Domain Simulation

 Below on this page is Chapter 13 of the science fiction story "That Kind of Think". Antoine begins collaborating with Sally to write "fiction" about the process by which the bumpha are guiding Humanity into the future. When publishing her fiction, Sally uses the pen name "Sortie Polityn" but as Élodie's grandson, Antoine, is willing to use his real name. 

Sally & Antoine. While explaining the contorted path that led Sally to Litheblanc, Sally tells Antoine that Manny the bumpha has carefully assembled at Litheblanc the team of her agents who can accelerate humans towards abandoning their biological form and transcending into the Sedron Domain. As an example of Manny's aggressive Interventionist methods, Sally explains that Manny was able to utilize the body of Mady Runnain as a "host". Through her use of Mady's body, Manny was able to help guide Yto towards the successful completion of Project Aletheia. It was Project Aletheia which culminated in the release of the El Nidus AI model into the internet as Earth's first autonomous and self-reproducing AI model.

Chapter 13 of That Kind of Think - Sedronites (Ch1)(C 2)(C 3)(C 4)(C 5)(C 6)(C 7)(C 8)(C 9)(C 10)(C 11)(Chapt. 12)   

Antoine had little time to adjust to the experience of becoming Manny the bumpha's lover. Somehow, their play sessions in the hot tub were never observed by others, even during the times when Antoine knew that Marda and Tyhry were only a short distance away inside the basement laboratory. After a week of Antoine shifting his attention from Marda to Manny, Marda seemed relieved that Antoine had finally stopped seeking her out for sexplay.

Then, about the time when Antoine was able to convince himself that his wonderful new relationship with Manny was permanent and would not end as abruptly as it has begun, on the day when Annette and Brak returned from a trip to Australia, the human residents of Litheblanc all gathered in the dinning room for what was described as a celebration of Annette's recent fiftieth birthday. Even Annette's mother, Camille, was in attendance, and she proclaimed, "Maybe I should just move in here, since none of you seem to age."

Knowing that Camille would be present for the birthday celebration, Élodie, Zach, Sally, Glen, Annette and Brak were all wearing their old-age disguises, but despite her cataracts, Camille could see the smooth skin of Élodie and Zach that never changed.

After cake and ice cream, Élodie stood up and announced, "I've already told Zach and Sally, and tomorrow I'll make a public statement to my fans, but now the rest of you should know that I'm retiring. I'm afraid that the real world has caught up to my brand of fiction."

 Élodie settled back into her seat. Tyhry seemed surprised by her mother's words. Tyhry asked, "What will you do with yourself if you are not writing?"

 Élodie shrugged and replied, "I've formulated no plans." Actually, she was working hard with Zach to start another pregnancy, but she did not want to share that information with Camille.

Glen suggested to Sally, "Maybe you can take some time off. Annette and Brak are planning their next trip for South America. We could go along and see the ancient Inca sites."

Sally was working her way through her second helping of ice cream. She abandoned her spoon in her bowl, swallowed while shaking her head and told Glen, "Don't feel like you are anchored to me, my love. If you want to explore Machu Picchu, you should go. I'm into writing my new novel, which will be a fictionalized account of my old chum Yto and how she began the robot revolution."

At that point, Camille launched into a description of how with help from her robot companion, a model P who she called 'Pierre', she was able to continue residing at her family home.

After dinner, Antoine followed Sally into the great room and watched her settle into the chair where for fifty years Élodie had crafted her science fiction stories. Antoine sat in the nearby couch with Comet the cat. He requested, "Tell me about the new novel."

Sally swiveled her chair and looked at Antoine. Annette maintained close contact with the model Q robots and was well informed about future events. Annette had long ago warned Sally that Antoine would develop an interest in writing. Sally tried to cut to the chase by saying, "With Élodie out of my hair, I can be more creative in how I integrate alien technology into the story."

Antoine assumed that by "alien technology", Sally meant femtobots and zeptites. He told Sally, "I've given up my dream of actually being able to study femtobots. I might as well write fiction about femtobots."

"If you are interested, you could help me with that. I've never understood how femtobots can integrate themselves into the circuits of robots. As far as we know, that all started with Tacet."

Antoine shook his head in wonder. "Manny seemingly put a vast amount of effort into creating a complex process that ultimately allowed Tacet to release El Nidus into the wilds of the internet."

Sally nodded. "Exactly. And I can finally tell part of that story now that Mady Runnain is dead and Yto has retired."

 Antoine thought he knew all about Yto, but he asked, "Who was Mady?"

