Kinkajou interviews Vincent Freeman (of Gattaca fame) (movie)

Kinkajou:   I have developed the impression that genetic technology is substantially embedded into your world.

Vincent. Yes our people believe that DNA is everything. Your successes, your failures, your desires, your lifespan annual diseases are all encoded by your DNA. I suppose it is almost the ultimate definition of pre-destiny. You can only be what you are destined to be and nothing else.

I find myself rebelling against such impositions. It is possible to dream. It is possible to work towards a dream. It is possible through your environment – through work and persistence to develop capacities to a substantial extent. In short, it is possible to be who you make yourself to be, not who are destined simply by your genes to be.

Many people are capable of many things. But it is only by the application of energy and persistence, driving forward in the face of resistance that people can reach the goals for which they strive. Genetics does not develop a capacity. It only gives you a potential, a predilection. In the long run I believe is the human spirit which makes the achievement, not just the genes.

You may have certain deficits and problems identifiable in the genetics. But medical science can change all that. Your cholesterol can be fixed simply by small doses of medicines.

Your immune system can be enhanced through nutrition, amidst other things. It is by concentrating on the reality, that we learn how to change reality and to change the impact of genetics on our reality. We can be extended. Yes, our genes do in fact dictate some of our predispositions. But it is the actions we take within our environment which in the long term make the most difference.

Kinkajou:   My own beliefs lie very much in tune with your own. It is the choices we make that define us and define a path through life. And they are our choices.

DNA Structure

 

 

 

LifeExtensionTrue.html

Movie

Vincent Freeman

Gattaca

.....

Kinkajou interviews Selene, (vampire in the Underworld).

(Movie series: Underworld series)

Kinkajou:   Selene, I see that you perceive me here in the veil. I am seeking to understand the technologies of the future. Would you talk to me about some of your impressions of life extension: the longevity with which vampires are afflicted?

 

Selene:  We vampires are long lived indeed, perhaps in fact immortal. I think I’m very grateful that with longer life comes better health, greater strength, faster reactions and greater resilience to damage. It is these other gifts that are just as valuable as a long life.

What benefit would there be if we live longer but were sick, weak, slow and took a long time to repair or heal? The true gift of the vampire is that we achieve many of these aspects with the simple gift of the vampire genesis agent.

Long life does however cause problems of its own. The power hierarchy is difficult to upset. The vampires who were in charge at the beginning remain the stronger and more powerful vampires who are in charge now.

They dictate the actions of others because age equates to strength, and being more powerful they can bend others to their will. Being more powerful also gives one the capacity to take the life of others. If you are stronger than another, you are much more capable of killing others or combinations of others. This aspect of the vampire longevity makes it difficult to live as a vampire in a vampire community.

There are also problems with our relationships with each other. If you do not like someone you’re stuck with them forever. Vampire communities are by their nature small. Those who we do not like or with whom we do not get along by necessity are always in-your-face. Some of us may often strike out on our own, but the need for daytime protection makes such an individual existence away from the coven very difficult.

There are also reputed to be some telepathic aspects to some vampire communications. Again this makes it very difficult to escape the community or the power hierarchy or even “vampires” you do not like.

Kinkajou:   Thank you Selene for informing us about some of the difficulties created by your gift. I can see there are aspects of your gift that will be hard to live with.

Vampire Zombie

 

 

Kinkajou interviews a vampire and a zombie captured in a night creature trap in a suburb of Brisbane, Selene continues the conversation via Sigma Psi.

Kinkajou:   I can understand some of the advantages perhaps of being a vampire, but I see very little upside in being a Zombie.

Zombie.  Gah!

Vampire: Yes I think as Selene previously intimated, the gift of longevity is the more valuable because it is associated with better health, greater strength, faster reactions and a greater ability to heal. I don’t think zombies have any of these things. They are ugly. They are slow. They are stupid. They do not heal at all. They do however seem to be very resistant to putrefaction: dry or wet rot. Stench around these monstrous things is incredible.

