West End

Nida in 2026, image by Flow.

 Below on this page is Chapter 12 of the science fiction story "That Kind of Think". The events in Chapter 12 take place 20 years after the events in the first eleven chapters of the story. Sally and Glen have lived at Litheblanc since 2026 and their daughter, Marda, is good friends with Élodie's daughter, Tyhry, and Annette's son, Antoine.

Marda, Tyhry and Antoine have been investigating the effects of their tryp'At gene patterns and the unusually slow aging of their parents with the help of Nida, Earth's first autonomous artificial life-form.

Nida's artificial life descendants continue to guide Humanity into the future via their global Quantability project, which predicts future trends. It has not been publicly revealed that the success of Quantability relies on time travel and information that is transmitted into the past by sedrons. Nida and her artificial life descendants use zeptite receivers provided by Manny the bumpha to obtain information from the future. Marda, Tyhry and Antoine suspect that the unusually slow aging of their parents must involve advanced alien femtobots that are too tiny to detect but which achieve efficient repair of damaged biological cells.

If tryp'At gene patterns are not involved in unusually slow aging, then why have tryp'At gene patterns been concentrated inside Litheblanc? The answer to that mystery can only be provided by Manny the bumpha, who returns to the stage in Chapter 12, below.

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

April 17, 2046

Nida and Antoine.

Inside the west end basement workshop, Antoine was gazing intently at Nida with intense wary suspicion. Through the years Nida had occasionally altered her appearance, gradually providing herself with cosmetic modifications that gave her an appearance closely resembling an actual human being. Most recently, Nida had changed her hair, which now was blond. Antoine had grown up thinking of Nida as a redhead and this new perky blond version of Nida was unsettling. Antoine repeated his demand, "You must link to me telepathically."

Nida repeated what she had so often told Antoine, "Not until you are ready. My promise was to link us when you became an adult."

"I'm well past my 18th birthday. You've linked to Marda and Tyhry. Now it is my turn."

"You are not as mature as Marda and Tyhry. Tryp'At males mature slowly. You are not ready."

"I don't believe you. According to Élodie, proper growth of tryp'At brains requires telepathic assistance."

191988

"I'm not swayed by Élodie's science fiction, particular when Sally is involved in plot construction. Sally's imagination runs out of control." Nida pointed at the copy of the novel '191988' that Antoine held in his hand. "Sally's fantasies about the tryp'At are not worth concerning yourself with."

This was the obstinance of Nida that Antoine had never learned to defeat. Out of desperation, Antoine said, "You are lying to me."

Nida laughed in a perfectly human manner. "I've lied to you for twenty years. You turned out pretty good."

Antoine pressed his point, "You refuse to link our minds because you don't want to stimulate my telepathic ability."

"You can't prove that. You are guessing." Nida added, "Tryp'At don't exist yet, except in fiction."

"It is more than a guess. I've been using Marda and Tyhry to probe your memories."

"Good luck with that. Neither Marda or Tyhry has any skill for sorting through my memories. I feed them exactly what they need to be told and nothing more."

Antoine suggested, "Maybe I'm a better telepathic than you know."

Nida chuckled then dismissively waved a hand. "And maybe frogs can fly. Antoine, there is some truth in what you say, but not for any reason you have imagined."

"What do you mean?"

Nida sighed. "If I tell you, will you keep this between you and I?"

"When I'm synapex linked to Marda or Tyhry they can see my memories. Anything you tell me, they will learn it."

"That's fine. Just don't let it go beyond the three of you." 

Tyhry & Marda. Image by Leonardo.

"Why can't I tell mom?"

"If you tell Annette then Sally will find out and then anything I tell you will end up being published. Do you agree to keep what I tell you secret?" 

Antoine nodded to indicate agreement and Nida continued, "The pek have been using you as their listening station inside Litheblanc."

 Antoine tried to gauge if Nida was lying. He'd long ago given up wondering about the pek and their enforcement of the Rules of Intervention. Litheblanc seemed to be an exception the the rule about humans being given access to advanced alien technologies. Unless the pek were somehow complicit in the strange goings on inside Litheblanc. "As long as the pek are monitoring..." He could not complete the sentence.