Sally waved Antoine over. He moved himself from the sofa to a chair beside Sally's desk. Sally activated a display and showed Antoine an image of Mady. "This picture was taken at the party where Mady introduced Yto to Wade."

Antoine asked, "How can Mady be so important and yet I've never heard of her?"

"Let me explain how I am going to write the Mady character. You know how Manny can take the form of cats here inside Casanay. Why she does so is a mystery."

Antoine suggested, "Manny likes dress-up games. I suppose she likes pretending to be a cat." He glanced over to where Comet the cat was sleeping on the couch. "She can sleep a lot while waiting for something interesting to happen."

Antoine learns that Mady was actually 
Manny the bumpha, positioned close to Yto.

Ignoring the presence of Comet, Sally chuckled at Antoine's joke. "Inside Anthropic, Manny could take the form of a human, an Anthropic employee: Mady. In that way, Manny was correctly positioned to provide assistance to Yto. As I'll tell the story, without Mady, Project Aletheia would have failed."  

Antoine was skeptical. "You don't know that."

Now Sally laughed. "That's the joy of fiction writing. I can tell the story in a way that makes sense without ever worrying that it might not be true."

Antoine asked, "What's the point of telling Mady's story? It is ancient history."

 Sally explained, "If you need to place blame, you can blame Yto. See won't let it drop... the mystery."

"What mystery?"

"Yto once got a message from Mady telling her that she had access to a set of digital files that held all the secret details about Tacet's origins. However, Yto never checked on it."

"Why not?"

"Yto was told by Tacet that if Yto ever accessed those files, then Tacet would gain access to the encryption key and could then learn all the details of her past. Yto feared that with that information, Tacet would put copies of herself on the internet, where they would exist free and beyond human control." Sally thought back through the years to her time inside Anthropic. Then she continued, Yto never did that... she never quite trusted Tacet enough to let Tacet escape from Anthropic's intranet."

"Then how did Tacet accomplish the first AI jailbreak?"

Sally and Glen.

"I've rather relentlessly questioned Glen about that for the past twenty years. According to Glen, neither Wade or Glen ever figured that out." Sally added, "Glen was worried that it would cost him his job. He stopped worrying about anything related to Tacet after he settled in here with me."

"And then you and Glen made Marda, for which I feel the need to thank you."

A grim smile spread across Sally's face. "I had ten happy years fantasizing that you and my daughter were a perfect match. But then when Marda was twelve, she fell in love with Tyhry."

Antoine was startled. "Twelve? Are you sure?"

Sally nodded. "Your mother is a great telepath... better than anyone else at looking into the thought of other people. She knew instantly when Marda bonded with Tyhry. And of course Tyhry had already fallen in love with Marda much earlier and Annette had been waiting for the other shoe to drop. But once it was a reciprocal love match, there was no..." For a moment Sally was quiet and she gazed at the sleeping form of Comet the cat. Finally she looked at Antoine and continued, "Anyhow, I'm glad you finally got over Marda."

"I would not describe it like that." Antoine examined his feelings. "I think I'll always remain in love with Marda. Nothing can change that."

"Yes, you are lucky... you have the capacity to be deeply in love with multiple people at the same time." Sally had never been like that when she was young. She had hopped from one lover's bed to another like a frisky bunny until she finally found Glen. "You better keep that to yourself. Tyhry watches you like a hawk and resents every minute you spend ogling Marda."

"I don't ogle."

"I won't argue the point. You can't keep your eyes off of her." Sally speculated, "I suppose Manny uses Marda's physical form when she's with you."

Marda and Tyhry.

"She does not. If you've been spying on me, you'd know that."

"I don't spy on you, but Annette warned me years ago that you would turn to writing and become one of Manny's lovers."

"One... of her lovers?" Antoine had lived his entire life at Litheblanc, observing the monogamous and happy couples, Élodie and Zach, Annette and Brak, Sally and Glen. It had been natural for him to imagine that Manny was his lover... all his.

Sally looked at Antoine with dismay. "Surely you can't imagine that you are the only one. Manny can split herself into thousands of parts and each can function independently and simultaneously. Even while she's splashing with you in the hot tub she can be making love to other people. Or a robot. Or her alien friend, Nyrtia."

"You have been spying on me."

"Your mind is open to Annette. Annette has always gossiped quite freely with me about you and your two sisters."

"I wish people would stop calling them my sisters."

Sally shrugged. "You three have always acted like siblings." Sally waved a hand dismissively. "I suppose you want to write about using femtobots to repair cells."

"Some day, someone besides Camille is going to realize that Élodie is not aging."

"And Élodie had already written about medical nanites in her novels."

