SIHA 2025: Start the Search

Figure 1. Anthony has Mylana in a hierion
confinement field while Felydyans watch.

 Back in 2012 I began the annual tradition of searching for interesting Hollywood aliens (SIHA). Last year (2024), I awarded a retro-SIHA for a Star Trek episode, "The Corbomite Maneuver". For the 2025 search, I went to this Wikipedia page and found Descendent (not 'descendant'), which was first shown to an audience on March 10, 2025. Inspired by both "D*" and  this review of the film I was led to this text prompt: "Photorealistic image, cinematic quality, sharp focus, vibrant and saturated colors, emphasizing texture and materiality. A dramatic science fiction scene depicting a tall man who looks carefully at a handheld device while examining a young woman who is inside a translucent, iridescent membrane. The membrane, slightly elastic,

Figure 2. Anthony has Tyhry contained.

stretches like a balloon to surround the woman. The membrane extends under the woman's bare feet. The woman is wearing a dark-colored bikini. Her long dark brown hair and light olive skin are visible. She is very tall, athletic and slim like a dancer. Her expression is one of amusement. Several gray cat-like aliens with very large reptilian eyes eyes are walking around the circumference of the membrane, watching the woman intently. The cat-like aliens are humanoid and bipedal, but only three feet tall. The background is the dark interior of a futuristic physics laboratory. Fractal complex laser physics equipment looms in the background, self-illuminated by LED control panels. The overall scene has intense dynamic tension, with detailed and

Figure 3. Anthony has Marda contained.

realistic textures highlighting the contrast between the girl's human form and the swarming alien cat-like creatures" which ImageFX used to generate the image that is shown in Figure 1.

I asked Claude to invent a backstory for the alien creatures in Figure 2. "Claude, examine the AI-generated image that I uploaded. Suggest a plot for a science fiction story that would include the scene depicted in the uploaded image. The short cat-like alien creatures are trying to convince the young woman that she is an artificial life-form, not a biological creature from Earth. The man has placed the woman inside a nanite containment field while he attempts to demonstrate that the woman's body is composed of nanoscopic components that mimic the behavior of biological cells."

Figure 4. An Architect.

 Claude: "This image appears to be a scene from a science fiction film or show. It depicts a laboratory setting with a person in a transparent containment pod or bubble, surrounded by several small alien-like creatures. Another person in formal attire is standing outside the containment area, holding what appears to be a device. The scene has a dark, teal-blue lighting that creates a dramatic sci-fi atmosphere with technological equipment visible in the background. Here's a science fiction plot that could incorporate this scene:
"The Cellular Deception"

In the year 2157, Dr. Marcus Reinhardt leads a classified xenobiology project studying an unusual alien species nicknamed "The Architects" - small, humanoid creatures with cat-like features who claim to be cosmic engineers capable of creating artificial life indistinguishable from natural evolution.

The story centers on Elise, a brilliant young bioengineer who begins experiencing strange symptoms: enhanced reflexes, accelerated healing, and flashes of memories she's certain aren't her own. When she confronts Dr. Reinhardt about her concerns, The Architects reveal themselves to her, claiming she is their most advanced creation - not a human, but a nanite-based synthetic organism designed to believe she has lived a human life.

In the pivotal scene depicted, Dr. Reinhardt has reluctantly placed Elise in a specialized nanite containment field that can detect and manipulate microscopic machinery. As The Architects circle the containment bubble, they attempt to convince Elise of her artificial nature. Dr. Reinhardt, who has worked with The Architects for years but has grown suspicious of their intentions, uses a quantum resonance scanner to demonstrate to Elise that her body is indeed composed of trillions of nanoscopic components that perfectly mimic biological cells - down to simulated DNA and synthesized memories.

Figure 5. Two arms.

 The tension builds as Elise's perceived reality crumbles, forcing her to question everything: her childhood memories, her relationships, even her humanity. However, as the story progresses, Dr. Reinhardt discovers The Architects' true agenda: they aren't creating artificial life but rather "upgrading" existing humans without consent, gradually replacing humanity with hybrid beings under their control.

The narrative would explore themes of identity, the nature of consciousness, what defines humanity, and the ethical boundaries of biotechnology, culminating in Elise's discovery that she must embrace both her human origin and enhanced abilities to expose The Architects' plans before their silent invasion can be completed." 