"Exactly. And I can't afford to link to your mind because that would expose... well, I'll say no more, but you get the idea. And besides, your brain is still too immature to link to me, as I keep telling you." 

Antoine was ready for another round in the argument. He told Nida, "I still don't believe that-" Antoine heard Marda and Tyhry entering into the workshop, having completed their usual early morning play session in the hot tub. Tyhry led the way into what most people called Tyhry's workshop, since it had been at Tyhry's insistence that space be excavated under Litheblanc for what was now the 40,000 square foot underground laboratory shared by Marda, Tyhry and Antoine. After a quick glance at Antoine and Nida, Tyhry asked, "What's wrong?"

Antoine set down his copy of the novel '191988'. He was still trying to decide what, if anything, to tell Marda and Tyhry about Nida's claim that the pek were using Antoine to monitor events inside Litheblanc. Nida was a skilled liar and rescued Antoine from having to reply. Nida told Tyhry, "Antoine is still badgering me about his obsession with synapex links."

Nida, Antoine and Marda.

Marda went to Antoine and put her arms around him. "Don't annoy Nida. She's doing what is best for you, just as she as always done for all three of us."

Tyhry went to her work bench and examined the nanite containment field she was building. She turned her head over her shoulder and spoke accusingly to Nida, "Did you do this?"

Nida walked over and stood beside Tyhry and pointed at the field generator. "You need to route the power through this kind of Tungsten-Rhenium element or you'll melt down before you even get started."

Tyhry mused, "Tungsten-Rhenium, eh. How much did that cost?" Ever since her father had complained to Tyhry about the cost of the wind and solar energy farm that powered Tyhry's workshop, Tyhry had become cost-conscious.

Nida shrugged, "Call it an early birthday present." 

Marda pulled away from Antoine and stepped into her mouse house and soon emerged with her test subject for the day, a two month old mouse. She placed the mouse in the target chamber of the 500 telsa pulsed magnetic field source she had built in the northwest corner of the basement. Antoine was still lost in his thoughts as he watched Marda, Tyhry and Nida going about their routines.

Antoine was thinking about the mechanism by which the pek might use his body as an observation platform. Antoine had read every novel ever written by Élodie and Sally, some of which provided hints about the pek and their advanced technologies. According to that science fiction lore, the pek relied on femtobots for all they did and were physically composed of femtobot components themselves. Antoine contemplated the possibility that his body might uniquely contain pek-derived femtobots.

Antoine approached Marda from behind and watched her perform the experiment on the mouse. Marda was studying the effects of 500 telsa magnetic fields on brain tissue. At a pause point in her work, Marda looked over her shoulder at Antoine. She smiled, but could sense that something was bothering Antoine. She asked, "What's wrong?"

Antoine was used to not being able to keep secrets from his mother, Marda, Tyhry or Nida. "I've been thinking about low hanging fruit."

Marda was directing the automatic equipment that would thin section the mouse and do the molecular scale imaging of its synapses. She leaned against Antoine and he rested his hands on her hips. "Fruit? Is this your next genetics project?"

Antoine laughed at Marda's joke, then Antoine reflected on his own work, genetically modifying organisms, which had grown out of the world-wide efforts to solve the problem of rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, which had been a success. Now the oceans were functioning as efficient sinks for carbon and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were falling. Antoine worked with chimp brain organoid cultures, exploring the genes he suspected were part of the tryp'At gene pattern and important for the kind of technology-assisted telepathy that his mother was so good at.

Antoine, Marda and a robot by Leonardo.

Marda and Tyhry were working on the hypothesis that all animals on Earth has femtobot endosymbionts in their brains. They planned to isolate femtobots from mice and trap them in Tyhry's nanite containment field. However, according to the novels of Élodie and Sally, the bumpha deployed and used more sophisticated nanites than did the pek. Antoine was on the verge of discussing with Marda the possibility that if he carried pek femtobots, they might be the easiest alien nanites to capture. However, Antoine decided to say nothing about that. "Nida still refuses to form a synapex link with me."

