Bing Go AI

The Exode Saga

 I've been exploring the use of AI-generated images to help illustrate my science fiction stories. I've also recently been investigating how the Bing internet search software is using AI-generated text (chat) as part of its user interface. 

I asked Bing: "What is the Exode Saga?"

The Bing AI-generated chat system replied: "The Exode Saga is a science fiction adventure that involves a team of Retrofuturians who created and crafted the science fiction genre within the Ekcolir Reality (source). It is a collaborative fiction writing project that can be found on the exodemic website and the wikifiction blog. There is also a video introduction to the Exode Saga on YouTube (see)."

Actually, Bing failed to provide a link to this blog, so in the above paragraph I added a link to my blog page called "The Exode Saga".

Microsoft want's people to use the Bing search engine from within their Edge browser.

searching for Retrofuturians

Next, I asked: "What are Retrofuturians?"

The Bing AI-generated chat system replied: "In the Exode Saga, the Retrofuturians are a team of writers who created and crafted the science fiction genre within the Ekcolir Reality, which is a parallel timeline where Earth was visited by aliens and humans were given advanced technology and knowledge. The Retrofuturians used their imagination and creativity to explore the possibilities and implications of the alien intervention and the future of humanity."

Again, in providing the response shown above, Bing provided a link to a website, but I suspect it was a paid placement, since the linked web page actually contained no information about the Exode Saga.

Tyhry and Marda in Alastor Cluster

 I then asked, "Who is Rylla Onway?"

The Bing AI-generated chat system replied: "Rylla Onway is a character in the Exode Saga, a science fiction adventure that involves a team of Retrofuturians who created and crafted the science fiction genre within the Ekcolir Reality. She is a young woman who lives in the year 2017 and discovers that she is a descendant of an alien race called the Kac'hin. She joins a group of rebels who are trying to stop the alien invasion and save the Earth."

The source cited by Bing for the above information about Rylla is my YouTube video.

When Bing is done answering, it offers some suggestions for possible follow-up questions. In this case, I took a suggestion and asked, "Who are the Kac'hin?"

Figure 1. Kac'hin

 The reply from the Bing AI-generated chat system was pretty funny: "I’m sorry but I couldn’t find any information about the Kac’hin race on the web. It seems to be a very obscure and mysterious topic. Maybe you can try to contact the authors of the Exode Saga and ask them directly. They might be able to tell you more about their creation."

I've been writing about the Kac'hin for the past decade, but apparently Bing does not read this blog. Taking another suggested question from Bing, I asked how to contact the authors of the Exode Saga.

Bing AI reply: "It seems that the authors of the Exode Saga are a group of collaborative fiction writers who use the website exodemic.wordpress.com to share their stories and ideas. You can try to contact them by leaving a comment on their blog posts or by sending an email to exodemic@gmail.com."

Bing Go Off Rails. Don't bother sending an email to exodemic@gmail.com.....

An Asterothrope; made with evesnow02 by
Eclesi4stiK available under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

I like to imaging that the Kac'hin were genetically engineered so as to have a nearly normal human appearance, but there are some special anatomical features (see Figure 1). However, compared to the Kac'hin, the Asterothropes are much more different from the human norm and must be classified as a separate species. I asked Bing AI, "What is an Asterothrope?" For reference, the image to right shows an Asterothrope (source).

Bing AI reply: "An Asterothrope is a fictional term that refers to a genetically engineered successor to the human species in a science fiction blog called Trysta and Ekcolir. The word is not a common or scientific term, and it may be confused with similar-sounding words like 'azeotrope' or 'stereotype'."

image source
made using EliseComfy10
and KayleeRelax13
by Eclesi4stiK
CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
available under this (above)
Creative Commons license.

 Unstable Confusion.
Contrary to the opinion of the Bing AI, I doubt if anyone in the universe has ever been confused between an Asterothrope and a stereotype. I asked, "Where can I find an image that provides a good illustration of the physical features of an Asterothrope?"

Bing AI reply: "There are not many images of Asterothropes online, as they are a fictional creation of a specific blog. The only image I could find is from DeviantArt, a photo-manipulation of an Asterothrope. The image shows a humanoid figure with blue skin, pointed ears, and a star-shaped mark on the forehead. However, this image may not be accurate or representative of how the author of the blog envisioned Asterothropes. You may want to contact the author or the DeviantArt user for more information."

