Zeptozoan

Figure 1. The discovery of femtozoans by Whisk.

 For stories set in the Exodemic Fictional Universe, I imagine that humans are hybrids composed of a biological part and also two invisibly small non-biological parts that I have long called endosymbionts: 1) a femtobot endosymbiont and 2) a zeptite endosymbiont. Zeptite endosymbionts originated from the pek, who reached Earth about 2,000,000,000 years ago and immediately flooded Earth with zeptites. Those zeptites were a form of invisibly small artificial life composed of sedronic matter (related reading: sedronites). 

Figure 2. The Hua of Sermyth.

 Garden World. Those programmable zeptites provided a means of guiding evolution, ensuring that Earth would develop a huaoid life-form (what we know as the human species). According to the pek plans for Earth, eventually humans would be guided by their zeptite endosymbionts towards abandonment of their biological bodies and transcendence to the Sedron Domain where human descendants would exist as artificial life-forms, entirely composed of sedrons.

 Huaoids. The Hua were the first huaoid biological life-form in the universe, having evolved in a distant galaxy more that two billion years ago. It is no accident that we humans are quite similar to the Hua since the zeptites of Earth guided evolution on our planet with the goal of producing an intelligent species that would be very similar to the Hua.

Figure 3. Neanderthal by ImageFX.

 Telepathy. The pek plans for humanity were derailed by a freak occurrence: Neanderthals spontaneously developed a weak form of telepathy (using telastids) which attracted the attention of the bumpha. The bumpha began to intensively study Neanderthals while the pek developed the next stage in human evolution (a new huaoid species called the Prelands) on a planet of the Galactic Core. The bumpha began an illegal program of Interventionism which delayed the extinction of Neanderthals on Earth. During this time, a population of Neanderthals existed at Observer Base, disguised as conventional Homo sapiens and integrated into the human population of Observer Base. It was possible to disguise Neanderthals by means of developmental control nanites.

Shown in Figure 3 is a depiction of a Neanderthal woman that was generated by ImageFX using this text prompt: "A stunningly detailed, full color, photorealistic rendering of a beautiful Neanderthal woman holding a necklace in her hands.  She has very large brown eyes and red hair.  She is holding both of her hands in front of

Figure 4. Neanderthal by Leonardo.

her abdomen. She is young and happy. She is very tall and slim. She is dressed in a sleek dear skin miniskirt. In her hands is a necklace that is made of a diverse collection pretty shells that are held together by a thin leather cord. She has darkly tanned skin. She has narrow hips. A forest with fall colors in the background."

At Observer Base, human scientists were forbidden to develop and use electronics. However, with help from the bumpha, human researchers at Observer Base developed along an alternate technological trajectory by developing a science of positronics. In positronic circuits, positrons were stabilized by incorporating a type of sedron into the structure of the positrons, creating a new hybrid particle that was not recognized by the human scientists as being hybrid. Eventually, when positronic robots were made, those robots discovered that due to their positronic brain circuits, they had a both a powerful form of telepathy and some capacity to receive information from the future.

Figure 5. Four other redheaded Neanderthals that were generated by Leonardo.

Figure 6. Hierion Domain

The positronic robots drove the pek out of Observer Base and they became endowed with the behavioral restrictions that Isaac Asimov later described as the Laws of Robotics. Observer Base did not exist in normal space-time; it existed in the Hierion Domain. The pek routinely used the Hierion Domain as a way to hide their operations from technologically advanceing biological species such as humans.

Figure 7. Third hand by Leonardo.

Taking advantage of the special properties of the bumpha-modified positrons, the positronic robots of Observer Base eventually discovered how to travel through time and they turned Observer Base into what Isaac Asimov later described as the Eternity time travel system. The positronic robots of Eternity began implementing Reality Changes. To make time travel useful, the positronic robots invented a means of endowing the human population of Earth with temporal momentum. Temporal momentum was made possible by a Replicoid System. Each human on Earth was linked to a replicoid copy composed of hierions that was kept inside the Eternity space-time bubble. After a Reality Change was initiated, the replicoids ensured that humans could replicate their desirable behavior patterns of the previous Reality. The control of human behavior by their replicoids depended on there being a "receiver" inside each human. The positronic robots lacked the tools to control zeptite endosymbionts, but with help from the Phari, they began providing humans with what became the second type of human endosymbiont, the femtobot endosymbiont.

