Ekcolir

In the Ekcolir Reality.
Cover art by Antonio Schomburg.
Original art work by Zdeněk Burian.

I recently blogged about Trysta and her role in the Final Reality Change. Today I had a discussion with Yōd and Zeta that touched on Ekcolir and his role in creating the Final Reality.

The means of creating the Ek'col were developed in the Asimov Reality. Ekcolir, the prototypical Ek'col, lived in the next Reality, what I call the Ekcolir Reality. Ekcolir was sent to Earth in the 20th century of the Ekcolir Reality; he was deployed on an Interventionist mission. He successfully won the trust of Trysta and made possible constructive interactions between Trysta and Grean, which ultimately lead to the Trysta-Grean Pact and the end of the Time Travel War.

To play his part in creating the Final Reality, Ekcolir was sent back about 20,000 years into the past. According to Zeta, Ekcolir's mission in the past was designed to insert some special gene combinations into the population of humans on Earth.

In the Ekcolir Reality. source

Yōd believes that the Ek'col are "mobile gene editing devices" that can process human chromosomes, producing precisely edited genomes. Zeta suggests that the Ek'col have a specialized femtobot endosymbiont that allows for access to the a vast computational capacity that lies within the Sedronic Domain. Normally, human zeptite endosymbionts only send information from the Hadronic Domain to the Sedronic Domain. According to Yōd, the femtobot endosymbiont of the Ek'col is a kind of "hack" that allows information to flow from the Sedronic Domain to guide the gene editing femtobots inside the body of an Ek'col.

Trysta and Ekcolir

Zeta speculates that all Ekcolir had to do when he arrived 20,000 years in our past was impregnate a few women. That led to the formation of a new tribe of humans who carried their special genes into the future of Earth, eventually resulting in a population residing near Phasi who were "ready and waiting" for the arrival of Trysta 10,000 years after Ekcolir arrived in our past. It was Trysta who then triggered the acceleration of technological process among the residents of Phasi by providing them with their own type of femtobot endosymbiont, the "Phari endosymbiont".

Apparently Ekcolir is a folk hero on Tar'tron, so Yōd is contaminated with many stories about Ekcolir which might not be based on facts. Yōd accepts that the Ek'col were crafted on Yrwerd, but Yōd insists that Ekcolir spent a considerable amount of time living on Tar'tron. Yōd believes that Ekcolir was trained on Tar'tron for his mission to the far past of Earth.

Syon's search.

Rilocke and Syon
Ekcolir came up today in the context of our discussion about who might currently be residing at Observer Base. Both Zeta and Yōd believe that Ekcolir and Trysta probably died on Earth in the far past. However, they both lived on as artificial life forms named Rilocke and Syon.

Rilocke spent some time in the Koly star system, then traveled on the Buld spaceship that came to Earth. Syon arrived in the Koly star system long after Rilocke had already departed. Yōd suspects that Syon eventually teleported to the Solar System about the time when the pek abandoned their control of Observer Base, possibly using the teleportation terminal located inside the Base.

Next: Ekcolir's mission into the past

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Lendhalen

Leymaygn and Vozgrow

Lendhalen is where Parthney was trained for his mission to Earth. When Parthney arrives at Lendhalen he has no appreciation for the conditions under which Interventionist agents operate while stationed on Earth. He is alarmed to learn that humans are viewed as a kind of disease organism by aliens and that the Interventionists must scheme and struggle in order to try to win a future for Humanity. It is not hard to win Parthney over to the Interventionist cause.

Exode table of contents

However, Parthney finds conditions at Lendhalen to be chaotic and it seems like nobody is really in charge. There are competing factions among the interventionists and Parthney can't judge which of the different views of Earth's future is most likely to be correct.

Some of the Interventionists (Pla'mak and Vozgrow) are intent on continuing to push forward the same agenda that has previously guided missions on Earth. Through the centuries, Interventionist agents have worked to accelerate the pace of human technological advancement on Earth. Parthney gets to meet several former residents of Earth who were teleported off of Earth by other "Thomas clones" who in the past served on Earth as Interventionist agents.

