tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71432192069447868542024-03-13T06:32:39.407-07:00Ionian TalesDavid the Gyromancerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05251493765196671229noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7143219206944786854.post-7729655380512530882020-01-21T13:43:00.001-08:002020-01-21T20:51:29.867-08:00Zubonian Emissary Inhetiezgeret Tselek's speech on the Eight Gifts, January 20, 2040<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Zubonian Emissary Inhetiezgeret Tselek's speech on the Eight Gifts, <o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">January
20, 2040<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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My fellow<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">…</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Well,
right there, I have to stop and explain. Almost everyone hearing this, at
whatever remove, will be a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">fellow<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></i>of mine, but not a fellow <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">citizen</i>, or even a fellow <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Earthling</i>. A fellow human, though. For,
as most of you will already know, we Zubonians are not from Earth, in the sense
of having been born here. But we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">are</i>
human. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Homo sapiens</i> in your parlance.
Our genes originated on your world, the descendants of the bioevolution of this
planet, which is our original home as it is yours. How that came to be true is
a long, complicated story which will become clear in time. So, who am I? My
name is Tselek, more fully<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Inhetiezgeret
Tselek</i>, in our common language, which we maybe a little arrogantly call <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Egtis Olyarese, </i>which means “universal
speech.”<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>We don’t all speak this
language from birth, but everyone in the Zubonian culture learns to speak it. A
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">lingua franca</i>, if you will. But back
to who I am. As a somewhat arbitrary fact, I am the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">first man not born on Earth ever to set foot on this planet. </i>Wow.
That’s something. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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I
was, in fact, born on a world, a planet, not so very different from Earth but
much younger, so far from here it is quite literally beyond imagining. We, and
you, can only just adopt a frame of thinking about it, not really understand it
the way you understand that Earth, or Zubos, are globes. Zubos is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">impossibly</i> far. Too far for light from
there to ever get here. Turns out that’s actually normal in the space travel
game. A little more about that later. Our world is not like yours in one very
important respect, though. It is not a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">natural
</i>home for humans, or the life of Earth, but one which was transformed
artificially, thousands of years ago, from a nonliving world into a planetary
home for people who originally came from<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">…</span>
right here. Earth. This world. Many of you already know this amazing fact,
which is the opening of a long, fascinating story most of you will eventually
become at least somewhat familiar with. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Now,
you may already know that not all of us live on the planet. This is an
interesting fact about life in advanced spacefaring civilizations. Most people,
or other smart beings, don’t live on planets. More about that later. But some
do, and planets are useful as stable depositories where life can more or less
sustain itself on its own. Sort of insurance against big system breakdowns.
Although, as you’re finding out right now in your history, even planets can
have complete system failures if you don’t know how to take care that they
continue to be stable and sustainable. <o:p></o:p></div>
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So
much that’s strange to you, and to us, as well, in my being here, now, talking
to you, the natives of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Urbos</i>, the
“original world,” the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kwento Lunlan, </i>“Home
of Man.” Earth. But I am beating around the bush, as I think you say in English.
I think of English as almost <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">your</i> “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">egtis olyarese</i>,” universal language.
Sorry if that offends anyone, but the time for truly global communications is a
bit overdue, so you may have to get used to it. Anyway, I do have a very
serious purpose in addressing you today, so I will get to the point. I am what
you might call an ambassador, an emissary. Sent to Earth to communicate and
coordinate. I have pretty much mastered your language, or at least I hope so,
and I’ll stick to it. So, to the point: <o:p></o:p></div>
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We
come in peace for all mankind. <o:p></o:p></div>
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No,
seriously. We do. For you, the people of Earth, and for ourselves, as denizens
of a civilization. With all that may imply. <br />
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And so do our patrons, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Aiyonzhiseler.