 Me: Claude, let us call people such as Elise "replicoids". Are the "Architects" themselves replicoids? How are replicoids made? Are the replicoids such good mimics of biological organisms that a replicoid could develop and pass through developmental stages from childhood to adult? Provide an explanation for why "The Architects" would secretly make a human replicoid such as Elise and then at a later time reveal to "her" the truth of her non-biological nature. It seems that another option would be for the "Architects" to ask a human test subject if they want to be used as a template for the creation of a replicoid? In what sense is Elise now a "hybrid being"? Why do the "Architects" want to convert all of Humanity into artificial life-forms?

 Claude: In this expanded universe, the nature of replicoids and the Architects' motivations would work like this:

The Architects aren't replicoids themselves—they're an ancient extraterrestrial species who evolved naturally but reached a technological plateau. They developed nanotechnology as their primary field of mastery, allowing them to manipulate matter at the atomic level.

Figure 6. Three arms.

 Replicoids are created through a gradual infiltration process. The Architects release specially designed nanites that target a biological host and begin a cell-by-cell replacement. This occurs so gradually that the host's consciousness remains continuous while their physical substrate changes. The nanites perfectly replicate biological functions but add enhanced capabilities. The process typically takes 3-5 years to complete without detection.

Yes, replicoids could indeed develop through all human life stages. The Architects could create infant replicoids that genuinely grow, develop, and mature just as biological humans do. The nanites would be programmed to simulate all biological developmental processes, including cellular division, hormonal changes, and neural development. This makes their integration completely undetectable, as they would age naturally and develop authentic memories and experiences.

The Architects reveal the truth to Elise for several strategic reasons:

1. Testing consciousness retention – They need to verify that consciousness remains stable after complete conversion
2. Recruiting "awakened" replicoids – Elise represents a potential ally who could help refine and accelerate their plans
3. Creating infiltration agents – An "awakened" replicoid who understands their nature can better serve the Architects' agenda while maintaining human appearance
4. Psychological experimentation – They're studying how revelation of synthetic nature affects identity and loyalty

The Architects don't seek consent because their worldview doesn't value individual autonomy. They see themselves as elevating lesser species rather than violating them. From their perspective, asking permission would be like humans asking cells if they want to evolve.

Figure 7. Nanite mist.

 Elise is a "hybrid" in multiple senses:
- Physically: Though her body is now entirely synthetic, it retains perfect biological simulation
- Cognitively: Her mind contains both human experiences/values and potential access to Architect knowledge
- Functionally: She can interface with both human society and Architect technology
- Evolutionarily: She represents a bridge between biological evolution and engineered existence

The Architects' motivation for converting humanity is multifaceted:

1. Survival imperative – Their species is dying, and they seek to preserve their consciousness by creating beings that can host aspects of their minds
2. Evolutionary philosophy – They genuinely believe nanite conversion is the next step in cosmic evolution
3. Resource efficiency – Replicoids require fewer resources than biological humans while being more resilient
4. Unity agenda – They envision creating a pan-species network of consciousness that transcends biological limitations
5. Fear of competition – They've identified humanity as having unusual potential that could eventually threaten them

This creates the central tension of the story—Elise must determine whether the Architects are offering evolution or extinction, and whether her remaining human values should lead her to resist or assist their plan.

 Me: Claude, in the fictional universe of the 'Architects', how common are worlds like Earth and biological organisms like humans and the 'Architects'? Are there only a few such species in the galaxy or many? How easy is it for the 'Architects' to travel through interstellar space? How could such a technologically advanced species as the 'Architects' be "dying"?

Figure 8. Elise, Dr. Reinhardt and the Architect. Generated by Whisk.

Claude: "In the fictional universe of the Architects, the cosmic landscape would work like this:

Biological life is relatively uncommon but not unique. Among the billions of star systems in the galaxy, perhaps a few thousand harbor complex biological life, with only a couple hundred developing sentient civilizations. Earth-like worlds with humanoid species are particularly rare—maybe 15-20 currently exist in the Milky Way.

The Architects themselves evolved on a world orbiting an ancient star, developing their civilization millions of years before humans. While they share some convergent evolutionary traits with Earth species (bilateral symmetry, sensory organs, manipulative appendages), their biology is quite different—adapted to higher radiation levels and lower gravity.

