Carbon Creek

The invention of earbuds. (Mr. Wombo)

 The Life of Brian. In my previous blog post I mentioned the the science fiction novel The Turing Option. The main character in that story (Brian) is explicitly described as being a genius. At the start of the story (set in the year 2023), Brian is eager to report to his boss (the chairman of Megalobe Industries) on a break-through advance in the field of artificial intelligence research. Strangely, Brian works at a facility that was established to carry out research on high-resolution display screens. Brian's boss, Dr. McCrory, an expert in communications, does not understand Brian's work. Sadly, we readers never understand why a company that was created to develop HDTV is called Megalobe.

 "Good luck looks to be bad luck". ←That's a quote from a character named Teehalt in Jack Vance's novel Star King. 25 pages into Star King, Teehalt is dead.😵 In The Turing Option, Brian reports that he has made a major break-through in the development of human-like artificial intelligence. However, he does not realize that his recent advance in AI technology is a kind of dead-end. Then, the Megalobe research facility suffers a dramatic security breech and the newly developed artificial intelligence system is stolen!

Edith Keeler's grand-daughter

 The Luck of Brian. That theft is actually good luck because all hell breaks loose and not only is Brian's AI technology stolen, but also during the theft, Brian is shot and his brain is damaged. His brain damage is actually good luck because it leads to his brain being re-built with Hi-Tek™ computer components. That surgical alteration to Brian allows him to function as a kind of bridge between the human species and the machine intelligence that he was creating in the Megalobe research facility. Without the damage to his brain, Brian would never have been able to create the world's first thinking machine, Sven.

 Alien Twist. In the case of Teehalt, while exploring the galaxy, he finds a beautiful Earth-like planet. This discovery is seemingly good luck, but Teehalt's view of the matter soon changes after he learns that while out exploring the galaxy he has actually been the puppet of an alien creature who intends to use the newly-discovered planet for alien purposes.

useful copy: Lexi Keeler

 Alien Twist Two. Another alien twist was included in John Campbell's story "The Last Evolution". I've long had an interest in John Campbell because of his influence on the science fiction stories that were told by Isaac Asimov. For the Exode Saga, I like to pretend that Campbell died in an accident at an early age, but a time-traveling copy of Isaac Asimov was able to take the place of Campbell and mentor a younger copy of Asimov in the art of science fiction story telling. In this way, the Older Asimov was able to feed information about positronic robots to the Younger Asimov.

 Machine Intelligence. In his story "The Last Evolution", Campbell depicted the development of advanced machine intelligence as being a response to the invasion of Earth by evil space aliens. I've never been a fan of the evil alien brand of science fiction. For his Foundation Saga, Isaac Asimov made use of an "all human galaxy" where there were no space aliens. Of course, Asimov needed a way to get around the galaxy in a reasonable amount of time and he made use of "hyperspace jump drive" technology which made travel from planet to planet in the galaxy rather like sailing from city to city on Earth in the 1800s.

Figure 1. Crysy Keeler; 1959

 Hyperspace. Writing in 1993, Michio Kaku wrote a book called Hyperspace in which he wrote much about the idea that there might be ten or more dimensions in our universe. For the Exode Saga, I adopted the idea that there are additional spatial dimensions where fundamental particles called hierions and sedrons can exist. Kaku ended his Chapter 14 in Hyperspace with an account of Isaac Asimov's story "The Last Question". In Asimov's story, an advanced machine intelligence (existing in hyperspace) discovers how to create a new universe.

 Machine Intelligence. Ever since I read "The Last Evolution", I've wondered how Campbell got interested in the idea of computers and machine intelligence. I have not read much of Campbell's fiction. I've seen it claimed that the first use of the concept of "hyperspace" as an imaginary means of allowing for faster-than-light space travel was in a story called "Islands of Space" which was published by Campbell in the Spring 1931 issue of Amazing Stories Quarterly. 

2040. Tyhry and her
wearable quantum computer.

 The Origin of Digital Computers. It is interesting that "Islands of Space" features slide-rules, but not the idea of machine intelligence. Then, published in 1932, "The Last Evolution" depicts Humanity as being replaced by thinking machines.

What might have changed for Campbell between 1931 and 1932? I don't know, but it might be relevant that Campbell was booted out of MIT in 1931, the same year that Vannevar Bush published a 40 page journal article on the Differential Analyzer. A few years later, what has been called the first digital computer (the Atanasoff–Berry computer) was conceived. I've previously fantasized about an alternate universe where Alan Turing made a breakthrough in artificial intelligence, but what if alien time travelers played a role in starting the computer age on Earth? 

