Artificial Intelligence

Figure 1. Image generated by
Mr. Wombo (my pet name
for WOMBO Dream).
see the original cover by Morey

 A Sci Fi mystery. Back in June of this year (see my blog post "Carbon Creek") I speculated on the mystery of what caused John W. Campbell to suddenly start including artificial intelligence in his science fiction stories. I'm particularly interested in this mystery because of the influence that Campbell had on Isaac Asimov and the stories that he wrote about positronic robots.

Campbell's robot story "The Last Evolution" was published in the August 1932 issue of Amazing Stories. "The Lost Machine" by John Wyndham was first published in the April 1932 issue of Amazing Stories. "The Lost Machine" is the story of an intelligent Martian robot who is stranded on Earth. It seems likely that Campbell read "The Lost Machine" and was influenced by that story.

 Kaboom. Mercifully, "The Lost Machine" (download here) is not an alien invasion story. The Martian spaceship that brought a Martian robot to Earth explodes soon after reaching Earth, stranding the robot on Earth. The destruction of the Martian spaceship is apparently an accident. 

The original cover art (source).

To make the image shown in Figure 1, I used the original 1932 Amazing Stories cover art by Morey as a reference image along with the text prompt, "high resolution science fiction movie still of a metallic robot with tentacle arms and human-like legs, the robot is in Central Park, New York City buildings of 1932 in the background". WOMBO Dream generated the image essentially as shown here (above). I made a few minor touch-ups and added the text. I don't know why John Wyndham originally wanted his Martian robot to have more than two feet (see the image to the left).

Post-human robot by Mr. Wombo.

 Us vs. Them. In the April 1932 issue of Amazing Stories was "Mechanocracy" by Miles J. Breuer. I could not finish reading "Mechanocracy", but it seems very much like "The Machine Stops" by E. M. Forster. I've also never previously been able to get through the 1934 story "Twilight" by Campbell. This time I persisted and made it to the end of the story. If you have hopes and expectations for artificial intelligence, Campbell's "Twilight" is a real downer. In the story, even 7,000,000 years in our future, nobody has figured out how to make a machine with human-like curiosity. It took me 65 years to get up the energy to read "Twilight" and now I'll set the goal of reading "Night" sometime in the next 65 years. 

For the image that is shown to the right, I used some cover art by Paul Stinson as a reference image along with this text prompt: "full color science fiction book cover of a humanoid robot, a spaceship, planets and futuristic settlements on an asteroid".

See the DALL-E version.

I have no problem with depictions of imaginary futures in which the human species has become extinct, but I've never been able to enjoy science fiction stories that are built upon the idea that mechanization, automation, robots and artificial intelligence are bad for people. In 1932 John Wyndham put a great line into "The Lost Machine": "...man and machine are natural complements, they assist one another..." I'd add: if we admit that humans are made of molecules then we can view humans as machines, too.

 Going No-where. One thing that drives me crazy is the "one off" science fiction story that introduces a provocative idea and does nothing with it. Zat destroys itself? Really? Zat deserves a better fate! I asked Bard to help me develop ideas for a sequel to "The Lost Machine" (see this Bard chat session). Below is that fan fiction sequel story called "The Return of Zat", which begins with telepathic Martians 7,000,000 years in our future.

The Return of Zat

Barso canal.

Banuff was again distracted from Viewing the past. He looked up from his Viewer and gazed at his wife, Ayla, who was encoding notes from her own recent temporal Viewing session. Banuff telepathically felt the familiar contours of her mind and he knew that she was almost ready to send a report on her recent observations off to the stars. His thoughts slipped past Ayla and Banuff again had the distracting telepathic sensation of mental feedback and the kind of cognitive quickening that can only come from meeting someone whose mind resonates with your own.

Banuff and Ayla had experienced that type of telepathic resonance in their youth and so they had gone off together to work at the remote Observatory 23. In time, Ayla had birthed their two children and, of course, those youngsters had returned to civilization as soon as they had reached the age of Choice. 

Teraformed Mars. image source

For the past 50 years Banuff had only known the sweet thoughts of Ayla, but now he was sure that there was another person nearby and the telepathic mind link to that mysterious interloper kept growing stronger. Someone was approaching Observatory 23.

Beyond the Temporal Barrier.