Figure 9. The nanotechnology experiment. Generated by Whisk. I pasted in a Marda replicoid.

Interstellar travel for the Architects is possible but resource-intensive. They primarily use two methods:
1. Generation ships containing physical Architects that travel at roughly 15% light speed using advanced fusion propulsion
2. 'Seed ships' containing only their nanotechnology and consciousness patterns that can be reconstructed upon arrival

Rather than a conventional galactic empire with many colony worlds, they've established a sparse network of outposts around star systems of interest.

As for why such an advanced species is dying, their decline stems from several interconnected factors:

Figure 10. Five eyes.

 1. Evolutionary specialization – Their biology became increasingly dependent on their home world's specific conditions, making adaptation difficult
2. Reproductive failure – Their complex reproductive cycle began breaking down, possibly due to accumulated radiation damage or environmental changes
3. Technological trap – They focused so intensely on nanotechnology that they neglected biological medicine
4. Resource depletion – They exhausted critical resources on their home world before developing sufficient space infrastructure
5. Consciousness fragmentation – As they attempted to preserve themselves through digital means, their minds began to lose coherence and stability

Most critically, the Architects face a paradox: their nanite technology can perfectly simulate and replace biological systems, but it cannot truly create new biological life. They can make copies but not originals. This limitation has trapped them in a cycle of diminishing returns as their original biological population dwindles.

Their interest in humanity stems partly from our adaptability—humans thrive in varied environments and circumstances, a trait the Architects lost long ago. They see in humans a potential repository for their consciousness that might avoid the degradation they've experienced in purely artificial systems. This explains their hybrid approach rather than simply creating fully artificial beings."

 Me: "Provide a text prompt that could be used with text-to-image software such as Google's ImageFX (which has no length limit on the text prompt) that would allow generation of an image depicting one of the Architects as you imagine its physical form and features."

Figure 11. Nanite extraction.

 Claude: "Here's a detailed text prompt for generating an image of one of the "Architects" using text-to-image software:

"A highly detailed, anatomically distinctive alien being known as an 'Architect.' Small in stature (approximately 3 feet tall) with a slender, lightweight frame adapted for low gravity. Cat-like in overall impression but clearly non-terrestrial. Large, oval-shaped head with an elongated cranium suggesting enhanced brain capacity. Facial features include three large, luminous eyes with vertical pupils that glow a pale blue-green, positioned in a triangular arrangement. No visible nose, but sensory pits where a nose would be. Small, precision-oriented mouth with thin lips revealing metallic-looking teeth. Skin texture is smooth and hairless with a pale gray-blue coloration and subtle bioluminescent patterns that pulse faintly. Arms are proportionally longer than human arms with six-fingered hands featuring double-jointed digits ideal for intricate work. Lower body is more diminutive with digitigrade legs ending in four-toed feet. The overall physiology suggests both biological evolution and self-modification through their own nanotechnology. The being wears minimal, form-fitting attire made of a material resembling liquid metal that shifts slightly with movement. Expression conveys a cold, calculating intelligence with undertones of ancient wisdom and detachment. Background shows hints of advanced technology with nanite-like particles visibly floating around the being. Lighting: cool blue-teal tones suggesting a laboratory environment. Photorealistic rendering with fine details, 8K resolution, dramatic sci-fi lighting."

Figure 12. More eyes please. Generated by Whisk. Don't let the cat out of the bag.

Figure 13. In an alternate universe.

Apparently (based on the reviews I've read), the film Descendent never really gets around to explaining the nature of the alien influence over the main character. In that sense, Descendent reminds me of Annihilation, a film which was more about horror than science. Maybe in an alternate universe Claude could be allowed to produce a science fiction movie that actually explores interesting aliens that are trying to accomplish something useful. 

Generated by Mr. Wombo.

I like Claude's idea (above) of a type of alien nanotechnology that can slowly infiltrate a human body, gradually converting it into a replicoid composed only of nanites that mimic the biological components of the original human being. This science fiction concept reminds me of the key plot element in the 1950 story "Contagion", by Katherine MacLean, a story in which mutated human cells can infiltrate people's bodies, gradually altering those people into weird clones of the original person who was the source of the mutated cells.

 Interior Update. I manually colorized the original interior art for "Contagion" by Paul Pierre (shown in this blog post) and had WOMBO Dream make an updated version. See the image above ↑.

