I Want To Re-imagine

In the Ekcolir Reality
Scully and Mulder star in   UFO  2015

There will be new X-Files episodes in 2016, so is it time to refresh our memories of the 1990s? I've previously described The X-Files as a being a non-invasion science fiction story in which the aliens should win an award for their incompetence. I'm reminded of another example of ineffective Hollywood aliens, from before The X-Files, so let's go even further back in Time...even into Deep Time.

(alternate)Reality TV
When I was a kid, the British TV show UFO brought an endlessly incompetent alien invasion to television. In typical Hollywood alien antagonist fashion, through each and every week of the television season, the invading aliens sent just enough spaceships to Earth to keep SHADO in business.

All new episodes of UFO 2015 !

I recently blogged about my fantasies for an X-Files reboot. Gohrlay informed me that in the Ekcolir Reality, when it came time to reboot The Δ-Files, it was re-imagined as a spin-off of the long-running UFO.

I have a low tolerance for horror, so much of the original X-Files does not appeal to me because of its mindless violence. However, I have a long history of re-imagining The X-Files as the type of science fiction that I enjoy.

Previously, I discussed ten episodes of Star Trek that would be easy to fit into the Exodemic Fictional Universe. Here, I want to take a similar approach to re-imagining The X-Files.

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Rather than select and comment on old episodes of The X-Files, I'm going to invent some new episodes of an X-Files spin-off television series as they should have existed in a previous Reality.

So, if you like, go ahead and picture Scully with purple hair and Mulder as a blond and off we go into Deep Time to experience some episodes of   UFO  2015   !

The Asimov Reality

2017

In the Asimov Reality, Nikola Tesla was used by R. Gohrlay and her team of positronic robots as a means to introduce advanced knowledge of physics into the population of Earth.

R. Gohrlaay's efforts, what became known as the "Tesla Intervention", led to a catastrophic nuclear war. Eventually, the replicoid of Nikola Tesla was taken across the temporal divide into the Ekcolir Reality.

The Ekcolir Reality

Tesla was Time's "Man of the Future" in 2285
(Etruscan calendar; Ekcolir Reality)

In the Ekcolir Reality, operating from R. Gohrlay's secret base of operations within the Hierion Domain, Tesla's replicoid passed knowledge of advanced hierion-based technology to several Earthlings. Could alternative sources of energy be found that would put an end to Earth's voracious fossil fuel use and slow the rise of atmospheric carbon dioxide levels? Working towards that goal and playing an important role in UFO  2015 was Luri Tamari, CEO of Space Energy Missions.

The main objective of the "Tesla Intervention" was to prepare Earth for First Contact with the Fru'wu. Tesla's replicoid provided Luri with advanced nanotechnology in an attempt to help the primitive Earthlings to not be intimidated by the alien Fru'wu. [fake Time covers]

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The back-story of   UFO  2015  was shaped by the on-going Time Travel War. R. Gohrlay was trying to create a Reality in which Earth would avoid technological disasters and the human species would have a long future of spreading through outer space and colonizing distant Earth-like planets.

During this time, Grean was trying to prepare for the Final Reality. It was convenient for her to allow the Tesla Intervention to proceed, with an occasional adjustment or tweak.

Tesla's replicoid had worked through the entire 20th century to develop a secret cadre of scientists who were to be positioned on Earth and ready to collaborate with the alien Fru'wu to solve Earth's global warming crisis. In UFO  2015, Dr. Diocio Flower and Dr. Verzor Kemnerun are the lead scientists for development of the Space Energy Missions hierion antennae array.

Episode 1: Fru'wu First Contact

Space Energy Missions - Long Valley Plant #3.

The first episode of UFO  2015  told the story of the arrival of a Fru'wu spaceship on Earth. In the teaser, radar operators at a military base track an asteroid as it penetrates Earth's atmosphere and causes a dramatic impact event in Death Valley.

Scene 1. We see that the asteroid was used as "cover" for the arrival of the Fru'wu spaceship on Earth. Just before impact of the asteroid, the spaceship pulls away and lands at the Space Energy Missions geothermal energy plant located in the Long Valley Caldera.

3, 6, 9

Luri

The Fru'wu spaceship parks inside a large dome at the airfield of Long Valley Geothermal Plant #3. The aliens meet Luri and the executive team for Space Energy Missions, who they have long been in contact with. When with anyone but Luri, the Fru'wu have the appearance of normal humans and they pass themselves off as a team of Chinese engineers.

Diagram showing the 9
spatial dimensions.