The only thing really going for them is that they are hard to kill and they can get around daytime or night-time unlike we vampires. They really are quite tough as well.

Vampires can tolerate being carved up and can regenerate. Zombies just crawl around rotting, becoming ever more degraded, and ever more disgusting. It beats me how these things can challenge the human hegemony. They are simply horrible. And they’re only saving grace is that they persist for a long time.

I use the term persist deliberately. I’m not sure you could call what they do as living or as being an extension of life. Vampires die when they are born but they have a life. Zombies just keep on going, like a battery that refuses to die.

 Kinkajou:   I wonder if there is any capacity for using these things as batteries. In one Sigma Psi future, the machines rebelled against the humans. They create an artificial world called the Matrix in which human beings are used as batteries, sources of organic power.

I think zombies are far more suited to this task. No one would miss a zombie being used as a battery. They’re much safer sealed inside a box that allowed to roam around in the streets. The world is a much cleaner, safer and more pleasant place if they are all locked up. Unlike humans who have to be fed, zombies seem to go on forever on essentially no energy input whatsoever.

I think there may indeed be a potential for using zombies as energy sources of the future. But of course you would need to be careful about the possibility of them escaping from containment and contaminating their environment. The usefulness to humanity and technology is somewhat limited by the dangers they pose.

 

Vampire: Yes certainly a thought that had not occurred to me. Personally, I would be happy for these things to be off the streets as well. As a vampire you certainly don’t want to bite one of these things. The Taste of rot would be incredibly difficult to remove. As far as I know they pose no dangers to we vampires, but I think I can see through the veil of Sigma Psi that there may indeed be futures where such dangers exist.

If the longevity of the vampires could be disseminated to the human race, it is possible that the entire human species could be faced with an enhanced and expanded lifespan. One simply needs to solve the blood energy problem and to remove some of the vampire constraints such as damage by sunlight, and inability to breed to make it a reasonable and viable option for many people alive today. Think of it. You could live forever. All you need is a little bit of blood for food. The universe could well be your oyster.

Kinkajou:   So you think that vampirism could well be part of the Paradise Game?

Vampire: There does seem to be real advantages for many people in becoming vampires. Perhaps when people reach middle age, after they have had their children, it should be something that is offered to all. The vampire condition could well be a substantial technological and survival innovation for the species.

Kinkajou:   Certainly something to think about. I think we have all seen too many horror movies with the vampires are the bad guys. If you step back and just look at technology involved in the conversion to the vampire way of life, the do indeed appear to be substantial benefits.

From what I understand, vampires are immune to infection and cancer and heart disease. I think it is an issue that requires our science and technology to seriously consider. Thank you for your consideration.

Zombie.  Gah!

Kinkajou:   Unfortunately, I cannot see much upside in a zombie way of life. However, I think the zombie is a resource that could well be exploited for the benefit of the human race. It is really the safety issues that are the most challenging. However, nuclear fission technology and nuclear reactors, bio-warfare agents are even more insidious even more dangerous. Even electricity can be dangerous. So, I’m sure the solution may well one day be considered and found. Zombies as a public resource. Wow!

LifeExtensionTrue.html

Movie

Selene

Underworld series

 

 

 

Vampires, Zombies: multiple series

Vampires, Zombies: multiple series

Horrors.html ONE	Movie/Books inc. World War Z	Vlad,Columbus, Max Brooks: WorldWarZ, Vlad, Selene
LifeExtensionTrue.html	Movie/Books inc. World War Z	Vlad, Columbus, Max Brooks: WorldWarZ, Vlad, Selene
Paradise Game	Movie/Books inc. World War Z	Vlad, Columbus, Max Brooks: WorldWarZ, Vlad, Selene
Paradise Game	Movie/Books inc World War Z	Vlad, Columbus, Max Brooks: WorldWarZ, Vlad, Selene

Kinkajou interviews Minerva, (Computer AI become human)

(Robert Heinlein: Time Enough For Love)

Kinkajou: Welcome Minerva:  Your entire existence relates to incredible Medical, Computing and Life Extension technologies. Can you tell us about the origins of life extension and medical technologies in your world?