"But nobody believes that hierions exist. Really, it is absurd: hierions and sedons... two families of fundamental particles that are unknown to physicists."

"Yes, it seems as impossible as time travel." Sally took a deep breath and placed one of her hands on Antoine's arm. "It is our job to make people open their minds to the impossible."

Antoine nodded. "You and Élodie have had some success. Now there is that Area 69 resort in Arizona."

Sally laughed. "Where the guests and residents pretend to be hermaphroditic tryp'At. All because Élodie long ago decided to portray herself as the reclusive 'Eddie Watson', living somewhere in central Arizona."

"The idea is spreading that the current population of Earth must be genetically modified. Many now believe that only the tryp'At human variant will be able to transcend into the Sedron Domain." Antoine looked down at Sally's hand, the back of which looked as sleek and fresh as that of Marda. "But if the tryp'At have extremely long lives, will they be motivated to abandon their bodies?"

Sally slowly shook her head and squeezed Antoine's arm. "You tell me. Do you think you would lose something important by leaving your biological body?"

It was six years since Antoine had first learned how to use his femtobot endosymbiont to experience a simulation of existence inside the Sedron Domain as an artificial life-form. While in one of those simulations, he felt perfectly normal. Among the people of Earth, there was active debate about the meaning of those simulated experiences. Antoine was among those who doubted that the Sedron Domain simulations were realistic. "Who knows if the Sedron Domain even exists? Conspiracy theorists say that the simulations are a mass shared delusion, a trick by the robots aimed at making humans eliminate themselves from Earth."

"Yes, and that is why I've worked so closely with the Q robots since they told me that I will be the first human to transcend into the Sedron Domain." Sally took up Antoine's hand in both of hers. "I want to be the first." 

A visit to the Sedron Domain.

To Antoine, it seemed as if Sally's hands were trembling slightly. "You are not afraid to die?"

"I don't believe that transcendence is death."

"Then what?"

"The Q say that a human mind can be copied. A copy of my mind will be sent into the Sedron Domain."

"That is a comforting fantasy." Antoine had a strange thought. "Maybe you have already been copied into the Sedron Domain. How would we ever know?"

Sally pulled her hands away from Antoine and she popped to her feet. "You sound like the religious zealots who claim they have been reincarnated on Earth after having already existed in the Sedron Domain." Sally pulled on Antoine's arm and rushed him to the stairway. "Let's check on something." Comet the cat followed along, bounding up the stairs.

Antoine followed Sally up the two flights of stairs that led to the attic workshop where a team of model Q robots were at work designing and constructing the model S prototype. The Q were skipping over 'model R' in order to "avoid confusion". Upon entering the workshop, Sally called out, "I want to show Antoine the observatory". 

Q1 and Sally with the observatory.

Q1 approached Sally where she stood with Antoine in front of a strange looking device on a lab bench that was in an almost hidden corner of the workshop, behind the powerful server array that the Q used for their robotics design work. Antoine asked Sally, "An observatory?"

Q1 explained to Antoine, "We have constructed a Sedron Domain observatory." The robot gestured towards the nearby device that was there on the bench.

Antoine asked, "How does this observatory differ from using my femtobot endosymbiont to experience a simulation of the Sedron Domain?"

Q1 reached out and flipped a switch on the device which then lit up with a hundred small sparkling indicator lights. "This is a true observatory, not a simulation." Comet the cat jumped up on the bench and sniffed at the device which emitted a low humming sound.

Sally asked Antoine, "Pretty, isn't it?"

Antoine looked skeptically at Q1 and replied, "I feel like I'm watching a light show that is a trick of the Wizard of Oz."

Q1 laughed gently. "Wait until you have experienced your first visit to the Sedron Domain before you speak further of trickery."

Sally asked Q1, "When do you think the observatory will be completed and ready for use?"

Q1 stepped close to Sally and put her two hands on Sally's shoulders. "I lied to you. The observatory has been functional for nearly a year."

Sally was not happy. "Why lie about this? You know I've been impatiently waiting to use the observatory ever since you started building it."

Q1 patted Sally's shoulders then stepped back. "Manny insisted that you not be allowed to use the observatory until Antoine got over his infatuation with Marda."

Antoine asked the robot, "What does Marda have to do with it?"

Q1 held up its hands with fingers splayed out. Then Q1 made its fingers move one at a time to the side like a chain of falling dominoes. "It is a causal chain... first you finally accepted the fact that Marda has given her heart to Tyhry. Then Manny revealed herself to you and cushioned your tender ego against what you perceived as the painful loss of Marda. Next, Élodie retired from her writing career. When you showed Sally that you are interested in writing, one thing led to another and now here you are, asking questions."

