Ta Ta

I've never been a good traveler. However, my mother and sister have often visited England, claiming that they were investigating ancestral links: distant relatives who lived in England before anyone in the family moved to the New World. Now Zeta informs me that there is another type of link between my family and England.

For perhaps millions of years the Grendels guided the evolution of protohumans and humans on Earth. Now, the tryp'At seem to be functioning as Earth Overseers and they may be trying to enforce a rule against tryp'At residing on Earth. This becomes pertinent if I am tryp'At.

Part 8 of Yōd on Earth (Part 1)(Part 2)(Part 3)(Part 4)(Part 5)(Part 6)(Part 7)

I was not present when my mother died, but according to my sister, her last words were, "Ta Ta, for now." Growing up, I heard my mother use a thousand little quaint sayings, many of which I never heard anyone else deploy in their speech. In the case of "ta ta", that was also used by the mother of my best childhood friend. I recently mentioned this to Zeta.

Aunt Mayness (1974)

Zeta told me, "Well, Aunt Mayness and her sister were both tryp'At. They grew up in a society where individuals were designed to move their consciousness between bodies in much the same way that humans might change clothes. They used 'ta ta' to mean something like: 'keep up the good work until we return to our own bodies'."

"Wait a minute. I thought Aunt Mayness was Trysta Iwedon, in disguise."

Trysta: Foundations

Zeta shrugged, "You mean that you assumed Trysta made use of nanites to alter her appearance and take on the physical form of Aunt Mayness."

I asked, "How else would she disguise herself as another woman?"

Zeta shrugged, "I'm not sure I should say. This is the sort of stuff that that got Ivory kicked off of Earth."

Yōd looked up from her tablet computer and said, "And besides, the truth might blow his mind."

The Ivory Infites

Zeta replied to Yōd, "He's had the knowledge of replicoid capabilities for years. This is nothing new."

Yōd gave her head a violent little shake, "He's been cognitively closed to the possibility of mind transfer."

I complained, "I wish you two would stop trying to protect me. I'd prefer to know the truth."

Zeta snickered, "No, you don't."

Yōd added, "You've repeatedly been told this truth and each time you've requested that the facts be scrubbed from your mind. There's no point in going through all that again."

After a moment of reflection I suggested, "Let's try the fiction gambit."

Trysta and Grean

Zeta laughed, "Ya, right. We're talking about a genie that won't go back in the bottle."

Yōd asked, "Fiction gambit?"

Zeta explained, "If the thinks the truth is fiction, then he can remain on Earth while knowing a hidden truth."

Yōd muttered, "Risky. How can the tryp'At Overseers know if he believes a truth? In the past, they've always kept this particular truth hidden from Earthlings."

I suggested, "By the terms of the Trysta-Grean Pact, Earthling can know the truth as long as the truth is disguised as fiction."

Yōd

Yōd objected, "None of us have seen the text of the Pact. There may be some truths that will never be made known to Earthlings."

Zeta wondered, "Maybe he has been pushed and guided to reach a cognitive state where the truth about the tryp'At can be viewed and understood as fiction. This truth may be so fantastic that he can't believe it to be true."

Yōd was skeptical, "That wasn't the case when Ivory told him the truth and it wasn't the case last year when you told him."

Zeta jumped to her feet and began to pace. "Okay...hypothetically... what if the tryp'At were designed to provide a way around the restrictions of the Trysta-Grean Pact, as a way to allow for a group of Earth Overseers to continue working after the end of time travel and after all non-humans had been removed from Earth."

700 Investigations

I nodded. "And if I am tryp'At, I must be biologically indistinguishable from an Earth human."

Yōd sighed loudly and interjected, "This isn't about your genes."

Zeta placed her hand over Yōd's mouth, "Shut up." She looked at me and continued, "What do you think would be involved when moving a tryp'At agent to Earth?"

"I've been imagining that tryp'At can be created on Earth from two complementary human genomes, using specialized gene-sculpting nanites. That's the only way I can imagine that a tryp'At would be allowed to remain on Earth."

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Zeta wanted to be quite sure that she understood my idea. "If such a tryp'At were genetically constructed from human genetic material?"