Banuff walked to the mouth of the cave and then down the slope to the edge of the ancient Barso canal. How ancient? Banuff had not wondered about that mystery for decades. The construction of the Barso canal was an event lost in the ancient history of Mars, beyond the downwhen barrier. The Time police, who controlled the use of all temporal Viewers, enforced the rule that limited Viewing of the past to only the past 7,000,000 years.

Banuff finally saw the stranger who had intruded upon his thoughts. There he was, taking long strides as he came down the hillside to the east of the canal. Banuff told his wife: A man approaches!

Ayla quickly sent off her report and then came to stand beside Banuff. Nobody knew Banuff's mind pattern better than Ayla. She spoke out-loud, "It is you."

Temporal Viewing.

That made no sense, but Banuff could sense that it was true. The approaching stranger walked across the spindly archpath over the canal and telepathically confirmed the truth: Yes, I am a Banuff replicoid.

The copy of Banuff stopped walking and stood ten steps in front of Banuff and Ayla. Banuff stood in stunned silence, lost in a deep telepathic exploration of the replicoid's mind. Ayla asked, "What is a replicoid?"

Switching to spoken words, the replicoid explained, "I'm from the future where we have made many replicoid copies of the great Banuff, the Savior. I was lucky enough to be the Selected One and sent here... to the past..." The replicoid looked around, "...to Mars."

Banuff extricated his thoughts from the complex mind of the replicoid and said to his wife, "I've seen it in his mind. He is a time traveler from the future."

Time police.

Ayla asked, "And you are from another star? How can that be?" Ayla was baffled by the idea... spaceships did not come to Mars.

Nobody has come from another star system to the Solar system in more than 2,000,000 years. The time police had long enforced the myth that the Solar system was sacred and could not be profaned by visits from outside the Holy system, the sacred origin of galactic civilization.   

Banuff was shocked by a thought that was in the replicoid's mind. He asked, "You have avoided the Time police?"

The replica replied, "Yes, to complete my mission in the past I must avoid the police and secretly work with you. I will take your place here at the observatory while you go to Earth." The replicoid gestured towards the cave that held Observatory 23 and was where Banuff and Ayla lived together in near total isolation. "Allow me to explain."

see DALL-E's version

Ayla took the replicoid by the hand and led the artificial life form inside the cave. Banuff took one last look around, letting his eyes linger on the red plants that grew along the ancient canal. Banuff knew that his quiet days were over. His life was changed.

At length, the replicoid had carefully explained its time travel mission and then Banuff and Ayla had slept. The replicoid needed no sleep. Upon awakening, Banuff and Ayla had eaten, but the replicoid did not eat. 

______________________

For comfort, Banuff held Ayla's hand then he finally spoke to the replicoid, "Allow me to summarize what you have told us. You are from a time some 4,000,000 years in our future... a time when time travel technology has been perfected. You are on a mission to study the ancient history of planet Earth and discover the cause of Snowball Earth?"

Banuff, Ayla and the replicoid

"Yes, that is correct. In my future time, Earth has thawed out again... the ten million year long period during which Earth was sealed in ice is finally over. However, we of the future would like to avoid another Snowball era. Towards that end, we want to study ancient Earth and the beginning of the ice age." The replicoid smiled at Ayla and continued, "Because of your special role in my mission, Banuff, you are quite famous in the future. There are thousands of replicoid copies of you. I am the one who was lucky enough to be selected for this mission into the past."

Ayla was gazing intently at the replicoid who looked just like her husband, except for the fact that he was young in appearance, exactly as she remembered Banuff when she had first met him so very long ago. Her heart raced wildly with the awakening of fond memories from her youth. Now in middle age, Banuff was growing hair on his head, an evolutionary throwback trait that disgusted Ayla.

Banuff said, "I understand." Banuff thought he understood because he could see into the replicoid's mind. However, even after looking deep into the replicoids memories, the shape of the future was still a mystery. Even this replicoid copy of Banuff from the future did not seem to know why it was that in the galactic civilization of the future, Banuff was revered as the Savior. Banuff wondered: savior of what? The future culture that was evident in the replicoid's memories seemed little different from the glorious galactic civilization that existed there in Banuff's time.

Ayla complained, "Well I don't understand. It seems like a temporal paradox. How can we know the future, that is, what you have told us about the future, without that knowledge altering the future?"

The replicoid sighed and continued making telepathic adjustments to Ayla's mind. "I'm not asking you to understand, Ayla. I am asking you to trust me. I've seen the future and you need only accept the fact that everything we do here in the past created a wonderful future in which Earth is again a warm and beautiful world."