</i>The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">real </i>aliens. We are human,
but they are not. They did not originate on this world or ours, and their form,
mental processes, and language are all <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">very
</i>different from yours, or, for that matter, ours. I’ve noticed that some of
the journalists of your world are already taking to calling them <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ionians</i>, because of the similarity of
the sound to the name of an ancient Greek tribe. Of course, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Aiyonzhiseler</i> is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">our </i>word for them, not theirs. They do not speak in the way we—or
you—do, and it is quite simply impossible for us humans to “pronounce” their
language or their “name” for themselves, although even that concept doesn’t
quite fit. Now how <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">all that </i>came
about is a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">really </i>long and
complicated story! But here I am, digressing again. There is so much of
importance to say, and so much that it is unfamiliar. One wants to just chat
about this and that. Get familiar. Become friends. But, enough. I’ll just say
that you are unlikely at any time to have direct personal encounters with
Ionians, but I urge you to learn what you can about them, because their advent
on this world is probably the most important thing that’s happened here since
cells figured out how to use sunlight for energy. Really. I mean that. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We,
as human clients of the Ionians, have come here because your world is in its
worst crisis in several hundred million of your years. Some of your scientists
had already more or less figured that out before we burst on the scene, just a
couple of months ago. This realization, which was already beginning to manifest
itself before our arrival, is the first of what are probably the three greatest
shocks to the human civilization of this planet in all of your history. <o:p></o:p></div>
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First,
the realization that the planet is so fundamentally and gravely stressed by recent
environmental changes usually somewhat simplistically referred to as the
“Climate Crisis,” or even “Global Warming,” that <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">the continued survival of human beings beyond just a few centuries or
even decades is not only threatened but actually rather unlikely.</b> Calling
such a grave threat “global warming” is almost comical. Anyway, the near
certainty of extinction is what would happen <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">without</i> intervention and remediation which is almost certainly
beyond the technological and scientific ability of present terrestrial
civilization to cope with. And that is the reason for the second two big
shocks. Both of which, I hope, in time, people here will come to view as a
tremendous boon, a stroke of incredible good fortune, quite literally a chance
at planetary salvation.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The
second shock, of course, is that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you are
not alone</i>. There are others in the universe, as some people, both sensible
and not so sensible, have suspected for some time. Both other humans, who
originated on Earth thousands of years ago, and other intelligent beings, who did
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> originate on Earth. So, not
googly eyed intelligent bugs from the ninth dimension<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">…</span> or not only them<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">…</span> but <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">other
people</i>. People from another world, another culture, with their own long
history, language, spirit, and essence. We are called Zubonians, which,
loosely, means “second worlders.” We are like you, fully and genuinely human, but
not exactly like you. Our most recent common ancestor was about 12,700 years
ago. During what your scientists call the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lesser
Dryas</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">…</span> love that name<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">…</span> a brief return of the ice
age after the end of the Wisconsin Glaciation, about 15,000 years ago. Stressed
out the folks living here on Earth for about 1300 years. But it was the time
when some kindly intelligent beings, from impossibly far away, that we now call
the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Aiyonzhiseler</i>, or Ionians, came
to Earth. And they, well, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">rescued</i>
some people who were facing certain doom. That’s us, or rather, our ancestors.
They lived in Eurasia someplace. The Ionians know in detail, of course, but
they don’t always share everything they know. More about <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">that </i>later, too. And you, your ancestors, are the people left
behind. Long story. Which brings us to the third shock, of course<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">…</span> <o:p></o:p></div>
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Which
is, obviously that there <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">are</i>, in the
universe, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">other</i> intelligent beings
than humans. Other civilizations. They are not common. In fact they are
incredibly rare. Some of your thinkers had pretty well figured that out, too;
not that humanity is alone, which it isn’t, but that civilized beings, what we
call <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">zhiseler</i>, “knowers,” are really,
really rare. The ones that came to Earth a long time ago (and probably not for
the first time at that), have not been interfering in your civilization like in
some kind of science fiction novel. Well, except for the one time, before now! They
