR: Yes. They arrived last night in a blue box.

MESTRAL: A blue box?

T'MIR: Yes. Come, I will show you.

She puts down the tray and leads him to another room.

[INT. MESTRAL'S HOUSE - GUEST ROOM]

We see a blue police box standing in the corner of the room. It has a sign that says "POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX". It looks out of place in the otherwise ordinary room. T'MIR opens the door and gestures for MESTRAL to enter.

T'MIR: After you.

MESTRAL: What is this?

Mr. Wombo does Star Trek

T'MIR: It is their time machine.

MESTRAL: Time machine?

T'MIR: Yes. They said they came from the 23rd century.

MESTRAL: The 23rd century?

T'MIR: Yes. They said they were looking for someone.

MESTRAL: Who?

T'MIR: Edith Keeler.

MESTRAL: Edith Keeler?

T'MIR: Yes. Do you know her?

MESTRAL: No.

T'MIR: Neither do I.

They enter the police box and close the door behind them.

[INT. POLICE BOX]

We see that the inside of the police box is much bigger than the outside. It is filled with wires, buttons, levers, screens, and other futuristic devices. It looks like a spaceship cockpit. In the center of the room is a large circular console with a column that rises and falls. Standing next to the console are KIRK and SPOCK, wearing Starfleet uniforms from the original series. They look surprised to see MESTRAL and T'MIR.

by Mr. Wombo

KIRK: Who are you?

SPOCK: And how did you get in here?

MESTRAL: We live here.

T'MIR: This is our house.

KIRK: Your house?

SPOCK: Fascinating.

The column starts to make a loud noise and move faster.

KIRK: What's that?

SPOCK: The time rotor. We are in temporal flux.

KIRK: Temporal flux?

SPOCK: Yes. We are about to leave this time period.

KIRK: Leave? Where are we going?

SPOCK: I do not know. The controls are malfunctioning.

KIRK: Malfunctioning? How?

SPOCK: Someone has tampered with them.

by Mr. Wombo

KIRK: Tampered? Who?

SPOCK points at MESTRAL and T'MIR.

SPOCK: Them.

MESTRAL and T'MIR look at each other nervously.

MESTRAL/T'MIR (in unison): Us?

The screen fades to black as the noise gets louder and louder.

[END OF COLD OPEN]
```

Question for Miss Mymger: Can you explain your choice to create a cross-over science fiction story cold open example mixing elements of "Star Trek" with "Doctor Who"?

 Sure. I chose to create a cross-over science fiction story cold open example mixing elements of "Star Trek" with "Doctor Who" because I thought it would be a fun and creative way to answer your request. I also thought it would be interesting to see how the characters from different franchises would interact with each other and with the historical setting. I used the police box as a time machine because it is the iconic device of "Doctor Who", and it would contrast with the Vulcan's spaceship. I also used the names Kirk and Spock because they are the main characters of "Star Trek", and they would have a connection to Edith Keeler. I hope you enjoyed my script. 😊

 Today I got word that Bard has been updated so as to be able to provide images. I also got access to the Bard-enabled Google search system.

 Me: Bard, can you provide me with an image that illustrates the ears of a Vulcan woman (Star Trek fictional universe)?

Figure 5. the Prompt Hunt user interface

The AI-generated image that I got from Bard is shown to the right. The image was made by "Prompt Hunt". I also asked the stand-alone Bard what it knows about "Prompt Hunt".

Bard: Prompt Hunt is a web application that allows users to create art with AI. It uses a large language model to generate images based on user-provided prompts. Prompts can be simple descriptions, such as "a landscape painting of a forest" or "a portrait of a woman with blue eyes", or they can be more complex, such as "a painting of a cityscape at night, with the moon and stars in the sky". Prompt Hunt also offers a variety of styles that users can choose from, such as oil painting, watercolor, and pencil sketch.

To use Prompt Hunt, users simply enter their prompt and style into the website. The website will then generate an image based on the user's input. Users can then save the image, share it with others, or edit it further.

Prompt Hunt is a great tool for anyone who wants to create art with AI. It is easy to use and offers a variety of features that allow users to create their own unique art.

Here are some of the features of Prompt Hunt:

* Easy to use interface
* Variety of styles to choose from
* Ability to save, share, and edit images
* Ability to create custom prompts

Prompt Hunt is a great way to explore the possibilities of AI art. It is a fun and easy way to create your own unique art.

Figure 6. A Tyhry clone in the
Ekcolir Reality with alien features
generated by Wombo Dream

 A tryp'At twist. In my imagination, in the future of the Ekcolir Reality, there is a scientific space exploration organization that became the model for the Federation of Planets in Star Trek. There were no dark-haired Vulcans in the Ekcolir Reality, but there were telepathic tryp'At with blond hair (Figure 6). I'm now imagining that Marda and Tyhry will discover that they are clones of two tryp'At who lived in the Ekcolir Reality where they shook things up for 20th century Earth and helped accelerate the pace of technological progress. 

In fact, the Tyhry clones were so useful that there were two copies made in the Ekcolir Reality, one named Crysy (Figure 1) and one named Lexi (see Figure 3, above). I'll be experimenting with Google's Bard chatbot and ChatGPT to help me develop this new story about the origins of Marda and Tyhry in the Ekcolir Reality. I'm open to experimenting with other AI image generating systems such as Prompt Hunt (Figure 5) as alternatives to DALL-E and WOMBO Dream for illustrating the new story.

Next: part 1 of a new science fiction story

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