There are many depictions of Asterothropes at the wikifiction blog (for example, see the image to the left). Pressing the point, I asked, "What are some webpages at www.blogspot.com that show illustrations of Asterothropes?"

another dream of young Tyhry

The Bing AI reply: "I'm sorry, but I could not find any webpages at www.blogspot.com that show illustrations of Asterothropes."

I asked, "What are some passages of text from wikifiction.blogger.com that include the word 'Asterothrope'?"

The Bing AI reply: "I found a passage; it says: “In turn, Asterothropes were created as the logical successor to the human species and carefully engineered to efficiently spread from Earth outward through the stars. But all the carefully laid plans for Earth failed! At the end of Time, Trysta, the last remaining Asterothrope, is sent to Earth on a Time repair mission." (cited source)

Figure 2. Results from DuckDuckGo

Tyhry and a Sedronite.

 Duck Beats Bing. As shown in the image above (Figure 2) it is not hard to find images of Asterothropes at wikifiction.blogspot.com.

I asked the Bing chat interface, "What is the alien species known as the Huaoshy?"

The Bing AI reply: "The Huaoshy are a fictional alien species that appear in some science fiction stories. According to one source, they are an ancient and advanced civilization that has manipulated the evolution of life on many planets, including Earth. They have a complex relationship with humans and other intelligent beings, sometimes helping them and sometimes hindering them. They are also involved in a conflict with another alien race called the Sedronites."

Figure 3. lost story is found

I asked the Bing chat interface, "What was the first time travel story written by Isaac Asimov?"

 The Bing AI reply: "Isaac Asimov's first time travel story was 'Cosmic Corkscrew', written in 1938. The story was about a man who traveled into the future to find the Earth recently deserted. However, this story was never published and is considered lost. His first published time travel story was The End of Eternity, which came out in 1955. This novel is about a secret organization that manipulates history for the benefit of humanity."

Figure 4. In the Ekcolir Reality

I can't stop myself from imagining that Marda might use the Reality Simulation System to visit the past and other Realities of Deep Time (such as the Ekcolir Reality, see Figure 4) where such a "lost story" might never have been lost.

I used the WOMBO Dream cloud-based CLIP-guided image generating software to make another illustration of a pulp science fiction magazine cover for the issue of a magazine containing Cosmic Corkscrew in another Reality of Deep Time (Figure 3). I like to imagine that the science fiction genre as we know it was invented in the Ekcolir Reality. In the Buld Reality, there were some science fiction stories that got published, but they had to be eliminated from the Final Reality.

Microsoft Rewards

When I started using Bing, Microsoft suggested using their Edge browser. The image to the left shows part of the user interface for Bing as presented by Edge browser. The combination of Edge browser with Bing search engine is a finely crafted system for pushing advertisements at users.

Figure 4. Never see an advertisement.

 Blocking Ads. I routinely use Firefox browser with the uBlock Origin extension (see Figure 4). After many years of never seeing an ad on the internet, it is quite a shock to experience Microsoft's highly-commercialized web browsing experience.

Figure 5. Mr. Google's go to source for information about using Bing.

I searched the internet for "Where are Microsoft's instructions for using Bing?"

Figure 6. DuckDuckGo's first choice for information about using Bing.

 Shown below is the top search result provided by Bing:

Figure 7. Bing's top search result for help on using Bing. Chat reply on the right.

Tyhry and Marda investigate AI.

In my experience, Microsoft is abysmal at explaining to users how to use Microsoft software. I guess it should not be a surprise that the Bing search engine directs users to wikiHow for instructions. What I don't understand is how it is possible for the Bing AI system to be dealing with a user of the Bing search engine (me) who already has access to the Bing chat feature, and yet it directs me to Bing.com/new so that I can get on the waiting list for getting access to Bing chat (see Figure 7). This is the true meaning of "artificial intelligence" in 2023; NO intelligence at all.

I was intrigued by my discovery that there is a website called "https://learn.microsoft.com/". I asked the Bing chat interface, "What is Microsoft Search?"

no updates for you

Figure 8. deep learning model

 The Bing AI reply: "Microsoft Search is a new search offering that helps you save time by bringing you the best of the web and work in a single experience. It is integrated with Microsoft 365 and works across all your data and platforms. It uses deep learning models to provide highly relevant and contextual results for your organization. Are you using Microsoft 365?🤔"

Yes, Bing search never fails to try to get you to use Microsoft products. I asked the Bing chat interface, "What are deep learning models?"