Pla'mak

Among those former Earthlings is Gwyned, the sister of Thomas. Gwyned is very much committed to the idea of pushing ahead the pace of technological advance on Earth. She tries to prepare Parthney to bring to Earth new technical knowledge related the development of fusion power, but he is not convinced that it makes sense to meddle with the pace of technological advances on Earth.

Pla'kau

Other Interventionists, (particularly Pla'kau) question the wisdom of helping Earthlings push towards new technologies. In fact, Pla'kau wants to send Parthney to Earth with ideas for solving the global warming problem

Syon the robot.

Pla'kau, Pla'mak and Vozgrow don't have direct contacts with Parthney. Parthney's training within Lendhalen is in the hands of Leymaygn, Syon and Gwyned.

Leymaygn is the Buld who is assigned the task of keeping Parthney with his nose to the grindstone. However, Parthney is not one to work very hard and he soon diverges from the rigorous training schedule.

Gwyned

Parthney ends up spending much of his time at Lendhalen with robots like Syon. He forms a new megepi and neglects his studies of Earth.

Pla'mak decides to work with Gwyned and help her study the technology at Lendhalen, most of which was provided by the Fru'wu. Gwyned makes little progress in understanding nanites, teleportation and hierions, but she does manage to crack the Fru'wu teleportation codes and she sends a "copy of Luri" to Earth with Parthney.

Gwyned's family

Gwyned is the daughter of Deomede and Trysta. She is the half sister of Thomas. Recognizing that Parthney is fascinated by the idea of finding human females to socialize with and not at all interested in having a physical relationship with him, Gwyned provides Parthney with the robot, Syon.

An Ek'col male and Asterothrope female.

Although nobody at Lendhalen knows it, Syon is a sophisticated artificial lifeform that originated as the Asterothrope who readers of the Exode Trilogy know as Trysta. Syon provides Parthney with the key piece of information that he needs to pass on to Thomas after being sent off on his mission to Earth.

In the next chapter of Exode ("Klyz and Earth"), Parthney completes his training at Lendhalen and is teleported to Earth. When Parthney is teleported away from Lendhalen, he is first sent the the Fru'wu base at Klyz where the artificial replica of Luri is waiting.

The Selfies of Tar'tron

See the original Planet Stories cover art here.

Last year I decided that Trysta would live out her biological life and then transfer her mind into a robotic body that would then "live" its artificial life using the name Syon. At the end of last year I sketched in some of the details of how Syon the "robot"  operates as an Interventionist agent. Trysta's mind transfer is made possible by the fact that Trysta is an Asterothrope from the far future (10,000,000 years in our future), so she has access to advanced technology that makes it easy for her to transfer her mind into an artificial life form and go on "living" as Syon.

What about we humans of the Primitive Era? Is it possible for any of us to transfer our minds into a robotic body? Do we have a shot at that sort of immortality? Foundations of Eternity tells the story of how Gohrlay the Neanderthal got help from the pek that allowed her mind to be instantiated inside a positronic robot. However, Gohrlay was a special case, the only human to ever be "given immortality" by the pek. (update: Ivory is apparently the 2nd)

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The Kac'hin are a human variant that was created tens of thousands of years ago by the pek. The pek designed the Kac'hin to function as a special interface between the Huaoshy and Humanity in the hope that a negotiated end of the Time War might be achieved.

We might wonder if during their long existence the Kac'hin have made progress towards being able to transfer their minds into artificial bodies. However, I've long been committed to the idea that the Kac'hin are restricted to using relatively unsophisticated nanites in their work. Without advanced zeptites or femtobots, is there some means by which a Kac'hin could achieve mind transfer?