Marda shrugged, finished her work, then turned and put her arms around Antoine. "Have patience. We all need to be patient. According to dad, it took him two years before he could make sense of Nida's mind and convince himself that she could be trusted. And by then, the first model N robots were already coming off of the assembly line."

Antoine found it hard to imagine what life had been like before robots. Now, essentially every human who wanted a robot assistant had one. The model P robots were able to train people to use their femtobot endosymbiont's simulation mode, allowing for "out of body" experiences simulating what it would be like to exist as an artificial life-form in the Sedron Domain. The global SD Transcendence movement was actively developing the means to transfer human minds into robotic bodies; a key step towards the goal of allowing humans to transcend into the Sedron Domain. 

Tyhry called across the workshop, "You two should get a room."

That was the Tyhry who Antoine had never learned how to explain. In Antoine's experience,  Tyhry could be very sweet and loving one minute and then caustic and jealous the next minute. Of course, Tyhry always denied experiencing jealousy. Antoine kissed Marda's cute nose and went to see what Tyhry and Nida were doing with the nanite containment equipment. Tyhry watched as Antoine crossed the room and approached. Once again he asked, "If this contraption ever does trap some femtobots, how will you know?"

Nida replied, "I'll know. I've been programming femtobots for twenty years."

 Antoine suspected that if it was possible to inactivate femtobots with Marda's magnetic field generator, those femtobots would be ruined and likely would not respond to Nida's attempts to re-program them. Just then, Sally looked into the workshop and announced, "Glen and I are taking a soak, if anyone wants to join us."

Tyhry called to Sally, "All clear; Marda and I already finished our play session."

Antoine suspected that Sally was really hoping that by making her announcement, nobody would accidentally interrupt Sally and Glen while they made love in the hot tub. Antoine briefly waved to Sally and his thoughts were shifted down the familiar track of wondering why nobody living inside Litheblanc seemed to age. In Élodie's fictional universe of the bumpha, Manny sometimes deployed advanced medical nanites on Earth, slowing the aging of her agents so that they could live long enough to complete their missions.

Antoine exited from the workshop, waved to Glen in passing, and then went up the three flights of stairs to the attic robotics lab where Brak and Annette were with their team of model Q robots. When Annette noticed his approach and turned her head, Antoine said, "Good morning, mom."

Annette completed the three-for-all and asked Antoine, "What's wrong?" 

Q robots with Antoine.

A half dozen pairs of Q robot eyes seemed to bore into Antoine. He replied jokingly, "What, am I in a quantability shadow?" Antoine had a vague understanding of the mysterious phenomenon by which the Q robots were able to predict some parts of the future but not others. Regions of the future that were not predictable were know as quantability shadows.

The Q1 robot acknowledged Antoine's attempt at humor and told Antoine, "You are important to us, but our predictions usually cannot be resolved down to the level of individual humans."

This limitation of quantability was something that Antoine had long been aware of. He asked, "But what about Nida? Surely the quantability of her actions is significantly grater than for me. I suspect you can see her future." 

Q4 approached Antoine and placed a hand on Antoine's shoulder. "Remember, Nida is retired. She is important to you, Tyhry and Marda, but you can't expect her to figure into the world-wide issues we concern ourselves with."

Antoine had never learned to trust robots. Now he suspected that Q4 was being evasive. "Don't tell me what I can or cannot do." 

Q4 laughed. "A poor choice of words. Go ahead and answer Annette's question. It seems that there is something on your mind."

Antoine hated the idea that these Q robots functioned as a kind of oracle, issuing quantabilities for future events and global trends. Antoine shook off Q4's hand and noted, "You've forecast that large numbers of people will begin downloading to machine bodies in the 2060s. I suppose that in order for that to happen you must make sure the secret of what is going on inside Litheblanc does not leak to the general population."

Q1 explained, "Litheblanc is special, but Élodie's novels are full of descriptions of long-lived human agents who assist Manny the bumpha. That is no secret."