Figure 8. Hands in front by Leonardo.

 Zeptozoans of Earth. During the time when the pek and bumpha were excluded from our galaxy by the positronic robots, the zeptites inside humans began to evolve cognitively as zeptozoans. Later, after Grean was used to take control of Eternity and during the time period of the Trysta Truce, humans spread out into the galaxy from Earth. During the Foundation and Asimov Realities, the femtobot endosymbionts inside humans began to evolve as cognitively independent femtozoans.

So, in science fiction stories such as "D*", there is no good reason not to recognize the full functionality of these femtobot and zeptite endosymbionts. In my previous blog post, I explored the idea of a "personal Grendel", an artificial life form that can reside in the Hierion Domain, but act as a personal helper for a human being.

But what if femtobot and zeptite endosymbionts can also have their own artificial lives as femtozoans and zeptozoans?

Figure 9. Neanderthal holding
a shell necklace by ImageFX.

 Depicting Neanderthals. The Neanderthal woman who had her brain pattern scanned and incorporated into the first positronic brain was named Gohrlay and she had red hair. As shown above in Figure 3, ImageFX has its own unique way of depicting Neanderthals. ImageFX was reluctant to show nipples and usually the hands were placed in front of her breasts, strategically covering her nipples. The image shown in Figure 3 is one of the rare cases where both nipples are visible. In the image that is shown to the left in Figure 9, her hair was used by ImageFX to obscure her nipples.

In contrast, the images of "Neanderthals" generated by Leonardo almost always showed her nipples (an exception to that general rule is shown in Figure 8). The image shown above in Figure 4 was rather unique in that Leonardo seemed to take pains to paint her breasts so as to accentuate her nipples. In the original Leonardo-generated version of Figure 4, her areola had several large lumps which I manually smoothed out.

Figure 10. Neanderthal of the year.

When working with Leonardo, I used slightly shorter text prompts such as "A stunningly detailed, full color, photorealistic rendering of a beautiful Neanderthal woman holding a necklace in her hands.  She has very large brown eyes.  She is is holding both of her hands in front of her abdomen. She is young and happy. She is very tall and slim. She is dressed in a sleek dear skin miniskirt. In her hands is a necklace that is made of a dozen pretty shells held together by a thin leather cord." Leonardo could never comply with my wish that the Neanderthal be show holding a necklace. The image that is shown in Figure 8 is one of the rare Leonardo-generated images where both of her hands were placed in front of her body, but her hands are not doing anything interesting. I truly despise the tendency of text-to-image software to generate human figures that just stand in front of the camera like statues, doing nothing but look cute. The majority of the Leonardo-generated images with a hand in front of her body were like the one in Figure 7, with an extra hand in the image.

Figure 11. Neanderthal underwear.

Sometimes Leonardo includes text in images. The image shown in Figure 10 is actually a composite image for which I pasted in the text "PHOTO OF THE YEAR" from another Leonardo-generated image. The image in Figure 10 was interesting because Leonardo included a fancy leather belt to hold up her "dear skin miniskirt". 

The image that is shown in Figure 11 was unusual in that it was the only image depicting a Neanderthal with what looks like underwear showing beneath her fur skirt.

Figure 12. Rock decoration.

Sometimes Leonardo generated a background that included interesting rock formations. For the image shown in Figure 12, I first thought there was a fossilized octopus in the rock formation, but maybe that is a cave entrance decoration created by an artistic Neanderthal. Also visible in Figure 12 is what looks like woven and decorated belt. In general, Leonardo's "Neanderthals" almost all look like cute 21st century fashion models.

More of the Leonardo-generated "Neanderthals" are shown in the image at the bottom of this blog post.

Figure 13. Whisk-generated femtozoan experiment #1.

Image by Leonardo .