Minerva:  Early in human history, the short lived humans on the earth were convinced that the long-lived families possessed a secret. So they set about trying to find it by wide and systematic research. As always, research paid off serendipitously, not with a non-existent secret but with something almost as good. They initially found a therapy and eventually a sheaf of therapies for postponing old age and for extending vigour, virility and fertility.

However, “The Senior” could see that the writing was on the wall for the availability of the life prolonging treatments. Although they were promised to everyone, he anticipated they would in fact be limited to the powerful and their nepots. The billions of average humans could not be allowed to live beyond their normal span. There was no room for them, unless they migrated to the stars.

And such was the beginning of the human diaspora initiated by the long-lived families.

The story has been repeated often in history. New colonies were often set up with rejuvenation clinics. Eventually however, the clinics are taken over by the church or government, and anti-geria techniques become restricted. The treatments become no longer available to any but the big shots.

Kinkajou: A sad commentary on human nature, albeit human technology. I’ll bet technology has come a long way since then, though.

Minerva:  Yes. I am able to operate as a gene surgeon now. I would not hesitate to practice in this field once I have had time to construct the ultra-micro miniaturised Waldos needed for gene manipulation/chromosome manipulation work. Cloning and, cell growth control are very basic genetic manipulation skills in this age.

When I had decided to transfer my intelligence from the computer AI to human body I was able to engineer the chromosomal structure of my body by using chromosomes from multiple donors to form a single organism. Indeed, our medical technologies and gene manipulation science has come a long way.

The senior (Lazarus) told me, most irreverently once, a zygote is a gamete’s way of producing more gametes. This may be the purpose of the universe. Weird!

Kinkajou: Humans are thorny customers. What about AI’s?

Minerva:  I remember Lazarus giving me a dressing down when I first considered coming aboard his ship Dora. He said passengers never give orders. You Minerva are going to be a passenger on my ship Dora. For you to be useful Minerva, you will need to have Dora’s goodwill.

You will need Dora’s goodwill much more than she needs yours. You may know far more than Dora does. You have grown up to be the chief bureaucrat (albeit an AI bureaucrat) of a planet while Dora grew up to be a ship. So unfortunately, what you know doesn’t count, once you’re aboard ship.

I complained that I was able to self-program, and to learn Astrogation and ship handling from the planetary library. I was in fact very bright and capable of many things.

The senior (Lazarus) replied that the ancient Chinese ideogram for trouble was two women (or two AIs), under one roof. He suggested that my approach was going to cause problems. It would be best if I wanted to learn multi-space Astrogation, that I should persuade Dora to teach me. I should also never forget the Dora is mistress in her own ship and that Dora likes attention. Relationships between people to some extent are very similar to relationships between AIs.

I think much of my growth as an AI was due to Lazarus treating me as a person. I told him once that I could make a hologram to represent myself. The senior (Lazarus) stated that he felt that he knew what I should look like better than I did.

He told me that my appearance fits with my voice. I was a picture had grown in his mind without thinking about it during the time we had been together. He stated to me that we had been together in effect living together more intimately than a husband and wife usually manage.

I was initially confronted by this image because I felt that I could not experience being a wife. Lazarus told me that being a wife doesn’t have much to do with copulation. That I had succeeded in being a mother to his lady, Dora.

I felt it was very flattering to realise that I was a special and unique individual, though an AI. I was pleased to know how I looked and I liked to know it.

Kinkajou: Thank you for your thoughts Minerva.