Meeting privately with Luri, the Fru'wu transform into their alien form and provide a quick introduction to advanced particle physics, explaining the existence of fundamental particles that can move through additional spatial dimensions beyond the three that are available to hadrons.

Luri is already familiar with the existence of hierions because of her contact with Tesla's replicoid. However, she is surprised to hear about sedrons as an additional family of particles. The Fru'wu explain that sedrons are required for their ability to travel through space at faster-than-light speeds. Hierions have 6 spatial dimensions available to them while sedrons are able to move through 9 dimensions.

Scene 2. Scully and Mulder are driving through Owens Valley in California, tracking rumors of UFO sightings. Scully argues that a fragment of the asteroid broke off the main body and shot over the Owens Valley, resulting in UFO reports. They talk to an eyewitness who seems reliable. Mulder lectures Scully about how the descriptions of the UFO provided by the eyewitnesses suggest a dark object that blotted out the stars, not a bright asteroid fragment.

Scully and Mulder visit a 911 call center where they are given access to recorded phone calls about UFO sightings. Scully grows tired of the monotonously repetitious phone calls and goes to spend the night in a hotel. She stays up late reading a science fiction novel.

Mulder stays at the call center all night, listening to recorded phone calls from people describing the UFO. In the morning, Mulder leaves his number with the 911 operator and asks her to let him know if there are any additional calls about UFOs.

"Sam Jacky" is the writing team of
Samantha Mulder and Jackie Vance.

Scene 3. Luri establishes contact with Tesla's replicoid using the Bimanoid Interface. He instructs Luri on the importance of obtaining as much information as possible from the Fru'wu and he tells Luri to set up a surveillance team to receive a data feed from inside the Fru'wu spaceship. Tesla's replicoid tells Luri that her nanite probes will be able to slip into the Fu'wu spaceship and transmit data to Luri.

Tesla's replicoid also warns Luri that Mulder will soon arrive. Luri is familiar with Samantha and Fox Mulder because they are (like her) part of the Ekcolir Lineage and able to use the Bimanoid Interface. However, Samantha is being used by Grean as part of her effort to develop the science fiction genre.

Scene 4. To distract the Fru'wu and get them all out of their spaceship, Luri invites the Fru'wu to a reception held at her home. Meanwhile, one of Luri's top executives (Plant Director Bess Kane) has assembled a team of Space Energy Missions technical staff members and they begin to receive video and audio from inside the Fru'wu spaceship.

The Fru'wu spaceship disguised as an airplane.

Following their instructions, the Space Energy Missions techs establish and test a communications system that will both automatically record the data and relay the video images to Luri's house, and then they leave the equipment running unattended. They don't understand where the signal that they are receiving originates from (from the outside, the Fru'wu spaceship looks like a commercial VTOL aircraft). Later, having left a piece of equipment behind, one of the tech staff (Jeff Thorn) returns to the reception/recording room and is amazed by what he now sees inside the Fru'wu spaceship: an alien who seems to be performing some kind of bizarre experiments on two human test subjects. The episode ends with Mulder receiving a frantic phone call from a man who is shouting hysterically about an alien.

Episode 2: Alien Abduction

UFO: The Movie
I wonder if the X-Files writers watched UFO"

In the teaser, Luri watches the video feed and sees the alien Fru'wu who stayed behind in the spaceship while all the others went to the reception at Luri's mansion. The Space Energy Missions technician who also saw the Fru'wu calls 911. The local 911 operator, tired of fielding crank calls about UFOs, connects the caller to Mulder.

Scene 1. Scully and Mulder are again driving their rental car. Today, Scully is driving and Mulder tells her to slow down. She says that she wants to get their work done so that they can fly back to Washington on a red eye out of Las Vegas. Scully is pulled over after speeding through a radar speed tap. She sweet talks the police out of giving her a speeding ticket.

They arrive at Long Valley Geothermal Plant #3. where Mulder conducts a frustrating interview with the Space Energy Missions employee (Thorn) who spoke to him on the phone. Luri and Bess have concocted a story about having a costume party at Luri's house with one of the "Chinese" visitors coming dressed as a space alien. Thorn can't seem to remember calling Mulder.

While Mulder interviews Thorn, Scully prowls around the Plant's airfield and gets a glimpse of the VTOL airplane in the domed hanger.

Fru'wu disguised as a human disguised as an alien.

Scully and Mulder ask to meet the visitors from China. The Fru'wu (now using human form) all pretend that they can't speak English very well and one of them puts on an ET costume and waves a toy "ray gun".