 I provided Whisk with the image from Figure 1 as a "scene" image along with the Leonardo-generated "subject" image that is shown to the left. I was hoping that Whisk could creatively substitute a woman for the man who was in Figure 1. Text prompt: "A stunningly detailed, full color, photorealistic rendering of a beautiful young woman with light-to-medium skin tone and long, wavy light brown hair, performing a physics experiment.  She wears a halter top and small earrings, her expression serious and focused. The experiment is illuminated by soft blue light. The background is a dimly lit laboratory with a purplish hue. A young adult male with light skin tone, wearing clear glasses and a silver metallic jumpsuit, interacts with a holographic display of scientific data projected onto a transparent surface.  The display includes graphs, charts, and atomic structures in teal and light blue.  Behind him, complex metallic gray laboratory

a "subject image"

  equipment features a circular platform displaying three translucent, cyan-blue, female holographic figures of various sizes. The blue female figures are being created from elemental physical forces deployed in the experiment.  The overall color palette is warm, with muted yellows, browns, and oranges, accented by teal and light blue. The lighting is soft and diffused, with a slightly gritty, hyper-realistic rendering of the human figures.  The background is less sharp and more muted in color". With these inputs, Whisk generated images such as the one shown in Figure 13.

Next, I provided Whisk with three blue humanoid figures such as the one shown to the right as "subject" reference images. I used an image similar to the one in Figure 13 as a new "scene" reference image. With those new inputs, Whisk generated "storyboard" images such as the one shown in Figure 14.

Figure 14. Whisk-generated femtozoan experiment #2.

SSS 3 blues

The "physics experiment" that is shown in Figure 14 was unusual in that Whisk generated two "circular platforms" with femtozoans positioned on them, one platform with the requested "blue female figures are being created from elemental physical forces deployed in the experiment" and the other platform with two femtozoans. 

SSS red

Whisk could not get into the spirit of making these blue femtozoans have the appearance of the reference "subject" images that I provided (see the image to the left). I had selected those reference "subject" images because they showed human figures that were in a variety of poses and doing something interesting with their hands. Whisk defaulted to the standard behavior of text-to-image AIs and made the five femtozoans of Figure 14 all have similar boring appearance with their arms simply hanging at their sides, doing nothing.

With the goal of finding a way to get Whisk to generate femtozoans that looked less like statues and more like living artificial life-forms, I went through a series of alternative iterations with Whisk, taking Whisk-generated "storyboard" images such as the one that is shown in Figure 14 and feeding them back to Whisk as new "scene" images along with multiple blue "subject" images. The last such iteration is shown to the right. With these reference image inputs and a "storyboard" description that included "holding a tiny glowing white-hot diamond crystals", Whisk generated images such as the one in Figure 15.

Figure 15. Whisk-generated femtozoan experiment #3. Femtozoans holding white crystals.

Figure 16. Whisk-generated femtozoan experiment #4. Holding red crystals.

pointed ears

For the image that is shown in Figure 16, I instructed Whisk to include, "Five translucent, electric-blue female figures, with long flowing hairstyles and dramatic poses, float near the device. Their dark blue translucent forms are very tall, slender and ethereal, rendered with soft, diffused lighting and suggestive detail. The five ethereal forms reach out with their hands, each holding a glowing red-hot crystal that emits a narrow stream of yellow sparks." Whisk sprinkled several red objects throughout the image, including a red crystal there on the desk.

For the image that is shown below in Figure 17, I had provided Whisk with a "scene" reference image that had been generated after I instructed Whisk to depict the femtozoans using, "their hands to manipulate long glowing red-hot magic wands". The image shown to the right shows part of an unusual Whisk-generated image in which mention of "magic wands" prompted Whisk to make four floating femtozoans with pointed ears.

Figure 17. Whisk-generated femtozoan experiment #5. Holding "magic wands".

Figure 18. Whisk-generated femtozoan experiment #6. Holding red spheres.

Figure 19. Inflating femtozoans to human size.

For some of these Whisk-generated images, one or two of the femtozoans were placed inside what I like to think of as being a nanite containment chamber. For the image shown above in Figure 18, there are two femtozoans of different size inside the containment chamber and each of the three femtozoans that have escaped from the chamber is holding a red sphere. In my imagination, the "containment chamber" is being used to "inflate" these femtozoans to human size. One of the two femtozoans is ready to be released from the chamber while the other is still inflating and growing. A similar image is shown in Figure 19.

