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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Nicotinic Anney

In a recent blog post, I explained that I now have access to memories that were generated within the Hierion Domain. Ivory had the ability to "awaken" my consciousness and pull me from my dreams into a virtual reality that exists in the higher dimensional space of the Hierion Domain.

Ivory triggered my access to old memories of those times spent in the Hierion Domain when she inserted into my brain a swarm of infites that carry her own memories of our shared adventures in that virtual reality. In addition, I had recently received in the mail a small bottle of a "magic potion" that was sent to me by members of the Dead Widower Society. The "potion" contains a special mixture of chemicals that can safely stimulate a human brain and help someone like me better utilize the Bimanoid Interface.

Anney

source

I've previously assumed that Ivory's clone "sister", Anney, left Earth several years ago by hitching a ride on the Buld spaceship. However, I've now begun to question the validity of that assumption.

Anney and Angela have the ability to explore the past Realities of Earth. Ivory always told me that Angela was providing us with information about the Ekcolir Reality, but I now have reason to suspect that Ivory was deceiving me. Her tangled lies began to unfold when Ivory provided me with some infites that hold her memory of a conversation between Ivory, Marta and Anney. First, I'll provide a concise account of Ivory's recollection of that event, then I'll give my analysis of its deeper meaning.

At Atlantis

Ivory was discussing the Ekcolir Reality with Anney. Anney said, "Of course, when New York was evacuated, not everyone left."

Ivory was trying to understand how Thomas had slipped from the Ekcolir Reality into the Buld Reality. She asked, "Thomas ignored the evacuation orders?"

Anney replied, "Trysta could get them out at a moments notice. They were in no danger."

Ivory was confused by this revelation. "Wait. Are we talking about the same storm? The hurricane of 1973?"

Anney nodded. "Yes. That was his last chance to be with Trysta in the Ekcolir Reality. She was lonely and anxious because Ekcolir had departed from the Ekcolir Reality almost a year earlier. When the storm hit, Thomas was then teleported to the Moon and kept safe inside the space-time bubble of the original time travel device. Trysta did not fully trust Grean, even then."

source

Ivory shook her head, "But Angela told me that Thomas never knew about Trysta's plans for the new Reality."

Anney shrugged, "Ya, Trysta told Thomas nothing useful about his future."

Right then, Marta entered the room. She was carrying her niece, the newborn daughter of her brother, Peter. For a few minutes the baby was handed around and examined by Ivory and Anney. When Anney was holding the baby, Ivory glanced at her mother and met Marta's eye. She said, "Don't say it."

Anney looked up and asked, "Say what?"

Marta shrugged, "I didn't say anything."

Anney smiled and said, "Oh, ya....the grandchildren thing."

Marta put an arm around Anney and whispered, "Ivory is an old maid, but I still have hopes for you."

Anney giggled, "Babies are cute, but I can't imagine bringing a new life into this pek-forsaken planet. Besides, with my ability to examine any man's replicoid..." She shrugged and left it at that.

Ivory added, "And Angela's the same way. Face it, mom, your only hope for grandchildren lies with Anna, and she's getting too old to do anything stupid."

Anney gazed off into the distance, her eyes unfocussed while she peered into the Sedronic Domain. "Although, Trysta did imply that she would have descendants on both sides of the family, from both Deomede and Ekcolir."

Marta asked, "What do you see?"

Anney shook her head and returned her sense of vision to her hadronic body. "Trysta felt it was important to keep some secrets." She whispered to Marta, "You know how that is." Anney handed the baby back to Marta.

Ivory asked her mother, "Ya, are you ever going to open up your vault of secrets?"

Marta tried to look innocent. "Whatever do you mean?"

Ivory complained, "If you ever explained your motives then I might listen to you when you spin your fantasies about me going back out into the world."

Anney said, "You're just stubborn, Ivory. You've been out there before. You're the logical choice. You can't expect someone like me to abandon the safety of Atlantis and go out among the Earthlings." She said "Earthlings" with a tone of disgust and shiver of repulsion.

Ivory nodded, "Yes, I did my time among the Earthlings. You can't expect an escaped prisoner to volunteer to go back to jail."

Marta said, "It's not that bad. Just think: this sweet little baby will grow up out there and find someone wonderful and have a completely happy life as an Earthling. You two are just spoiled. It's a mistake to introduce little girls to the Hierion Domain".

Anney muttered, "You certainly can't use the Hierion Domain as a way to brainwash people."

Ivory eyed her clone sister suspiciously, "What do you mean, brainwash?"

Anney said, "Nothing."

Ivory knew Anney well and could sense when something was being concealed. She said, "For me, the Hierion Domain was only a source of frustration. I wandered around in there for years and accomplished nothing."

Anney commented quietly, "You've admitted before that you were happy in there, with your companion."

Ivory shook her head and said thoughtfully, "I was lonely, but it was all fake. Eventually I realized that I was living a lie and got out of there."

Anney whispered, "Nobody escapes from the Hierion Domain."

Ivory said firmly, "I did. Lucky for you, I did."

Anney laughed at Ivory, "You know that your replicoid is still in there. Aren't you even curious-"

"No!" Ivory shouted. "And don't bother pretending that you have wonderful news from my replicoid. I won't believe anything you say."

The shout had startled the baby. Marta said, "Quiet, the baby was almost asleep." She shifted the warm bundle of blankets and baby to her shoulder. "You know Anney's right. Why does it make you so angry to hear the truth?"

Anney answered for Ivory. "Ivory hates men."

Ivory snapped back, "I do not!"

Anney pushed her point. "You told me that men are stinkers."

Marta shook her head sadly, "I'll have to put Peter to work on the pheromone problem. Nose plugs could solve the problem if you weren't all so stubborn."