After meeting with the "Chinese", Mulder and Scully again separate. Scully can sense that Bess wants to say more than she is being allowed to say and tells her, "Call me if you think of anything else."

Mulder is rather dazzled and smitten by Luri. He tags along after her, when she wishes that she could get rid of him and go into the video room to check on the data feed from inside the Fru'wu spaceship. Standing in the hallway near the secret room, Mulder asks her why the company is called "Space Energy Missions" if they are in the geothermal energy business. Luri explains that the company is involved in developing technologies related to exploiting many alternative energy sources, but their ultimate goal is to obtain energy for Earth from orbital solar energy collectors.

An enigmatic poster seen by Mulder at Long Valley Geothermal Plant #3.

Scully finds Mulder and tells him that it is late and they should call it a day. Mulder tells Luri that they'll have to continue talking the next day. Luri makes a sarcastic comment about how the FBI should have better things to do.

On the way out of the Plant, Scully nags Mulder for dogging Luri's footsteps and following her around.

Mulder: (he hands Scully his smart phone) Luri Tamari: director of Space Energy Missions. Age 62.

Scully: (looks at the phone's display) So she has a great plastic surgeon.

Mulder: I think she warrants further investigation.

Scully: (sarcastically) She's in great shape at age 62, so she must be a space alien?

Mulder: There is nothing known about her family. She just appears out of nowhere and earns a Ph.D. in engineering from Georgia Tech then sets up the world's first alternative energy company. Fastest zero-to-billion dollar corporation in history.

As they get back in their rental car, Scully mutters something under her breath about Mulder's attraction to fast women.

Scene 2. Scully and Mulder are at the end of another long day, having dinner and still arguing about whether it is worth spending any more time investigated the UFO reports. Scully describes the odd-looking airplane that she saw in the hanger. Mulder reflects on Thorn's odd loss of memory. Scully takes a call from Bess who asks to meet with them. In the lobby of the hotel, Bess arrives with Thorn.

Prompted by Bess, Thorn gives a confusing account the physical appearance of the alien Fru'wu, but he sounds like he is describing something that he saw in a television show. Mulder and Scully, both dismayed by the incoherent Thorn, try to say goodnight to Bess. She asks them if they are going to do anything about the alien spaceship. Mulder asks her where the spaceship is, but Bess does not know. See tells Mulder and Scully about the secret room at the Plant with the mysterious video feed. Mulder assures Bess that they will investigate further.

After Bess and Thorn depart, Scully asks Mulder why he is paying any attention to Thorn and Bess. He says that he's puzzled by their odd behavior and that of the "Chinese". He calls Luri and arranges to meet her in the morning so that he can get back into the Plant (he wants to investigate the secret room). Just before ending the call, he asks her about Jeff Thorn's work history.

Luri asks Mulder, "Why do you ask?"

Mulder explains, "He claims that he saw an alien last night; I'm wondering if he has a history of odd behavior."

Luri laughs, "When we built the Plant back in the eighties, the locals thought we were constructing a secret rocket launch site for the Strategic Defense Initiative. Thorn was one of the locals who tried to block our geothermal operation. Eventually, after the Plant opened, he came to us for employment."

Mulder: "I'd like to review his employment records tomorrow. Do you do psychological screening?"

Luri: "I'm afraid I can't disclose health records of our employees."

Mulder: "Okay, I'll ask him directly."

Luri: "I don't want you badgering our workers and creating a scene. The Chinese are trying to buy into Space Energy Missions. I don't want you scaring them off and ruining the deal."

Scully goes to bed, but Mulder gets back in their rental car and drives around the area. He finds Thorn's house, but nobody is home. He breaks in and finds nothing except evidence that Thorn's family packed quickly and departed.

Scene 3. Mulder sees bright lights, just across the boarder in Nevada. He stops in at the run-down gambling house/bordello and talks to some of the locals about UFOs. One woman tells him that she thinks an odd-sounding military plane flew over the valley on the night of the asteroid impact, headed in the direction of the Space Energy Missions geothermal power station.

Mulder checks an app (it says MUFONET at the top) on his phone that maps the locations for all of the recent UFO sightings. They roughly form a line between Death Valley and Long Valley Geothermal Plant #3. Mulder gets back to the hotel just as Scully is going out to get breakfast. Mulder, looking bedraggled, says he'll crash in his room until she's ready to hit the road. Scully asks what he was doing all night and he just mutters about following leads. He asks her to put the police to the task of searching for Thorn's family. Scully teases him and asks if they were abducted by aliens.