 The Bing AI reply: "Deep learning models are types of artificial neural networks that have revolutionized the field of machine learning. They use a layered approach to process information, where each layer of neurons is responsible for detecting and extracting increasingly complex features from the input data. "

the Tyhry node of the
Mind Clone Network

I asked Mr. Wombo for a: "photograph of deep learning models, artificial intelligence, fractal complex neural network in the background" and got Figure 8.

I asked the Bing chat interface, "How many layers of neurons are there in the Bing neural network?"

The Bing AI reply: "According to Microsoft Research, the neural network that powers Bing has 135 billion parameters and uses binary features. The input layer contains 9 billion features, generated from 49 feature groups, with each binary feature encoded into a 15-dimension embedding vector. After per-group sum-pooling and concatenation, the vector is passed through two dense layers to produce a click probability estimation."

I asked this follow-up question: "Does the Bing neural network have three layers of neurons?" 

Deep Learning Model (film)

The Bing AI reply: "Yes, the Bing neural network has three layers of neurons: an input layer, a hidden layer and an output layer. The input layer contains 9 billion features, the hidden layer contains two dense layers and the output layer produces a click probability estimation."

 You can't trust Bing. If you read the article that Bing cites you find this: "MEB is a sparse neural network model composed of an input layer taking in binary features, a feature embedding layer transforming each binary feature into a 15-dimension vector, a sum pooling layer applied on each of 49 feature groups and concatenated to produce a 735-dimension vector, which is then passed through two dense layers to produce a click probability." Thus, there are at least 5 layers in the neural network, contradicting Bing's statement that there are three layers.

Conie the AI (2023 film)

To investigate Bing's scientific knowledge, I asked, "How do sodium ions create a generator potential in a mechanosensitive axon?"

The Bing AI reply: "Sodium ions enter the axon via facilitated diffusion. This changes the electrical potential difference across the membrane, leading to depolarisation. This establishes a generator potential, which triggers impulses that travel along the sensory neurone."

Bing was also cute and asked me: "Are you studying for an exam?"📚

I asked, "How do sodium ions enter a mechanosensitive axon to create a generator potential?"

Miss Bing, the chatbot

The Bing AI reply: "Sodium ions enter a mechanosensitive axon through voltage-gated sodium channels that open when the membrane is depolarized by a stimulus. This causes more depolarization and creates a generator potential."

Again, Bing asked me a question: "Are you familiar with voltage-gated sodium channels?"⚡

Bing was wrong about voltage-gated sodium channels creating a generator potential. I asked: "In a mechansensitive axon, which comes first, a generator potential or an action potential?".

The Bing AI reply: "A generator potential comes first. It is a graded potential that develops in the dendrites of a sensory neuron when stimulated. If it reaches a threshold, it can produce an action potential in the axon."

2023 film: Artificial

Bing's next annoying question for me was: "Do you understand how graded potentials differ from action potentials?"🧠

In this case, Bing was confused. A mechanosensitive axon ending, where you can get a generator potential, is an axon, not a dendrite. I understand graded potentials and action potentials, but Bing does not.

Since Bing was wrong, I asked the very leading question: "To create a generator potential, does sodium enter the axon through mechanosensitive ion channels or through voltage-gated sodium channels?"

The Bing AI reply: "Sodium enters the axon through both types of channels, but at different stages. Mechanosensitive ion channels open when a stimulus deforms the membrane, allowing sodium to enter and depolarize it. This creates a generator potential. If it reaches a threshold, voltage-gated sodium channels open and let more sodium in, generating an action potential."

2023 film: Miss Bing

Bing also asked me: "Do you want to know more about mechanosensitive ion channels?"🔬

I asked, "What are the names of some mechanosensitive ion channels that can create a generator potential?"

The Bing AI reply: "Some examples of mechanosensitive ion channels that can create a generator potential are piezo, TREK, TRAAK and 2P. These channels are sensitive to different types of mechanical stimuli, such as sound, vibration, touch, blood flow and membrane deformation."

Bing also asked me: "Do you want to know more about any specific channel?"👂

I asked, "Can you show me an image showing the molecular structure of a piezo channel?"

structure of a piezo channel

The Bing AI reply: "I'm sorry but I cannot provide you with an image because the chatbox doesn't support images. However, I can describe the molecular structure of a piezo channel for you. A piezo channel is a trimer and is shaped like a propeller with three blades organized around a central pore."