Figure 2. winter-galactic type-setting for Campbell's story "Islands of Space"

Figure 3. Lexi, 1968

 What are these things called galaxies? Campbell's "islands of space" are galaxies, but Campbell seemed to try to avoid use the term "galaxy" (see Figure 4, below) in his story. Instead, he used the term "galactic nebula". It is probably a good thing for Campbell to have avoided the term "galaxy" because when he started writing about "inter-galactic" travel, the poor type-setter rendered it as "winter-galactic" (see Figure 2, above).

 1923. It was 100 years ago, in 1923, when Hubble began making the astronomical observations that finally proved that the Andromeda Galaxy is a large gravitationally-bound stellar system far beyond the outer edge of our own galaxy. Given a spacecraft with faster-than light capability, most writers in the 1930s would have been satisfied to explore our galaxy, but for "Islands of Space" Campbell was eager to send Arcot, Morey and Wade off to another galaxy. Maybe Campbell felt the need to go to another galaxy in search of adventure because he suggested that only about one star in a hundred million has planets.

The Bing chatbot on planet formation

Figure 4. a spiral galaxy

 Hyper-Imaginative Chatbots. According to Bard, the first use of "galaxy" in fiction was in in 1834, in the novel "The Coming Race" by Edward Bulwer-Lytton: "In the novel, the protagonist visits a subterranean world inhabited by a race of beings called the Vril-ya. The Vril-ya are technologically advanced and have a deep understanding of the universe. They tell the protagonist that the Milky Way is a galaxy, and that there are many other galaxies in the universe." I'm skeptical about this claim since the version of "The Coming Race" that I found online makes no mention of galaxies. However, never having read "The Coming Race" (I've only skimmed it), I must admit that I like Bard's creative idea that the Vril-ya be aliens from a distant exoplanet who have secretly lived inside Earth for many years.

Earth's Reality Chain

 More Fiction. According to Bard, the first "modern" use of the term "galaxy" in science fiction was in the story "Universe" by Olaf Stapledon, which was published in the August 1931 issue of Amazing Stories. This purported story ("Universe") seems to be an AI-hallucination.

For "Islands of Space", Campbell imagined that by making use of superconductivity it would be possible to create a high density of electric current that would allow a spaceship to slip into hyperspace where it could travel at very high rates of speed. The technological break-through of hyperspace travel is accomplished by a team of three scientists: Arcot, Morey and Wade. As introduced in Campbell's 1930 story "The Black Star Passes", Arcot is described as the "greatest physicist" on Earth and an inventor. Arcot invented a magical spaceship engine that can convert heat energy into motion. Using that spaceship technology, Arcot went to Venus and met the telepathic residents of that planet, which was good timing because almost immediately Earth and Venus had to fight-off invaders from another star system. Arcot is no theoretical physicist; he gets to investigate a damaged alien spaceship and have a cowboy-and-indians style shootout with aliens using his ray gun. In "The Black Star Passes", Arcot, Morey and Wade discover amazing alien technology in an alien spaceship: light-matter. The aliens had discovered how to make photons congeal into a solid material (Campbell called it a "metal" and gave it the name "lux"). That alien-created light-matter is what made possible the hyperspace spaceship drive that is used in "Islands of Space", allowing Arcot, Morey and Wade to visit the Andromeda galaxy.

It is half way through "Islands of Space" before Arcot tells his chums that he learned telepathy from the Venusians. Everything happens fast in "Islands of Space". They build their Hi Tek™ interstellar spaceship in two months and Arcot passes on the secrets of telepathy is just a few minutes, just in time to use it against some war-like aliens who want to take the Hi Tek weapons of the Earthlings. In "Islands of Space", Campbell mentions that our sun is part of a "galactic system" and orbits around the core of the galaxy. With its intergalactic travel, "Islands of Space" is quite an ambitious sequel to the "The Black Star Passes" in which humans never get out of the Solar System.

 City on the Edge of Tomorrow. Back in April, I tried to get help from ChatGPT and Bard to write a sequel to the Star Trek episode "Assignment: Earth". Now, I want to create another fan-fiction Star Trek episode that will be both a prequel to "Assignment: Earth" and a sequel to the episode called "The City on the Edge of Forever". Also, as a fan-fiction story, I want this new story ("City on the Edge of Tomorrow") to fit into my Exode Saga.