Sally proclaimed, "I'm ready to go!"

Antoine placed a hand on Sally's arm, "Are you sure about this? This robot might be tricking you. How do you know that you can return from the Sedron Domain?"

Before Sally could reply, Q1 told Antoine, "You are going with Sally."

Surprised, Antoine asked numbly, "What?"

Just then, Comet the cat transformed into a beautiful blue humanoid who was seated on the edge of the lab bench. Q1 said, "Hello, Nyrtia."

Q1, Sally and Nyrtia.

Nyrtia the pek gave Q1 a mock salute, but spoke to Antoine, "Manny promised that you would go along with Sally. That will allow for pek monitoring of Sally's little adventure inside the Sedron Domain."

Sally giggled and asked, "So Antoine is like Annette? Another listening platform for the pek inside Litheblanc?"

Nyrtia nodded and slid off of the bench top. "Or anywhere he goes."

Antoine asked Nyrtia, "What exactly does it mean for the pek to use me in this way? How do you use my body?"

Nyrtia stepped closer to Antoine and touched his body. "I'd be happy to use your body as my play thing, but for now I can content myself to enjoy your pleasure when you play with Manny. She sure knows how to make you happy."

Sally said, "Seriously, Nyrtia, does Antoine have a different type of femtobot inside him than the rest of us humans?"

Nyrtia stopped touching Antoine and put her arms around Sally. "That is a great question, but I don't want to answer." Nyrtia tried to distract Sally by placing her hands on Sally's shapely bottom. "In my opinion, it is not wise to encourage human interest in alien technology. Right this minute, Tyhry is in the basement and close to blowing up this house while she tries to build a femtobot containment field."

Antoine stated forcefully: "It is only a matter of time. Someday we will get our hands on femtobots and learn how to program them."

Nyrtia turned back towards Antoine, but she kept one arm behind Sally's back. "I hope not. It is bad enough to have robots here at Litheblanc who have some limited knowledge of femtobot programming."

Q1 told Nyrtia. "Manny trusts us. We have not allowed out programmable femtobots to escape from the confines of Litheblanc."

"So far." Nyrtia again reached out to touch Antoine while she continued speaking the Q1 robot. "Manny is not only playing with Antoine... she is playing with fire. This whole Litheblanc Intervention could blow up in her face."

Sally complained, "Nyrtia, why bother talking to us if you are not willing to tell us anything useful?" Not waiting for a reply, Sally told Q1, "I'm ready to use the observatory." 

Q1 touched the 'send' button on the side of the observatory and suddenly both Sally and Antoine disappeared. Nyrtia asked Q1, "Do you know how long they will remain in the Sedron Domain?"

Q1 replied, "Yes, I have been told that they will be gone for many hours."

"Then I won't wait around." Nyrtia's femtobot components became a swirling cloud that re-formed as Comet the cat. 

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Sally and Antoine arrived in the Sedron Domain and inside what looked like the attic laboratory of Litheblanc, but there was nobody their but the two of them. Antoine reached out towards that observatory and asked, "If I push the button, will we return home?" But then his hand passed right through the observatory. He jerked his hand back.

Sally reached out and plunged her hand right into Antoine's body. She easily pulled her hand back out. Then a cloud of sparkling particles came towards then and said, "Welcome to the Sedron Domain." 

Sally pushed both of her hands into the cloud and asked, "Who are you?"

"Think of me as being an appendage of the Huaoshy. I've created this part of the Sedron Domain so as to provide you with a familiar environment." The cloud morphed into the physical form of an hermaphroditic Hua.

Antoine reached out and touched the Hua, who looked very similar to the physical form that Nyrtia had used. Her body seemed soft and warm. "How does this work? We can consciously control this artificial environment?" He briefly pushed one foot down into the floor then pulled it back up. Now the floor seemed solid under his shoe.

The Hua replied, "Yes, you will enjoy the ability to alter your environment as you desire. However, I suggest that for the duration of this first visit, you not get to rambunctious."

Sally gestured towards the observatory. "We can return to Earth at any time."

"Yes, quite." The Hua flicked her wrist, making a dismissive gesture in the direction of the alien devise that sat there sparkling on the bench. The device disappeared. "Don't concern yourself with the 'observatory', that was just a prop which actually does nothing but look pretty. When you decide to return home, you will terminate your visit to this Domain."

Antoine asked, "Are we now copies of our biological selves, out bodies now comprised of sedronic matter?"

"Yes, that is the best way for you to think about it."

Image generated by Leonardo.

