Cryptesthesiology

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Earlier this year I wrote a short story (The Asimov Reality) about the life of Isaac Asimov in another Reality. In that imagined alternate life, Asimov went to medical school and then worked as a molecular biologist. I could not resist including the idea that Asimov had professional interactions with other scientists such as Francis Crick.

In addition to being a prolific author, the Isaac Asimov of our Reality corresponded with thousands of people. Some of the famous people (including Crick) from the previous millennium who exchanged snail mail with Asimov are listed here.

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Implications
I previously imagined a collaboration between Jack Vance and Asimov that took place in Deep Time, in the Reality before the world as we know it came into existence.

I've long been amused that Jack Vance seemingly wrote himself (or possibly his descendant) into one of his novels. Jan Holberk Vaenz LXII, appears as the author of Preface to Men of the Oikumene (at the start of Chapter 6 in Star King). What if Vance himself, or his replicoid, lived into the far future?

Similarly, I've previously imagined that that Asimov's replicoid was present in the future of the Ekcolir Reality and helped craft a biological solution to the problem of global warming. But why not follow Asimov's replicoid even further into the future?

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Deep Time
I imagine that Asimov's Foundation existed in the Foundation Reality. Similar, Vance's Oikumene described the future of Earth in a previous Reality (what I call the Asimov Reality).

I've been slow to acknowledge the implications of all this temporal monkey business and the fact that both Vance and Asimov were "copied" over into artificial life forms that are potentially immortal.

I'm currently developing a bit of fan fiction (The League of Yrinna), a sequel to Trullion. Today I realized that I could use the replicoids of Asimov and Vance as characters in my new story.

In the Asimov Reality
The League of Yrinna takes place in the Asimov Reality, a Reality that came before the world as we know it. In the Ekcolir Reality, Asimov and Vance played important roles in creating the science fiction genre. In that Reality, information about the secret history of Humanity, and events from the far future of the Asimov Reality, were "leaked" to the people of Earth in the form of science fiction stories.

Time travel was heavily used on Earth in both the Asimov Reality and the Ekcolir Reality. Earth was the epicenter of the Time Travel War. Many of the science fiction stories of the 20th century were inspired by the far future of Earth in Deep Time. In the Foundation Reality, Asimov met a group of time travelers from the future and he was the recipient of information about the future of Humanity in that Reality. In the case of Vance, his replicoid had access to the Hierion Domain. Vance did not have just a single analogue in the Ekcolir Reality; instead, Vance was born as twins. The Vance replicoid was in contact with "Jack" Vance and the stories told by "Jack" were a stimulus and an inspiration for brother John. "Jack" Vance was apparently in contact with the Vance replicoid by way of the Bimanoid Interface.

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According to Gohrlay, there was no need for time travel by the Vance replicoid in order for "him" to obtain information about the future of the galactic civilization that developed when Humanity spread among the stars in the Asimov Reality.

Alastor Cluster
Here in the Buld Reality, Jack Vance wrote three novels about Alastor Cluster. According to Gohrlay, that cluster was known by a different name in the Ekcolir Reality and earlier Realities. For some reason, Gohrlay refuses to tell me the "true" original name of that star cluster. I am forced to conclude that I know "Alastor Cluster" by another name and there is a reason why I am not permitted to know the true location of "Alastor Cluster".

Origins of the Pharazen, the Fru'wu and the human species.

Gohrlay has confirmed that Alastor Cluster was the home of the Pharazen. However, there is something sensitive about the origins of the Bumpha and the Pharazen.

I'm now imagining a mystery component to The League of Yrinna that involves the replicoids of Vance and Asimov. By the time when Glinnes and Duissane are born on the planet Trullion, the replicoids of Vance and Asimov had already spent thousands of years developing their science of cryptesthesiology.

Their research in the field of cryptesthesiology is kept secret because they have learned that some mysterious force is acting to limit technological advance and scientific investigations within the Gaean Reach.

