The Next Question

Figure 1. Zarabeth and Aryal in the cave.

A common theme in many early science fiction stories was the idea that humans must always be searching for new challenges. Getting in your spaceship and going off to explore outer space can make for interesting adventure stories, but what if there are other ways to entertain yourself that don't require interstellar travel? This summer I re-watched Star Trek, including the episode "All Our Yesterdays". I've previously listed that episode as one of my favorites, mainly because as a young boy watching this episode I was greatly impressed by Mariette Hartley dressed as a cave girl. 

Interesting Biological Structures Come in Pairs. However, it seems to me that Zarabeth should have been serving time in Sarpeidon's Ice Age with her twin sister, Aryal. I had Mr. Wombo generate an image depicting this fantasy of mine (see Figure 1).

Figure 2. The Atavacron II from
Next Quantum Computing.

 Time Travel. The people of Sarpeidon apparently never developed space travel, so when they had to escape the catastrophic death explosion of their star, the entire population of the planet all traveled back into the past eras of Sarpeidon.

 Alien Technology. I've long wished that when departing from Sarpeidon, the crew of the Enterprise had beamed up the time machine that had been used to send the entire population of Sarpeidon into the past. The atavachron (Figure 2) was a mysterious [plot] device that ensured that Spock would not live happily ever after with Zarabeth in her cave. 😠

 Did Not Compute. Viewers of Star Trek were told that because Kirk, Spock and McCoy had not been "prepared through the atavacron", they could return to the future after having accidentally passed through the portal of Sarpeidon's time machine into the past. Seemingly wanting to stay in the far past with the fetching Zarabeth, Spock at first seemed prepared to live out the rest of his life in Sarpeidon's ice age, but eventually Spock did go back to the future (after some arm-twisting by McCoy). However, Spock and McCoy did not return to the Enterprise until after the frosty ice age air had tossed Zarabeth's hair for what seemed like a near eternity of emotionally charged screen time. 💇 What exactly was the atavacron? For Figure 2, I had fun re-imagining the atavacron as some sort of futuristic computing device.

Figure 3. The original black & white interior artwork by
Paul Orban as re-worked (colorized) by Mr. Wombo.

 Positronic Computation. In the 1960s, television audiences were becoming comfortable with the idea of large, powerful computers. Ten years earlier, Isaac Asimov began writing his Multivac stories. One of Asimov's favorite stories was "The Last Question", a story in which Asimov took magical disembodied brains to the extreme. In The Last Question, Multivac begins its artificial life as a computing device with HiTek™ positronic circuits, but ultimately (it takes trillions of years) Multivac becomes a god-like disembodied entity with the power to create a new universe.

The very first story in the Multivac series was "Franchise", first published in the August 1955 issue of "If" magazine. The name "Multivac" was Asimov's playful variation on UNIVAC, the real world computer that famously predicted the outcome of the 1952 presidential election.

Figure 4. Image source.

 In "Franchise", Asimov took readers into the future when even some large newspapers like the New York Times had COMPUTERS. Golly gee. But only the government had the Multivac. And in "Franchise", only men get to vote. Make that a man. One man. The events in "Franchise" all take place in the far future year of 2008.

In retrospect, it is interesting that Asimov depicted the future as being a place where for each election a man (and never a woman) is selected to vote. Asimov informs us that 2008 is the sixth Multivac election, so we might be tempted to guess that the first such one-person election was in 1998. 

Figure 5. Interior art by Sentz,
updated by Mr. Wombo (also Figures 6-9).

In the real world, the late 1990s was about the time period when computerized autopilots were good enough to fly airliners. However, in the story, Asimov states that 1988 was a Multivac election, so I'll assume that was the first one (one every 4 years). In the late 1980s the Cray Y-MP provided improved weather forecasting, but as shown in Figure 4, improvements in computerized weather forecasting have been incremental.