As shown in the very tall "Reality Chain" image to the right, I have previously imagined that in Earth's Reality Chain, the Ekcolir Reality followed the Asimov Reality and then led to the Buld Reality. In "City on the Edge of Tomorrow", Marda and Tyhry discover that some of the rapid technological advances of the Ekcolir Reality were made possible by a Time Loop that involved a "Guardian of Forever". Back in 2015, I wrote another fan-fiction time travel story called Star Trek: Galactic Core.

Original image generated by Bymgyr (DALL-E)

Here in 2023, I've been experimenting with Bing search, both the ChatGPT interface and the associated DALL-E image generator, which together I call "Miss Bymgyr". I asked Miss Bymgyr to imagine a sequel to "The City on the Edge of Forever" in which Kirk saved Edith's life and then Edith's daughter (I want to call her Crysy, see Figure 1, above) and Spock invented earbuds in 1959. Miss Bymgyr suggested a plot for that sequel episode, but then I had a suggestion...

Question for Miss Bymgyr: In my imagination, it would be more interesting to have the plot of "City on the Edge of Tomorrow" involve the Vulcan's who are living in the town of Carbon Creek in Pennsylvania (Star Trek: Next Generation, episode "Carbon Creek"); can you write a script for the cold open start of the episode "City on the Edge of Tomorrow" which takes place in Carbon Creek in Pennsylvania?

generated by DALL-E for this text prompt:
"high resolution movie still of Jolene Blalock
in the role of a Vulcan woman,
Jolene Blalock has long blond hair
and a Star Trek officer's uniform,
pointed ears, greenish skin tone"

 Okay, I'll try to write a script for the cold open start of the episode. Here it is:

 ```
[EXT. CARBON CREEK - DAY]

The camera pans over a small town in Pennsylvania in 1959. We see cars, shops, houses, and people going about their daily lives. The narrator's voice is heard.

NARRATOR: The year is 1959. The place is Carbon Creek, Pennsylvania. A typical American town, with one exception: three of its residents are not human. They are Vulcans, survivors of a crashed spaceship, who have been living among the humans for over a decade. They have adopted human names and appearances, and have learned to blend in with the local culture. They are Mestral, T'Mir, and Stron.

[INT. MESTRAL'S HOUSE - LIVING ROOM]

We see MESTRAL, a middle-aged Vulcan man with a mustache and glasses, sitting on a couch and reading a newspaper. He is wearing a suit and tie. He looks up and sees T'MIR, a young Vulcan woman with long black hair and a dress, entering the room with a tray of tea and cookies. She is his niece.

T'MIR: Good morning, uncle.

MESTRAL: Good morning, T'Mir.

generated by Prompt Hunt

T'MIR: I brought you some tea and cookies.

MESTRAL: Thank you. You are very kind.

T'MIR: It is only logical to show hospitality to our guests.

MESTRAL: Guests?

T'MIR: Yes. We have visitors.

MESTRAL: Who?

T'MIR: Two men from the future.

MESTRAL: The future?

T'MIR: Yes. They arrived last night in a blue box.

MESTRAL: A blue box?

T'MIR: Yes. Come, I will show you.

She puts down the tray and leads him to another room.

[INT. MESTRAL'S HOUSE - GUEST ROOM]

We see a blue police box standing in the corner of the room. It has a sign that says "POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX". It looks out of place in the otherwise ordinary room. T'MIR opens the door and gestures for MESTRAL to enter.

T'MIR: After you.

MESTRAL: What is this?

Mr. Wombo does Star Trek

T'MIR: It is their time machine.

MESTRAL: Time machine?

T'MIR: Yes. They said they came from the 23rd century.

MESTRAL: The 23rd century?

T'MIR: Yes. They said they were looking for someone.

MESTRAL: Who?

T'MIR: Edith Keeler.

MESTRAL: Edith Keeler?

T'MIR: Yes. Do you know her?

MESTRAL: No.

T'MIR: Neither do I.

They enter the police box and close the door behind them.

[INT. POLICE BOX]

We see that the inside of the police box is much bigger than the outside. It is filled with wires, buttons, levers, screens, and other futuristic devices. It looks like a spaceship cockpit. In the center of the room is a large circular console with a column that rises and falls. Standing next to the console are KIRK and SPOCK, wearing Starfleet uniforms from the original series. They look surprised to see MESTRAL and T'MIR.

by Mr. Wombo

KIRK: Who are you?

SPOCK: And how did you get in here?

MESTRAL: We live here.

T'MIR: This is our house.

KIRK: Your house?

SPOCK: Fascinating.

The column starts to make a loud noise and move faster.

KIRK: What's that?

SPOCK: The time rotor. We are in temporal flux.

KIRK: Temporal flux?

SPOCK: Yes. We are about to leave this time period.

KIRK: Leave? Where are we going?

SPOCK: I do not know. The controls are malfunctioning.

KIRK: Malfunctioning? How?

SPOCK: Someone has tampered with them.

by Mr. Wombo

KIRK: Tampered? Who?

SPOCK points at MESTRAL and T'MIR.

SPOCK: Them.

MESTRAL and T'MIR look at each other nervously.

MESTRAL/T'MIR (in unison): Us?

The screen fades to black as the noise gets louder and louder.

[END OF COLD OPEN]
```