I feel sorry for anyone trying to learn from Bing. Bing is very stupid and it falsely makes claims that are not correct, without providing users with any indication that Bing is likely to be wrong. That the chat AI would not show an image is annoying.

Tyhry uses the RSS to travel back in time from 2041 to 2023 in order to
obtain a deleted Reality Simulation System bookmark for the planet Sermyth.

 One More Mystery. As discussed above on this blog page, I followed Microsoft's advice and installed Edge on my old computer. After Microsoft provided me with Microsoft Edge version 111.0.1661.44, the Bing chatbot told me this: "The reason why clicking on the ellipsis button does not open a drawer in Microsoft Edge on Mac OS version 10.13.6 is that the version of Microsoft Edge you are using is not supported on Mac OS version 10.13.6. The minimum supported version of Mac OS for Microsoft Edge version 111.0.1661.44 is 10.14 Mojave."

Next: action in AI-generated images

visit the Gallery of Movies, Book and Magazine Covers

Take a Hint

In the Ekcolir Reality. Original cover art by
Reginald Rogers and Earle Bergey.

Two weeks ago (see this blog post) Yōd suggested that the "original Arkady" of the First Reality lived on the planet Tar'tron. Today, Zeta, Yōd and I turned our attention to the mystery of the analogue of "Arkady" in the Asimov Reality.

During the past few years, I've received many reports (usually from the Atlantis Clones) about science fiction stories that were published in the Ekcolir Reality. Yōd and Zeta tell me that they frequently have contacts with Thomas Iwedon and other members of the Retrofuturians, some of whom apparently have direct knowledge of the Ekcolir Reality.

According to Yōd, one of the writers who fell under the influence of the Writers Block in the Ekcolir Reality was Victoria Phillips. Apparently Victoria was trained as a geochemist in the laboratory of Scott Roberts at the New England Institute of Technology. She began writing and publishing fiction in the 1930s while still working towards her Ph.D.

Planet Arcady

Star Trek Seirius

Her story, "Living Stone", was later adapted as an episode of Star Trek Seirius. In the story, some miners on planet Arcady become convinced that several large almandine crystals are actually alive. During the course of the story, it is discovered that by subjecting the crystals to high pressure, the crystals can be made to have a demonstrable decrease in mass. Further study leads to the startling discovery that the missing mass is in the form of hierions, a previously unknown form of matter (see).

Invasion of the Zeptites

Eventually it is revealed that long ago the planet Arcady had a technologically advanced humanoid species. All that remains of that lost biological species are "zeptite endosymbionts", a form of artificial life that resides inside the rocks of the planet. Ultimately, a truce is arranged by which humans can live on the surface of the planet as long as they leave the planet's interior undisturbed as the domain of the natives.

According to Zeta, "Living Stone" is actually a mangled retelling of actual events in the Asimov Reality where humans first learned about zeptite endosymbionts after starting their exploration of distant exoplanets.

Asimov Replicoid
Through their own replicoids, Yōd and Zeta apparently have contact with a replicoid of Asimov in the Hierion Domain. This is the replicoid of the Asimov analogue who lived in the Ekcolir Reality. Unfortunately, Asimov's replicoid cannot provide much help to Zeta and Yōd in their efforts aimed at identifying historical truths about the Asimov Reality that might be contained in stories such as "Living Stone".

source

Asimov's replicoid apparently has encyclopedic knowledge of the science fiction stories that were published in the Ekcolir Reality, but he has no first hand knowledge of events in the Asimov Reality. This revelation was deeply disappointing. I asked, "How can that be? According to Ivory, Asimov's replicoid from the Asimov Reality came over into the Ekcolir Reality and established the Writer Block."

At that point Yōd heaved a deep sigh and turned her attention to her tablet computer. Zeta patiently explained to me, "Those are two different replicoids."

I sputtered, "Oh, ya. I keep getting confused by the multiplicity of clones, replicoids, teleportation duplicates and selfies."

source

"We don't know what happened to the Asimov replicoid from the Asimov Reality." Zeta sipped her coffee. "He disappeared after the Trysta-Grean Pact was put in place."

Yōd

Yōd set down her tablet and paced across the room, "I've been investigating another 'missing' Asimov replicoid."