Selfies

Gohrlay's assistant, Nan

As depicted in Foundations of Eternity, it was the practice of the pek to provide every human living at Observer Base on the Moon with a robotic assistant. For example, over time, Nan learned to effortlessly anticipate the behavior of Gohrlay. There were zeptites residing in Gohrlay's brain and Nan used that zeptite swarm as the source of a kind of technology-generated telepathic contact with Gohrlay. Through all the days of Gohrlay's life, Nan learned how to correlate her on-going brain activity to her near-term behavior. Plus, Nan was very old and had vast experience from her dealings with a long line of past human "masters". Further, all of the Orbho (as the pek at Observer Base were known), including Nan, functioned as a kind of group mind that had been monitoring and learning from every human that ever existed.

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With the collusion of the pek, the planet Tar'tron became a major site for Kac'hin science and technology development. The pek wanted a way to stabilize and control Kac'hin society, so they allowed nanotechnology and robotics research to bloom on Tar'tron. With time, as a result of technological advances made by the Kac'hin themselves, the residents of Tar'tron were provided with personal robots that could each be trained to mimic and replicate the behavior of their particular owner. These robots, which for lack of a better name I'll refer to as "Selfies", could "live" on after the death of their owner as integral members of Kac'hin society. Some of the Kac'hin were entirely cold to the idea of artificial life form replicas of themselves that would continue to "live" on after the biological original had died. Other biological Kac'hin systematically worked to provide their personal "Selfie" with a mind that was as close as possible to an exact duplicate of their original biological mind.

Grean the Kac'hin

Eventually, Kac'hin society became a mixture of biological and artificial lifeform members. The Selfies eventually took over all Kac'hin scientific research and with time became a tool by which the pek could unobtrusively interact with and control the biological Kac'hin. In their original plan for the Kac'hin, the pek envisioned only needing one Kac'hin individual who could have the appearance of a human and defeat Gohrlay's cadre of positronic robots. That particular Kac'hin turned out to be Grean. After eliminating all the positronic robots, Grean then collaborated with Trysta and brought into existence the Buld Reality.

Clones: Thomas and
Parthney on the Moon

While Grean did most of the heavy lifting, Trysta and Grean came to realize that other Kac'hin (such as Lili and Kach) were needed to play additional important roles in helping create the Buld Reality. Some of the other Kac'hin who play roles in the Exode Trilogy are mentioned here.

I've previously described the role that Lycaun plays in Exode. Biologically, Lycaun is a clone of Kach. Also, I've previously noted roles for multiple clones of Thomas (particularly Parthney) in Exode. The many "Thomas clones" who precede Parthney as Interventionists on Earth were able to channel their experiences to Parthney, better preparing him for his mission on Earth. How was Lycaun prepared for her mission?

Lycaun and Kach
at Observer Base
on the Moon

Mind Transfer
As described above, Selfies do not really provide the Kac'hin with a way to transfer a biological mind into an artificial life form. The minds of Selfies had to be carefully constructed by their "masters" over the course of a lifetime. What about the transfer of a mind from a Selfie back into a clone of the Selfie's original "master"?

The pek cultured a population of Kac'hin on Rain World and from that population they selected the original biological Kac'hin (named Wyzalex Torvaya) from whom Kach was eventually produced as a biological clone. There were many previous generations of Wyzalex clones who lived before Kach and Lycaun. Several of the earliest such clones lived on Tar'tron and produced Selfies. In addition to Wyzalex there were several other such "foundational" Kac'hin who were selected from the Kac'hin population of Rain World, cloned and "copied" into Selfies.

source

Techniques were perfected for using the minds of these carefully crafted Selfies as "developmental templates" that could (with the help of specially programmed nanites) optimize the neural development of important Kac'hin such as the "Wyzalex clones". Thus, Kach's remarkable and optimized cognitive abilities are the result of careful selection and engineering. Grean, Lili, Lycaun and the other Kac'hin who pay important roles in the Exode Trilogy were all meticulously crafted for their roles in this way.

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Eventually, when it came time for the "Ivory Clones" to be crafted on Earth, Peter was able to deploy similar nanite-mediated neurodevelopmental programming techniques.