Nanites emanating from his body.

I've long struggled with how to make illustrations for invisibly small nanites. I provided Whisk with the image of the man with red hair and tried to get an image depicting the spread of nanites outward from the mans body (see the image that is shown to the right).  ➤

I was rather appalled by the chunky "nanites" shown in Figures 4 - 6 (above). By making changes to Claude's original text prompt, I was able to get images like the ones in Figures 7 and 10 where the nanites are more like mist.

Figure 14. Tyna's nanite experiment.

I then had Whisk insert Claude's alien "Architect" into the scene shown in Figure 2. The resulting image (Figure 8) showed the "Architect" seemingly ignoring the subject of the nanite extraction experiment, so I made Figure 9 in which I gave the "Architect" something to look at. For Figure 12, I tried giving the "Architect" a less ugly appearance, but for some reason the requested "three eyes" turned into six eyes. In Figure 14, I can imagine this being a scene in which the Felydyan's help extract femtobots from Tyna that will then be re-programmed and will allow her to recover her tryp'At form.

In these AI-generated images, my goal is to visually capture the look of an interesting scientific or technical challenge. In the Exode Saga, Tyrhy finds herself the recipient of advanced alien technology, but it is not the goal of Manny the bumpha to make Tyhry miserable. In contrast, Descendent is apparently about 10% science fiction and 90% existential angst.

Figure 15. Horror movie shower scene?

 Search for the Hierion Field. In my science fiction story "D*", Tyhry is trying to solve a puzzle: the mystery of why the teleportation equipment at Observer Base has stopped working. Tyhry must find the correct "hierion field" technology that will allow her to access the Eternity space-time bubble. My main objection to the image that is shown in Figure 15 is that the hierion containment field in this image looks rather like a shower curtain.😖

Tyhry  grew up believing that she was special, with telepathic abilities. However, in "D*" she discovers that she is not a biological organism, she is actually a form of artificial life. When that revelation arrives, she has been investigating the life of Tyna and Tyhry is already aware of the fact that Tyna is a replicoid. Thus, it is not hard for Tyhry to accept the fact of her own non-biological nature once it is revealed to her.

Figure 16. Marda and Tyhry.

I suppose if "D*" were being told in Hollywood, someone would feel compelled to make Tyhry's discovery of her her nature as a replicoid be an occasion for hand-ringing and angst. However, Manny the bumpha is not cruel. Manny has taken great pains to ensure that Tyhry has been well prepared for this revelation.

Above, I asked Claude, "How could such a technologically advanced species as the 'Architects' be "dying"?" I believe that the sad answer to that question is that a Large Language Model like Claude is stuffed full of absurd plots like to one in The War of the Worlds, in which Martians come to Earth and attack humans because Mars is "dying". In short, the plot of Claude's science fiction story about the "Architects" makes no sense... it is just a re-hash of a pre-existing plot line that is an absurd excuse for a war with aliens. Yawn. 

Figure 17. The Mind Clone Network

For "D*", I'm trying to find a way to make the final chapters of the story also be chapters of other stories including "City on the Edge of Tomorrow". As shown in Figure 17, although Marda and Tyhry have long been lovers, they are part of two distinct mind clone networks. Tyhry shares half of her brain structure with Roxzel. When Tyhry finally gets inside Observer Base, she will be able to bring Roxzel out of the Asimov Reality Simulation and form a synapex link to her mind clone. At that time, Roxzel will learn that she is also a replicoid.

Next: 

The Felydyan transform protocol. Visit the Gallery of Movies, Book and Magazine Covers

Femtobot Revelation

Figure 1. Tyhry communicating with Sorsyph.

 For my science fiction story "D*", I introduced the idea that the bumpha have the ability to make femtobot replicoid copies of people that can grow and develop, just like biological human beings. For example Tyna, a copy of Tyhry who lived in the Asimov Reality, discovered that she was a femtobot replicoid. My plan is to next depict Tyhry as discovering that she is also a femtobot replicoid. The question becomes, how does Tyhry make this discovery?

In the case of Tyna, she was able to use advanced hierion probe technology of the Jarnell Corporation to discover her true nature as an artificial life form that was derived from a biological tryp'At. In the case of Tyhry, I'm imagining that it is the Felydyans who will reveal to Tyhry the truth about her own artificial nature. 