Replicoids on Earth.

Ayla strongly gripped her husband's hand. "Why must you send my husband into the past? Can't you simply View the past and learn its secrets?"

The replicoid complained, "The Time police maintain an energy vortex in the downwhen. Even in my own future era, we have not discovered a way to View the past beyond that barrier in Time. However, we now have the technological means to physically travel downwhen, bypassing the barrier that blocks temporal information transfer and Viewing. To learn about the far past, we must physically visit the past."

Banuff asked, "Can't Ayla go with me to Earth?"

The replicoid said, "No, it is important that Ayla and I stay here and continue your Viewing work. We don't want to alert the Time police to the fact that you have been sent to Earth."

Ayla asked, "Why not? What could the police do to interfere with your plan?"

Banuff laughed. "That's a great question! I don't know. I don't want to find out. What I do know is that the future was constructed by me taking the place of Banuff here on Mars. Banuff must go to Earth and discover what caused Earth to become an icy Snowball world."

Banuff asked, "But I thought you said I would not go to Earth alone."

"That is true. You will have a companion. A robotic assistant named Zat." The replicoid asked, "Would you like to meet Zat?" The replicoid held out its hand. A cloud of nanites emerged from the replicoid's body and congealed into the form of an oddly shaped robot.

The previous day, the replicoid had provided several demonstrations of the advanced nanotechnology that existed in the future. Thus, Banuff and Ayla were not surprised to see Zat materialize before them.

Zat on Mars.

Now, both Banuff and Ayla tried to send telepathic commands to Zat, but the robot did not respond in the way that the robots of Mars were programmed to respond and obey commands. The Banuff replicoid explained, "Zat was built with the ability to telepathically link to the primitive minds of Earthlings from the pre-Snowball era.. The replicoid smiled at Banuff and gave a sly wink to Ayla. "Now, I see in your two minds that you understand what we must do. The replicoid nodded to Banuff, "All that remains is for you to follow Zat. Zat will lead you to my spaceship and you two will go to Earth."

Banuff turned to Ayla and asked, "You are willing to go along with this? Stay here and pretend that this replicoid is me?"

The replicoid had worked hard to take control of Ayla's mind. Now a swarm of nanites existed inside Ayla's brain, controlling her thoughts. She told her husband, "When you get back from Earth, you'll have a chance to tell me all about your adventure. I must confess, I'm curious..... exactly how did Earth switch from being a green ocean world to an ice-covered planet? And why do the Time police prevent we Viewers of the past from knowing what happened on ancient Earth before Mars became the home of Humanity?"

Banuff told the replicoid, "I'd like to know more about primitive Earth culture before I visit Earth." An even more provocative idea occurred to Banuff. "Since you people of the future can move through time, you must already know what Zat and I will learn on Earth."

The replicoid shook its head. "I have not been told the details of your mission and what you did on Earth of the past. This is where the dangers of Temporal Pardox lie. Neither you nor I can know too much about our futures. For me, it is enough that I know your mission was a success. Let's not over-think this situation... we should simply get on with our appointed tasks."

Temporal police force.

Ayla let go of Banuff's hand and moved to stand beside the replicoid. She told her husband, "I wish I could go to Earth, but I look forward to hearing all about your adventure when you return." She put an arm around the replicoid.

Banuff was surprised that Ayla was willing to go along with this crazy plan. However, Banuff could see deeply into the mind of the replicoid and felt certain that all would go well with this crazy mission to Earth. The replicoid had seen the future, and everything turned out well. 

Banuff was a bit annoyed to see his wife snuggling up to the replicoid, but he stoically kissed Ayla goodbye and told Zat the robot, "Let's get started. Take me to the spaceship."

________

 On Earth. But the mission to Earth was a failure. No sooner had Zat stepped out onto the surface of Earth, and the spaceship's artificial intelligence-powered control system had announced to Banuff, "Reactor core plasma has gone critically chaotic. The Time Police have intercepted us. They inactivated our reactor's plasma stabilization system.  Reactor breech is imminent. I'm activating the time travel projector again..."

Cirencester

That was it. A moment later, Banuff found himself standing on a narrow city street, rapidly over-heating. He looked around for Zat, but the robot was not there. Eventually, with the help of a large language model named Bard, Banuff was able to place himself in time and space. Banuff was in Cirencester, a peaceful little city in England. 