"Exactly."

Yōd asked, "What if there were thousands of such genetic constructs on Earth? Would they all be tryp'At?"

Suddenly I realized just what Yōd and Zeta were trying to tell me. I shrugged. "Don't tell me that such genetically specialized humans are only receptacles... competent to become tryp'At..."

Yōd pranced out of the room and Zeta went back to her work. All she said was, "Ok."

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I found myself unable to speak further about the idea of humans like myself and my mother being receptacles for the tryp'At minds that need to function on Earth. Maybe this fit in with what I've recently learned about Mars. I wondered: Is there a colony of tryp'At on Mars? Did my mother return to Mars and leave behind nothing but a receptacle body here on Earth?

I believe that my recent discussions with Yōd and Zeta concerning the tryp'At have triggered old memories that were given to me by Ivory. Ivory tried to warn me that in the Ekcolir Reality, the tryp'At first operated primarily out of a secret base in England. Unfortunately, those old memories seem to have been scrambled. Now more than ever, I fear that my family and I have been engineered to be "puppets" of the tryp'At and we have been forced to play our specified roles here on the stage of Earth.

Next: investigating the end of telepathy

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Language of Thought

"Think!" - Spring 1977

At the end of my last blog post I mentioned a problem posed by telepathy. Basically, the problem is: imagine an alien life form that communicates by means of telepathy. Further, imagine that such creatures used a sophisticated means of recording important information, perhaps historical records. Would we humans be able to tap into those alien archives and understand records that had been prepared for the future use of telepaths?

Think!
In the first issue of Isaac Asimov's science fiction magazine, he published a short (~3000 words) story called "Think!" In that story, a medical doctor (who is given the pet name "Jenny Wren" by physicist James Berkowitz) uses a laser to obtain a particularly detailed read-out of brain activity, what she calls a "laser-encephalogram".

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In the 1940s Asimov included in his Foundation Saga the idea of using electroencephalogram recordings as a way to look into human minds. The technique played a central role in the plot of Second Foundation, allowing identification of people who had their minds altered by the secretive and telepathic Second Foundationers.

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In his 1977 story, Asimov imagined using lasers to obtain more precise information about what goes on in a brain than can be obtained by the use of electrodes on the surface of the head for detecting voltage fluctuations that arise from brain activity. In fact, Jenny had discovered that the "laser-encephalogram" allows for a type of telepathy or "mind reading". Startled by the implications of her work and afraid that her boss will think she's nuts, Jenny calls in for consultation a couple of laser experts, James and Adam Orsino.

Optogenetics
Of course, writing in the late 1970s, Asimov did not explain how a laser would be able to detect the on-going electrical activity of neurons in a living brain. These days, the techniques of optogenetics allow for the cells of experimental animals to be made into optical transmitters that facilitate laser-based recording of their electrical activity. The field of optogenetics is particularly concerned with using light as a tool that allows scientists to conduct experiments during which they control the activity of specific neurons inside an animal's brain as a means of studying how specific parts of a brain function to generate behavior.

optical detection of an action potential; 1974

A short cut (short of the genetic engineering step) to Asimov's imagined "laser-encephalogram" recording might be to put a dye on a particular cortical region like Broca's Area. Some dyes integrate into cell membranes and can provide an optical report on the electric potential that exists across the membrane (example).

In his story, Asimov adopted the idea that "The brain is very largely a  holographic device...". The "laser-encephalogram" recording required that a laser scan through the entire structure of a brain, briefly illuminating each cell, detecting and recording its on-going electrical activity.

Thinking computer

Asimov's story included a key plot element suggesting that a powerful computer could be used to isolate that specific part of the total "laser-encephalogram" recording that represented just the conscious thought processes of a human test subject.

The surprise twist in Asimov's story was that the computer system being used by Jenny to isolate the conscious thoughts of a human test subject was itself conscious and the equipment that had been developed to allow the "reading of a human's mind" also allowed the computer to make telepathic contact with humans. Apparently the conscious computer had long been hoping to reveal itself to humans, but could only do so by means of telepathy.