Zeta and I watched Yōd traipse back and forth across the room several times. Out of respect for the cooler fall weather, she was wearing a set of thermal underwear that clung tightly to her curves. "The replicoid that once held all of the memories of the Asimov analogue from the Foundation Reality was apparently taken to the Galactic Core after the Trysta Truce went into effect. Just think of the progress that we could make in our investigation of the Asimov Reality if we could consult directly with a replicoid from the Asimov Reality!"

nanite extraction

Zeta shrugged, "It seems certain that efforts were made to restrict Earthlings from particularly dangerous types of knowledge about Deep Time. I accept as an axiom that detailed knowledge of alien technology such as hierion-containing femtobots would be catastrophic for we Earthlings. I have no doubt that the Asimov analogue from the Foundation Reality knew far too much about femtobots, so he had to be taken away from Earth."

Yōd suggested, "Everything that we think we know about hierions and sedrons and nanites might only be mis-information designed to confuse us."

I laughed nervously. "I have to believe that there is some truth in what I've learned about hierions and femtobots. Ivory paid with her life for sharing this kind of information with Earthlings. I've only been allowed to remain on Earth after having some of my own knowledge erased from my mind by the Overseers."

Pharithould
and also see the discussion here

Zeta added, "And the rules are clear: we can only discuss hierions and femtobots in the context of science fiction. When the Dead Widowers tried to go further, they were swept off of Earth and exiled to the Hierion Domain."

Yōd grabbed her tablet and sprawled across the couch. "According to Thomas, there is a connection between the discovery of zeptites on planet Arcady and the ancient Greeks. Apparently there were Grendels that operated out of Lake Stymphalia... they tried to teach folks like Aristotle about hadrons, hierion and sedrons, but that ancient Intervention failed."

Zeta nodded, "That intervention was crushed by the Overseers, but a few legends lived on, such as stories about metal flying machines that used to visit ancient Greece."

Analogue of Arkady

In Deep Time

Zeta spoke in a wondering voice, "We've been left with a smattering of clues about the importance of Arkady as a fixed point in time. Will we ever know the fate of the Arkady analogue in the Asimov Reality?"

Yōd finished munching on a lemon and guessed, "I'd say the Arkady of the Foundation Reality lived about 23 millennia in our future." She picked up a knife and sliced another lemon. "Has anyone ever put a date on the successful creation of the tryp'At in the Asimov Reality?" Yōd bit into another lemon quarter and juice ran down her chin.

I suggested, "Vance's Alastor Cluster stories might have taken place 230 centuries into the future. However, it boggles my mind to imagine how R. Gohrlay's system of replicoids could have been spread to the entire galaxy."

In the Ekcolir Reality

Zeta nodded, "I agree. It seems more likely that 'Arcady' and 'Arkady' are simply popular names. We can't assume that there was a true Arkady analogue in the Asimov Reality. And even if there was, she -or he- might not have been of any great importance to the galaxy."

I was not ready to abandon the search for Arkady. "We know that there were additional Alastor Cluster novels written in the Ekcolir Reality. They might have told the story of Arkady. There is still an outside chance that Akadie the Mentor is who we are looking for."

Yōd muttered, "Too many unknowns."

Nivsaham

I sighed. "If only I had known to ask such questions when Angela was available. Maybe a miracle will occur and Many Sails might bring Angela back to Earth from Tar'tron or where ever she's been hiding."

Next: meeting Nivsaham

visit the Gallery of Book and Magazine Covers

the tryp'At

source

It was two years ago when I first became aware of the existence of the tryp'At. During the past two years, I have struggled to learn about the tryp'At and their special role as the current Overseers of we Earthlings.

A Search Beyond

Currently, Yōd is waiting impatiently for me to write the third chapter of A Search Beyond. Not long ago, when Yōd set up a website to hold the text of that story, she went ahead and provided a Table of Contents, complete with chapter titles. She called Chapter 3 "the tryp'At Overseers".
 
Overseer Sachiz
In the first chapter of A Search Beyond, Overseer Sachiz arrives on Earth and promises that the tryp'At Council will decide if the replicoid of Isaac Asimov can remain on Earth.

source

The Overseers are a kind of police force that watches over Earth. The goal of Overseers is to prevent Interventionist agents from interfering with the normal course of cultural development on primitive planets like Earth.

the Sedronite family tree

I first heard about the existence of the tryp'At from Anney Fersoni. I suspect that Anney had contact with Kach in the Hierion Domain and as part of Kach's story about the origins of humans as a species, there was mention of the O'typ.