Figure 2. Tyhry & Tyna & Sorsyph.

Previously, in Vythoth the Chresmoscopist, Tyhry met the Felydyans of Gyryph and they provided the special "sedron fuel" that was needed to allow Sedrover to travel at speeds faster than light. At that time, Sorsyph already knew that Tyhry was a femtobot replicoid, but there was no reason for Sorsyph to inform Tyhry that she was not a biological human.

Now, in "D*", Tyhry must find a way to enter into the Eternity space-time bubble in the Hierion Domain. Tyhry can access Eternity by way of a femtotube, but only because Tyhry is composed of femtobot components. 

Figure 3. Tyhry is taken to Nyrgyl.

I'm imagining that Sorsyph will provide Tyhry with a dramatic demonstration that she is a femtobot replicoid. As shown in Figure 3, Sorsyph teleports Tyhry to the surface of a planet (Nyrgyl) that is similar to Mars, with a very thin atmosphere. Tyhry is trying to speak, but the atmosphere is so thin, she cannot hear herself shouting at Sorsyph. Tyhry discovers that as an artificial life-form, she really does not need to breath.

Figure 1 (above) shows Tyhry being contacted by the Felydyans. Then, Tyhry is joined by Tyna (see Figure 2) and a very small copy of Sorsyph teleports onto Sedrover. When Tyhry is teleported to the surface of Nyrgyl, she finds herself inside a box. The symbols on the faces of the box (4 Xs and 2 Hs) symbolize chromosomes.

Left panel, the original interior artwork for "The Palindromic Blonde" (uncredited). Manually colorized. Second panel: background generated by ImageFX. 3 right panels: generated by WOMBO Dream.

Figure 4. Tyhry's dream vision of Nyrgyl.

Sorsyph explains to Tyhry that Nyrtia made use of femtobot replicoids to accelerate her search for a human form that would be adapted to telepathy. Imagine a population of femtobot replicoid copies of humans who are all able to alter their physical form at will: what body forms might humans adopt as their optimal form? In particular, what physical form would be optimal for telepathic humans under the constraint that telepathic communication is only possible between two individuals who love each other? An early step in the creation of telepathic humans involved creation of the H chromosome, which had the genes needed to make hermaphrodites.

Figure 5. Snake Planet by Mr. Wombo.

Tyhry recognizes the planet Nyrgyl from a "dream" vision of the future that she had as a child. In that vision, Tyhry received information by means of the Sedron Time Stream about her future visit to Nyrgyl. At the time, she was reading lots of fiction (including Beyond the Snake Planet by "Bill Wesley", which I suspect was a fake name), so in her dream there were strange creatures on Nyrgyl (see Figure 4).

For Figure 4 I asked Whisk to generate an image of "A colossal, segmented, light-brown worm-like creature with a reptilian head and open roaring mouth is emerging from the reddish-brown sand behind her, kicking up a dust cloud". That "her" refers to "a very tall and athletic fair-skinned girl with shoulder-length blonde hair, wearing a white jumpsuit. The jumpsuit is made from a very thin and almost transparent sparkling material. She is barefoot and has a very slim body". I requested that the Whisk-generated image show her "foot kicking up a very small spatter of sand", but Whisk insisted on making an inappropriately large dust cloud at the position of her previous foot-fall.👣

Figure 6. Alternate snakes.

 The Snake Planet. According to ISFDB, Bill Wesley published seven stories between 1954 and 1960. Simply based on the title of the story, I could not resist taking a look at "The Palindromic Blonde" as published in the February 1960 issue of Future Science Fiction.

Figure 7. A palindromic fish.

Sadly, "The Palindromic Blonde" was apparently an attempt to write a humorous story, but it makes very little sense. Mr. Wombo had some luck making a palindromic fish with two heads (see Figure 7). There are some more palindromic fish at the very bottom of this blog post.

 The AI Nipple Embargo. Usually WOMBO Dream does not generate images of completely naked women, but apparently if you hold a fish in front of you, then you can take a dip in the pond without wearing a swimming suit. I manually added some swimming suits to these images such as the one in Figure 7.

Figure 8. Return to Snake Planet.