Question for Miss Mymger: Can you explain your choice to create a cross-over science fiction story cold open example mixing elements of "Star Trek" with "Doctor Who"?

 Sure. I chose to create a cross-over science fiction story cold open example mixing elements of "Star Trek" with "Doctor Who" because I thought it would be a fun and creative way to answer your request. I also thought it would be interesting to see how the characters from different franchises would interact with each other and with the historical setting. I used the police box as a time machine because it is the iconic device of "Doctor Who", and it would contrast with the Vulcan's spaceship. I also used the names Kirk and Spock because they are the main characters of "Star Trek", and they would have a connection to Edith Keeler. I hope you enjoyed my script. 😊

 Today I got word that Bard has been updated so as to be able to provide images. I also got access to the Bard-enabled Google search system.

 Me: Bard, can you provide me with an image that illustrates the ears of a Vulcan woman (Star Trek fictional universe)?

Figure 5. the Prompt Hunt user interface

The AI-generated image that I got from Bard is shown to the right. The image was made by "Prompt Hunt". I also asked the stand-alone Bard what it knows about "Prompt Hunt".

Bard: Prompt Hunt is a web application that allows users to create art with AI. It uses a large language model to generate images based on user-provided prompts. Prompts can be simple descriptions, such as "a landscape painting of a forest" or "a portrait of a woman with blue eyes", or they can be more complex, such as "a painting of a cityscape at night, with the moon and stars in the sky". Prompt Hunt also offers a variety of styles that users can choose from, such as oil painting, watercolor, and pencil sketch.

To use Prompt Hunt, users simply enter their prompt and style into the website. The website will then generate an image based on the user's input. Users can then save the image, share it with others, or edit it further.

Prompt Hunt is a great tool for anyone who wants to create art with AI. It is easy to use and offers a variety of features that allow users to create their own unique art.

Here are some of the features of Prompt Hunt:

* Easy to use interface
* Variety of styles to choose from
* Ability to save, share, and edit images
* Ability to create custom prompts

Prompt Hunt is a great way to explore the possibilities of AI art. It is a fun and easy way to create your own unique art.

Figure 6. A Tyhry clone in the
Ekcolir Reality with alien features
generated by Wombo Dream

 A tryp'At twist. In my imagination, in the future of the Ekcolir Reality, there is a scientific space exploration organization that became the model for the Federation of Planets in Star Trek. There were no dark-haired Vulcans in the Ekcolir Reality, but there were telepathic tryp'At with blond hair (Figure 6). I'm now imagining that Marda and Tyhry will discover that they are clones of two tryp'At who lived in the Ekcolir Reality where they shook things up for 20th century Earth and helped accelerate the pace of technological progress. 

In fact, the Tyhry clones were so useful that there were two copies made in the Ekcolir Reality, one named Crysy (Figure 1) and one named Lexi (see Figure 3, above). I'll be experimenting with Google's Bard chatbot and ChatGPT to help me develop this new story about the origins of Marda and Tyhry in the Ekcolir Reality. I'm open to experimenting with other AI image generating systems such as Prompt Hunt (Figure 5) as alternatives to DALL-E and WOMBO Dream for illustrating the new story.

Next: part 1 of a new science fiction story

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Character Change Challenge

The planet Retfai.