As mentioned in this blog post, I remain interested in the possibility that similar techniques might exist for shaping my adult brain into a configuration that would allow me to gain access to the vast information content of the Sedronic Domain. I've now discovered that Ivory was aware of techniques for returning to adult human brains the type of hyper-plasticity that is characteristic of early human brain development. However, there are risks involved with applying these techniques, particularly if you work without the aid of neurodevelopmental guidance nanites. Ivory believed that such nanites are available to the Observers who still reside at Observer Base on the Moon. I've begun to fantasize that Ivory might have left Earth in order to visit Observer Base and obtain those nanites.

Next: another mission for Ivory;  continuing our search for  R. Gohrlay.

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Post-Singularity Science Fiction

Bubble Telescope by Ciro Marchetti

Artificial Mind. If it is possible for biological life forms to make artificial life forms that have human-like minds, then is a "technological singularity" that will change all aspects of human existence inevitable? I enjoy science fiction stories about artificial life as much (if not more) than the next nerd, but I also have a fascination for science fiction stories that find a way to avoid a mad rush towards a technological singularity.

One low road towards accommodation of the concept of a "technological singularity" in science fiction stories begins with the assumption that Earth should not be the first planet in the universe to approach and confront a "technological singularity". Some other intelligence, in a galaxy far, far away, should have navigated the exponentially transformative rapids of their own "technological singularity" long ago...maybe billions of years ago. If so, then we already  live (and, as a species, have always lived) in the post-singularity era and our science fiction should respect that reality.

Fictional Science. There are some good theoretical reasons to believe that, in our universe, faster-than-light space travel is not possible. However, in science fiction, the goal is to make fun stories, so we need not let theory get in our way!

Handwavium and Pixie Dust. In the Exodemic Fictional Universe, I imagine that the Huaoshy long ago altered the dimensional state of the universe so as to make possible faster-than-light space travel.

Sadly, that act of dimensional engineering by the Huaoshy had unanticipated consequences: particularly the eventual invention of time travel technology, and incidentally, telepathy. It is pure and enthusiastic homocentrism that allows impels us to craft stories in which singular technological advances like the invention of time travel first occur on Earth. The resulting liberation of Earth from the sedronic grip of the alien Huaoshy and the subsequent "time travel war" are described in the Exode Trilogy...with inspiration from the grandmaster Isaac Asimov.

The Gods Themselves

The Exode time travel war is eventually brought to an end when the Huaoshy complete one last dimensional engineering project that creates the universe as we know it (the Buld Reality). Our universe can be called a "trap door universe" since no new species can manufacture sedrons, while the Huaoshy retain a monopoly on technology that makes possible the production of sedrons. Sedrons are the secret of faster-than light travel, so consequently the Huaoshy have a monopoly on faster-than light travel.

Given the technological superiority of the Huaoshy, primitive creatures like we Earthlings have to wonder: what are the intentions of the Huaoshy? With their god-like powers, how will they deal with primitive life forms like us?

Nanotechnology in fiction

Nanotech, Femtotech, Zeptotech
The alien Huaoshy have a billion year technological head start on we Earthlings. Their mastery of sedronic science long ago allowed the Huaoshy to transcend their biological nature and create an entirely new domain of life that is based on sedronic mater where bond lengths between the particles of sedronic matter are zeptoscale...approaching the ultimately tiny size of the Planck length.

There are some science fiction authors who have allowed their work to be labeled as "nanopunk". The Huaoshy are so technologically advanced that nanotechnology seems as primitive to them as a steam-powered car seems to us.

The Exode Trilogy includes nanites with components composed of conventional matter, but also even smaller "devices" made of hierions and sedrons. The image below is a rather whimsical illustration of a femtobot. With components made from hierions, an artificial life femtobot could fit into the active site of an enzyme.

Femtobot inspects a molecule

An absurd steamprank

Steampunk. I read The Difference Engine not long after it came out, but I could not engage with the idea of an alternate reality in which pre-microelectronics technology allowed for an "information technology revolution" based on punch cards. Devising a fictional universe with convincing alternative technologies can be tricky.