Cryptesthesiology by Ivan Jackie

The focus of their studies is now the mysterious Pharazen, a type of extinct humanoid known only from the ruins that remain on a few worlds in Alastor Cluster. Those mysterious ruins indicate the past existence of a mighty space-faring civilization that thrived before the human species came into existence.

Cryptesthesiology
In the 20th century of the Ekcolir Reality, Vance and Asimov collaborated to write a science fiction novel called Cryptesthesiology. They published the book using the pen name "Ivan Jackie", but made no secret of their collaboration on the story.

That story described the origin of the science of cryptesthesiology, the study of how some humans and members of some other alien species were able to access information by using the Bimanoid Interface.

Cryptesthesiology was a first contact story, exploring the origins and motivations of the alien Fru'wu.

Next: Syfy's adaptation of Childhood's End.

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Alternate track: more about the ancient Pharazen

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Making the Kac'hin

What lies beneath.
British Antarctic Survey

More than a year ago I started receiving information from Ivory about the origins of the Kac'hin. In my previous blog post I speculated about the fate of one of our galaxy's extinct humanoid species, the Pharazen. Here, I want to explore the idea that Interventionists were heavily involved in crafting the Pharazen and, later, the pek made use of some Pharazen genes to help craft the Kac'hin.

Looking Deeper
I originally thought of the Nereids as a biological species that could physically interact with Earthlings, but we need to look deeper, past the deceptive level of superficial appearances. Humans can mistakenly believe the Grendels to be a biological organism, so it is likely that any human who seems to have been in contact with a Nereid was actually just interacting with a Grendel, an artificial life form. As shape-shifters, it is possible that the Grendels long ago carefully studied human reactions and adopted a physical form that we Earthlings find appealing.

I now realize that at least one group of Nereids crossed over into the Sedronic Domain from where they can have no physical interaction with we Earthlings. There may be other descendants of the original Nereids who still retain a biological form, but I can find no evidence of that.

Sedronic Domain

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Here on Earth, the Eukaryotic Domain of life includes many diverse types of life forms. Similarly, within the Sedronic Domain there are many different factions, the dominant one being the Huaoshy. The diversity of artificial life within the Sedronic Domain is vast, with many  biological species having crossed over into the Sedronic Domain during the past couple of billion years. There is a whole artificial ecosystem within the Sedronic Domain where artificial life forms can diversify, evolve and proliferate. However, I fear that our chances of fully understanding the diversity of artificial life in the Sedronic Domain are about the same as a bacterium understanding human behavior within our technological civilization. Genesaunt civilization is like the large intestine of the Huaoshy and in that analogy, creatures like we humans are the bacteria living in the colon.

Interventionists

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Having bluntly stated my belief that we Earthlings can't hope to truly understand the Huaoshy, I want to try to sketch out what we can know about the relationship between the Huaoshy and the Interventionists who have played such an important role in making it possible for we Earthlings to stand here on this rock with an opportunity to reach the stars.

About a year ago I received some interesting information about the Interventionists from Angela by way of her "clone sister" Ivory. The key idea that Angela had stumbled upon is that the origins of the Interventionists goes all the way back to the ancient era before discovery of the Sedronic Domain. In that time, about 2 billion years ago, in a distant galaxy, several sentient species had managed to start developing an understanding of sedronic matter, but they were only taking the first steps toward converting themselves into artificial life forms that could take up residence in the Sedronic Domain.

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Within that primordial Huaoshy civilization, there were various factions who held differing views about how to interact with primitive species. The primordial Huaoshy civilization had developed sophisticated technologies based on a fairly mature understanding of hierions and they had already harnessed the power of sedrons to make possible faster-than-light travel among the stars. Their first encounters with more primitive civilizations that they discovered on planets of their home galaxy were uniformly disastrous. When exposed to the culture of the more technologically advanced Huaoshy, the poor primitives found their civilizations quickly overwhelmed and destroyed by advanced technologies that they could not safely wield.