Banuff had again traveled through time and arrived in front of the Dolcetti Ice Cream shop. The young lady working there had graciously provided Banuff with first ice cream and then, at the end of her shift, a ride to the police station. The constable had taken Banuff to the medical clinic that was known locally as Cirencester hospital. 

At the hospital, Dr. Emily Hartwell was puzzled by Banuff's unrecognizable language and his weird physical features including strangely red skin that had almost no hair follicles or sweat glands. Emily had tried asking the Siri digital assistant to identify the language that Banuff spoke, but Siri was baffled. Emily took a cheek swab from Banuff and sent it off for laboratory analysis. At the end of her shift, Emily took Banuff to her home.  

Emily's house was a big home that she shared with her husband, Oliver Blake, a computer programmer who worked for Google. The next day, when Emily went to work, Oliver introduced Banuff to Bard and asked Bard to learn Banuff's language. Banuff interacted with an experimental version of Bard that could process both written and spoken language.

Banuff had spent most of his life Viewing the past. Throughout galactic civilization, there was much interest in the historical origins of the ancient interstellar pioneers who had colonized the galaxy. The Time Viewers of Mars were systematically studying the ancient history of the construction of the great generation ships that had carried Humanity out to the stars. As part of their work, Time Viewers like Ayla and Banuff had to regularly learn long-lost languages from the past.

Oliver and Emily

Now, on Earth, Banuff could learn English even faster than Bard was learning Banuff's language from the future. When Emily arrived home from work, she was impressed by Banuff's ability to communicate. Oliver said, "Banuff claims to be from Mars."

When Emily stopped laughing, she asked, "Are you serious?"

Banuff said, "Future Mars."

Emily shook her head. She'd sent a sample of Banuff's DNA off to be sequenced, but the results would probably not be back until later in the week. Banuff pointed to the laptop computer that Oliver was letting him use. "I prove..."

Oliver and Emily looked at the screen. It was displaying an old science fiction story by John Wyndham from 1932. Oliver told Emily, "This story mentions a robot named Zat... and a Martian named Banuff." Oliver pointed at Banuff.

Emily asked, "His name is Banuff?" She quickly read the story. While she read, Emily also listened to Banuff and Oliver discussing the possible location of the home of Dr. Falkner. Reaching the end of the story, she told Oliver, "I was in school with Katherine White. I think..." She picked up her phone and tried calling Katherine. "Hello Kat. This is Emily Hartwell." Emily nodded to Oliver and listened to Katherine. "Yes, this is business. I have an unusual patient. I need help." Emily again listened to her old school friend. "Sorry to interrupt. I'll get to the point. Did you once tell me that your mother's maiden name was Falkner, Diana Falkner?"

Banuff and Oliver both started searching the internet for Diana Falkner. Emily asked, "So she still lives in Cirencester?" Oliver waved the maps app of his phone at Emily. "Well, it is hard to explain. Was your mother interested in science fiction? Really? Okay, call me back when you have time to chat." Emily set down her phone and now noticed that Banuff had moved to the front door.

The Lost Robot

Banuff said, "Come! Drive!" Soon, Emily, Oliver and Banuff were in the car, out in the darkening evening on their way to Katherine White's childhood home. Emily complained, "We can't just show up. Let me call first."

Oliver shrugged. "You knew Katherine in school."

"But what's the point? This is crazy."

Oliver asked, "What did she say when you asked about science fiction?"

"Katherine said that her grandfather knew John Wyndham."

Oliver laughed. "It all fits."

"But even so... the story says that Zat destroyed... was dissolved in acid."

Banuff said, "No acid... nanites."

Oliver asked Banuff, "Nanotechnology?"

Banuff did a little trick with his clothing nanites. His shirt dissolved, formed a swirling cloud and then reformed as a different style garment on his torso. Emily asked her husband, "Did you see that?"

Driving, Oliver had only seen a bit of the trick, but earlier in the day, when asked about lunch, Banuff had shown Oliver his feeding nanites. Oliver said, "I think Banuff has some kind of fancy alien nanotechnology."

Now Oliver was going up the driveway and Emily could see lights glowing in the windows of the mansion. "Let me go in. You two wait here." She jumped out of the car and went to the front door. A voice spoke through a speaker, "You're Emily? My daughter called. She thought I might be hearing from you."