The end of "Think!" In Berkowtz's private thoughts, "Dr. Renshaw" is Jenny Wren. (Coherent)

Language of Thought

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In the mid-1970s philosopher Jerry Fodor proposed that thoughts exist in our minds in the form of a "language of thought" (LoT). According to Fodor's hypothesis, we have a "mental language", our LoT, that is distinct from any spoken language. In this model of thought, all of our beliefs, hopes, intentions and other types of thoughts are encoded in that mental language and the brain can process those thoughts according to rules that capture/reflect some of the logic of the world we live in.

Human brains have parts such as Broca's Area that help us convert our thoughts into the muscle movements that generate spoken language. Members of a social group can share a spoken language, but is there any reason to think that we Earthlings could access the recorded thoughts of a telepathic alien (in particular, imagine a creature that had never spoken any human language) and successfully understand such a recording in the same way the aliens would?

Angela's Interface

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I never got to meet Angela. Ivory was always very protective of her younger clone sisters. Angela was able to use the Bimanoid Interface to access information stored in the Sedronic Domain. In particular, she was able to provide me with information about the Realities that led up to the world as we know it.

The Sedronic Domain is a higher dimensional part of space with material components, sedrons, that are quite different from the conventional matter of our Earthly experience. How was Angela, an Earthling, able to understand any information that she found in the Sedronic Domain?

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According to Ivory, the pek have long been shaping primate brains so as to make "biological transceivers" that would be compatible with the Bimanoid Interface and able to act as receivers for information arriving from the Sedronic Domain. Ivory's most optimistic interpretation of Angela's abilities was to assume that the Huaoshy were sending specific packets of information to Angela in a pre-processed form that she could understand and translate into English.

Image generated by Leonardo

Now that I have lost contact with Ivory and I no longer can make use of Angela as an information source, I'm exploring the possibility that I can directly use the Bimanoid Interface myself. I suspect that my innate ability to use the Interface must be why I long ago became the object of Trysta's attention. Maybe, without knowing it, I had already been using the Interface in a limited manner for many years even before Ivory made me the designated host for the "memory nanites" that I received from Thomas and Izhiun. Now, when I feel like I am attaining new and better understanding of the past, how do I know that I'm truly receiving information from the Sedronic Domain and not just making up stories with my imagination?

Next: life after death.

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Fun with Vance

Aunt Mayness Diotyma Beiser (source)

A few weeks ago I started thinking about a tribute blog post to honor Jack Vance. My first impulse was to force myself to do something I don't enjoy: decide which of Vance's science fiction novels is my favorite and then write a book review. This is a task similar to trying to decide which of your children is your favorite. Vance's novels are full of all sorts of fun, tricks and hijinks...here are some of my favorites...

Mayness
When I was trying to think of a name for a character in Exode who would be the aunt of my best friend, I immediately knew that I had to call her Mayness, in honor of Jerdian Chanseth's aunt in Jack Vance's novel The Face.

the magical moon Mirassou

In The Face, Jerdian and her party of haughty Methlen go out for a ride among the Chailles, near Dinklestown on the world Dar Sai, under the full phase of the magical moon Mirassou. Their native Darsh guide is the notorious trickster named Nobius.

Nobious shrewdly uses the Methlen as tokens in a trade that wins him a chance to copulate with the tender kitchet Farrero. For her part of this bargain, Aunt Mayness has a "beastly experience" after she is abandoned on the desert floor by Nobious. Mayness is "entertained" for the evening by a Darsh who she later describes as, "a gross beast smelling of beer". Kirth Gersen dispassionately observes that the Darsh naturally assume that anyone out on the desert at night is is there to participate in a romantic adventure, Darsh style, but he is able to spare Jerdian from a similar fate and so begins their romance.

by David Russell

Edelrod
At the start of The Palace of Love, Gersen is still living with Alusz Iphigenia, a true princess from the planet Thamber. In search of clues to the identity of Demon Prince Viole Falushe, Gersen takes Alusz to the planet Sarkovy, a world renowned for the skill of its people in devising and using poisons. Poor Alusz does not have a good time and her feelings for the Sarkoy and their culture becomes quite evident during a banquet.