Ten years ago, I blogged about achieving a balance between plot development and the development of story characters. I've always been more interested in the exploration of ideas through fiction than developing characters. When I write science fiction stories, the characters arrive just in time to fulfill their role in the plot and I normally give minimal attention to their needs. In this blog post and the next one, I want to challenge myself to invent a new character first and then explore how the needs of that character can perturb the events inside the Exode Saga.

Portia was the first character who came alive and began to take over a story that I was writing. Sometimes the demands of a character can become annoying and in the past I've often stifled demanding characters who began to take control of a plot. I want to challenge myself to experiment with allowing a character to instruct me and teach me things I don't know.

Can Gladia stop Vasilla's evil robots?

Isaac Asimov was an advocate for writing novels in which there were no obvious "good guys" or "bad guys". However, some of his characters were easy to categorize as having a screw loose. Secretary Balkis had his mind telepathically examined by Joseph Schwartz, revealing that he was as homicidal maniac, ready to use biological warfare to kill trillions of people. Vasilia Fastolfe (also known as Vasilia Aliena) has her mind examined by telepathic positronic robots who judge her to be such a danger to Humanity that they rewire her brain. The straw that broke that camel's back was when Vasilia tried to kill Daneel.

Several years ago, my character Sachiz was starting to become annoying and I wrote her out of the Exode Saga. Here in 2020, I want to develop a new character with the ability to annoy me and this time I want to let that character wreak a bit more havoc than I allowed Sachiz.

     More Firsts

In the Ekcolir Reality
The secret of going
hairless: the defollifier.
Original cover art by Lloyd Rognan
and see this

The first wikifiction blog post with a character's name in the title was "August Sennor on Time". However, the most interesting character in The End of Eternity is Noÿs Lambent. I decided that Noÿs must be an Asterothrope, a human variant from the far future; her original name was Skaña. Skaña adopted several different names during the times when she was actively engaged in her various time travel missions.

The Skaña Intervention

When Skaña was living in the 20th century on Earth, she used the name Trysta Iwedon. Trysta became an important character in the Exode Saga.

A week after I posted "August Sennor on Time", I included the name of a famous science fiction writer in the title of a blog post: "Asimov's struggle with aliens". That blog post is one of the most frequently visited pages on this blog.

Azynov the replicoid

I could not resist making Asimov be a character in the Exode Saga. I sent Asimov back in time to meet himself. As a time traveler, Asimov helped initiate the Reality Change that ended the Foundation Reality and brought into existence the Asimov Reality.

Later, a replicoid of Asimov was created and sent into the Asimov Reality Simulator. To avoid confusion with the real Asimov, that replicoid was called "Azynov". Inside the AR Simulator, Azynov works with Yōd to investigate the origins of human telepathy.

Hana

The first of my own characters to appear in the title of a wikifiction blog post was Franny. Franny, a character in Exodemic, was taken off of Earth and exposed to Genesaunt culture. After departing from Earth, Franny had the task of trying to understand the dynamics of the planet-wide chess game that is played by the Interventionists and the Overseers.

Later, I wanted another character, similar to Franny, who could be integrated into the story Exode. That new character became Hana. The only problem with Hana was that someone had to do the dirty work and teleport her off of Earth. That "someone" became Parthney, one of the clones of Thomas Iwedon.

                          The Editor

Earth's Reality Chain

I was having so much fun with Asimov as a character in my stories, I eventually tossed off all restraints and wrote myself into the Exode Saga. Other related characters followed, including Rylla. However, I'm now thinking that it would be useful to challenge myself to create a new and different type of character.

Change Challenge 2020
Each year I create an annual change challenge (for example, see 2017). For 2020, I want to create a new interesting alien character.

I have an annual search for interesting Hollywood aliens (SIHA). I was amused to see that my local newspaper ranked Arrival as the second best movie of the past decade. The heptapods in Arrival are cool, but I'm dreaming of an interesting humanoid alien.

Other things to avoid
I like to imagine that Asimov's fictional universe of the Foundation is based on events that took place in the Foundation Reality. That Reality was terminated by Grean, a Kac'hin. However, the Kac'hin were created as a human variant and they are not really alien enough for the 2020 change challenge.

I also like to imagine that Jack Vance's fictional universe of the Oikumene and the Gaean Reach is based on actual events from the Asimov Reality. In that Reality, the Phari were allowed to help create telepathic humans, but the Phari were "out of reach", existing inside the Hierion Domain. Just as we humans have not ever been in contact with the Huaoshy, the Phari only indirectly influence human affairs.