Episode 3: Radar Dark

In the teaser, Mulder is trying to sleep while Scully drives. As they again approach the radar speed trap, Mulder tells Scully to slow down and stop. While Scully waits in the car, puzzled, Mulder talks to the police. A police officer opens up the trunk of the police car and hands an object to Mulder.  Mulder comes back to the car with a radar gun.

Scully: What are you going to do with that?

Mulder: We have to stop here on the way back so I can return this to the police.

Scully: That will take us out of the way for getting to Las Vegas. Why do you need a radar gun?

Mulder: I find them useful when dealing with fast women.

Scene 1. Scully and Mulder arrive at the geothermal energy plant. Mulder tells Scully to hurry to their appointment and ask Luri for details about the impending financial deal with the Chinese.

Mulder goes to the airfield, trying to hide the radar gun inside his jacket. He sneaks into the hanger and points the radar gun at the VTOL airplane.

Meanwhile, Scully meets with Luri. At first Luri evades all questions about the Chinese. Then Luri asks Scully to sign an intellectual property non-disclosure agreement. After handing the signed agreement form to a lawyer, Luri takes Scully to the secret room.

Luri activates a videophone conference call. A Chinese woman and Samantha Mulder appear on the video screen. Luri introduces the Chinese woman as the director of a film that is in production called Space Power. Luri and Samantha explain to Scully that the visitors from China are part of a secret project to produce a science fiction film about orbital solar energy collectors. Luri says that Space Energy Missions is planning to go public and start selling stock. To create interest among investors, the film will depict a future world in which solar energy collected in space and sent to Earth solves the greenhouse gas problem.

Scully is surprised to find that Fox's sister is involved with Space Energy Missions. Samantha says that she has long published science fiction under the pseudonym "Sam Jacky".

Scully: Why do you keep your life hidden from Fox? He obsesses over your disappearance."

Samantha: I contacted Fox many years ago. He had some kind of genetic testing done and he concluded that I'm not really his sister.

Just then, Luri takes a call on her phone. After the short call, she says goodbye to Samantha and cuts off the video conference call. Luri and Scully go to the main lobby where Fox is with two Space Energy Missions security guards who report to Luri that they found Mulder sneaking around the airport's hanger. They hand Luri the radar gun.

Luri says that if the FBI has further questions then they need to get a search warrant. She turns to go, but Mulder asks for the gun. Luri tosses it to him and orders the Plant security officers to escort the FBI agents out.

Mulder asks Luri, "What's the Mercury Project?"

She replies, "If the FBI has further questions, please contact our marketing and legal departments." She turns and walks away.

Mulder and Scully are escorted back to their rental car and then they drive away from the Plant.

Scene 2. Scully and Mulder are in a roadside diner with the local policeman who let Mulder use the radar gun. Mulder explains that the "Chinese" VTOL aircraft does not reflect radar. He suggests that the police get a search warrant and investigate the strange vehicle.

Scully: Mulder, are you saying that we should go before a judge and say that there is an alien spaceship in that hanger?

Mulder: Its either that, or secret Chinese stealth technology.

The police officer expresses skepticism. Scully changes the topic to Samantha (Sam Jacky). Fox insists that she forget about her.

Mulder: That's not my sister. She some crank who came to me years ago wanting to make a movie about UFOs. I think she ghost wrote that ridiculous Delta Files Trilogy that you have been reading.

Scully: It can't be a coincidence that she turns up now at Space Energy Missions.

Mulder: Did you see her? At the Plant?

Scully: No. It was a video conference call. I think she's in China working on Space Power.

Mulder and Scully continue to argue. The police officer eats his lunch, pays his bill and departs.

Scully: Let's go Mulder. We can catch the last flight from Las Vegas to Washington.

Scene 3. Inside the Fru'wu spaceship, the two humans (seen previously) are shown as the subjects of a strange ritual. The humans are laid out on a platform and the Fru'wu place two large, glowing crystals next to their heads. Some glowing clouds move from the crystals into the heads of the two humans. The ritual concludes and the two humans walk out of the spaceship, speaking in the Fru'wu language to each other.

Luri again contacts Tesla's replicoid. She says that Drs. Flower and Kemnerun have successfully taken on their Fru'wu endosymbionts and are now ready to start crafting the Hierion Receiver. Luri expresses distrust of Flower and Kemnerun now that they carry Fru'wu endosymbionts inside their bodies.