Electronic Democracy. In Asimov's imagination, a key part of his fictional "just one man votes" system was that Multivac could predict which person was the most representative voter in the entire country. Readers are told that before election day, Multivac has already collected almost all of the data needed for determining how people would vote in the election (if they actually had the chance). On election day, Multivac will have just a few questions to ask of Norman, the voter of 2008. In addition to verbal questioning, Norman is monitored for his physiological parameters like blood pressure (see Figure 3) while answering Multivac's questions.

Figure 6. Ken's fever-fueled
vision of Sandra.

Sadly, in this story, Multivac can't even speak (Multivac's abilities do improve in later stories). Multivac's questions are printed on paper and read to Norman. The one question from Multivac to Norman that readers are told about is: "What do you think about the price of eggs?" Norman never actually sees Multivac; they are linked by some kind of telecommunications network. In passing, Asimov casually mentions National Medicine, Inc., apparently some kind of national health care system.

 My Next Question. Where did Asimov get the idea of a computer that could predict the outcomes of every election in the country? I began this year by blogging about Inter Ice Age 4, a novel that included computers that could predict the future. However, Inter Ice Age 4 was published a few years after "Franchise". "Spy" was a novelette published by J. T. McIntosh one year before "Franchise" was published. In "Spy", McIntosh included the idea of a future where it becomes possible to more efficiently evaluate public opinion. I discussed "Spy" with Gemini...

Figure 7. Ken's spy mission:
discovering Earth's military secrets.

 Me: Gemini, are you familiar with "Spy", a novelette by J. T. McIntosh?

Gemini: Yes, I am familiar with "Spy" by J. T. McIntosh. It's a science fiction novelette that explores themes of artificial intelligence, consciousness, and identity. The story revolves around a highly advanced computer named SPY, which is tasked with infiltrating a hostile alien civilization.

Me: Gemini, your description of the plot of "Spy" is pretty funny and a great example of an AI hallucination. There is no computer called "SPY" in the story. However, in the first few pages of "Spy", McIntosh mentions the idea of a "new" method for accomplishing the same thing as an expensive public opinion poll, what is called "survey reporting", which apparently involves a way of recognizing and canceling out personal biases and which allows for meaningful surveys to be conducted with only a very few subjects being questioned.

Figure 8. Ken the spy.

 Gemini: You're absolutely right! I apologize for the incorrect information. It seems I conflated the plot of "Spy" with another science fiction work.  The idea of "survey reporting" that you mentioned in the first few pages of "Spy" is a fascinating concept. It's a clever way to address the limitations of traditional public opinion polls by introducing a method to minimize personal biases and obtain accurate results with a smaller sample size.

Me: It seems possible that Asimov got the idea for his story "Franchise" by reading "Spy".

Gemini: That's a very interesting observation!   It's certainly possible that Asimov was inspired by the concept of "survey reporting" in "Spy" when he wrote "Franchise." Both stories delve into the idea of using advanced technology to gather and analyze data about people in order to make predictions or decisions.  While I don't have specific evidence to confirm this connection, it's intriguing to think that McIntosh's work may have influenced Asimov in this way. Both authors were pioneers in the field of science fiction, and it's not uncommon for writers to draw inspiration from each other's work.

Figure 9. Beam weapon.

The spy in "Spy" is a man (Ken Corvey, see Figures 5-8) from one of the first exoplanets that was colonized by humans from Earth. Much of the story takes place in Ken's confused mind (he is suffering from an infection that causes him to hallucinate). In the end, we are told that the people of the colonies are paranoid, fearing that Earth is a military threat to the colonies. Thus, they send men like Ken to Earth to spy and learn about Earth's military powers (see Figure 9). However, having lived on Earth for many years, Ken has good friends including Dave and Babs (Figure 5) and Ken falls in love with Sandra (Figure 6).

No spoilers. You'll have to read the "thrilling" conclusion of "Spy" to learn what happens to Ken.

When he wrote "Spy", I wonder if McIntosh was influenced by Asimov's story The Caves of Steel, which depicts political tension between Earth and "Spacers". "Spacers" is the term used by Asimov to refer to the inhabitants of the human colonies on nearby exoplanets. I like to imagine that science fiction story tellers are always reading each-others work and discovering new ideas that they can incorporate into their next story and take in new directions.