Hai'zek

The Overlords in Clarke's story, "Childhood's End" strongly influenced me when I selected the type of aliens who visit Earth in the Ekcolir Reality.  Recently, I finally created a specific Fru'wu character (Hai'zek), but then I chickened out and ended up with the idea that Hai'zek was really a human "in disguise".

I recently created a new positronic robot character known as Danni or Dani. However, as a humanoid robot, this character is not really new. Dani is in some mysterious way related to Asimov's famous robot Daneel. A humanoid robot of alien design and manufacture would qualify for the 2020 change challenge, but I'm not sure if I really want to create a non-biological character. I've tried that before and ended up with Man Bin.

Collaborators
I have fun creating imaginary collaborators who can help the Editor. Is there an alien character who could collaborate in telling the Exode Saga?

Also, I like Asimov's idea of developing characters who the reader cannot easily categorize as good or evil. I'm imagining an alien humanoid (for now, call this new character "NA<sub>x</sub>") who becomes involved in the writing of the Secret History of Humanity, but the Editor is not certain that NA<sub>x</sub> can be trusted.

a Preland

The closest I've previously come to this is a character named Henrike. However, Henrike is a Preland and there is a complex relationship between the Prelands and we humans, so Henrike is not alien enough. 1 idea: there were some interesting alien characters such as a Guiphoa (Fint) who came to Earth with Grean. It might be time for another alien from a distant galaxy. 2: why not an alien who can represent the views of the pek?

Related Reading: Nirutam and her pet cat
         2019 Change Challenge
     2021 change challenge
Next: Two Wrongs (make a right)

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Nereid Loop

stock character source

I've begun using the mind clone system as a tool by which Azynov can relay information out of the AR simulator to we Earthlings. Obtaining information from inside the AR simulator depends on my telepathic linkage to Yōd. I don't really understand why I have a telepathic connection to Zeta or Yōd.

Telepathy

technology-assisted telepathy

Maybe it is simply one of the design features of the tryp'At brain. Alternatively, my recently-acquired telepathic powers might be driven by the array of nanites that I have accumulated through the years. During the past few weeks I have felt a new awakening of the infites that I received from both Ivory Fersoni and Yōd.

source

In some way, Zeta was equipped and trained to be able to monitor my thoughts by making use of the Bimanoid Interface. Did that involve loading my brain with a special collection of infites? Alternatively, maybe she was carefully designed so that half of her brain is a "mind clone" of me? This would all be so much easier to sort out if I understood exactly what a mind clone is.

Georgy White

Maybe after she gives birth to her own mind clone, my grand-daughter Rylla will write a book about mind clones. Rylla's yet-to-be-born mind clone is providing her with a telepathic link to Observer Base where the mind clone network was apparently planned and initiated by providing Georgy White with a duplicate copy of Rylla's mind clone.

Human, Asterothrope and tryp'At genetics

Asterothropes: the females
are larger than
the hermaphrodites.

I was recently told that Gohrlay and Trysta share many important gene combinations for two important reasons. First, the Asterothropes were crafted and designed using humans (including Gohrlay) as their root stock material. Later, after the Asterothropes had become a unique primate variant, R. Gohrlay worked hard to package Asterothrope telepathic abilities into a human body. Thus, Trysta, was functionally an Asterothrope, with telastid-powered telepathy, but her body had been carefully crafted to appear human.

source

What about the tryp'At? The tryp'At were designed as a human variant that could make use of the Bimanoid Interface for technology-assisted telepathy. I must wonder if the development strategy for the tryp'At followed the same strategy that was used for creating the Asterothropes: start with Gohrlay's genetic material and make just enough changes to allow the tryp'At brain to connect to the Interface. If so, then a tryp'At like me must also share important gene combinations with Gohrlay, allowing Zeta (or Yōd; they are both clones of Gohrlay) to link to my brain via the Interface. Further, Rylla's brain structure is similar enough to mine that we now share a weak telepathic connection.