The Huaoshy examined themselves and their relationship with more primitive sapient species. Apparently the Huaoshy had themselves been something of a fluke. They had successfully developed a technologically advanced civilization that had not destroyed itself. Spreading through their galaxy, the Huaoshy found only a few living sapient species. They found the remnants of many more lost civilizations that had briefly flowered with technological exuberance then destroyed themselves with technological disasters. By sharing advanced technology with primitive cultures, the Huaoshy only accelerated their demise.

Bumpha
I previously had a glimmering of a concept: that there had been a biological species that we could call the "original Kac'hin". Angela called these beings the "bumpha", but I don't even know what language that term is from. I'll assume that the bumpha were an ancient species within the original Huaoshy interstellar empire and that they played an important role in the faction that gave rise to what we now think of as the Interventionists. Ivory suggested that the best translation of "bumpha" is "renegade", a term applied to the earliest Interventionists by the majority of Huaoshy. In some mysterious and possibly unknowable twisted path of history, the bumpha were eventually responsible for the ability of both the Nereids and the Pharazen to exercise some independence from the pek and the restrictions of Genesaunt civilization.

Andromeda Chained to the Rock by the Nereids
by Théodore Chassériau

Ivory liked to refer to the bumpha as a type of lubrication that prevented the otherwise conservative and ponderous Genesaunt civilization from becoming too homogeneous and rigid. Where the conventional direction of Huaoshy influence over biology was to strive to allow safety and the survival of sapient species, the bumpha specialized in risky explorations of the full potential of the various forms of sapient life that the pek found among the stars.

The Nereids existed long before there were humans. The Pharazen are also more ancient than we humans, but not as old as the Nereids. Ivory imagined that the Pharazen were "clients" of the Nereids in much the same way that we humans became dependent on the Nereids for independence from the pek. Ivory speculated that the Nereids (actually, their artificial life form descendants, the Grendels) were perfectly comfortable adopting the most convenient physical form that allowed them to establish good working relations with either the Pharazen or we Earthlings. Human history is full of stories about humanoid sea creatures, stories that might have arisen from contact between humans and the Grendels.

by Edward Burne-Jones

The name "nereids", that I have adopted to refer to the otherwise nameless Interventionists of Earth, is simply borrowed from Greek mythology. Angela found no evidence that the name "nereid" originated from the Interventionists themselves. We Earthlings just need some convenient way to refer to our alien "benefactors". However, the questions still remains: have the Nereids been a beneficial influence on our species? By pushing us into our own space age, have the Nereids condemned us to technological disaster and extinction?

The Kac'hin

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When the pek needed to provide an interface between we humans and the Huaoshy, they created the Kac'hin. Angela discovered that the pek made use of Nereid design features in order to provide the Kac'hin with a functioning "bimanoid interface".

Angela could only speculate about the true appearance of the Kac'hin. Ivory adopted and made use of Angela's depiction of a typical Kac'hin.

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The extent to which various gene patterns derived from the Kac'hin, the Ek'col and the Asterothropes have been infiltrated into the human gene pool of Earth is a matter for speculation. Given Ivory's interest in genetics, it is not surprising that she investigated this topic. She told me that I am a carrier of some "alien genes" and they account for some of my unusual physical features and my innate ability to interact with the bimanoid interface.

Related Reading: making the Ek'col

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An Alternate Vance

publication year -Buld Reality

In a recent blog post, I provided a list of novels written by Jack Vance. In that list, I tried to show the year of publication for Vance's novels that I have read. When the Vance Integral Edition was constructed, an attempt was made to list the year when Vance wrote his stories. What about his publication history in other Realities?