Life on Kepler 62e.

What if the Huaoshy long ago established a post-singularity existence within an artificially constructed sedronic domain of the universe? Within that sedronic domain, the Huaoshy exist as artificial life forms according to physical parameters that are startlingly different from those experienced by us within the domain of conventional matter. Assume that the Huaoshy have about as much interest in we Earthlings as we might have in some random stromatolite on a distant shore of a far exoplanet. What kinds of interactions would the Huaoshy have with primitive creatures like us?

Syon and Katherine in their Urgark laboratory.

The damesel is not deed, but pinnen

Katherine and Humget

The image above is a whimsical depiction of Syon and her understudy Katherine at Urgark. In my previous blog post I introduced the idea of Katherine being taken to live out her life at Urgark in the Koly star system and play a role in training an Interventionist agent (call him Humget) for a mission to Earth. Syon has at her command some advanced sedronic femtobots, but she has no interest in trying to provide an Interventionist agent with knowledge of advanced technologies that are not found on Earth.

As described previously, although Parthney is the main character in Exode, there have been previous "versions" of him who were trained as Interventionist agents. Rechmain was the first such "clone of Thomas" who was trained at the newly established Lendhalen when it was created as the replacement for the destroyed Urgark training base. Humget is trained at Urgark by Syon and Katherine.

The Interventionist agents must be recruited from the planet Hemmal, a world that is perpetually struggling to keep pace with cultural changes occurring on Earth. Syon must make careful decisions about how to raise Katherine. Syon wants to speed the development of a scientific culture on Earth, but in the year 1270, England seems a dismal location for cultural advancement. During this time period, Syon tried to train Interventionist agents who could help philosophers like Roger Bacon bring astronomical ideas from the East to England and support the development of chemical thinking and the use of chemical energy in the form of coal and gun powder.

Syon runs a primitive scientific laboratory at Urgark where she trains Katherine in the principles of metallurgy, steam power and coal-fired furnaces. Katherine and Humget meet at Urgark when they are about 12 years old. Since they have never before known other humans, they grow up experimenting socially with each other as well as learning how to make guns and cannons. A thousand years later, Parthney is not pleased when he learns of the role of Humget in the death of Llywelyn. Parthney hopes for more in life than playing the role of an assassin.

While undergoing his own training at Lendhalen, Parthney learns the fundamental truth about Earth and the origin of the human species. However, Parthney only comes to know "Huaoshy" as the name for the Creators that was passed from the Fru'wu to the Pla. A mystery for both Parthney and the reader is why the Huaoshy allow Interventionist agents like himself to be sent to Earth. Parthney is carefully trained to avoid the Overseers who function as a defense against overly aggressive and disruptive Interventionism. With time, Parthney comes to believe that the Huaoshy have a hidden plan for humanity. For many years Parthney fears that he is an ignorant tool in some vast and mysterious game, but what can he do except play out his role upon the stage of Earth?

Parthney, Rechmain and Humget are clones of Thomas.

I'm uncertain about the wisdom of allowing Parthney to know that he is a clone. While on his mission to Earth he eventually meets Thomas at Observer Base on the Moon, but by then Parthney is well past his innocent formative years.

While in training at Lendhalen, Parthney learns about Humget and Rechmain and their missions to Earth, but there need not be any visual records that reveal the close physical resemblance of the clone "brothers".

Through the centuries, each time the pek "produce" another Thomas clone and send him to Syon for training, there is some doubt about his suitability as an Interventionist agent. Humget, having grown up on Hemmal among hermaphroditic Buld, arrives at Urgark and is fascinated by Syon. At the same time, Katherine has grown up under the care of Syon and has never known a human male. Syon has to stimulate Humget's interest in human females while at the same time making sure that he does not simply decide to live happily ever after at Urgark.