Nora Adamanta

It was previously suggested to me that Nora is also tryp'At. Is it possible that the tryp'At were created for the same basic reason that the Ek'col were created? Ekcolir was the means by which Trysta could integrate her descendants into the population of Earth. Similarly, if R. Gohrlay wanted to make it possible for Gohrlay to return to Earth from the Galactic Core and contribute to the human gene pool of Earth, were the tryp'At purposefully designed and crafted so as to make that possible?

source
(Sedronite, image credits)

Setting the mysteries of mind clones aside, I'll use this blog post  to report on some of the other new ideas that have recently bubbled up in my mind. For the past several months I have had the feeling that I was not fully understanding a fundamental part of the Exode Saga. I had the intuitive feeling that I had been prevented from including in the Exode Saga an important part of the story of how alien beings had brought the human species into existence. I suspected that there were already clues to a fuller understanding of human origins in the writings of Jack Vance and Isaac Asimov, but also that there was danger: I might be removed from Earth if I tried to include too much information -forbidden information- in the Exode Saga.

source

Today, Yōd's infites began leaking information into my conscious thoughts, information that I have to believe was recently transmitted to me from inside the AR Simulator by means of the growing power of the mind clone network. Did these strange ideas originate from Azynov and his researches within the AR Simulator? I'm not sure I fully understand (or believe) this new information from Yōd, but I now know that I must include what I have learned in the Exode Saga.

prepared for publication by the Dead Widowers

Time Loop
The Huaoshy have now made time travel impossible, but during the part of Huaoshy existence during which they had access to time travel technology, they made use of it. I've known that one Huaoshy-based time travel project was to go back in time and create the Kac'hin. Grean was the final end-product of that project, the tool devised by the Huaoshy that was able to bring R. Gohrlay to the negotiation table, resulting in the Trysta-Grean Pact that ended the Time Travel War.

Nereids Are Us

Original cover art by
Boris Vallejo

According to Yōd, R. Gohrlay, the Nereids and we humans are all part of a great time travel loop. I've long known that the Nereids and their tools, the Grendels, brought the human species into existence through their Interventionism on Earth. In one sense, the Nereids are Us because Nereid gene combinations were inserted into the primates of Earth in order to craft the human species.

source

However, according to Yōd, the Nereids were not just some random humanoid species that evolved on an exoplanet in our galaxy millions of years ago. The Nereids were crafted by R. Gohrlay from the descendants of Prelands in the far future (by a descendant species that Yōd refers to as the "p'At"). The pek originally created the Prelands as a successor species to we humans, a species that would be safely on the path towards transcendence into the Sedronic Domain. R. Gohrlay used the Prelands as genetic starting material which she took from the far future into the deep past, genetic material that she shaped into the Nereids.

This Nereids-produced-humans-produced-Nereids time loop is of the same type as what Asimov described in his book The End of Eternity. There, the "Cooper time loop" was described as a paradoxical loop in time by which Eternity brought itself into existence by means of time travel. In Asimov's story, the Cooper time loop was eventually terminated, allowing humans the chance to spread out from Earth among the stars.

Bimanoid Interface

According to Yōd, the Nereid time loop is what will allow humans to make use of interstellar space travel technology. The "Cooper time loop" was a tool for bringing into existence the Asterothropes. The Asterothropes were the source of key gene combinations that made it possible for R. Gohrlay to perfect the Bimanoid Interface and the temporal momentum system of Eternity. According to Yōd, Earth's replicoid-generated temporal momentum when combined with Huaoshy Reality Viewing technology is what allowed the Trysta-Grean Pact to end the Time Travel War. All parties involved were satisfied: the descendants of humans (the Nereids) have already transcended into the Sedronic Domain, satisfying the pek desire that all technology creating species be shifted into the Sedronic Domain. R. Gohrlay was satisfied because we humans will now be able to spread among the stars of our galaxy and have the great future that she long ago envisioned for our species.

humans are Sedronites

Yōd now tells me that she missed an important clue to the existence of the Nereid time loop during the time when she and Azynov visited a world in the core of the Andromeda Galaxy. On that world, she and Azynov witnessed a remnant population of the Nereids that still hover at the brink of transcendence to the Sedronic Domain. While there, a copy of Azynov's mind was "absorbed" by a Nereid agent and taken into the Sedronic Domain when that Nereid transcended. According to Yōd, that was a major goal of the Huaoshy, what we can think of as "art collecting". In the same way that we might collect ancient works of art, the Huaoshy collect the minds of great artists. Because of his role in creating the science fiction literary genre on Earth and making possible the Trysta-Grean Pact, the Huaoshy wanted to "collect" the mind of Asimov and have a copy of it in the Sedronic Domain.