Figure 10. See the original
cover art by Mel Hunter.

 Secret Base. I'm currently writing "The Fesarians", a science fiction story that pits R. Nyrtia against Balok the bumpha. Nyrtia is trying to keep secret the location of her base of operations which is hidden inside the Hierion Domain. As a positronic robot, Nyrtia must try to protect humans and she can never fully trust the alien bumpha.

In "Spy", McIntosh depicted Earth as having military superiority over the colonies because of Earth's larger population. There is no mention of robots in "Spy". Asimov made robots central to his stories about Earth's colony worlds, depicting the "Spacers" as being more technologically advanced than Earthlings and having the best robots. In "The Fesarians", Nyrtia is the master of the Hierion Domain and femtobots while Balok has technological superiority due to his access to zeptites, the Sedron Domain and time travel technology. There is also technology-assisted telepathy in "The Fesarians", which comes in several varieties. Dani and Balok both have telepathic powers, but one is based on hierions and the other involves using sedrons to send the telepathic signals.

Cover art by Mel Hunter.

As a positronic robot and a field agent for Nyrtia, Dani has some valuable information about the location of Nyrtia's secret base of operations in the Hierion Domain. Balok sets a complex trap for Dani in an attempt to obtain useful information from Dani's positronic brain. Dani's fate in "The Fesarians" is similar to Ken's fate in "Spy". 

I had Mr. Wombo re-work the original interior art for "Spy", changing the black and white images by "Sentz" into color images (Figures 5 - 9). I also used WOMBO Dream to update the cover art by Mel Hunter for the October 1954 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction (see Figure 10), which I take as depicting a secret rocket base. Another example of Hunter's cover art is shown to the right: that's a telepathic alien "plant person" with spindly vine-like limbs on the right hand side of the cover for "Man of Many Minds".

More cover art by Hunter (1971).

Mel Hunter made a cover illustration for Asimov's novel "The End of Eternity", making that the example of his art work that is most familiar to me. 

The first science fiction book cover illustration credited to Hunter at the ISFDB was for "Man of Many Minds". In that novel by E. Everett Evans (read it here) telepathic contact is established with "plant people" on the planet Algon. In "The Fesarians", the "plant people" of Elemacha-z (the Noema) can alter their physical form. Readers are never told what the original biological form of the Noema actually was.

Hunter painted many magazine cover images that depict metallic robots. The example that is shown to the left is amusing, given my obsession with the sport of baseball. Pitching machines were in routine use by the late 1970s.

Figure 11. Spock telepathically
probes Zarabeth's memories.

 Precognition. As mentioned above (at the beginning of this blog post), one of my favorite Star Trek episodes is "All Our Yesterdays" by Jean Aroeste. Apparently Aroeste had an idea for another Star Trek episode about some aliens who could perceive the future, but sadly that episode was never produced. In "The Fesarians", Talia Vance is depicted as having visions of the future. However, rather than this being a true vinculochronic ability, it may be that Balok simply provides Talia with information about the future in order to guide her through life to the distant exoplanet, Elemacha-z.

 Time loop. As described here, there were some sequel novels published by Ann Crispin for "All Our Yesterdays", built upon the idea that Spock was able to impregnate Zarabeth. Maybe the inter-fertility between Spock and Zarabeth involves the strange loop in time that makes Zarabeth a descendant of Spock? "Yesterday's Son" makes use of the Guardian of Forever as a means to return into Sarpeidon's past, after the sun goes nova. However, there is a more direct path to such a sequel story. When departing from Sarpeidon, the crew of the Enterprise could use teleporter technology to beam Mr. Atoz and the time travel machine up to the Enterprise.

Figure 12. Aryal & Spock.

 Telepathy. The "future technology" issue that I would like to explore in a sequel to "All Our Yesterdays" is the possibility of telepathic communication between Spock and Zarabeth. I'd start with Spock using telepathy to obtain information from Mr. Atoz about how to use the time travel machine. After Spock learns what he can from Mr. Atoz, the resentful and rather cranky Mr. Atoz would finally be sent into the past of Sarpeidon so that he can join his family there. 