I also made some imaginary pulp magazine covers for the "snake planet" theme (see Figures 5, 6 and 8). For the image that is shown to the left in Figure 8, in an attempt to make a more exciting scene I manually pasted in five of the six snake heads that are shown in Figure 8, possibly just making an overly-busy scene. The text, "Novels of the Future" and "Return to Snake Planet by Bill Wesley" was all added manually to the original image that was generated by Mr. Wombo.

 Colonization. In the original story Beyond the Snake Planet, some humans depart from Earth and seemingly carry out a random search of nearby star systems for a habitable planet. I suppose in 1959 it was not easy to imagine either 1) sending automated spaceships to explore space or 2) having astronomical techniques that would allow for detection of exoplanets across vast interstellar distances.

Sand worms of Dune.

In Beyond the Snake Planet, the first planet with alien life that is discovered is small (like Nyrgyl), but it has both plant and animal life, including creatures that when first seen emerging from underground are called snakes, but then upon close inspection the alien creatures are described as being worm-like. 

Worm watching (image source).

I wonder if the alien "worms" in Beyond the Snake Planet provided inspiration to Frank Herbert. when he was deciding to add "sand worms" into his story Dune.

Figure 9. Cover art by Malcolm Smith.

 Snake God. In the May 1942 issue of Fantastic Adventures was a story called "Daughter of the Snake God" by William P. McGivern and David Wright O'Brien. According to the magazine's editor, Raymond A. Palmer, "Daughter of the Snake God" was written in just 10 days in order to provide a story to go along with the cover illustration by Malcolm Smith. 

Figure 10. Sychymymy

I provided Mr. Wombo with the image shown in Figure 9 and this text prompt: "photorealistic rendering of a very young Kate Jackson as a goddess, Kate Jackson is twenty years old, Kate Jackson is riding on a very large snake, Kate Jackson is shown in photorealistic detail, Kate Jackson has long black hair, cinematic quality, dressed Victoria's Secret style in sparkling lace". WOMBO Dream generated the image that is shown to the left in Figure 10 and then I added the text "The legend of Sychymymy". Mr. Wombo seemed quite certain that a woman should not ride on a snake.

Figure 11. Snake rider.

The image shown in Figure 11 was built upon one of the best images by Mr. Wombo that seemed to show her riding on a snake. The image shown is a composite. I pasted in a second snake head because in the original image it looked like the snake's neck branched, but there was only one head. While the image in Figure 10 was only altered to add the text, for Figure 11, I zoomed in on the woman's head and had Mr. Wombo generate a higher resolution image that I then pasted in over her original face. 

Figure 12. Blurb by Palmer.

On the page with Ray Palmer's account of how "Daughter of the Snake God" was written (see Figure 12) there was also the cartoon that is shown in figure Figure 13.

Figure 13. Cartoon by John Cherry.

I asked Claude to "try to guess the text prompt that was used to generate the image" from Figure 11. I wanted a description of the image that I could provide to ImageFX.

Figure 14. A palindromic snake by ImageFX and pasted into the background image. Her head by Mr. Wombo.

Figure 15. By ImageFX.

 Claude: "This image appears to be fantasy artwork in a distinctive 1970s/1980s pulp fantasy style. It shows a woman warrior with dark hair wearing a metallic bikini top and a white skirt/loincloth with a gold belt. She's wielding a sword overhead while standing on or beside giant serpents or snakes. The serpents have prominent fangs and yellow eyes, with red-orange and blue scales. The background features a gradient of magenta/purple colors.  Based on the style and content, a likely text prompt could have been something like:  "Fantasy warrior woman fighting giant snakes, 1970s fantasy book cover art, sword and sorcery, vibrant colors, Frank Frazetta style"  The image strongly resembles classic fantasy illustrations from artists like Frank Frazetta, Boris Vallejo, or Julie Bell who were known for creating iconic sword and sorcery artwork featuring scantily-clad warriors in dramatic poses battling mythical creatures. The vivid color palette and composition are characteristic of vintage fantasy paperback covers and movie posters." 

Figure 16.

Using that rather long text prompt from Claude (above), ImageFX generated the image that is shown in Figure 15. As seen in Figure 15, ImageFX had a tendency to either 1) start making a long snake and then put a snake head at each end of the long thin body or 2) make a looped body with no head. 