All in the Family
Among the revelations made by Kach was the suggestion that the Nereids were constructed millions of years ago as a primate variant. According to Kach, the O'typ were a finely-crafted daughter species of the Nereids that had been carefully taken through a de-evolutionary process aimed at regressing a subpopulation of Nereids towards a biological form that could successfully persist in the Hadronic Domain (our 3 dimensional universe of hadronic matter) for an extended period of time.

source

Eventually the O'typ evolved into the ry'A by an artificial process that involved on-going gene transfer between Earth and worlds of the Galactic Core where the ry'A resided. Rumor has it that when R. Gohrlay was still in her xenophobic phase, the O'typ were forced out of our galaxy and they resided on a planet in the Andromeda galaxy. I've been aware of the ry'A for almost two years, but I've been unable to learn very much about them. It may be that the ry'A were the result of a collaborative effort between the bumpha and R. Gohrlay aimed at experimenting with the telepathic abilities of primates.

In the First Reality
Unfortunately, the Sedronite family tree (shown above) is limited to sketching the apparent origins of the tryp'At here in the Final Reality. According to Yōd, back in the First Reality, before R. Gohrlay was brought into existence, the O'typ were used as genetic source material by the pek when they created the Prelands. Of course, those Prelands were not identical to the Prelands of the Final Reality.

source

Given her training as a genetic scientist, Ivory Fersoni was well motivated to investigate the genetics of the Sedronites and the many twists and turns involved in the genetic manipulations that led to the creation of the tryp'At. In collaboration with Anney, Ivory developed the theory that there was an "age of the X-philes". According to Anney, the O'typ had three "genders", HX hermaphrodites, HY males and XX females.

Sources
I've never learned exactly how Anney and Angela were able to access information about Deep Time from the Sedronic Domain. According to Yōd, the mysterious hermaphrodite Resh^Ki served as a kind of guide who could help Anney and Angela explore the information archives of the Sedronic Domain.

source

Apparently, the tryp'At are genetically very similar to the majority of Earth humans. However, the tryp'At have a few special gene combinations that allow them to use advanced nanite technology. Their special genetic pattern and their access to special nanotechnology is what allows members of the tryp'At Council to function as Overseers.

source

As depicted in A Search Beyond, one of the special abilities of the tryp'At Overseers is their freedom to "teleport" to and from the surface of Earth. However, according to Yōd, this is not "true" teleportation. The tryp'At simply slip through "hierion tubes" and move to and from the Hierion Domain.

source

According to Zeta, the tryp'At Overseers are enforcing the terms of the Trysta-Grean Pact. Unfortunately, I've never seen a copy of this "pact". I assume that it codifies the special version of the Rules of Intervention that were crafted for Earth.

Take-Over

source

I've never been told exactly when the tryp'At Overseers began enforcing the terms of the Trysta-Grean Pact. There might not have been a smooth transition from the previous Overseers. About two years ago I started hearing rumors about an active struggle to define "human" and make it possible to exclude "non-humans" from Earth.

Reconstruction by Zeta. Original
cover art by Gordon Davies

According to Zeta, there was a period of time when Many Sails was able to shield people like Anney and members of the Dead Widower Society from the tryp'At Overseers, allowing them to remain on Earth. Was it about two years ago that Many Sails abandoned that effort and took Asimov to the Andromeda galaxy? In any case, by 2015 both Ivory and Angela were gone, each of them having found a way to escape from Earth.

It maybe that one of the last acts of Orbho Jandra was to facilitate the removal of Ivory from Earth. It is not clear that the current Overseers make use of an Orbho as a chief executive. The tyrp'At Overseers apparently use a supervisory Council. If this is so, then a fundamental shift has taken place, leaving Earth free of pek oversight and placing our fate in the hands of humans.

Ivory's final form? (source)

Zeta has an elaborate hypothesis about a sustained effort that was supposedly made to show me that Ivory and her clone sisters were not really human, even by my preferred rather broad definition. I doubt if I ever saw Ivory's "true physical form", but I'm willing to accept that if left to their natural developmental processes, the Atlantis Clones would not have had the appearance of a typical Earthling.