 Violation of the Prime Directive? In "All Our Yesterdays", Zarabeth mentions Zor Kahn, who sent her into the past, stranding her in the ice age of Sarpeidon. In my imagination, Spock is able to telepathically examine Zarabeth's memories of Zor Kahn (see Figure 11) and he realizes that Zor Kahn was a time traveler from the future and was not a native of Sarpeidon. Sadly, Mr. Wombo really struggles to depict one person reaching out to touch another person (see the oddly constructed hands in Figure 11).

My sequel to "All Our Yesterdays". Spock's ability to telepathically access and "read" Zarabeth's memories creates a quandary for him: Zor Kahn was an outsider who interfered with the development of the society on Sarpeidon, but Zor Kahn was motivated by a desire to save the people of Sarpeidon from the impending explosion of their sun. Potentially, the crew of the Enterprise could travel back in time and prevent Kahn from carrying out his interventionistic mission on Sarpeidon. However, it is best for the people of Sarpeidon to allow the plan of Kahn to play itself out. Spock proposes to Kirk that they can at least use the captured time machine from Sarpeidon to go back in time and rescue Zarabeth, without themselves altering the historical development of Sarpeidon.

Figure 13. Mr. Atoz shows Spock
how to View events in the past.

Kirk questions Spock's analysis of the situation. He raises the question: might we just as well use this newly-acquired time travel machine to go into Earth's past and rescue Edith Keeler? In "All Our Yesterdays", Zarabeth mentions her family, but no specifics are given. In my imagination, Zarabeth had a twin sister, Aryal (see Figures 1 & 12) and Aryal's fate is a key concern in my imagined sequel to "All Our Yesterdays". 

 Mr Atoz: One Man to Process Them All. Fans of Star Trek have long been puzzled by the mysterious workings of the atavachron, a device that I imagine was used as a way to prevent time travelers from traveling through time twice. In the case of Sarpeidon, the time machine creates a kind of time portal that apparently remains open all the time, potentially allowing people who were sent into the past to return to the future at any time, simply by walking through the open portal. It might have been quite chaotic if even 5% of the population grew tired of living in their chosen time period of the past and returned to the Library, forcing the over-worked and irritable Mr. Atoz to spend precious time sending them back to some different time period of the past after the first choice did not work out. 

Figure 14. Mr. Atoz and Spock discuss
rescuing Zarabeth from the past.

Possibly the biggest danger would arise if the time portal were to remain functioning even after the sun went nova. I accept the plot element that most people sent into Sarpeidon's past were processed by the atavachron so as to prevent them from returning to the future.

 A Warning. It makes some amount of sense to assume that Zor Kahn might have used the atavachron on some of his enemies, but not all of them. I imagine that initially Zor Kahn wanted to threaten Zarabeth and Aryal (I imagine they were both reluctant to help him alter Sarpeidon's society) but he did not use the atavachron to lock them in the past ice age when they were sent there for the first time. 

Figure 15. Spock and McCoy (bottom right)
meet Zarabeth and Aryal in the ice age.

In my imagination, after being escorted to the cave by some of Kahn's soldiers (or, maybe like Mr. Atoz, , Kahn had some puppet-like replicoid copies of himself who could perform menial tasks) and after experiencing the harsh living conditions of the ice age for a few days, the two women returned through the portal to the future time of Zor Kahn. 

Aryal then agreed to submit to Zor Kahn's wishes and was not sent back into the past. However, Zarabeth refused the demands made by Zor Kahn. At that point, Zor Kahn processed Zarabeth through the atavachron and sent her back into the ice age, trapping her there "permanently". Although later Sarpeidon history described Zor Kahn as a tyrant, I don't imagine that he did much more on Sarpeidon than force the rich rulers of the planet to build time machines and Temporal Libraries such as the one of Mr. Atoz, using advanced alien technology that was provided by Zor Kahn.