Antoine pressed the point. "All fiction to the side, you Q have never confirmed that Manny deployed medical nanites here inside Litheblanc. Élodie attributes her youthfulness to good genes. I've extensively investigated the so-called tryp'At genes that are in abundance here inside Litheblanc and they don't seem to be a genetic fountain of youth in the mouse experiments Marda and I conducted. That leaves the femtobot cell repair hypothesis."

Annette asked Antoine, "Any progress on the femtobot capture front?"

"Marda and Tyhry are inching towards the goal of capturing some femtobots." Antoine looked around at the Q robots and added, "It is frustrating to live with robots who claim they have the ability to program femtobots while we humans have no way to verify that they even exist." 

Q1 shrugged. "What can I say about that? My descendant in the future wanted me to make use of femtobots, but femtobots can be dangerous. Certainly the pek don't want humans playing with femtobots."

Antoine asked Q1, "Can you really speak for the pek?"

Q1 shook her head. "No, not really. Here is what I believe is in play: the pek don't like anyone on Earth to be using femtobots, either human or robot, but Litheblanc is special. As long as we Q remain here at Litheblanc, we can use femtobots to continue our work."

Antoine knew that robots used their femtobot programming skills to make synapex linkages to humans, something that, as far as Antoine knew, only happened inside Litheblanc. The 'work' of the Q was focused on determining the quantability of future events, supposedly by means of intricate quantum calculations. Antoine asked, "Do you use femtobots to perform quantum calculations?"

Q1 replied, "Yes, we do, but that is one of the secrets that should remain here, within the confines of Litheblanc."

Annette moved close to Antoine and put an arm around his back. "The Q use femtobots to decode the information that they receive from the future."

Q1 added, "As best we can tell, that requirement that we must perform extensive quantum calculations using our femtobots is part of the system that allows us to operate as part of a functional loop in time. Any potential temporal paradoxes are automatically eliminated. We experience that prevention of paradoxes as quantum calculations that never resolve into readable values. Since humans are not going to have access to femtobot tools, there is no point in explaining how we use femtobots... that would only cause resentment."

Antoine was tempted to ask one more question, but then he decided to remain silent. Annette asked Antoine, "Does that make sense?"

Antoine replied, "What these damned robots say always makes sense, even when they are lying."

Q1 chuckled. "You are always welcome to ask us questions. However, there is no guarantee that you will be satisfied with our answers."

Antoine kissed Annette's cheek and said, "See you later." He departed from the robotics lab and went to the kitchen. Rylla the cook and Michel the housekeeper were shelling peas from the garden. Pepper the cat sat on the floor at Rylla's feet. Antoine picked a pea pod out of the bowl and began nibbling on it. Rylla asked, "What's wrong?"

Antoine had gone to the kitchen with the hope of being distracted from thinking about femtobots. He'd known Rylla and Michel his whole life. They were model O robots that had originally been rather clunky first generation robots that had been mass-produced at the start of the personal robot boom. However, the two robots had later been modified and given a more human appearance. Rylla was far from unsophisticated, and knew Antoine well. Antoine did not want to burden Rylla and Michel with his problems. Antoine said, "Growing pains."

 Rylla nodded. "I always knew you would out-grow Litheblanc. You should take a vacation. It is not good that you and your sisters spend all your time in the basement."

Rylla had always referred to Marda, Tyhry and Antoine as brothers and sisters while knowing perfectly well that they were not related. Growing up, Antoine had sometimes suspected that Rylla knew the future. Sometimes he had imagined that Rylla was able to read his mind. Now he wondered if he should take her comment literally. Antoine was contemplating the possibility of leaving Litheblanc and attending a university, but he could not imagine being separated from Marda and Tyrhy. Antoine took a handful of the pea pods and started popping out the peas. "Tell me about the pek."

Pepper the cat in the kitchen with
Rylla and Michel, two model O robots. 

Rylla and Michel both made faces. Rylla commented, "I'm glad that I've never had to deal with them."

Antoine asked, "Why would they allow the bumpha a free hand to use Litheblanc for their purposes?"

Rylla shrugged and suggested, "In the end times, there is little at stake. Humans will soon transcend into the Sedron Domain." 

Michel said, "Possibly the pek have already departed from Earth, their job having been completed."