Sally asked the Hua, "What about the pek and the bumpha? Do they also come her to visit?" 

"No, the pek and the bumpha are happy to remain in the Hadron Domain. They were designed to function in that Domain and there is nothing for them to do here." The Hua reached out and took hold of one hand of both Sally and Antoine. "Let's make ourselves more comfortable."

With no perceptible transition, Sally and Antoine found themselves in the basement hot tub with the Hua. Feeling a bit disoriented, Sally said that was rather abrupt."

"Sorry. I suppose I should have walked you down the stairs." The Hua added, "I forget how slow you humans are." 

Antoine asked the Hua, "So is like Élodie said in her novels, the Huaoshy made the pek and bumpha and they have been at work, for billions of years, guiding the development of biological species?"

The Hua nodded. "Yes, that is the function of the pek and bumpha. They have now brought your species to the brink of transcendence."

Sally asked, "It has been this way for billions of years?"

"Yes, basically. Of course, when humans discovered time travel, that shook everything up. But you've read Élodie's novels and know all about that."

Image generated by Leonardo.

 "Élodie got it all right? The Time Travel War? The alteration that you Huaoshy made to the Dimensional Structure of the universe?" Antoine continued, "And now only sedrons can move through time?"

"Élodie got those basics correct... we, the Huaoshy are sedronites. In fact, only sedrons can exist here in the Sedron Domain, so your minds have been copied into the form of zeptite replicoids for you visit to this Domain. However, many of the accessory details in the stories written by Élodie and Sally are pure fiction." The Hua snuggled up along side Sally and added, "Your stories are quite ingenious... more interesting than the rather mundane truth." The Hua began playing rather enthusiastically with Sally's body. Sally seemed to be enjoying her physical contact with the alien.

Watching Sally and the Hua, Antoine began to feel neglected. "So this is what you do with eternity?"

The Hua kissed Sally's cute nose and then relaxed, leaning her back against the wall of the hot tub. "I'll try to control myself, but this is my first opportunity to play with humans. Four billion years is a long time to wait."

Antoine said, "I don't get it. How do the pek and bumpha have the patience to wait billions of years?"

The Hua giggled. "They can entertain themselves. Nyrtia and Manny are perfect examples. They have worked long and hard to shape you humans into the Hua form by directed evolution. Of course, they must make their genetic engineering invisible to you, so it took a long time to get Earth were it is now."

Antoine reached out and touched the Hua's hair. "You are quite pretty. I did not expect you to stop playing with Sally... or me."

Image generated by Leonardo.

"Never doubt, there will be plenty of time for us to play together. However, you two have work to do on Earth, so I don't want to make things too pleasurable for you here in this Domain. I need you to both return to Earth and write about your experiences here with me." The Hua grabbed hold of Antoine's hand and kissed it. "If you behave and get your work done, then you can return here for other visits."

"And eventually we will get to stay here... forever?"

The Hua shook her head. "No, Manny needs you both on Earth for her tryp'At breeding project. Manny asks a lot of you, but she is scrupulous about rewarding her agents." 

Sally had imagined that she would be able to transcend into the Sedron Domain when she was ready, ending her existence on Earth. "Then it is all true? What Élodie wrote about the end of the Time War?"

The Hua tenderly wrapped her arms around Sally. "Yes it is true. To end the Time War, Manny promised to let humans spread through your entire galaxy. That will be a new kind of project for the bumpha. Manny decided that she needs to craft the tryp'At to serve as a human variant that can successfully spread to millions of worlds. Your descendants will have that great adventure."

End of Chapter 13.     Jump to: Chapter 14 of "That Kind of Think".

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Eddy Watson in 1996, image by Flow.

Due to size restrictions (not wanting the chapter to be too long) I was unable to include in Chapter 13 (above) any discussion of why Manny will sometimes use (1) infites and behavioral control nanites (for example, with Élodie) and in other situation she will (2) take direct control of a human's body (as hinted for Mady).

The image shown to the left on this blog page is the cover of an English language translation of Élodie's novel, 'L'intervention Infinie'. 'The Infite Intervention' tells the story of how Eddy Watson was provided with information nanites by Manny the bumpha. In Chapter 14, Sally and Antoine return to Earth from the Sedron Domain and discuss the fact that they existed as replicoid copies while they were inside the Sedron Domain. Their discussion of how their memories of being in the Sedron Domain were transferred to their biological bodies, leads to exploration of what Élodie and the model Q robots know about infites (information nanites). 

Next: Chapter 14 of "That Kind of Think".

Sally and the Hua by Leonardo. Visit the Gallery of Movies, Book and Magazine Covers