Diana Falkner

The door opened and Diana looked out at the car. "Your patient?" Diana went charging past Emily and approached the car. Banuff got out of the car. Diana said, "You must be Banuff." Banuff nodded.

Oliver asked, "So you know that old story about visitors from Mars that was written by John Wyndham?"

Diana nodded. "Come inside, I can show you the original manuscript copy of  'The Lost Machine', it was written by my grandfather. John Wyndham published the story under a fake name."

Inside, Banuff began excitedly asking, "Where? Laboratory? Where?"

Oliver told Banuff, "Calm down. We'll ask."

Under the better interior lighting, Diana looked carefully at Banuff. "It is all true... a Martian. You've been living on Earth these past hundred years?"

Banuff replied, "No. Where laboratory?"

"I'll take you to my father's lab. Come to think of it, that was where Zat died." Diana led the way to the west wing of the mansion.

Emily asked, "What does your father do?"

Diana replied, "He died... more than ten years ago. But he was chemist. He got his start trying to identify the metals in the residue from Zat the robot."

Oliver said, "I don't think Zat was made out of metal."

They entered the laboratory and Diana opened a wooden cabinet and picked out large flask. She seemed to struggle to lift it off the shelf. She set the flask on the lab bench with a heavy thump. "Dad believed that these were the remains of Zat... he dug them out from under the floor boards."

Banuff formed a cloud of control nanites at his finger tip and tapped the flask. Suddenly, the silvery contents of the flask came alive, pushed out the rubber stopper from the mouth of the flask. A sparkling cloud flowed out of the flask and assembled into the form of Zat the robot. For a minute Zat and Banuff spoke then Banuff turned to Diana, "Many thanks."

Diana asked, "So... Zat was only... sleeping?"

Banuff tried to explain what he had just heard from Zat. "Zat feared... my death. Zat hoped... waited for... others from Mars. No matter."

Emily looked at her husband and wondered, "Now what?"

Zat was carefully examining the thoughts of Oliver, Emily and Diana. Zat spoke to Banuff in Martian and then Banuff spoke haltingly to Diana, "Need... help."

Emily was looking at a row of large glass containers that were mounted along the wall at the back of the laboratory. She called out to Diana, "What kind of research did your father do using these strange glass containers?"

Diana looked at Banuff, but replied to Emily, "He was a diatomophile. He isolated chemicals from diatoms and worked to solve their molecular structures. Those diatom culture tanks were designed by my brother... before he went off to school.

Banuff asked Diana, "Take... us... Charles?"

Oliver asked Banuff, "Who is Charles?"

image source

Diana said, "I have a brother, Charles. He's a professor at the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia... but this time of year he's usually in Plymouth, doing field work... sample collection on a boat out of the Marine Laboratory."

Banuff gestured towards Zat and asked, "Who can take?"

Emily asked Banuff, "You want to see Charles? Why?"

Banuff said, "Diatoms." Zat took Oliver's phone out of his pocket and began to compose a document.

An hour later, Oliver looked up from his phone and said, "Banuff, let me summarize what you are trying to tell us." He glanced at Zat and then continued. "Zat has been carrying out his mission here on Earth for the past 100 years. You don't know what that mission was, but you think it involves Charles. And it involves Zat and diatoms and global warming. You want to take Zat to Plymouth so that you can find Charles."

Emily said, "I'd go along to Plymouth, but I really have to be at work first thing in the morning."

Diana again tried to reach Charles by phone. She'd been periodically trying to contact her brother for the past hour. "He must be out at sea. I just keep getting routed to his secretary's office in Norwich." She pocketed her phone and said, "Charles has told me that his goal is to reverse global warming, but I thought he was just dreaming. Maybe he actually found a way to do it!"

Emily asked, "How does he intend to stop global warming? With diatoms?"

silicotriazene buoy

Diana shrugged. "I'm not sure, but it does have something to do with diatoms and carbon dioxide."

"Global warming." Oliver looked skeptically at Banuff. "Why does he keep talking about Snowball Earth?"

Emily suggested, "If Banuff and Zat are from Mars... well Mars is cold...right?"

Banuff said, "Stop... Earth.... cold."

Oliver told Banuff, "Well, I can drive you to Plymouth, but it sounds like there is no rush if Charles is currently out to sea and collecting diatom samples."

Diana said, "It might not simply be a matter of sample collection. He's talked wildly about releasing genetically engineered diatoms into the ocean. In fact, I think he may have done just that... last year. Maybe he's going back this year to see if any of the laboratory-altered strains have survived in the ocean."