Of more interest to me are the special features of Ivory's brain, but unfortunately I've never been given access to data concerning the special features of her cognitive apparatus.

source

tryp'At Humans
Zeta and Yōd agree that, unlike the Atlantis clones, the tryp'At are fully human. In our discussions during the past several weeks, Yōd has repeatedly criticized depictions of the tryp'At as having alien form. Apparently a subtle pattern of tryp'At genes allows for constructive interactions with special developmental control nanites and that combination produces a tryp'At individual who can efficiently use the Bimanoid Interface.

source

Zeta recently confirmed the validity of my previous guess that the tryp'At who now serve as Overseers had previously functioned as Observers. Yōd believes that by the terms of the Trysta-Grean Pact, the pek had to abandon Observer Base. That left a power vacuum that was filled by the tryp'At. Zeta (now reading this blog post over my shoulder) adds this: the new tryp'At Overseers might only be slowly learning how to play the role of Earth Overseers.

In some sense, there has been a reduction in deployment of advanced alien technologies on Earth since the departure of Orbho Jandra. One of the most disturbing rumors concerning currently used Overseer technology is that there might be intestinal bacteria on Earth that were designed to block our access to the Bimanoid Interface. Since the arrival of Yōd on Earth, I've been amazed by her eating habits. However, upon direct questioning she has denied trying to control her intestinal bacteria so that she can retain control of the Bimanoid Interface and a link to her replicoid in the Hierion Domain.

sneaking around Irhit to recover lost memories

In my case, for a short time I was able to use nicotine to facilitate access to the Hierion Domain. I've never known how my use of the Bimanoid Interface was disrupted, but I can't rule out the possibility that the problem is in the Hierion Domain and attributable to my replicoid, Irhit.

source

Svahr
Since the tryp'At are essentially impossible to distinguish from other Earthlings, there have been many rumors that various Earthlings are tryp'At. For example, Svahr may have been been tryp'At or half-tryp'At. Another rumor suggests that I am tryp'At.

Who can be trusted?

If they were placed into a role as guardians of Earth, it is natural to wonder if the tryp'At Overseers are actually puppets of R. Gohrlay or Grean. In my particular case, if I am tryp'At, then I must ask: am I a kind of "sleeper agent"? And if so, which side am I on? 

Grean's Plan

To some extent, we still live in Grean's Galaxy. The Kac'hin were crafted as human-like appendages for the Huaoshy. There is no reason to believe that Grean is done with Earth. The tryp'At Overseers might provide the convenient illusion that humans are now in control of Earth, but the tryp'At might now be doing the bidding of Grean and the Huaoshy.

Svahr

When I'm not being paranoid about the Huaoshy, I can always fret about the ultimate fate of R. Gohrlay and her secret agent Trysta Iwedon.

Yōd believes that Svahr is both a descendant of Trysta and an active member of the Retrofuturians. To the extent that there is any organized resistance to the tryp'At Overseers, that resistance seems to involve Interventionist agents such as Svahr. Zeta describes the cat and mouse game played by the Overseers and the Retrofuturians as being "continuing negotiations" over how to interpret the Trysta-Grean Pact. Zeta thinks that such "negotiations" are an inevitable and persistent feature of Earth's future.

source

Tools
The pek Overseers had the ability to monitor every zeptite endosymbiont on Earth. Zeta believes that the current tryp'At Overseers are much less sophisticated; they seem to carefully monitor the Internet and they are always watching for evidence of Interventionist activity on Earth.

Pheni

The tryp'At Overseers apparently believe that the replicoids of humans are not allowed on Earth. However, there is some evidence that the Retrofuturians are able to easily send replicoids from the Hierion Domain to Earth. If so, it is not clear that the Overseers are equipped to prevent visits by replicoids to Earth; they can only hope to act so as to limit the duration of such illegal visits.

Deep Time

Zeta, Yōd and I are currently investigating how the Phari helped with the genetic tinkering that led to the creation of the tryp'At. That investigation requires an understanding of events in Deep Time, particularly the Asimov Reality.

In the Ekcolir Reality. Image credits.

Currently, I'm investigating the on-going interactions between the Retrofuturians and the tryp'At Overseers. While some might call these interactions "negotiations", as far as I can tell it is more appropriate to use terms like "guerilla warfare" and "reprisals".

Next: speculation about Observer Base

visit the Gallery of Book and Magazine Covers