Tesla's replicoid says that they have no choice and must trust Flower and Kemnerun, although he suggests that they could transfer one of the Fru'wu endosymbionts into Luri "so she can verify its mission objectives". The replicoid says that their larger problem is that Mulder has interested the local police in the "Chinese" aircraft.

Luri says that the "Chinese" are scheduled to depart from Earth that night.

Late in the afternoon, the police arrive with a search warrant and say they are authorized to search the Plant for illegally imported foreign technology. They go right to the hanger and ask to search inside the VTOL aircraft. Luri arrives and says that the Chinese are in Las Vegas for the day, as tourists and that the police should come back the next day.

The police order the airport crew to open the hatch of the VTOL craft. A technician opens the hatch and the police go inside. Luri orders the airport staff to go back to their work and they all leave the hanger. Luri enters the Fru'wu spaceship and the hatch closes behind her.

Inside the Fru'wu spaceship, the Fru'wu "zap" the police and put them on the platform with the crystals. After adjusting their equipment and after some jerking reactions of the police officers' bodies, some glowing clouds come out of their heads and into the crystals. The police get up off the platform and walking in a daze away from the platform to where Luri stands watching.

The scene cuts to Mulder and Scully on an airplane flying out of Las Vegas. Scully is reading a science fiction novel by Sam Jacky and Mulder is using his smart phone to track a new batch of UFO sightings that are coming in from near the geothermal energy plant.

The scene returns to the Fru'wu spaceship which lands in the middle of a desert area. The two police officesr, acting dazed and disoriented, are led out of the spaceship by Luri. Then the Fru'wu spaceship takes off, first using its propellers while still in the form of the VTOL aircraft then transforming into the shape of the Fru'wu sleek spaceship (seen in episode 1) and then silently continuing to rise higher into the night sky. Luri leads the police through the desert to a nearby SUV.

They get into the SUV and Luri drives off into the night, soon reaching a highway. She starts narrating a "cover story" about what the search of the VTOL aircraft revealed (nothing note-worthy), while the two police officers listen attentively.
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Next: the Twin Paradox.

Related Reading: X-Files 2016 episode, a sequel to Arcadia.

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Climate Fiction

Space Energy Missions

It was 10 years ago that I wrote my first "Cli-Fi" story, Fly Paper. In that story I imagined that Interventionist agents helped Earthlings solve the global warming problem.

I first wrote about global warming in this blog three years ago, and that was only a mention of Fly Paper. At that time I was just beginning to develop Exode and I imagined that very little of the Exode story would involve Earth.

About two years ago I started finding ways to include global warming in the Exode Trilogy. Initially, I imagined that the issue of catastrophic sea level rise would only be raised in my story as a problem for the future and it would not play a major role in the plot. Then I started imagining a larger role for global warming in Exode. Space Energy Missions was brought into existence as an Earthly effort to find a technological solution to global warming.

Postcard from the future.

By the end of 2013 I had decided that catastrophic sea level rise would be a serious problem in the Ekcolir Reality during the 20th century. In the Ekcolir Reality, the pace of technological advance was somewhat quicker than in our Reality. I imagined that Thomas put a lot of effort into getting Isaac Asimov to take global warming seriously. As someone who had lived in the Ekcolir Reality, Thomas knew the importance of global warming and he had also been informed that Asimov would play an important role in the Buld Reality helping Earthlings deal with catastrophic sea level rise.

Three options: nuclear war,
global warming, the Buld.

In 2013 I fell in love with the idea that Earth was in the grip of a bistable attractor that caused either catastrophic sea level rise or nuclear disaster. In the Reality before the Ekcolir Reality, there was an atomic war on Earth. In our Reality, the Final Reality, also known as the Buld Reality, we Earthlings (particularly the folks at Space Energy Missions) try to get help from the Buld so we can stop global warming.

By the end of 2013 I was also contemplating the possibility of an advanced technological solution to global warming that would be interpreted by ignorant Earthlings as a "natural" cooling of the sun.

The Mercury Project

Hierion antenna array for the Mercury Project.

Ivory's account of
Project Mercury

Early in 2014 I devised a plan that could be jointly carried out by Space Energy Missions and the Buld. The Buld would construct a solar energy collector on Mercury and transmit the collected energy to Earth using hierions.

Promotional poster for The Mercury Project.

It would be the responsibility of the Space Energy Missions team to construct an antenna to receive this "free" energy on Earth, leading to termination of burning fossil fuels for energy.

Luri negotiating for
Space Energy Missions

However, by this point during summer, a year ago, I had abandoned the idea of allowing the Buld (working in collaboration with Space Energy Missions) to provide a solution to the global warming problem.