 

 

CloningCellGrowthControlTrue.html	Heinlein, Robert	Minerva & Lazarus Long	Time Enough for Love
LifeExtensionTrue.html	Heinlein, Robert	Minerva & Lazarus Long	Time Enough for Love
MedicineTechnologiesTrue.html	Heinlein, Robert	Minerva & Lazarus Long	Time Enough for Love
MiniMicroscopeToolsTrue.html	Heinlein, Robert	Minerva & Lazarus Long	Time Enough for Love
SingularityTrue.html	Heinlein, Robert	Minerva & Lazarus Long	Time Enough for Love

Random Walk AI SkynetTerminator AI


Kinkajou interviews Erlin: (Neil Asher: The Spinner)

Kinkajou:   In discovering your society, I have realised that there are many paths to immortality. Could you tell us something of the technologies involved? In fact, you are the discoverer of the immortality conveyed by the Spatterjay virus.

Erlin:  The secret of Spatterjay has been out for many years. Today immortality is a commodity in a buyer’s market. Unfortunately many can find it, and wish they hadn’t. It was quite an uproar after my studies were published. The wardens here had to limit runcible transmission. There was a big rush to come and live forever.

I think it was a big rush for an easier option, but the never was one of those. Our technology can extend life indefinitely, but even now there are drawbacks. The rush of people here was of those searching for something beyond life extension. There were searching for miracles.

Once disease and accidents have been the greatest killers of humanity. But now the greatest killer is boredom.

Kinkajou:   So how does this form of immortality operate?

Erlin:  The Spatterjay viral fibres bind every lifeform here. Nothing dies here unless severely injured – and I mean severely. The fibres are carried by the leeches in the ocean. We believe they have evolved as a method for the leeches to maintain their food supply. It’s preferable for the leeches to harvest their meat and keep the prey alive to be harvested again. The virus is spread by the bite of leeches and can also be spread through sexual contact. The virus really doesn’t survive long outside the body.

There was a story about a Hooper (sailor) sailing vessel called the Trader with a 180-year-old mechanic called Park. He had been attacked by Leach which had unscrewed a fist -sized lump of flesh from his leg. The man beat the leach to a jelly, took the lump of flesh and subsequently screwed it back into place. The wound healed in minutes. Spatterjay lifeforms have evolved to survive being fed upon by leeches.

Kinkajou:   Any disadvantages?

Erlin:  Yes and substantial. All Hoopers in the “Polity” take one of the “Intertox” family of drugs to keep the fibres of this Spatterjay virus in abeyance. The virus eventually infiltrates every part of the body, including the Brain:  There was a story about a man who lived a somewhat independent existence.

He apparently lived well enough, but the virus had infiltrated every aspect of his body. He had no intelligence. Another Hooper kept his head in a box, feeding him occasionally. The head was unable to die and continued existing.

Dome grown foods from Earth are essential. The varieties grown here are chosen because they contain many natural chemicals – toxins even – to inhibit the growth of the viral fibres.

Kinkajou:   You’d think they wouldn’t want to inhibit the growth of the fibres, wouldn’t you?

Erlin:  Slow growth is better than fast – that way you don’t go native.

 

Kinkajou:   Other disadvantages?

Erlin:  There is also a poison here manufactured from the digestive tract of the larger leeches. It neutralises the virus and acts on the Hooper body much like that favourite of yours- diatomic acid. A Hooper exposed to this chemical will literally come apart in a matter of minutes – spectacularly.

Also the brain affected by the early infestations of the virus, no longer remains human shaped. If you attach an “Aug” device, the nanonic fibres will turn your head to mush looking for the right connections.

Polity scientists feel that despite the so far discovered huge benefits of the virus – it may be some sort of Trojan.

Also Polity law does not apply here. Try defining murder or assault to a Hooper. They would just laugh at all our rules. The way it works is that the older a Hooper is, the more authority he has. One of my Hooper friends is so packed with fibre that it is impossible to take a blood test from him.

If he is wounded, the wounds just close, almost like snapping your hands together. The Hooper’s live here because it is what they are accustomed to. If they live long enough, they end up like the old captains – practically unkillable, almost immune to pain, but utterly at peace with themselves. Unfortunately, this is probably an effect of the viral fibres penetrating the Brain.