Figure 16. Mr. Atoz examines the past.

 Screening Time Travelers. I put "permanently" in quotes because I assume that there is a HiTek™ way of reversing the effects of the atavachron. Sent into the past, Zarabeth does not have access to the technology that could reverse the changes that were made to her body by the atavachron, changes that prevent her from returning to the future through the time portal. However, I assume that Spock, McCoy and the other technical crew of Enterprise can study the atavachron and learn how to work around its effects. I assume that the time machine is designed to detect some "marker" that is inserted into people by the atavachron. When the time machine detects the marker, that person is not allowed to exit from the past, pass through the portal and emerge in the future. Thus, by inactivating that particular screening feature of the time machine, it becomes possible for Spock to rescue Zarabeth from the past.

Also. I also must assume that the Sarpeidon time travel machine also automatically marks the bodies of people who exit from a Time Library into the past of Sarpeidon. Such people are "marked" in such a way that should they pass through the time portal again, they will be automatically returned to the Library at a point in time close to the point in time when they exited from the future to go into the past. Other people of the past who a not "marked" by the atavacron and who have never traveled through time are unable to pass through the open time portal.

Figure 17. Mr. Atoz with a time viewing device.

 Visiting Kahn. However, before Zarabeth can be rescued, Kirk (not trusting telepathy) wants direct confirmation that Zor Kahn was a time traveler from the far future (after Sarpeidon's sun went nova) who brought alien time travel technology to Sarpeidon from another planet (or wormhole) of the galaxy. Spock agrees to go back in time and obtain the "time disc" for the historical period of when Zor Kahn was living on Sarpeidon. Spock visits the library and obtains the required time disc (they already have the time disc for the ice age, having teleported it to the Enterprise when they beamed up the time machine and associated equipment).

Figure 18. A copy of Spock
explains chronitons to Zarabeth.

 A Gift from Zor. Studying the disc that holds information about the time period when Zor brought time travel technology to Sarpeidon, Spock learns that Zor Kahn was assassinated shortly after sending Zarabeth into the past for the second time. Mr. Atoz shows Spock how to view the past and select a precise time destination. Spock then travels back in time and meets both Zor Kahn and Aryal (Figure 12). Spock confirms that Zor Kahn is actually a non-corporeal prophet who is temporarily using the body of a native of Sarpeidon. Before Spock returns to the Enterprise, Zor Kahn gives Spock a chroniton generator, saying: "Take this with you. You will need it in the future." Spock also tells Aryal about Zarabeth's great loneliness, living alone in the past era of the ice age.

Returning to the Enterprise, Spock consults with Mr. Atoz in preparation for rescuing Zarabeth from the ice age. Mr. Atoz discovers that Spock's visit with Zor Kahn has changed the historical timeline of Sarpeidon. After meeting Spock, Aryal joined her sister in the ice age. Mr. Atoz shows Spock the new alternative timeline that was created by Aryal, in which Spock and McCoy met both Zarabeth and Aryal in the past and decided to stay there with them (see Figure 15). Spock discovers that McCoy has vanished from sickbay, having been "erased" from existence when Aryal's actions created a new timeline for Sarpeidon.

Figure 19. Spock remains with
Zarabeth in the past.

 The Perfect Pair. The existence of this alternate timeline raises the possibility that Spock could also be erased from existence. Spock hypothesizes that the chroniton generator he obtained from Zor Kahn has protected him from being erased from existence. Mr. Atoz admits that he has his own chroniton generator which he has long used to remain protected from accidental changes to Sarpeidon's timeline arising from sending so many people into the past history of the planet. 

Using a "chroniton generator" to protect Spock against the effects of his actions in the past is analogous to the way Asimov used a "physiotime generator" to protect time travelers in his time travel novel The End of Eternity.

Once again, Spock travels back to the ice age. Spock explains to his other copy that there are now two Spocks. He explains to McCoy that it is possible to take both him and Aryal back to the Enterprise. One copy of Spock returns to the Enterprise with McCoy and Aryal, leaving the other copy of Spock with Zarabeth in the past.