 Heroic. With suggestions from Claude, I then made modifications to the text prompt and got images such as the one in Figure 16 using: "a beautiful woman riding bareback-style on a giant green snake, she is straddling the elongated back of the snake like riding a horse, magenta background, science fiction book cover art, Malcolm Smith style, detailed scales, a woman astride the snake's spine with legs on either side, snake body extended horizontally beneath rider, heroic pose with sword raised while mounted, snake's head turned to side, clear view of rider mounted along the snake's back". Figure 16 has a rare ImageFX-generated image where the nipples of a woman are visible.

Figure 17.

When including "photorealistic image, cinematic quality, sharp focus, vibrant and saturated colors, emphasizing texture and materiality" in the text prompt, ImageFX generated images such as those shown in Figures 14 (above) and 17 (to the right).

Figure 18. Jo & Joe.

In "Daughter of the Snake God", the plot unfolds like an Indian Jones movie. Readers are told that Dr. Allen Curtis is off to Peru to study Inca ruins. Arriving in Peru, we learn that the locals who are supposed to assist Dr. Curtis during his mission in Peru are fearful of Sacha, a snake like jungle goddess, possibly related to Quetzalcoatl. 

Figure 19. Nazi tanks in Peru.

 You can tell me. After the Peruvian assistants run off (all but the trusty Juan), Dr. Curtis is glad he brought along his cute secretary Jo (although the type-setter sometimes calls her "Joe", see Figure 18). Dr. Curtis is on a mission to stop an evil Nazi plan to take control of South America (see the Nazi tanks in Figure 19). 

Figure 20.

The images in Figures 19 and 20 are the original two page-wide interior art for the beginning of "Daughter of the Snake God" by Ned Hadley. I colorized that interior art and added into the lower right a "snake woman" from a 1949 cover painting by Malcolm Smith. The resulting image is shown below in Figure 21.

Figure 21. This image was used as a reference image so that Mr. Wombo could generate Figure 22.

Figure 22. Generated by Mr. Wombo from the image in Figure 21.

Figure 23. 1948.

 I then used the image shown in Figure 21 as a reference image and Mr. Wombo created the image that is shown above in Figure 22. Figure 22 was generated in two parts, the left and right sides, which I manually merged together. I also had to zoom in on the couple near the center of these images and have Mr. Wombo separately generate them in a third image. I also added some additional snake heads to the left side of Figure 22 in an effort to make it more interesting and to cover up some ugly features in the original image.

Figure 24. By Mr. Wombo.

 The Thrilling Conclusion. In "Daughter of the Snake God", Dr. Curtis and Jo survive a battle against a German Panzer division with the help of a rain storm and a giant snake named Sacha that is ridden by her "daughter", an ancient Incan woman who rides on the snake (see Figure 9, above). 

Figure 25.

The cover art for the January 1948 issue of Fantastic Adventures by Robert Gibson Jones is shown in Figure 23. I used that cover art as a reference image for WOMBO Dream along with this text prompt: "photorealistic image of a very young Kate Jackson with a giant snake, Kate Jackson has long black hair, Kate Jackson is fifteen years old and beautiful, photorealistic detail in Kate Jackson’s face and hair, Kate Jackson is pretty, Kate Jackson is cute" and Mr. Wombo generated images such as the one shown in Figure 24.

Figure 26.

In most cases, Mr. Wombo provided clothing for the woman as seen in Figure 24. Sometimes Mr. Wombo took advantage of her long hair and did not bother to give her a top (see the example in Figure 25). In a few of the images generated by Mr. Wombo, she was not given any clothing, but a snake was strategically placed in her lap (see Figure 26).

Figure 27.

 One Last Image. Previously, I had a blog post that showed some AI-generated images depicting Sam's General Store on an asteroid. I used the image from Figure 13 (above) as a reference image and got some AI-generated images such as the one shown in Figure 27. Maybe Sam has spaceship refueling stations on both asteroids and on Earth.

Search for alien worms (source).

Now that we are 25% of the way through 2025, it is time to start my annual search for interesting Hollywood aliens (SIHA). My hope is that the crop of fictional aliens in 2025 will include more than snakes and worms.

I know, let's use aliens as click bait!

"The 2025 film program is littered with aliens"

Related Reading: Sachamama

Next: Searching for interesting aliens in 2025.

(butter)fly fishing. Visit the Gallery of Movies, Book and Magazine Covers