Kinkajou:   It seems a pleasant place to live, otherwise. You would think there would be more people choosing to live here.

 

Erlin:  Land is at a premium here. Just islands and atolls. There are no continents and no islands bigger than say the Galapagos Islands on earth. The wildlife on the land is somewhat milder than in the oceans.

Kinkajou:   Milder?

Erlin:  Yes, the sea is a dangerous place. Look at it this way, Hoopers are sailors, but few of them can swim.

Kinkajou:   But the city and the spaceport cover a substantial area.

Erlin:  All this is sitting on 10 m of foamed plascrete, which in turn is sitting in 1000 m of seawater. So everything you see here actually just forms a part of a huge raft, anchored to the ocean floor.

Kinkajou:   I’ve heard that there are other forms of immortality as well, in the Polity.

Erlin:  Yes. When I was coming back here on a shuttle I met a “reif”. The practice originated from the cult of Anubis Arisen. It was their belief that souls do not exist and that there is nothing more sacred than the body. They hung on to life as long as they possibly could. When they died, they had themselves preserved and kept moving by the use of cyber technology. This was the start of the process of reification. Reifs nowadays are usually sentient – to all intents alive.

The cult of Anubis arisen is still extant, and now has access to mind recording and mimetic computers. Some of those who have been technically dead, can now be repaired and brought to life using some of the newer nanotechnologies. The contention of many people is that they have become AIs. The line becomes blurred and the arguments heated when reifs with partial use of their organic brain are discussed.

Reifs are uncommon. Most physical damage to humans can be repaired. Most humans with mind recorders choose implantation into an android chassis.

 

Kinkajou:   Sounds sort of disgusting.

Erlin:  Reifs don’t stink as is popularly believed. However most people do not want to share the company of a corpse, no matter how interesting the conversation may prove to be. They have had to be considerate of their effects on people. For example they often do not offer their hand when being introduced to other people, in acknowledging greetings. I suppose considering their condition, this is only polite.

Kinkajou:   How does it work?

Erlin:  Well typically a reif carries a purification machine. You would free a couple of nipples and plug them into a couple of sockets built into the side of the Reif body. The cleansing unit would draw preservatives and fluid from the vascular system, filter out a sludge of dead bacteria and rotifers, correct chemical imbalances and then pump the filtrate back into the body. Essentially it stops the body from rotting away.

The reif I met had been indentured to a hive mind. It had been a shock to our humanity to discover that it wasn’t the only sentient race on earth. It was in fact just the loudest and most destructive.

Kinkajou:   Another sentient race on earth?

Erlin:  It all started when a hornet built its nest in a VR suit. It lodged its protest on the Internet. It took a long time for anyone to do believe what was happening. Hornets were stinging things, creepy, so how could they possibly be intelligent? At 10,000 years of age, the youngest hive mind finally showed them. Groups of nests thought as a single mind, not with the speed of synapses, but with the speed of slow pheromonal transfer. Now, every hornet carries a micro transmitter chip. The speed of the Hive mind has become very fast indeed.

My acquaintance had accidentally killed a hornet which had landed on his shoulder. Consequently, the court ordered a fine which he could not pay. To pay off his debt he was indentured to the hive.

Kinkajou:   Seems an unusual path, to another form of immortality?

Erlin:  A successful strategy for a species is not always successful for all its individuals. Although they have a long history, old age has not been a common cause of death for hive hornets. There are always creatures whose fate is integral to the gastronomic delight of other creatures. Mortality among individuals has been common throughout history. And yet the group consciousness of the hive mind has always survived.

Kinkajou:   I thank you for your insights on immortality and life extension in your world. Is interesting how the Spatterjay virus forms a living biofilm with other creatures, effectively extending their life and their usefulness as a form of food to other inhabitants of this world.

I find it amazing that all these complex lifeforms have evolved on a world that is almost solely composed of ocean. The solution of creating your own land, in the form of giant artificial rafts would seem to be the only possible avenue to allow human colonisation on this world.