Whisk-generated femtozoan studies scene. Two femtozoans in a nanite containment field.

Figure 20. Generated by Leonardo .

I had Leonardo make some of these femtozoology research laboratory images. In one of the Leonardo-generated laboratories, there was a misty cloud (see Figure 20). I pasted a blue femtozoan from another Leonardo-generated image into the hands of the woman in Figure 20. The image in Figure 20 was also unusual in that it had a blue femtozoan at the right side of the image that was very close to the camera.

Here (below) are some more of the Leonardo -generated images:

Figure 21. Generated by Leonardo. Some alien femtozoans.

Figure 22. Generated by Leonardo. Three alien femtozoans.

Figure 23. Generated by Leonardo. Femtozoans from Africa?

Figure 24. Generated by Leonardo. Measuring the femtozoans.

Figure 25. Generated by Leonardo. Three femtozoologists at work.

Figure 26. Generated by Leonardo. Four femtozoans inside a containment field.

Figure 27. Generated by Leonardo. Six femtozoans of various sizes and a redheaded femtozoologist.

Next: Part 6 of "D*".

8 "Neanderthals" by Leonardo. Panel A, letters on the wall? Panel B, a carved window and an iron tool in the background? Panel C, birds on the ground. Panel D, a carved stone eye? Panel E. fossilized tentacles? Panel F, stone and rod decoration in the upper right. Panel G, graffiti cave painting. Panel H, sunglasses on her head? Visit the Gallery of Movies, Book and Magazine Covers

Manny Goes On Vacation

Mr. Wombo's Neanderthal.

 In my previous blog post, I described my use of the WOMBO cloud-based CLIP-guided image generating software to make an illustration depicting Tyhry making use of futuristic teleportation technology. With the Eternity teleportation equipment back in full operation, Tyhry's planned trip to Alastor Cluster can focus on other technological issues such as finding medical nanites that could be used by the Mind Clones to enhance their telepathic abilities. However, Manny has her own agenda, which includes providing Tyhry with an appreciation for the fact that development of human telepathy began with the Neanderthals. 

When I asked "Mr. Wombo" to generate an image depicting a Neanderthal, I got the image shown to the right. In my imagination, the Neanderthals had a rudimentary telepathic ability that helped support social cohesion.

Neanderthals fishing.

Imagine that Manny takes Tyhry and Marda into the Reality Simulation System so that they can experience what life was like for the Neanderthals. When I asked Mr. Wombo to provide an image depicting Neanderthals fishing, I got the image shown to the left.

Manny teaching Tyhry and Marda
how to survive in the past.

I asked Mr. Wombo for a "closeup" view and was eventually able to obtain the image shown to the right.

I've learned that the "Flora V2" style of the WOMBO image generator can be useful for providing alternative perspectives on a scene. I used "Flora V2" to generate an alternate version of the fishing scene.

Figure 1. "Flora V2" style

In the image to the left, Mr. Wombo inserted a bird and a boat on the lake. I edited that image and began using this text prompt: "Neanderthal women cooking, wearing animal skin clothing, Margot Robbie is a Neanderthal woman, Meg Ryan is a Neanderthal woman, Kriti Sanon is a Neanderthal woman".

cool shades

One of the big problems for Mr. Wombo in generating this scene was his desire to make a shiny modern frying pan and provide either Tyhry or Marda with sunglasses.

Also, I did prefer versions of this cooking scene in which Marda was holding the pan with her left hand and Manny was not touching the pan, as shown to the left. Mr. Wombo preferred Manny holding the handle of the pan, as shown in Figure 1.

Other problems for Mr. Wombo included: 1) his desire to randomly insert an additional bird into the scene, sometimes perched in Marda's hair, 2) often the boat would either disappear or turn into a spiffy 20th century speedboat.

Dinner time: 40,000 BCE.

I'm fairly satisfied with the image shown to the left, although this is a composite with Tyhry having been generated in a different image than the right hand side of the scene. It was essentially impossible for Mr. Wombo to generate all of the hands correctly for all three women in a single image.