During the past year, I worked extensively with Ivory Fersoni to make sense of the role that Isaac Asimov played in creating the universe that we live in. Asimov's literary output was somewhat different in each of the Realities leading up to the world as we know it. For example, in an earlier Reality, positronic robots were working to make sure that a positronics industry developed on Earth during the 20th century. In that Reality, Asimov wrote very little science fiction and he was content to be a science journalist, keeping the public informed about the astonishingly rapid pace of technological developments. In the Ekcolir Reality, Asimov split his writing between two domains. He wrote a significant amount of fiction but he was also a crusader for ecological sanity. In that Reality, the people of Earth faced a serious challenge during the 20th century from fossil fuel use, rising atmospheric greenhouse gas levels and rising sea levels.

August 1945 edition in the Ekcolir Reality

John Campbell played an important role in shaping the fiction writing of both Asimov and Vance. In earlier Realities, before Asimov became a time traveler, Campbell died at an early age and he had minimal impact on the writing of Asimov and Vance. Then when he did travel through time, the "older Asimov" from the future arranged to impersonate the dead Campbell, taking over as the editor of Astounding Science Fiction magazine and acting as a mentor for his younger self in the past. In the Buld Reality, the world as we know it, Thomas saved Campbell's life by inserting nanites into his body. Some of those nanites had previously existed inside the time traveling Asimov, so Campbell also was able to provide the Asimov of our Reality with story ideas from previous Realities.

1975 edition: Ekcolir Reality (a blue Kerub)

Similarly, the editorial decisions of Campbell influenced the career of Jack Vance. In the Ekcolir Reality, when Campbell received the first draft of Vance's story "The World-Thinker", he wrote back, agreeing to publish the story in Astounding with modifications. In the Ekcolir Reality, Vance publish his early fiction under the name "John Vance".

In the Ekcolir Reality, Vance published a total of six novels in the Alastor Cluster series:
1) Trullion: Alastor 2262 (1973)
2) Wyst: Alastor 1716 (1974)
3) Yerophet: Alastor 1083 (1975)
4) Kwenslo: Alastor 950 (1975)
5) Marune: Alastor 933 (1976)
6) Pharism: Alastor 458 (1977)

1975 edition: Ekcolir Reality

In An Alternate Reality.....
Four of the novels in the Alastor Cluster series (numbers 2, 3, 4, 6) featured Jantiff Ravensroke. In Yerophet, Jantiff had become a special agent for the Connatic. The planet Yerophet, with a big axial tilt, had severe seasonal variation. Only recently settled by humans, its population was constantly engaged in terraforming activities, often to the detriment of native life forms. Yerophet had a native population of humanoid migratory creatures, the so-called Kerub. Jantiff arrived on Yerophet to investigate the growing conflict between the Kerub and the human settlers. The Kerub were recognized as sentient beings and placed under protection of the Connatic. This story introduced the telepathic Phari, an unseen artificial life form with telepathic abilities that Jantiff found to have established a symbiotic relationship with the Kerub.

As told in Kwenslo and Pharism, Jantiff first searched for and finally visited the world of origin of the Phari. Kwenslo was long ago (soon after humans first reached the Cluster) colonized by humans and the indigenous Pharazen were driven to extinction. Jantiff investigates the ancient ruins of the lost Pharazen civilization.

1977 edition: Ekcolir Reality

Jantiff was only mentioned in passing in Marune (by Ollave) as having recently investigated the Fwai-chi. Jantiff returned as the protagonist in Pharism, completing the series. The planet Pharism had long ago been colonized by the Pharazen and that world had become a center for their scientific research and technology development. The Phari, an artificial life form, were designed and brought into existence on Pharism.

By the time humans settled Pharism, the Phari had spread to most worlds of the Cluster and established symbiotic relationships with all the various sentient species. Jantiff learns that the Merlings of Trullion, the Kerub of Yerophet and the Fwai-chi of Marune are symbiotic hybrids of a native biological species and the nanorobotic Phari. On Pharism, the Phari long ago established a symbiotic relationship with the human settlers, which had not been noticed until Jantiff's investigation. At the end of the story, it is revealed that the Connatic is from Pharism and has a Phari endosymbiont.

Related Reading: more Vance novels in the Ekcolir Reality.....
.....in another Reality..... Assignment: Marune

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