were mostly observers. But for reasons that may eventually become clear they
decided to replicate Earth life to another convenient world that could be
modified to support it, and in the process to rescue some populations of doomed
humans, trapped by the vicissitudes of the Dryas brief Ice Age. These alien,
the Ionians, are indeed inscrutable, mysterious, hard to understand, all that,
but, there’s good news. They, who are here, now, in the vicinity of your world,
the Ionians, are not hostile to us, or to you. Just the opposite. They are
here, not to colonize your world, which is not even a suitable environment for
them. Nor are they here to take your resources, enslave you, or even interfere all
that much or to your detriment with humanity and its destiny. Instead, they
have come here, across unimaginable distance, for a second time, to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">rescue </i>human beings, this time all of
them, from nearly certain doom. And we, people from the “second world,” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zubos</i>, have been called upon to help
with that. Speaking for myself, I see this as an honor and a tremendous
privilege. Of almost unimaginably historic proportions, from my perspective as
well as yours. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Already
there are people in this world who refuse to believe this benign version of what
from any view are almost literally earth-shaking events. They see nefarious
ends. But, my friends, my fellow human beings, please hear me out and I hope
you can believe me. This is just not so. The Ionians<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">,</i> at least the ones who are here, have <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">only </i>a compassionate interest in humanity. There is virtually
nothing we have that they want, other than knowledge about ourselves, which
some of them find interesting. But they and their civilization have existed for
a long, long time, and they have developed protocols and contingent plans for
the kind of circumstances your world finds itself in. Some of them, I’ve
gleaned, aren’t really interested in you, or us, at all, and would probably not
interfere or even pay attention to our plight, if it were up to them. And many
of them take an attitude towards other beings that’s so cautious as to verge on
paranoia. But that does not make them hostile. Anyway, some others of them have
journeyed here, and made truly incomprehensible technology available, in order
to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">help you, </i>or, as I prefer to think
of it, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">to help us, </i>humanity, to
weather our worst crisis ever. Out of compassion. Or altruism. Whatever you
want to call it. And I, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Inhetiezgeret
Tselek</i>, as an emissary of mankind’s Second World, along with a few hundred
of my fellow denizens of that world, are here to serve as liaisons, as we have
some experience already dealing with these <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">aliens</i>.
This is our mission, and we take it on with joy and determination to succeed. <o:p></o:p></div>
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You
may be understandably skeptical. And I cannot and do not promise you that there
will not be disruption coming. Including large scale changes to your way of
life that many of you will <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not like</i> —
because it’s human nature to resist change— and over which you will <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not have control</i>. But I promise you, and
I hope in time you will come to see for yourself, that this intervention, this
massive remediation of the conditions that this world has fallen into, will be
for the benefit of humanity; all of humanity, and that it will be, in fact, the
single best thing that ever happened to the race as a whole in its entire
history. Even including the events that led to our second civilization on my
world and its associated space. Which, while it is in a sense everything to me
and my people, in another sense is only a prelude to what is happening now. And
that, my friends, is nothing less than this:<o:p></o:p></div>
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The
time for the healing of the Earth, and the reunion of all its children, is at
hand. <o:p></o:p></div>
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This
is truly exciting and wonderful, and I hope you will come to see it that way
very soon. When I say “all its children,” I am including myself and the people
of my culture, because we too are originally from this world, and our fate and
yours are inextricably linked. Our name for your world is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Urbos</i>, as I mentioned before. This means “original world.” Or
sometimes we refer to it as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kwento Lunlan</i>,
“Home of Man.” We do not seek to own this world or occupy it, but we call it
that in recognition of the fact that it is our original home, just as it is
yours. We have been separated from it for a long, long time, during which most
of our people all but forgot about the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kwento
Lunlan</i>. Almost, but not quite. Every Zubonian knows and has always known
that out there in the vast horizon of deepest space, lies our original home,
orbiting a fairly ordinary star in a fairly ordinary galaxy, impossibly far
away. For a lot of reasons that will eventually be at least a little more clear
to you, we could not come here, or even communicate with you, still less come
to your assistance as civilization emerged all on its own on this world. But we
did get some information from your world, sporadically, and sparsely. We could
not and did not come here, and for the most part neither did the Ionians in all
that time, but there were watchers left behind. These are beings who, by their
own ethics, do not tend to interfere with others’ affairs. But they do observe.