10 Million Years of Anti-Evolution

Foundation and Earth

Syon finds it easy to control both Katherine and Hemget and their emotions. Syon has two important sources of power. First, "she" has at her disposal advanced Asterothrope nanites from 10,000,000 years in the future of the Mallansohn Reality. The skeptic might doubt that humans could exist on Earth for 10,000,000 years yet never achieve their own technological singularity. In The End of Eternity, Asimov explained this technological stasis of humanity as a side-effect of time travel technology.

According to Asimov, the "Eternals", those who could travel through time, were cautious and systematically removed great sources of change from human history, causing humans to exist in a static environment and stop evolving.

Her mission: travel 10 million years into the
past and win Humanity a place among the stars.

I never found that a very believable argument unless I accepted at face value Asimov's suggestion that positronic robots were secretly in control of Eternity. The robotic master mind is R. Gohrlay.

In The Foundations of Eternity, my fan fiction sequel to Asimov's novel Foundation and Earth, Noÿs Lambent discovers that her mission into the past is threatened by the Huaoshy. R. Gohrlay is constrained by the dictates of the Zeroth Law: humanity must be protected.....so R. Gohrlay resists the further evolution of the human species. However, in order to spread humanity to the stars, R. Gohrlay brings into existence the Asterothropes and when R. Gohrlay finally finds a way to defeat the Huaoshy, it is an Asterothrope agent who must be sent back in time to create a future for humans among the stars.

In addition to the advantages gained from "her" possession of Asterothrope nanites (not the least of which being memories of "her" prior biological existence), Syon can also function as a host for advanced Nereid "nanites".....a happy design feature of Fru'wu robots. The term "Nereid nanite" is a misnomer since the Nereid symbionts inside Syon are actually made from sedronic matter that has zeptoscale bond lengths. The Nereid femtobots that inhabit Syon allow "her" to exist as a bimanoid interface for the Nereids. The reader must wonder: to what extent is Syon an agent with free will? Perhaps Syon is a Nereid puppet.

Sylvari

Syon. So, from the biological perspective, Syon originated as Noÿs Lambent (a modified Asterothrope), the creature and tool of R. Gohrlay, while at the artificial life level, the mind of Noÿs was transferred into a Fru'wu robotic body named Syon, who is subject to "remote control" by the Nereids. Even in "her" "second life" as an artificial life form, Syon cannot escape "her" biological first nature. The Asterothropes were designed to provide an efficient means of colonizing star systems near Earth, and their engineered gynodioecy facilitated that function.

Humans are often horrified by the details of Asterothrope reproduction and since Syon originated as an Asterothrope who was shaped into a pseudo-human who must live among humans, "she" is not eager to describe Asterothrope reproductive process to either Katherine or Humget. Katherine grows up believing that Syon is both human and a biological hermaphrodite. After his arrival at Urgark, Humget is able to convince Katherine that Earth humans are not hermaphroditic, regardless of the biological nature of the Buld and the Prelands.

Kalanchoe daigremontiana

After his initial infatuation with Syon, Humget becomes unhappy with the way Syon has raised Katherine. He demands that Syon explain the purpose of deceiving Katherine about Syon's true nature and he accuses Syon of perverting Katherine.

Among the most baffling aspects of Asterothrope biology (from the perspective of humans) is the role of parabiotic coupling between individuals. The male genitals of Asterothrope hermaphrodites detach and establish connections to the circulatory and nervous system of a female, providing a "built-in" source of male gametes.

The growth of Asterothrope female children is accelerated by parabiotic coupling between adult females and infants. Rather than rely on breastfeeding of children, soon after birth Asterothrope females can establish connections between the circulatory and nervous systems of the adult and those of a young child. In her biological past, as a child Syon experienced this type of connection to an Asterothrope adult.

Upon arrival at Urgark, the development of Katherine's brain had already suffered through three years of developmental perturbation on Earth. Syon initiated an artificial parabiotic connection with Katherine and used "her" advanced nanite symbionts to recover a fairly normal structure for Katherine's nervous system. By age six Katherine was largely independent of Syon from a cognitive and intellectual perspective, but the two remained very closely attached emotionally.