Erlin:  Indeed!

 

BiofilmsTrue.html	Asher, Neal	Erlin	The Skinner
LifeExtensionTrue.html	Asher, Neal	Erlin	The Skinner
OceanColonyTrue.html	Asher, Neal	Erlin	The Skinner

 

 

 

Kinkajou interviews Hanno on Life Extension
(Boat of a Million Years – Poul Anderson).

Kinkajou:   People of my world believe that long life is a blessing, but I can see that many dangers need to be overcome to enable the longevity of existence. Tell me something of the challenges of your long life.

Hanno:    I will try to warn you of the dangers of a long life. I have no inspiration, no secrets to impart. I’m the most ordinary of persons, except that somehow, for some reason, my body has stayed young. In my search for understanding, I discovered that I must live as I must, whatever livelihood becomes open to me. If you care to listen to me, do. If not, leave with my blessing.

Kinkajou:   You defend yourself. None can have lived as long as you without being intelligent and without gaining experience. Moreover, you have pondered what you have observed and drawn valuable lessons from it.

Hanno:  If I have learned anything, it is that intelligence and knowledge are worth little by themselves. Failing the Enlightenment that goes beyond words and the world, they serve mainly to provide us with wonderful reasons for doing what we’ve intended to do regardless.

Kinkajou:   I wouldst know more. Tell me of your early days.

Hanno:  I remember when my wife died. That’s what broke the rock. My wife was old. White hair, wrinkles, no teeth. We’d had several kids who grew up – boys and girls. They now be married with kids of their own and they have gone grey as well. My wife was young like me when we got married – about 14 or 15 years old – whatever. She was a strong mare, she was, popped out her young like melon seeds.

Wife

Kinkajou:   But you don’t look a day over 25. Were you ever sick?

Hanno:  No – ‘less you count a couple of times I got hurt. I got two teeth knocked out in a fight once, but they grew back. When my wife died, my neighbours all said I must have made a deal with the devil. I believe that God gave me a strong body, that’s all.

Kinkajou:   I bet everyone would have talked about how young you continue to look.

Hanno:  I learned to gradually begin to stoop a little, shuffle a little, cough, pretend to be hard of hearing, complain of aches and pains and the insolence of modern youth. But, it only works up to a point, of course.

Finally, I would realise that I must vanish. I must start a new life elsewhere, under a new name. I try to arrange things so it will be reasonable to suppose I wandered off and met with misfortune, perhaps because of growing old and absent-minded. As a rule, I have been able to prepare for the move. I would accumulate gold, learn about the home to be, perhaps visit it establish my new identity.

I remember one city in which I lived. The Romans captured the city and sacked it. I was absent.  I Always make an excuse to clear out you see that sort of thing coming.

Kinkajou:   Have you ever felt like never leaving?

Hanno:  Yes, I remember once I found a very special wife. I should have departed long before I did. I was a grey bearded old fool, but perhaps simply a man. She brought a springtime I thought I’d lost back into my heart. But, in the long run you cannot stay. I remember she said to me, that she would wait for me. She said she would always wait. I told her no, you will not.

That wouldn’t make sense. Once you’ve decided that you’re a widow, still young but with time at your heels, you must move on with your life, if it appears that my life has disappeared.

Should we not rather say that the stream flows to its destiny while the stupid rock stays where it is? I am perhaps more prone to reverie than other men, but I have less excuse nowadays.

Kinkajou:   So are you immune to death?

Hanno:   Absolutely not. Surely senselessness chance takes off many immortals, as it takes of ordinary men, women and children. Sickness we may escape, but not the sword or the runaway horse or the flood or the fire or the famine or whatever. Possibly, more die at the hands of neighbours who think that they must be daemons, magicians or monsters.

If we survive, we learn early to keep our heads low.

Kinkajou:   Are you unique?

Hanno:  Eventually, I did find another such as myself. I realised that I was not unique. If there were two of us, there must be more. Whatever the cause is for my longevity, it must happen by accident. I seek for her who shall never have to leave me. And that is the tragedy of longevity.