And some of those observations, here and there, came down to us, your brethren
across the sea of galaxies, over time. So we know, and have long known,
something about you and your world, even your culture and your history (until
recently only to a limited extent). But you did not know of us, or of the
Ionians. Because they made sure to keep it that way. It’s their way, and they
hold the cards, so to speak. They are the elder race. We aren’t in a position
to challenge that. But, fortunately, for the most part the yoke is easy, so to
speak. They don’t expect much from us. But what they choose to share with us is
what we know from them or of them. And the same will be true for you. It’s just
the way it is. I tell you this frankly, because we are in the same position.
They have no objection to my telling you this, because it’s true, and they
value the truth. What they don’t always value is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sharing </i>the truth. This is a lesson our people have had to learn
over and over. <o:p></o:p></div>
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So
my purpose in talking with you today is to outline the first four of what will
eventually be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Eight Gifts</i>. That’s the
simplest way to describe what the Ionians have planned for your world. I have
portrayed them as a little secretive, which they are. But they are also very generous
and powerful, so in some ways they are like gods. Simply and directly, let me
list and briefly describe their planned “gifts” to the people of Earth. I will
touch on the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">second four</i> at the end,
but for the near term, only the first four will concern us. These are gifts to
our <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">species</i>, not just to this world,
but it is this world where our species originated, and the survival of this
world is crucial to the future of mankind, as well as, perhaps equally
important, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">terrestrial life</i>. As a
result of these gifts, my friends, the future for our species, and the life of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">this world</i>, is very bright. Without
them, it would be very dark, indeed. I will not dwell on the science of why
that is the case, which even without the more advanced information available to
us your scientists had already begun to realize. But know this: without the
Ionians’ help, life as you have come to know it on this Earth would be gravely
disrupted, and it would be millions of years before it recovered<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">…</span> and even then it would be
scarcely recognizable and would almost certainly not include the descendants of
humanity. This catastrophe <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">can and will </i>almost
certainly be avoided, thanks to these gifts to us. <o:p></o:p></div>
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At
the very end I will also touch on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">why </i>they
are doing this for us. <o:p></o:p></div>
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First,
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Intervention and Remediation </b>of the
collapsing macroecosystem (“Gaia System”) of this planet. This intervention
will mostly be conducted by automated technology, operated remotely, from orbit.
It will literally transform the systems of the world to stop runaway greenhouse
warming in its tracks and restore a sustainable balance to the world. These
brute force implementations are completely beyond the ability of existing human
technology here on Earth to effectuate, but for the advanced technology of the
Ionians, it is feasible, even fairly straightforward. <o:p></o:p></div>
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There
will be some accommodation for the fact that Earth is seriously overpopulated<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">…</span> Newsflash!... but this is
not in itself fatal, and that, too will be addressed long term, in a way
consistent with the ethical and compassionate principles of advanced Ionian
civilization. Which, I hope it goes without saying<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">, </i>involve the preservation of life and an equitable approach to
what you on this planet might call <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">self-determination</i>.
I will not attempt to go into details right now, but it’s enough to say they
will intervene and restore the chemistry of the oceans to a sustainable level,
recapture fossil carbon, and restore the balances of various systems to a
healthy and sustainable condition. They will quite literally save the world, physically,
from catastrophic environmental collapse. After which, with the tools at hand,
it will be our<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">…</span> your<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">…</span> responsibility to maintain
the world in a healthy condition. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Second,
and closely related, is the gift of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Knowledge,
Technique and Method for Sustainable Planetary Environment. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b>With Ionian help and technology, we will
introduce means of food production, energy production, transportation
technology, and manufacturing economy, that will bring prosperity and
sustainable livelihood to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">all of humanity</i>.
This is a huge promise, but please believe me. It is possible. And it will
happen, and more quickly than you might think. The technologies available are very
advanced, and involve essentially free energy. In the long run, I can tell you
right now, your scientist Edward O. Wilson had it right<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">…</span> a good deal of the Earth will have to be
given over to wilderness; free range for other inhabitants than us humans.