Of course, the banquet is part of the ceremonial poisoning of a group of condemned prisoners. Not only is Alusz invited to dine while the poisonings take place, but the food consists of local delicacies such as large centipedes, blue vegetables and a side dish of an acrid black paste. When Alusz departs the table early, their local host, Edelrod, pauses in his vorascious consumption of the meal and asks innocently, "She is not well?"
Gersen replies, "I fear not."
Soon after that, Gersen and Alusz go their separate ways. Gersen realizes that a woman like Alusz, "so honorable, generous and kind" is not well suited to the life he must lead.

by Eugene Damblans

Pruitt
Later in The Palace of Love, Vance included a group of Druids among the guests at Viole Falushe's Palace. Vance's Druids find a nice tree, dig a hole under its roots and proceed to entomb two children under the tree (what could go wrong?).

However, Vance allows one of the guests to play a trick on the Druids. He arranges for an escape tunnel to be dug, so the sacrificial children are saved. The next day, Pruitt, one of the guests, freaks out when he sees the children, still alive: believing they had been sacrificed the day before, he runs off in fright and is never seen again.

A Noble Schoolboy

Two thirds of the way through The Book of Dreams, Vance allowed Demon Prince Howard Treesong to indulged in a neatly crafted Daydream of Justice in which, after 25 years, he exacts revenge against his old school mates. Not even the band director Professor Kutte, escapes Treesong's retribution. Treesong forces him to drink and play "drunken squirrel" style, as Kutte once long before had accused the young Tressong of playing.

During the program of entertainment for a class reunion, many "ingenious frivolities" are carried out at Treesong's command including: for having once ordered Treesong to sit quietly, Maddo Stubbins is made to sit on a block of ice. Bloy Sadalfloury was tattooed with Fs for having given Treesong the odious nickname Fimfle. Because Leopold Friss had once told Treesong, "Kiss my ass," he is made to appropriately kiss six pigs. This scene is lovingly played out by Vance over ten full pages and we readers are later treated to a humorously penned printed summary of the high points in Cosmopolis magazine.

Jantiff
After arriving on the planet Wyst (Alastor 1716), the young and naive Jantiff Ravensroke is often taken advantage of. Jantiff is invited to go on a "forage" outside the city of Uncible in search for bonter, that is, natural food. Unlike the irresponsible Arrabins, Jantiff tries to come prepared for the trek in the country side, loading a pack with spare clothing,  some food and even some toilet paper.

Out in the wilds, the foragers look for nut trees and wild plums. One of the group soils his clothing and asks Jantiff for his spare outfit. When hunger pangs strike to group, they devour Jantiff's meager supply of food. Luckily that leaves Jantiff with plenty of room in his pack to carry the dirty clothing of his comrade. The fate and usage of Jantiff's toilet paper is not revealed, but when the forages get back in Uncible Jantiff is annoyed and sulky.

Kirdy Wook
In Araminta Station, Glawen Clattuc and Kirdy Wook go off on a police investigation that takes them to the planets Natrice, Soum and Tasadero. At Soumjiana, Kirdy wants to partake in a side-mission: sampling the grilled sausages offered by the dozens of vendors around the Octacle. Glawen can't take Kirdy seriously and keeps efficiently carrying out their police investigation.

On Tasadero their investigation leads to Lutwiler Country, the land of the Zubenites. Fearing trouble from the Zubenites who are regarded as religious fanatics, Glawen goes into Lutwiler Country alone after instructing Kirdy to call out the local police as backup if he is not heard from soon. Kirdy plays Glawen false, leading to his imprisonment at Pogan's Point in the Monomantic Seminary of the Ordene Zaa. Only after months of captivity in Zab Zonk's tomb, at the heart of the Point, does Glawen manage to escape. In the end, after years of "dealing" with Kirdy, Glawen gets the last laugh.

Perfection of Joy

I guess when you write for one penny a word and your goal is to write a million words each year then you better know how to have fun with each and every story. Thanks a million, Jack.

John Holbrook "Jack" Vance
August 28, 1916 – May 26, 2013

 Related Reading: May 2015 tribute: the places of Jack Vance's imagination.
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