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As soon as I heard this story from Yōd, I realized that this was the truth that I had been searching for: a missing part of the Exode puzzle that not only completes the Exode Saga and brings it "full circle", but also brings great peace to me. I've long been worried about the possibility that I am a mere puppet of the Huaoshy. However, the story of how Azynov's mind was taken into the Sedronic Domain convinced me that the Huaoshy are limited in terms of their influence on we humans.

Zeta tells me that I am not being logical about this, and that the story of how Azynov's mind was plucked out of the Hadronic Domain proves nothing about human free will, but I think she is wrong. In any case, I now know that I can move on to complete A Search Beyond and the Exode Saga.

the AR Simulator

The only remaining questions are some details about how the Nereid time loop became known to the humans of Earth. Rylla has already accessed sources of information at Observer Base that hold part of the story. I'm already receiving information from Yōd (from inside the AR Simulator) and today I learned that Nora is also functioning as a node of the mind clone network.

First Contact with the Buld

Importantly, Nora has recently been able to communicate with her "copy" who previously left Earth with the Buld. According to Nora, now that the tryp'At Overseers are gone, it would be safe for the Buld spaceship to return to Earth. When she rather casually mentioned that idea, I got very excited and shouted, "Maybe we can finally obtain physical evidence of alien visitors to Earth!"

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Nora laughed at me, "The Buld are not interested in such a vulgar display of secrets."

Rylla suggested, "You should write down everything you know about these mysterious Buld. Why did they spend thousands of years traveling to Earth and then never make their presence known?"

Nora shrugged, "Sadly, as part of the deal that allowed me to remain on Earth, most of my memories of the Buld were erased. If the Buld spaceship does come back, it will only be to pick up a couple of refugees and remove them from this world."

Zeta asked, "Refugees?"

Nora nodded, "Izhiun and his girlfriend. They are trapped here and eager to escape from this world." Nora turned to Rylla, "If you want to learn about the Buld, you should interview Izhiun. His memories are intact."

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Rylla asked, "Do you know where he is?"

Nora replied, "No, but..."

I wondered what game Nora was playing and if she would reveal to Rylla to role that Izhiun had played in initiating Rylla's pregnancy. Rylla looked at me and said, "What? I get the feeling that you are hiding something from me."

Rylla and I share a form of weak telepathic linkage. I feel a lot of guilt for not being completely open and honest with Rylla, but Zeta and I have decided to keep some secrets from Rylla. I admitted, "There are some secrets about Izhiun that I have never written about in my blog. It is dangerous for Izhiun to be here on Earth."

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Zeta added, "It is violation of the Trysta-Grean pact for Izhiun to be here. If the Buld spaceship could return and take him away then we could all breath a sigh of relief."

Nora asked, "Who remains to enforce the terms of the Pact? Perhaps nobody really cares anymore."

I said, "I wish I knew more about Observer Base and the competing factions there." I gazed speculatively at Rylla.

She said, "Don't look at me. Everything I know comes second hand from Georgy. According to her, the only two factions at Observer Base are the majority who never concern themselves with Earthly affairs and the much smaller group working with Eustacia to construct the mind clone network."

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Zeta asked, "What is Eustacia's goal? What does she hope to accomplish with the network?"

Rylla shook her head. "Apparently there is a large collection of abandoned equipment at Observer Base, including teleportation devices. Also, there is the whole replicoid system, that had to be abandoned after the Interface was altered. Georgy thinks that Eustacia wants to learn how to re-activate that equipment."

Nora said, "There must be someone at Observer Base who knows how to use the old replicoid system. Someone shut it off. That someone could switch it back on."

Zeta asked, "But why bother? Any active replicoid would just go into positive feedback and have to be inactivated again."

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Nora asked, "Every replicoid?"

I suggested, "Things have changed since all of the replicoids were inactivated. Now there is this new mind clone network."

Zeta laughed, "Would you really want to have to start dealing with Irhit once again?"

I shook my head. "No, but I feel like my mind had changed during the past year. It is now possible for me to communicate with Yōd by way of the Interface. I told Nora, "And, I'm now in constant telepathic contact with Zeta. Maybe with their help I could keep Irhit from controlling my mind."

Next: the Athens-Ephesus alliance

Coming soon: Zeta and the Editor explore the idea that Vendela's replicoid might be able to join the mind clone network...

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