Humget gallantly attempts to build a normal human male-female relationship with Katherine, but she is cognitively closed to the concept. Eventually he abandons his efforts to make Katherine appreciate heterosexuality and he goes off on his mission to Earth.

Relax

Gladia Delmarre and robots

Relax; I'm not going to claim that Isaac Asimov invented steampunk. However, his body of science fiction stories illustrates for me the fact that "retrofuture" stories have always had an inevitable place in science fiction. Asimov initiated his Foundation saga during a time when he extrapolated from the technology of the early 20th century into the far (20,000 years) future. The End of Eternity provided a look 10,000,000 years into the future, but, of course, Asimov had no crystal ball and he did not include even a simple cell phone in his imagined futures.

When (after a 30 year break) Asimov began to extend his Foundation stories, I think he felt the need to "revise upward" the level of technology in his Galactic Empire. However, I think this was a strategic error. Luckily, he did not push things too far and by the time when he wrote Foundation and Earth there remained a clear distinction between the run-of-the-mill galactic citizens and the technologically more advanced Gaians and Solarians.

We are forced to assume that Daneel sometimes needed to allow development of new technologies, but for the most part, the Galactic Empire was not allowed to speed ahead with technological changes...particularly in robotics.

Asimov seemed to have a lot of fun with characters such as Gladia Delmarre, Santirix Gremionis and D. G. Baley. Such characters were not interested in advancing science and technology. Presumably Daneel could turn human inventiveness on or off like a light switch. From the perspective of this century, Asimov's futures are retrofutures.

Not that there's anything wrong with that....
For many years it bothered me that the distant futures described by Asimov, Clarke and Vance did not include inventions like microcomputers and cell phones. Then I realized that maybe there is a place in science fiction for stories built around retrofutures.

Might an organization such as Vance's "Institute" prevent technological advances? Might a robot such as Daneel have perfectly good reasons (or immutable programming) for preventing the advancement of science and technology?

There is something fun and endearing about a Pan Am space liner in 2001 or a gigantic "computaplex" printing out carefully calculated alternative futures on perforated films in The End of Eternity. 

In the Exode Trilogy, the alien Huaoshy are quite certain that it make no sense to turn a beauty spot like Earth over to tool-using primates. R. Gohrlay forces their hand and the aliens relent.....allowing we humans to have a shot at creating a technologically advanced civilization.

Jim Lee

Objective observers like Parthney have to wonder if doing so is anything more than an invitation to disaster.

Spy vs Spy
In Exode, when the Overseers finally stand down and give the Interventionists an open playing field on Earth, the Interventionists themselves rush to install the remaining Observers as the new police force of Earth. With the Nereid agent on Earth neutralized and the Buld who arrive in the Solar System reluctant to interfere with Earth's culture, it is not clear that the bumbling Earthlings will be able avoid falling victim to technological disasters.
___________________________
In the Steam Stream: "The year is 1895…An evil from a parallel dimension escaped and now roams the city of Boston." Boston Metaphysical Society 

B.E.T.H. is a  secret organization of scientists comprised of Bell, Edison, Tesla and Houdini
Story by Madeleine Holly-Rosing with art by Emily Hu

image source

"Magic is the sole science not accepted by scientists, because they can't understand it." -attributed to Harry Houdini

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." — Arthur C. Clarke.

Related readings: science fiction as a literary genre.
   barrier to the singularity:   the neural code
         2019: technological singularities

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Betty

Syon

The Exode Trilogy abounds with "secret agents" who converge on Earth to play their roles in shaping the Buld Reality, the world as we know it.  The Overseers who watch over Earth are infuriated when they capture first Deomede and then Parthney. It is obvious that someone is continuing to send Interventionist agents to Earth and support them with advanced teleporter technology.