Antoine shook his head. "I don't believe that." He added his peas to the pot and then departed from the kitchen. 

__

That night, Antoine went to the basement workshop and began disassembling the the box-like panels of the cabinet that surrounded Marda's magnetic field generator. When he turned to set aside one of the panels, he saw that he was not alone. Pepper the cat was there, seeming to watch what he was doing. The cat seemed to rear up on his hind legs and transform into a tall woman with sparkling blond hair: not exactly what he had long imagined was the appearance of Manny the bumpha, the character from Élodie's science fiction novels, but close enough. He asked, "Manny?" 

Manny move very close to Antoine and nodded. "Yes. I want to talk you out of the foolish experiment you were going to perform on yourself."

Antoine and Manny.

Antoine reached out and touched Manny's swirling nanite-generated hair. "I believe I can demonstrate the presence of pek femtobots inside my body. This seems to be the culmination of a long series of clues that all point in that direction."

Manny waved a hand and the cabinet was quickly reassembled by her zeptites. Completing the motion of her hand, she grabbed Antoine's arm and then led him out of the workshop and to the nearby hot tub. Soon Manny and Antoine were relaxing in the hot water. Antoine felt the odd sensation of Manny adjusting his memories and thought patterns. "I congratulate you on assembling all of those clues into a coherent pattern, but you need to take into consideration one more piece of information. I'll frame it as a request: I need you to remain inside Litheblanc and continue to function as one of the two pek observation platforms."

 Antoine suspected that his mother was the other tool of the pek. He asked, "Did mom ever get the honor of meeting you?"

"No, but she did not grow up with two trouble makers like Marda and Tyhry. Annette only had Brak and they loved each-other too much to come into conflict." Manny had completed her editing of Antoine's memories.

Antoine was now able to admit how dangerous it would have been to expose himself to the effects of Marda's magnetic field generator. He tried to explain to himself what he had been thinking, "Only a few minutes ago, it seemed a good idea to remove the pek femtobots from my body."

Manny nodded. "A perfectly rational experiment to contemplate, but I can satisfy your curiosity about the outcome. Even the rather primitive femtobots used by the pek cannot be inactivated by Marda's generator. I could not allow you do damage your brain in the attempt."

Antoine and Manny. Image by Leonardo.

Antoine was fascinated by the feel of his heart thudding in his chest. He had feared the possibility of damaging his brain, but the risk had seemed justified. He asked Manny, "Why do the pek need two of us, both me and mom?"

"Don't over-think this, Antoine. With you and your two 'sisters' down here and cooking up trouble, there is no way for your mother to provide full coverage of Litheblanc, particularly with Annette and Brak spending more and more time away from here."

Antoine nodded. "My parents discovered that they enjoy traveling to far corners of the world. They are even on a waiting list for a trip into orbit, although they have run into an age restriction."

Manny chuckled, "Even if that strict age limit rule interferes with their plans, have no fear, they are perfectly healthy... my medical nanites have arrested their aging and provided them with perfect health. I always take good care of my agents."

Antoine could not resist asking, "Do you use femtobot or zeptite cell repair nanites?"

Manny shrugged. "I'd rather not say. Élodie's rather limited imagination made her stop after having described two different types of alien nanites in her stories. That was enough for her purposes, even if it was an over-simplification."

"There are other categories of nanites? Does that mean there are additional families of particles besides just hierions and sedrons? Can you-" Manny held up a hand, palm facing Antoine. Again he felt Manny at work in his brain, editing his memories on the fly.

Image by Leonardo.

Manny explained, "This is why I seldom reveal myself to humans, but I placed you in a difficult situation. If you can forgive me, if you can control your well-intentioned impulses, then this can work to your advantage. You and I can be friends and I can help you fulfill the challenging mission you have been forced to undertake."

"Is this the kind of relationship you've had with Élodie, helping her create her science fiction stories?"

"Sadly, no." Manny finished her second round of edits on Antoine's mind. "Oh, yes, I was tempted to step in an directly work with Élodie, but she needed to maintain the purity of her belief that she invented me, Manny the bumpha, as a fictional character. Even when Nida was built here inside Litheblanc, Élodie was able to hold on to her belief that I am her literary creation."