In the original 1960s television program, Spock could not actually be shown making love to Zarabeth. In contrast, it was acceptable to show dozens of people being killed in Star Trek episodes along with other "entertainment" like physical torture, but naked breasts were against Hollywood's prime directive. In the glorious "civilization" of the 1960s, children could be exposed to sickening violence, but they could not be allowed to see beautiful naked bodies.

Figure 20. Mariette Hartley?

 WOMBO the Artist. I've been exploring the ability of WOMBO Dream to generate images that resemble particular actors and other famous people. I doubt if there were many images of Mariette Hartley in the training set for Mr. Wombo (see Figure 20). However, I was satisfied by the depictions that Mr. Wombo generated for Zarabeth and Aryal (Figures 1 and 11 - 19).

Figure 21. Leonard Nimoy?

In the case of Leonard Nimoy, apparently all of the images in the training set for WOMBO Dream are of him as an old man. I found it impossible to get Mr. Wombo to generate an image depicting Nimoy as a young man without a wrinkled face (see Figure 21). 

Here is the text prompt that I used for Figures 21 and 22: "A very young Leonard Nimoy, Leonard Nimoy is twenty years old, Leonard Nimoy is happy and smiling, Leonard Nimoy has black hair, Leonard Nimoy has pointy ears, Leonard Nimoy has smooth youthful skin". Strangely, some of the images generated with this text prompt were in black and white, which may be Mr. Wombo's way of saying, "That dude is old!"

Figure 22. Another Nimoy.

For the images of Spock that are shown in Figures 11 - 19, I took the AI-generated images and manually smoothed out most of the wrinkles. One more unaltered AI-generated image of Leonard Nimoy is shown in Figure 22. This is the image with the least wrinkled Nimoy that I managed to get Mr. Wombo to generate.

After I made Figure 2 by asking Mr. Wombo to depict Mr. Atoz as Steve Jobs, I continued using that strategy for Figures 13, 14, 16 and 17. I liked the appearance of this AI-generated version of Mr. Atoz better than Ian Wolfe, the actual actor who played Mr. Atoz in "All Our Yesterdays". I feel that Mr. Wombo's AI-generated images of Steve Jobs look more like a librarian. 

For the depictions of Ken the spy (Figures 5 - 8) I asked Mr. Wombo to make images of Steve McQueen.

Figure 23. Kirk and Miramanee.

 Humans Get Around. In my science fiction story "The Fesarians", I provide an explanation for why it is possible for the Enterprise to travel through the galaxy and find planet after planet that is populated by human beings; in the Ekcolir Reality, technologically advance aliens have periodically "transplanted" humans from Earth to other planets of the galaxy. Depending on factors such as how long ago these human variants left Earth and the possibility of genetic engineering, humans found on other worlds of the galaxy may or may not be inter-fertile with the crew members of the Enterprise.

My fan-fiction stories such as "The Fesarians" and my sequel for "All Our Yesterdays" build on characters and planets that were featured in Star Trek episodes and my stories include the possibility of Enterprise crew members being able to impregnate people found on other worlds, as was the case for Kirk and Miramanee (Figure 23).

Figure 24. Kirk gets to break bread
play in bed with slave girl Drusilla.

In "All Our Yesterdays" and many other episodes of Star Trek (example: "Bread and Circuses", see Figure 24), the existence of humans on distant exoplanets was not questioned. For my imagined sequel to "All Our Yesterdays" (outlined above on this webpage), I left unanswered the question: can Spock impregnate Zarabeth? I want to say "no" because I have to believe that if Spock lived out his life in Sarpeidon's ice age making babies with Zarabeth then some of Spock's descendants could have survived and altered the historical timeline of Sarpeidon. If the people of Sarpeidon did originate on Earth, their ancestors may have been taken off of Earth about 100,000 years ago. If the people of Sarpeidon evolved independently for 100,000 years, they might have become a human variant that is not inter-fertile with either Earthlings or half-Vulcans like Spock.

Next: Colorizing and updating old pulp Sci Fi interior art.

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