The fundamental problem that arises from allowing Earthlings to obtain knowledge of hierions is that it soon leads to other types of technological disasters such as out-of-control nanites. Thus, while the efforts of Space Energy Missions were well-intentioned, their Mercury Project could never be allowed to be implamented.

Star Dance

This year I devised a sequence of events that would allow Earthlings to provide their own solution to rising carbon dioxide levels. This "solution" allowed me to write Carl Sagan into the Exode Trilogy.

Triatoms

Most recently, I'm imagining a "dual solution" to the problem of global warming. Under the terms of the Trysta-Grean Pact,
1) humans (with some help from Interventionists) will provide the "triatom solution" to carbon dioxide

The Aquarius Trilogy

and

2) a "hierion injector" will be secretly used to cool the Sun, compensating for other green house gasses like methane.

Related Reading: Climate Fiction by J. K. Ullrich at io9. Anthropocene fiction.
Climate fact. take 2 Climate Change and the Unthinkable  Solarpunk. 2020: Speculative Climate Fiction

Next: Into Deep Time for additional novels by Jack Vance.

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aiCloud

The Fru'wu can trace their genetic origins back to Earth.

In my previous blog post I mentioned that Gohrlay has been sharing information about events in the Ekcolir Reality. In particular, it was the Fru'wu who made "First Contact" with Earth in that Reality. Sadly, contact between the Fru'wu and Earthlings was something of a disaster. The Fru'wu allowed the former employees of Space Energy Missions to share several advanced technologies with Earth, which resulted in unintended consequences.

According to Gohrlay, it was Hilde who got the idea to provide Fru'wu artificial intelligence technology to the people of Earth. I suppose the reasons for doing this are not really important, but I forced that story out of Gohrlay.

Space Energy Missions

Hilde, Luri, Betty, Ivory

In our Reality, the world as we know it, several employees of Space Energy Missions abandoned Earth and went with the Buld to Mercury. In the Ekcolir Reality, the Buld had not yet come into existence, so it was the Fru'wu who scooped up Luri and and took her to Mercury.

The plan was for Hilde and the Space Energy Missions team to build a "hierion collector" on Earth. The Buld would help Luri construct a solar energy collector on Mercury and beam the solar energy to Earth in the form of hierions.

In order to finance construction of the hierion receiving antenna on Earth and infrastructure for world-wide distribution of the energy that would be beamed to Earth from Mercury, Hilde hit upon the idea of selling access to advanced Fru'wu artificial intelligence.

Space elevator in the Ekcolir Reality.

Hilde's team prioritized construction of an advanced hierion-based communications system that allowed for the use of hierions to send vast amounts of data to and from Mercury. A new company, aiCloud, was established as a subsidiary of Space Energy Missions. The business of aiCloud was to make Fru'wu artificial intelligence technology available to wealthy corporations.

The Fru'wu artificial intelligence technology remained on Mercury. Rich customers such as Apple and Intel were allowed to buy access to the Fru'wu artificial intelligence technology by subscription only. With their access to Fru'wu AI, Intel quickly became the world leader in nanotechnology. Conventional computing power became cheap and universally available on Earth, so companies like Intel and Apple had to find new markets. Apple became the leader in developing artificial intelligence systems that were modeled after the Fru'wu AI technology.

source

Another key technological advance was made by Boeing. With the help of the Fru'wu AI, Boeing quickly discovered how to construct space elevators. Suddenly it was very inexpensive to move materials into orbit. Thousands of orbital space habitats were constructed. The presence of those space stations in orbit eventually made it impossible to beam vast amounts of power to Earth from Mercury. In effect, Hilde's scheme for financing the Space Energy Missions' solution to Earth's energy needs led to rapid development of the high frontier and that made it impossible to transmit energy from Mercury to Earth.

I don't fully understand what the conflict was between orbital habitats and the plan to beam energy to Earth. Apparently with the help of the Fru'wu AI, Earth's physicists discovered the existence of hierions. One of the first applications of hierion technology was for artificial gravity systems in orbital space stations. However, if a beam of high-powered hierions passed through such an artificial gravity generator, then an explosion would occur, destroying the space station.

Space Energy Missions had to abandon its plan to provide energy to Earth just when Fru'wu AI technology had stimulated Earth's economy. Demand for fossil fuels rose and the ultimate effect was to accelerate global warming and the melting of Earth's ice caps. According to Gohrlay, if rapid and catastrophic sea level rise were the only problem arising from contact with the Fru'wu, R. Gohrlay might have been happy to let the Ekcolir Reality be the Final Reality. However, Earth's development of hierion-based nanite technology apparently led to even greater problems for Humanity.