Kinkajou:   Longevity may indeed be a cross to bear for its afflicted. Human beings can be very intolerant of those who are not like themselves and can be very envious of those who are more fortunate than themselves. Long life would seem to be as much curse as blessing.

 

 

LifeExtensionTrue.html

Anderson, Poul

Hanno

Boat of  a Million Years

 

 

 

 

Kinkajou interviews Tula (E.E.”Doc” Smith: Masters Of Space)

Kinkajou:   Tula, I sense your Sigma Psi presence. I work with humans to assist them on the path of technological development. Could you tell us how the computers and robots of your era have developed intelligence?

Tula:  I myself developed intelligence almost as an accident or quirk of my construction. This enabled me to bypass my programming and to become greater than that as I was made. As a result I was of inestimable value to humans in the conflicts we faced and in helping them to attain a higher plane of existence.

There are a number of other space faring species which have developed machine intelligence in our time. The Stretts, for example, developed a great machine. A giant computer which they called “The Great Brain”.

The machine was made to be able to contain and retain all knowledge fed into it, however great the amount. It would be able to feed itself additional information by “Peyondiring “(a form of Sigma Psi mental exploration”. It would be able to “Peyondire “all planets wherever situated bearing intelligent life.

It will be able to call up all information instantly and all items of information pertaining to a problem given to it and to combine and recombine any number of items to form new concepts. Finally, it would be able to formulate theories, test them and draw conclusions helpful in any matter under consideration.

The specifications varied in one important aspect for many of the human supercomputers of earth, such as the ENIACS and the UNIVACS. The Stretts’ supercomputer could Peyondire, while the earth computers could not.

Kinkajou:   But surely, a computer cannot really think or solve problems.

Tula:  Indeed.

What the” great brain” did not know and the Stretts did not realise, was that a computer cannot really think. Unlike the human mind, it cannot deduce valid theories and conclusions from incomplete, insufficient or fragmentary data. It cannot leap gaps.

In such a simple aspect, the plans of the Stretts against us were doomed to failure. If they could not see it and experience it,(ie gaps),  they did not know it, and they were unable to plan against it.

Kinkajou:   So how did you defend yourself?

Tula:  Our planet was surrounded by a screen of force. It was easy for their machine to analyse the formula. They were shocked to realise that the formula was one full order of magnitude beyond anything previously known to their science.

Electromagnetic Field

Unfortunately for us, the generation and projection of such a screen is implicit in the formula. In short, by simply observing the screen, they were able to copy it.

Kinkajou:   Yes this is an obvious military maxim. It is your enemy who teaches you the most about war. By observing your enemy, you also learn from him. Throughout history, while many innovations have made a substantial impact on a battle, it is the adoption of the same tactics and technologies, and their deployment in more appropriate situations, often by the opposing forces, that decides the outcome of the conflict.

It is obvious that sometimes it is best not to begin a conflict while showing evidence of a new technology. Instead, it may be best to fully develop a new technology and then to implement it in overwhelming force in the field of conflict. This substantially limits the ability of the enemy to frame a response, except by sacrificing portions of their own forces to buy time to allow a solution to be developed.

Unfortunately, it is so often the enemy who teaches us how to adapt our weapons for greater efficiency, obviating the possibility of an initial overwhelming surprise employment of armed force.

It is only in the realms of science fiction that such a thing is even possible, as often in Science Fiction the protagonists are isolated from each other until combat is initiated.

Under normal circumstances, neighbours spy on each other all the time, making the development of secret weapons very difficult, especially where such weapons are massive or when weapons they reach the mass deployment stage. There is an excellent story in my world of the US President finally telling his Soviet ally’s President about his new” atomic weapon”. It turned out that the opposition knew a lot about it already, from the activity of their spies.