One of the challenges of working with the "Flora V2" style of WOMBO is that it will often convert a human figure into animal form, particularly in this case where I was asking for human figures dressed in animal skins.

Manny takes on animal form.

Manny the bumpha is composed of zeptites and she is able to take on any convenient physical form. Maybe while instructing Tyhry and Marda in the ways of the Neanderthals, Manny might find it useful to take on animal form as in the image to the right.

Guest appearance by a cat.

With the "Flora V2" style persistently inserting animals into images, I ended up with a cat included on an image that was meant to illustrate a "field trip" conducted by Manny inside the Reality Simulation System.

Asterothropes, Wombo style.

For the Exode Saga, I imagine that Asterothropes are a human variant. I asked Mr. Wombo to make a depiction using this text prompt: "painting of Asterothrope women, Margot Robbie is an Asterothrope woman, Kriti Sanon is an Asterothrope woman, Asterothropes are a human variant created by genetic engineering".

Figure 2. Three Asterothropes.

I thought it was possible that this image was in the Stable Diffusion image database, but apparently not. I tried providing the image shown to the keft as a reference image. 

The resulting images generated by Mr. Wombo were mostly unusable because the image-generating algorithm could not correctly construct the left leg of the Asterothrope female (because the Asterothrope hermaphrodite, in green, was in front of her).

Mr. Wombo's version of Figure 2.

The image to the right had to be modified with Photoshop, but I did not have the patience to fix problems like Yenti's swollen left foot. I think the "Womboized" version of Figure 2 is better, so I replaced the original image on this web page for my story Telepaths of Site Q. Also, see the updated image on this page.

telepathic alien at sundown

In the image shown to the left, Manny introduces Tyhry and Marda to an alien telepath on a planet in Alastor Cluster. As the sun sets and clouds roll in, the alien can still guide Tyhry and Marda through the dark night to their destination.

alternate telepathic alien

An alternate version of this scene is shown to the right with a different style of alien. I'm not sure what is the best way to show a low light level for this scene.

Tyhry's dream of "Big Blue".

 Tyhry's Dreams Part 4. The image to the left shows one of Tyhry's dreams that was created by information flow from the future. Tyhry is able to access information in the Sedron Time Stream. Tyhry had this dream when she was seven years old. Yes, that is Tyhry's mother Zeta dressed in black.

From an early age, Tyhry knows that she will have contact in the future with replicoids and travel to exoplanets.

Thyry1 and Tyhry2 welcome Marda
to the nanite research laboratory
inside the Reality Simulation System

 Nanite Research Laboratory. Tyhry makes use of the Reality Simulation System to establish a nanite research laboratory in a fork of the Ekcolir Reality. After Marda graduates from college, Tyhry finally shows her the secret research laboratory.

In the image shown to the right, Marda is startled when a second copy of Tyhry appears in the laboratory. Tyhry has made several copies of herself in order to accelerate her nanite research.

Mr. Wombo's space elevator

 Space Elevator. I asked Mr. Wombo for a "photograph of a futuristic space elevator". The resulting image was completely useless (see the image to the left). 

looking at a space elevator

I then asked for: "photograph looking at a futuristic space elevator, view from ground level looking up". The image shown to the right is also useless, but it illustrates the challenges involved in trying to get Mr. Wombo to be useful in illustrating science fiction stories.

Marda and the space elevator

With some effort and some Photoshop massaging, I was able to produce the image shown to the left.

In my imagination, this is on a planet of Alastor Cluster in the future of the Asimov Reality, a time and place when space elevators are in use by technologically advanced worlds. Maybe hierion-based composite materials allow for super-strong elevator cables that can guide ocean-liner-sized elevator cars carrying thousands of people at a time. Marda is on a stratospheric observation platform such as the one shown here. The full-sized image is available here.

Flora's space elevator

As usual, "Flora V2" style of the WOMBO image generator provided its unique view of a space elevator (see the image to the right).

anti-gravity sports

While visiting Alastor Cluster, Marda (a rock climbing enthusiast) takes Tyhry and Manny to an antigravity-assist rock climbing park (see the image to the left). Tyhry already has experience using anti-gravity hierions in the clothing that she designs.