Ivory asked her mother, "Was that your solution? Nose plugs? I owe my existence to nose plugs?"

Marta replied, "Your father ravished me out there on the beach. I just kept him down wind."

Trysta and Ekcolir

The three women laughed and then grew quiet. Anney said to Ivory, "Grandchildren to the side, you are the logical choice to go out into the world and test the waters."

Ivory nodded. "I know. But these days I can do everything via the internet. I don't need to physically go out among the Earthlings."

Marta added, "Don't lie to yourself. You are an Earthling, Ivory."

Anney sighed. "Truth. How rare. But, yes, it is true, not all Earthlings stink."

Ivory asked, "How would you know?"

Anney explained, "When I'm in the Sedronic Domain I can access information about each person's genome. A few Earthlings are like us, full of Preland gene combinations. Ekcolir made sure of that."

Ivory was skeptical, "I'm the geneticist. You've never explained how Preland gene combinations can be identified within the Sedronic Domain."

"I can't explain the details, but I can read the gene analysis results. Just like Peter, your old flame lacks the genes that manufacture the stink."

Ivory shrugged, "I told you, I'm not going to believe any of your stories. I'm happy here and I'm not going back out there."

Marta sighed and asked. "How did I raise such a stubborn girl?"

Anney suggested, "Part of the problem is your refusal to tell Ivory the truth."

Marta nodded, "But she's so far gone that she won't listen to the truth even when it is told."

"Ivory likes gossip." Anney looked speculatively at Ivory. "Maybe if I told her your secrets then she'd listen."

Marta laughed, "Ya, right." Then Marta seemed to take Anney seriously. She asked sharply, "What are you pretending to know of my secrets?"

Anney shrugged, "Oh, nothing much."

Ivory laughed, "You better tread lightly Marta, Anney and Angela will eventually find out everything. It's all in the Sedronic Domain, just waiting to be discovered."


Marta tried to pretend that she did not care. "All my secrets are old and useless."

Anney chuckled, "He is old, now, but so is Ivory."

Ivory asked, "Who are you talking about?"

Marta said, "Anney, you don't have to answer."

Anney and Ivory returned to discussing Thomas and his transition from the Ekcolir Reality to the Buld Reality. Marta grew bored and tired of holding the baby and she wandered off.

When Marta was out of the room, Anney said, "You know, he had an analog in the Ekcolir Reality."

Ivory did not try to pretend that she did not know that Anney was returning to their previous conversation. She asked, "You found his analog in the Sedronic Domain?"

Anney nodded. "I found clues to his existence in previous Realities...it was enough for me to track him down within the Hierion Domain, particularly when I put two and two together."

Ivory asked, "What does that mean?"

"It means that your attempt to get me to think like a scientist sometimes pays off. I hypothesized that Marta could still summon him into the Hierion Domain. I was right."

Ivory sighed. "You know, I'm a bit jealous. For years he's been safely tucked away in my memories. I'm not happy hearing that you've been in contact with him."

Anney suggested, "You're still in love with him."

Ivory shrugged. "Love? We lived a dozen lifetimes together. He is part of me. In the end, it just became endless frustration. Back then, Marta refused to let me contact him in the real world. All we had was the lies, the absurd virtual relationship that we constructed. It was like a dream, particularly for him. I had to end it and return to reality. Otherwise I'd still be in there, trapped in the dream."

Foundations of Eternity

"So, now when Marta suggests that you seek him out in the real world, why do you refuse?"

"It has to be on my terms. The time is not right."

"What are you waiting for?"

"What we are all waiting for. For the Buld to arrive."

"That's crazy. The Buld mean nothing to him. He could die tomorrow and be gone. Why wait?"

Ivory put her arms around Anney and looked her square in the eye, "You don't know everything. Trust me on this. If First Contact turns out well with the Buld, when the time is right...I will act."

Hindsight

Here is my interpretation of that memory (above) from Ivory.

In some sense, there have been two copies of "me" within the Hierion Domain. I've recovered some memories from the times when I was in the "virtual reality" of the Hierion Domain with Ivory. However, even when "I" was not there with Ivory, there was always my "replicoid", the artificial life version of me that lives out its own life in that Domain. I believe that Ivory did live "a dozen lifetimes" within the Hierion Domain with my replicoid.

At some point in my life, Ivory realized that she had to stop summoning me into the Hierion Domain. By then, she was apparently content to do without "me" and continue living with my replicoid. However, Ivory was not the only one who could summon me. Marta apparently continued to bring me into the Hierion Domain, and she continued to pretend to be Ivory. Anney discovered this fact and took a certain amount of delight in teasing Marta about her secret contacts with me.

Ivory waited as long as she could before contacting me in the real world. She did not want to disrupt my life and make me a slave to the task of telling the secret history of Earth. She cared enough about me to arrange for one last visit after her death.

A remaining puzzle is Anney. I now suspect that she remains on Earth and is part of the Dead Widower Society. Anney apparently spent years searching through both the Hierion Domain and the Sedronic Domain, learning about the secret history of Earth and the differences between humans and the alien Prelands. I don't understand how Marta and Ivory summoned my consciousness into the Hierion Domain, but I wonder if Anney also has that power.

"long skirt, sitting 1" by Jamari Lior

At the very least, Anney seems to have once "followed" Marta into the Hierion Domain and observed her interacting with me (or my replicoid). Someone associated with the Dead Widowers (Anney?) recently sent me a nicotine-based brain stimulant that allows me to recover my memories of the Hierion Domain.

Image credits. See the deviantArt stock image called "long skirt, sitting 1" by Jamari Lior.
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