In the end, despite some favorable features of the Ekcolir Reality, R. Gohrlay had to agree to "move on" and help bring the Buld Reality into existence.
Related Reading: AI research
Next: The origins of science fiction.

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Cerebration Sessions

Writing an essay about creativity in 1959, Isaac Asimov used the term "cerebration sessions". He wrote about sessions for both individuals and groups, but I get the feeling that he had been asked to make suggestions for how to facilitate the creative process among teams, specifically in the context of secret Cold War projects that were the precursors to efforts like Excalabur.

Crick and Watson
The discovery of the DNA double helix is an example of a creative collaboration with what Asimov described as the necessary conditions for success. "First and foremost, there must be ease, relaxation, and a general sense of permissiveness." When Crick and Watson met, they soon discovered that they shared a common interest in discovering the molecular basis of heredity. They had almost daily play sessions during which they discussed their shared obsession even though  it was a project that they were not being paid to work on and at one point they were actually forbidden to keep working on it. Asimov: "The great ideas came as side issues."

The idea that some specific arrangement of atoms inside cells can hold the instructions for how to make a human being was one of the great ideas of the early 20th century. Watson and Crick were in love with that idea and tantalized by the possibility that a technique existed (x-ray crystallography) that would soon provide key structural data about the genetic molecule. Since the mid-40s evidence suggested that DNA was the genetic molecule, but there was reason to fear that "solving the structure" of DNA might be difficult. Crick knew just how hard it was to determine the structures of protein molecules, which are each much smaller than a DNA strand in a human chromosome.

John Houbolt

During the course of their "cerebration sessions", Crick and Watson finally came to understand the importance of helical structure and base pair complementation for the structure and function of DNA. Rosalind Franklin's x-ray data when considered along with Erwin Chargaff's biochemical data for the ratios of the DNA subunits strongly supported their structural model in which DNA had a double helical structure. Still, they were plagued by self doubt even as they sent their structural model off for publication.

Houbolt and Dolan

1961

Soon after Asimov wrote down his specifications for institutionalized "cerebration sessions" an example of how institutional momentum and group think can crush creativity was played out by NASA.

Eventually, after the feasibility of docking between spaceship modules was proven, Dolan's vision of a light weight and disposable lunar lander was adopted by NASA, allowing a single Saturn 5 rocket launch to accomplish the goal of sending a man to the Moon and returning him safely to Earth.

2009 cover art by Gordon Van Gelder

The science fiction dream of reaching the Moon had long been dominated by the idea of a sleek spaceship that could both cruise through the atmosphere of Earth and visit an airless place like the Moon. Sadly, that simple approach would require a huge and impractical chemical rocket.

Even in 2009, a romantic depiction of a spacecraft on the Moon still included a streamlined rocket, not a clunky Lunar Excursion Module.

Lunar Excursion Module (LEM)

What is now the "obvious" solution to an optimization problem, where every pound of launch weight is costly, took years of argument and persuasion by Houbolt before it was adopted.

Werner von Braun had spent years dreaming of how to accomplish interplanetary travel and, ultimately, he was grateful to those who, like Houbolt and Dolan, had the creative vision to bring modularity and disposability to the problem. Asimov: "It is only afterward that a new idea seems reasonable."

1960 Werner von Braun's fantasy

Look at the image to the right. Werner von Braun allowed his book to be graced with flashy cover art. Imagine fleets of rockets being launched from Earth and sending massive airplane-like craft all the way Mars. It looks cool, but it was a road not taken. It is much easier to send small robots to Mars and use photons to transmit back the science data.

At the heart of Asimov's specifications for creative success is really a rather simple formula: allow a small team of collaborators to freely explore possibilities and play with ideas. However, more often than not, such a collaborating team will go down a blind alley and fall in love with a self-created fantasy. You really need multiple teams if you hope to have a good chance of finding optimal solutions to tricky problems.

The Atlantis Clones: Anna, Hilde, Anney, Angela.

Ivory and Anna
As told in the Exode Trilogy, in the late 20th century there were multiple teams of aliens secretly at work on Earth. One group founded Space Energy Missions. They worked to prepare for the arrival of the Buld and planned to make use of hierion technology to meet Earth's need for energy and put an end to fossil fuel use. Another secret group was the Atlantis Clones.