 Emily complained. "I still can't believe any of this." She pointed at Zat and asked Banuff, "Zat has been working here for a hundred years... using telepathy to make first Diana's father and then Charles do research on diatoms?"

Banuff nodded. "Exactly."

Emily asked, "But what does algae have to do with global warming?"

Diana said, "Charles talked about making 'triatoms'. I thought it was a joke."

The Triatom Intervention

"Triatoms." Oliver looked up from his phone, "That's in one of his published journal articles. Look... 'Carbon sequestration by genetically designed Triatoms'. That's from two years ago." He read the article abstract and then added, "Triatoms have a huge storage vesicle that is designed to store a dense hydrocarbon and then sink the carbon to the ocean floor. The hydrocarbon is not biodegradable. This is a way to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide and cool the planet." Diana took the phone from Oliver and began to read the article.

Oliver continued, "But if I understand what Banuff tried to say... he came to Earth to prevent global cooling."

Banuff nodded and said, "Stop... Snowball... Earth."

Diana said, "We might be too late. If Charles already put triatoms into the ocean and they can suck carbon out of the sea... deposit it in ocean sediments..."

Oliver suggested, "He may have already set Earth on the path to global cooling, and, ultimately, that could turn this planet into Snowball Earth."

Diana handed the phone back to Oliver. "This article mentions TCHT, one of the diatom molecules that my father discovered."

Emily asked, "TCHT?"

"Triacontylcycloheptatriacontane." Diana explained, "According to what I just read, the triatoms store a massive silica-containing polymer that is decorated with TCHT branches, called TCHT-Rex. It is dense and not biodegradable and could sink huge amounts of carbon to the sea floor."

Oliver asked, "These triatoms could eventually lower atmospheric carbon dioxide and cause global cooling?"

The Triatom Solution.

Diana shook her head and said, "I don't know. We have to ask Charles."

For most of the drive to Plymouth, Diana's self-driving car did the driving while Oliver, Diana and Banuff worked their way through the journal articles that had recently been published by Charles. Finally, Diana took over driving again and Oliver put away his phone. "I did not see anything in his published work about getting permission to release triatoms into the ocean. Would your brother do that?"

Diana replied, "One of his favorite sayings is 'it is better to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission'. He'd do it." She turned the car up a narrow driveway. "Think about it. Banuff told us that Zat can telepathically guide human minds. I think Zat spent sixty years shaping the mind of my brother, pushing him to first design triatoms then put them into the ocean."

There was nobody at the cottage that Charles lived in while doing his summer work in Plymouth. Diana opened to door and quickly went to bed. Oliver tried to talk to Banuff for a while, then exaustion overcame him and he fell asleep in a big easy chair. It was mid morning when Diana's phone rang. A minute later she appeared and told Oliver, "Charles is back in port. He'll be here in half an hour."

"What did you tell him?"

"That I found Zat."

"He knew what you meant?"

image source

"He and I grew reading science fiction. Charles always called our father a fool for wasting so much time trying to analyze the metallic residue of Zat. That's what we called called it... metal... having no idea that we had Martian nanites there in the lab." She gazed at Zat for a minute. "I can't bring myself to believe this telepathy nonsense."

Banuff said, "Telepathy... real."

Diana mused, "I never really believed the whole Mars thing either. But here I am, looking at what seems to be a genetically-engineered human variant that could be from Mars... or Vega, for all I know."

Oliver's phone rang. A moment later, he put it on speaker mode so that everyone could hear his sister. Emily said, "I got a preliminary report on Banuff's DNA. He's human, but not like any other known human. You should know, the sequencing lab has alerted MI5 to the case."

A car came up the drive and then Charles came into the house. He hugged his sister and then examined both Banuff and Zat. Zat spoke to Banuff in Martian and then Banuff said, "It is done."

Diana asked Charles, "The triatoms are in the ocean? Growing?"

Charles looked at Oliver. "Who is this?"

Oliver said, "My wife is a doctor. She brought Banuff home from work yesterday and I got involved."

Charles asked pointedly, "You have no link to the government?"

Diana chastised her brother, "You should not have gone around the ethical guidelines for GMOs."

MI5 on the case.