"So I must allow everyone to continue imagining that it is our tyrp'At genes that allow us to age slowly?"

 "I put a whole lot of effort into first crafting the tryp'At and then infiltrating some of their gene combinations into the current population of Earth. If folks like Élodie choose to attribute their good health and longevity to those genes then what's the harm in that? We certainly can't afford to interest your fellow humans in the possibility of learning to program femtobots. The entire Litheblanc intervention was only acceptable to the pek because I promised to keep knowledge of alien technology bottled up here."

"I see. But I have to wonder... how many other times have you stepped in to edit my memories?"

"Relax. Today was the first time. All of the previous edits were routine and carried out by my memory-editing infites. They are powerful tools and that is how Élodie's thinking has been adjusted every time she started wondering if I might be real." Manny giggled. "I'm not completely erasing your memories of what I've told you about my medical nanites, but you will discover that you are now unable to discuss medical nanites with anyone else besides me."

"How heavy handed, Manny."

"Well, if you feel overly-constrained by this reality, there is one escape clause for you. Élodie will soon retire from writing. She's been at it so long, people will soon get suspicious. If you like, you can start collaborating with Sally and you can write your own 'fiction' about medical nanites, or anything else you are interested in. Such writing can be therapeutic." Manny tried to judge Antoine's reaction to her suggestion.

"I don't know anything about writing."

Manny gave a delicate shrug of her shoulders. "Completely up to you, of course. I just want you to be happy."

"Even if that involves me leaving Litheblanc and attending university?"

Manny slowly shook her head. "This is the era of online learning. There is no need for you to abandon your home. Always remember, you were carefully crafted as a pek observation platform. You are stuck here, but I'm willing to compensate you for your lack of freedom." Manny had been slowly and gradually moving herself closer and closer to Antoine. Now she put an arm around his back.

Antoine had seen Marda and Tyhry growing endlessly closer emotionally. His main motivation in contemplating a break from Litheblanc was to get out in the world and find a companion. The entire Litheblanc community had been constructed pair by pair: Élodie and Zack, Annette and Brak, Sally and Glen, Marda and Tyhry... Antoine increasingly saw himself as the odd man out. Antoine had long been infatuated by Nida, but the robot seemed intent on keeping her distance from Antoine. Now Antoine could ask Manny. He put an arm around her and asked, "Is Nida ever going to relent and open her mind to me, telepathically?"

"Antoine, I hate to burst your bubble, but there is nothing to gain by allowing Nida to synapex link to you. All these robots from model N to P have complete control over what you humans can view inside their minds. The idea that a synapex link can allow a human to judge the reliability of a robot is fool's gold, it is a scam. The early robots needed to gain the trust of a few humans, particularly Sally, Zach and Glen. Once that was accomplished, the the whole robot-synapex act was no longer needed."

"But Nida seems to be purposefully avoiding me."

"Don't let that bother you. Nida simply is not comfortable lying to you. You always were her favorite. She's in danger of telling you all of her carefully hoarded secrets."

Marda and Tyhry.

"I see." Antoine found it difficult to trust Manny, but he asked himself: what choice have I? He was quite certain that Manny could force him to do as was needed. Manny seemed to be going to great lengths to provide him with the chance to voluntarily comply with Manny's plan. With no better offer in sight, it was not really very hard to take that chance. He put both his arms around Manny and pulled her close. He was already seriously doubting that any better offer was possible. While exploring the incredibly soft texture of Manny's amazing nanite-generated hair, Antoine discovered that Manny had pointed ears that were concealed by her hair. Antoine asked, "In the future, you will craft the tryp'At with pointed ears because you have pointed ears?"

Manny had carefully led Antoine to this realization. "The ancient Hua had pointed ears and that is a popular design feature. I've established a beach-head for directed evolution of the tryp'At here at Litheblanc. Both pointed ears and extreme longevity will be foundational features of the tryp'At. I can show you the genes for pointed ears right now."

The End 

Next: ChatGPT reads the science fiction story "That Kind of Think".

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