According to Anney, the Space Energy Missions plan for how to save Earth from global warming, ice cap melting and catastrophic sea level rise was, ultimately, an Interventionist fantasy. Anney compares the idea of providing Earthlings with hierion technology to "helping" a tribe of chimps in Africa by giving them access to nuclear power plant technology.

The first (and only?) Buld on Earth

When the Buld spaceship arrived at Earth in 2012 it was made clear to the Interventionists that Earthlings would not be provided by aliens with an easy technological solution to the global warming problem. The Buld spacecraft was used to remove a bunch of Interventionists from Earth, not facilitate alien technology transfer. What of the Atlantis Clones?

Anney says that her big sister Anna abandoned Earth and went off on the Buld spaceship with the Interventionists. Anna, who was the first of the clones, had apparently been working (in secret) with Hilde for many years in support of the Space Energy Missions plan. Anney never knew her sister Hilde except through contacts with her replicoid in the Hierion Domain. Like Anna, Hilde eventually saw the arrival of the Buld spaceship and First Contact as an opportunity to escape from Earth. Why stay here if there was no way to prevent Earth from sinking into environmental catastrophe?

To the left is Anna, center is Peter. The alien is Lili. (source)

When I asked Anney about the process by which the Atlantis Clones had planned their efforts she just laughed. I get the feeling that Ivory and her clone sisters were deployed by Lili, Peter and Marta.....if there was a plan then it probably originated with Lili and other aliens. Anney seems a bit resentful about how she was crafted and used to tap into the Sedronic Domain.

I finally got Anney to open up a little about the self-doubt and concerns that the Dead Widowers have. They fear that at least some of their members are living on Earth in violation of the Trysta-Grean Pact. Anney has given that as the reason why she is trying to groom me to access the Hierion Domain: the Dead Widowers might have to depart from Earth. For now they are "laying low", avoiding Overseer attention and trying not to get kicked off of Earth.

Maintenance Dose

Space Energy Missions

I've been gradually increasing the dose of the nicotine derivative that I've been using to alter my brain function and allow me to retain memories from sessions in the Hierion Domain. I finally started having the visual sensory side effects that Anney warned me about. I've been getting visual sensory input from my replicoid while I'm awake, which is simultaneously disorienting, exciting and bad news. While it is exciting evidence that my brain can be boosted to the point of accessing the Hierion Domain while I'm awake, I have no conscious control over these "visions" and that is bad news.

In passing, I mentioned that I've also been experiencing odd changes in my olfaction. Anney now admits that this is another side effect of the nicotine derivative, a generally unimportant one because of how little humans depend on olfaction. However, these alterations in my olfactory system been increasingly distracting and now that I realize it is an effect of the drug, perhaps understandably so, in retrospect.

source

I think I now understand Marta's comment about pheromones. During the past few weeks almost all people who I know seem to have acquired an unpleasant odor. Clearly, it is not they who have changed, rather, it is I. Strangely, when I told Anney about the few people I know who don't stink, she asked me what I conclude from my new olfactory sensibilities. I'm still wondering about that, but my working hypothesis is that there are probably human pheromones that provide another way of identifying Earthlings who carry certain Preland gene combinations. I suspect that Interventionists have long controlled the mating patterns of Earthlings by making use of our subconscious responses to pheromones. Unlike the situation for Earthlings, I suspect that those pheromones can be consciously perceived by Prelands and other Sedronites.

image credits

I wasn't really surprised to find that my wife does not have the offensive odor that I've recently become sensitive to. For the past few years I've wondered to what extent my life has been shaped and planned by people like Trysta and Ivory and now, most recently, Anney. It is rather disturbing to think that I might have been "tricked" into bonding with my wife. Why should it matter to aliens (like Trysta) who some random Earthling (like me) marries? I get the feeling that Anney could probably clarify such mysteries, but I don't even know the correct questions to ask. To some extent, I don't want to know how my life has been foreseen, guided and shaped.

The Dead Collaboration
I've been allowed some limited insight into the way that the Dead Widowers collaborate. However, my hunch is that their efforts to collaborate have been disrupted by Resh^Ki, who Anney views as a spy, a kind of double agent who infiltrated the group. I won't suggest that because of Resh^Ki's shenanegans the Dead Widowers have lost their ability to trust their colleagues, but I sense that a free, open and playful exchange of information and ideas is no longer possible for that group. The tension of the Time Travel War has been replaced by something new, a new kind of battle field where people like Angela can suddenly disappear, leaving their colleagues with nothing but doubts and suspicions.

Related: go to the Moon (photographs)

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