Charles had no interest in cowardly adhering to government guidelines. "Guidelines are guidelines. In any case, it worked. The triatoms not only survived in the wild for a whole year, but they are already almost one percent of the algae in the samples that we collected this week. Just wait until we test the second generation triatoms that we are developing in the lab!"

Oliver asked, "What if these triatoms get out of control? Could they cause global cooling?"

With confidence, Charles replied, "No. I'm in complete control."

"How can you control algae in the middle of the ocean?"

Oliver explained, "The triatoms have a bacterial endosymbiont that they need for survival. The endosymbiont was designed to need silicotriazene for its survival... the endosymbiont's photolyase can't function without silicotriazene... which is a death sentence for a photosynthetic bacterium. I designed the triatoms to carry out receptor-mediated endocytosis of silicotriazene. The triatoms can only survive and grow in a laboratory where they are supplied with silicotriazene... or close to a buoy in the ocean that steadily releases silicotriazene. I've just come back from collecting diatoms and triatoms that were close to three silicotriazene buoy's that I placed at sea last year. The experiment is over. I brought the buoy's back with me. The remaining triatoms in the ocean will all be dead within a few days."

Diana threw her arms around Charles. "I was afraid you had done something foolish. Banuff has been filling our heads with fears of global cooling and turning Earth into a giant ball of ice."

Charles shrugged, "All my work has been built upon a foundation of caution and concern for the future. Be glad it was me that discovered the solution to Earth's rising carbon dioxide levels, not some less careful scientist."

_________________________

image source

Epilogue. One Martian year after Banuff and Zat went on their time travel mission to Earth, Ayla had given up trying to find a way to distinguish the Banuff replicoid from the real Banuff. The replicoid had grown increasingly reluctant to even admit to Ayla that it was a replicoid. Some days, it almost seemed like a dream to think that Banuff had gone to Earth. Ayla had to admit to herself that she like the replicoid even more than she had liked her real husband. Still, there was one problem that haunted Ayla. Finally she asked the replicoid, "When will Banuff and Zat return?"

The replicoid chuckled. "I don't know. To prevent temporal paradoxes, I was not told any details of their mission on Earth, only that it would be a success. My guess is, they would have been back by now if they were going to return to Mars."

"Yes, that is my guess, too. But it makes no sense. If they were successful, then Banuff should have come home."

"Why?"

"To bring you the information... what triggered Snowball Earth."

The replicoid shrugged. "I was allowed to believe that... when I trained for this mission, but that might have been a smoke-screen."

"What do you mean?"

The replicoid suggested, "Maybe the real mission was different, not actually designed to merely gather information. Maybe Zat and Banuff were able to prevent Snowball Earth."

Ayla led the replicoid out into the night. They looked up at the small white speck; Earth. "Earth is still all ice."

"For now. Maybe it will take a few years for Zat and Banuff to alter the course of Earth's history and prevent Snowball Earth."

"If so, at that time, we will be erased from existence?" Ayla shivered, as much from the cool night air as from the thought that she could tumble into non-existence at any time. "A new timeline will come into being?"

"I don't know. I must be part of a time-loop in which Banuff's success allowed me to come into existence and I sent him to Earth so that he could successfully complete his mission... what ever that might be." The replicoid put its arms around Ayla. In any case, if we are happy, does the exact shape of that time loop matter?"

Ayla wondered. Maybe something would delay Banuff. If one year had already passed, why not one hundred years?

The replicoid could telepathically see in Ayla's thoughts that she would never concern herself with the fate of her husband again. In Ayla's mind, the replicoid had now become her husband. And yet, the replicoid had its own doubts about its mission to Mars. Before the start of the mission, the replicoid had been informed that a second Banuff replicoid would go to Earth along with the biological Banuff and Zat. The replicoid swept Ayla off her feet and carried her inside the cave and to their bed. All the while, the replicoid tried to imagine why another Banuff replicoid would be needed on Earth.

Mission on Earth.

The End

______________

In "The Lost Machine", the body of Banuff was found in the debris of the exploded spaceship. As told in "The Return of Zat" (above), a replicoid copy of Banuff was found "dead" on Earth by Zat.

Here is a link to my complete conversation with Bard concerning this story.

Note: I originally published this blog post to my blog on December 16th. I'm really not sure how it got unpublished and was subsequently discovered existing as a draft blog post on the last day of the year. I guess this blog post about time travel simply had to become a time traveler. Related images: this and that.

Next: Chapter 2 of Time Portal.

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