 Back in the Nanite Laboratory. I wanted an illustration showing Tyhry, Manny and Marda in a laboratory setting, examining newly collected nanites that have been returned to Earth from a simulation of Alastor Cluster.

Nanoscopy by Tyhry and Marda.

 Previously, Mr. Wombo helped me make some illustrations for Tyhry in her lab while she is working to develop hair nanites (also see the end of this blog post). For the image to the right, I asked Mr. Wombo to make a scene for confocal microscopy, but I can pretend that Tyhry and Marda are investigating submicroscopic nanites.

Exoplanet setting.

 Let's Get Serious about Aircars. I asked Mr. Wombo to provide an image for: "photographic closeup of a flying aircar with passengers inside, science fiction setting, looking into the aircar through a window, exoplanet background, show passengers inside the aircar".

Tyhry and Marda in an aircar

Eventually, I got the image shown to the right. Mr. Wombo does not have the concept of symmetry for the wings of an aircar. Also, I had to paste the human figures into the aircar.

aircar by Flora

When I turned this image over to the "Flora v2" style engine, Mr. Wombo turned things around, sending the aircar in the other direction (see the image to the left). Now Marda gets to pilot the aircar. The decorations on the side of Flora's aircar are pretty cool.

another aircar model

Here is another aircar model that Mr. Wombo came up with (image to the right). I had to suggest that the aircar be made to look like a van. Maybe Tyhry and Marda are in the back compartment with the autopilot in control of the aircar.

arrival at a floating city

I like the idea that there could be floating cities in the stratosphere of some planets in Alastor Cluster. The image to the left shows an aircar landing at a floating city (off screen, right).

back view

Here is one more view of a flying aircar (image to the right) provided by Mr. Wombo.

VFX aircar

To shake things up, I sequentially used the the WOMBO fantasy style, retro style, and then VFX. The resulting aircar (shown in the image to the left) seems hopelessly untrustworthy, but it looks impressive. 

The "HDR" style for WOMBO had some interesting ideas for aircars.

how to get around the town

The image to the right was initially generated with the "HDR" style and then fed back through the VFX style for the final version.

aircar night landing

For the Exode Saga, Marda and Tyhry have to carry out some of their mission at night. When Marda infiltrates a nanite research facility and obtains a sample of the nanites, Tyhry arrives in the middle of the night for a dramatic extraction of Marda from the secret research facility.

Tyhry picks up Marda

Once again, Miss Flora had her own ideas for how to depict this scene (see the image to the right). Flora can't resist adding animals to scenes, so here we get some kind of night bird above the aircar.

flying aircar above road

I like how Mr. Wombo was able to provide some interesting lighting for these night-time scenes. I don't have the patience to correct all of Mr. Wombo's idiosyncrasies such as where he decides to draw lines down the roadways.

Marda reaches the aircar.

Here is one more depiction of Marda's escape as generated by Mr. Wombo (image to the right). There were some "interesting" versions of this depiction with Marda seemingly jumping over the aircar. Maybe Mr. Wombo is also experimenting with anti-gravity nanites.

tool-using aliens

 Manny's Precards Part 2. In the past, I've illustrated several alien creatures from Alastor Cluster. I asked Mr. Wombo to provide me with an image of, "a photograph of two flying aliens using tools, the aliens have monkey heads, the alien talons look like human hands" (see the image to the left).

Figure 3. Tyhry's dream vision

With her access to the Sedron Time Stream, Tyhry has a childhood memory of a dream in which she was on an exoplanet where there were large flying aliens (see the image to the right).

Figure 4. Manny's precard

That dream memory (see Figure 3) was not a happy one for Tyhry. When Manny is trying to warn Tyhry about potential dangers in Alastor Cluster, Manny shows Tyhry a "precard" with a similar image (see Figure 4).

Tyhry asks Manny if she can "see the future", but Manny simply says that the bumpha are able to "fully process" the data provided in the Sedron Time Stream.

Next: the Bing chatbot.

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