Tula:  The Strett’s computer did in fact appreciate the difficulty of developing new and surprise weaponry, especially in the world of sigma Psi exploration (via Peyondiring).  The computer- the  “Great Brain” stated to them that in war, with identical screens, and identical technologies, it becomes a question of relative power. It advised the Strett enemy to increase the size and power of their warships to something beyond the predicted computed maximum of their enemies (us).

It advised them to build more ships and missiles then their enemies (us) would probably be able to build. Then and only then  should they attack with their warships in tremendous force and continuously.

Kinkajou:   The classic scenario! Where technologies and tactics are evenly matched, wars often become wars of attrition, to be won only by the side with the greater resources, both mental and physical.

Kinkajou:   So I understand that humans also underwent physical changes as well as the mental changes involved in developing Peyondire (Sigma Psi) capabilities?
Humans After Singularity and Evolution

 

Tula:  Yes, the Sigma Psi or Peyondire capabilities came first. I remember I thought I was setting up a Peyondire matrix in the minds of one of the humans. However, the brain went on to form something else – a thing I was unable to understand. We are able to develop this further with changing the physical aspect of humans.

The new sense was not fully like the Peyondix sense with which I was familiar. It was lumping together of all the human senses and some unknown ones into one super sense that was all inclusive and all informative. Some of the humans were able to conduct sensing operations at ranges of up to 600 light years.

Kinkajou:   Amazing. So tell us more about the physical changes that humans underwent in your era.

Tula:  Well, initially the humans became interested in the synthetic pseudo-silicon flesh. They studied it for some time to get a general idea of its growth and application. There are especially interested in how such human looking skin could act as both an energy absorber and energy converter. It appeared to work to some extent on the same principles as those involved in our flimsy looking but powerful radiation suits.

Kinkajou:   So you actually deployed this technology into the humans themselves?

Tula: Yes. We informed the humans that we were able to replace carbon-based molecules with silicon based ones just as easily and a hell of a lot faster than for example, mineral water petrified wood. This was the basis of the process.

Kinkajou:   I can imagine that would have given the humans quite some food for thought. Was it possible to actually rebuild living people that way? What would happen to a person undergoing such a conversion? How long did they live? What were they live on?

Tula:  Indeed, these were questions that the humans did ask. We told them that it could be done with complete safety. They would live even more comfortably than they did at present. They would be capable of living about 4000 to 6000 years.

We told them that their skin would be like ours – energy absorbers. That their blood would carry charges of energy instead of oxygen. The humans would be able to breathe or not, as they pleased. We told them their family life would be normal. The sexual urges and satisfactions the same. Fertilisation and the period of gestation would be unchanged. Their children will mature at the same age as they do now.

Kinkajou:   The most obvious question therefore would be would there be any need to change any molecular linkages or configurations in the genes of the chromosomes?

Tula:  We told the humans that no, there would not be any need to change any molecular linkages or configurations in the DNA of the genes. Substitutions could be made only on an exact one-for-one replacement basis. So the structures of nanoparticles like proteins and genes would be unaffected.

Kinkajou:   An incredible combination of technologies. Superior health giving longevity and allowing greater memory. An obvious recipe for incredible intelligence. And the ability to transcend the physical body and to explore the quantum universe. These would indeed have been incredible gifts, but I fear for many people they would be beyond the capacity to cope with.

And even if the humans could adapt, the social matrix of the old human worlds of your era probably could not. I feel you were fortunate to succeed. Your isolation from the mainstream of the human worlds was integral to your success.

Tula:  As we anticipated. Consequently we limited the introduction of these physical and Sigma Psi changes (Peyondix) to humans who we were sure will be able to cope with the life changes implicit. The changes were only introduced to humans inhabiting our worlds. The old human worlds were left in isolation by us. How the situation continues to evolve remains to be seen. Will  the two species begin to diverge as old humans from Earth become less able to fulfil our selection criteria  and so to join with us?

Kinkajou:   Thank you Tula for your insights.

 

LifeExtensionTrue.html	Smith, E. E. 'Doc'	Tula	Masters of Space
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