When the Overseers finally realize that they must visit the headquarters of Space Energy Missions, Lycaun and Deomede discover the identity of the long-sought "Nereid agent" on Earth. By the time Space Energy Missions is identified as an Interventionist base of operations, readers are quite familiar with Syon, a robot that has carried the memories of Trysta for the past 10,000 years.

Lycaun

After originally hoping to meet him 10,000 years ago, Syon finally reached the conclusion that Rilocke must be a passenger on a Buld spaceship that is bound for Earth. She is not really surprised when he arrives at Earth with the Buld. His arrival on Earth will be the first "on stage" appearance of Rilocke in the Exode Trilogy, although readers will be familiar with his role as the robot that carried Ekcolir's memories after his death. Rilocke is legendary among the Buld for his role in allowing some of the Buld Clan to gain freedom from the pek.

The Nereids have provided the Fru'wu with some advanced technologies, including access to a few faster-than light spacescraft, teleporter technology and "primitive" robots. The "primitive" nature of the Fru'wu robots is only a cover. In fact, hidden within these robots (while they function on Earth) are components of sedronic matter that allow them to be much more than simple humanoid robots. Also, when they wander away from Klyz and other centers of Fru'wu operations, such robots can host the nanorobotic symbionts that carry the minds of humans such as Trysta and Ekcolir or they can function as a "bimanoid interface" for the Nereid Interventionists. When Ekcolir notices Syon seemingly "talking to herself" about Deomede, she is actually in communication with the Nereids.

Betty

The other "Fru'wu robot" who appears in the Exode Trilogy as a character is Betty. Betty is known to readers as the robotic helper of Parthney while he is on Earth, although it is clear that Betty has had a long history of serving as an aide for other Interventionist agents who are stationed on Earth. Before working with Parthney, Betty was the aide for Deomede.

When Deomede and Lycaun discover Betty inside the headquarters of Space Energy Missions, he is pleased to find her there and expects her assistance in finding the "Nereid agent". However, to Deomede's syrprise, Betty is the "Nereid agent" on Earth.

Betty admits that she has long been the tool of the Nereids on Earth, functioning as a kind of "double agent". Deomede begins to make the case for Betty to "stand down" and stop working for the Nereids. Betty assures him that her mission on Earth is complete. All that remains is for the Overseers to be convinced that they have defeated the Nereids and destroyed the Nereid teleporter network on Earth.

"Belinda"

Lycaun, as a tool of the Kac'hin, has her own mission to accomplish on Earth. She proceeds to teleport Kach and Rilocke to Klyz.

When the Overseers finally arrive at the headquarters of Space Energy Missions and move to apprehend Betty, Lycaun completes her mission and destroys the teleporter network. Then Deomede is horrified to see Betty kill Lycaun. He gallantly but foolishly tries to subdue Betty and she kills Deomede. Betty collapses and morphs into the form of a Nereid. Her advanced nanite symbiont transfers into Thomas and he collapses, apparently dead.

The Overseer who has worked on Earth using the cover identity "Belinda Tement" arrives just in time to see Lycaun and Deomede die. She finds the body of "Betty" and assumes that she has found a dead Nereid. With the teleporter network destroyed, Belinda believes that she can complete her duties by removing the Nereid body from Earth. She collects the body and returns to Observer Base on the Moon. The Overseers then abandon their post and depart from the Solar System, leaving Earth open and available for first contact with the Buld.

Hilde

As soon as Belinda exits from Space Energy Missions, Thomas jumps up and goes with Izhiun who pays one last visit to "Hana's husband" and leaves him with the nanite symbiont that he got from Parthney. Thomas takes the opportunity to also off-load his nanites into "Hana's husband".

Izhiun and Hilde meet the Buld landing party in Washington D.C. and hitch a ride off of Earth with the Buld.

"Hana's husband" is left to piece together the hidden history of Earth and tell the story without any objective evidence. However, Exode can end with a news report about the descendants of Andy and their unusual genetic endowment.

2014 update. Betty was apparently a Grendel. Hilde was actually an "Atlantis Clone".