Including most of the oceans. But this will happen gradually, and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">no one</b> will be deprived of life or the
chance at a self-determined meaningful existence. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Much will change. Some people will not like
some of the changes. But for everyone, there will be relative abundance, and
for the great majority, there can be no doubt in anyone’s mind but that their
lot is improved. Some will seek new frontiers “out there,” but some will choose
to stay right here, and live on a healed and sustainable Earth for a very long
time to come. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
Which
brings me to the third great gift. Something you need to understand about the
Ionians. Some of which has rubbed off on us, the Second Worlders. And that is
that technology and biology are not really separate. They have an understanding
of life, including the life of Earth as well as the life of other worlds and
their own original home, that transcends terrestrial human understanding. It
far exceeds the understanding of my culture, too, but we have already
assimilated some of this knowledge, and learned to work with some of what they
have given to us, long since. Anyway, you might think of this gift as <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Perfect Medicine<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">.</i></b> The Ionians understand our life completely. They will
introduce cures for sickness, subtle changes that will allow us to live more
easily and fully, and longer. If you are very observant, you may have already
noticed that I, and other Zubonians, are subtly different from you in ways that
aren’t just genetic drift. We have <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">enhancements</i>,
thanks to this biotechnology. We are not angels or supernatural beings. We are
fully human. But our systems are self-healing. Our naturally evolved programmed
death is defused, so that our lifespan is greatly extended. Our genes are
self-repairing. We do not experience runaway infection, or cancer, or other diseases
that continue to plague<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">…</span>
literally plague<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">…</span> Earth’s
humans. We are very strong, have the ability to control our minds and bodies in
ways that will seem wonderfully liberating to people who have lived in thrall
to evolution and the consequences of development purely from natural genetic
heritage. It’s a balance. We are human. We have the same chromosomes and
essentially the same genome you have. But after we are born, enhancements are
introduced that give us health, clear mind, ability to avoid mental incapacity
or disease, and long life. And these same developments, enhancements to our lives,
can, before too long, be made available here to you as well. And I feel sure
that this news will be greeted with great joy and celebration<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">…</span> as it should be, because
there is nothing good about sickness, old age and death. Death is inevitable,
but much of the suffering that goes with it is not. That’s the ultimate truth
here. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
You
may look at me and have a hard time imagining how old I am. Partly because,
after twelve thousand years, we people of Zubos are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">naturally</i> different from you. We have light brown skin but often
green or blue eyes. Often reddish hair. These are not common combinations on
Earth. We are on average a little more gracile, a little smaller than you, as
the world we live on is slightly<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">…</span>
very slightly<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">…</span> lower
in surface gravity. Our overall appearance is just different, idiosyncratically
different. Not hugely so, but you see it. In any case, you might think I’m<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">…</span> what?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mid 30s? 40 in your years? Well no, friends,
and I hope you see this as a promise. I was born on Zubos. So far away that it
isn’t even meaningful to talk about “simultaneity,” or try to give a date here
on Earth for the day I was born. But I can approximate, based on my age as I’ve
experienced it. And based on that, if you could assign a date, it would be sometime
in the year 1780. You heard right. I’m in the prime of life, but I am about 260
years old by your reckoning. And this will become normal for humanity here on
Earth in the near future as well. This is the third gift, in a nutshell, my
friends. Not immortality. Every living thing dies. But long, healthy, and meaningful
life. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
This
will take a while to roll out, but once intervention of the kind that the
Ionians have elected to do here is underway, it has its own logic. And I have
been assured that the means to transform life for the people of Earth so that
this gift is realized for the great majority now living will be forthcoming. So
hang on. It will get better. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
The Fourth Gift may seem somewhat less dramatic, but it is actually very
significant. And it is simply this. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Free
access to information and culture. </b>This one is not unlimited, any more than
the others. In fact, as I intimated, there are lots of things that the Ionians just
don’t share with us. They have their own reasons. A many million year old
civilization (I didn’t mention that, did I?) will not share things it considers
potentially dangerous in the hands of a “young” client like<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">…</span> us. They will tell us a
lot of things, teach us a lot of technology, and just give us, without understanding,
other kinds of technology. They will give us access to a vast storehouse of
knowledge and history of beings like and unlike us going back a very long time
and spanning unimaginable space, although even that is not total. A good deal
of what makes the other gifts possible will be withheld from you, as it has
been from us on Zubos. They have technology that seems like magic to us, even
now. That produces energy seemingly from nothing (actually from interaction of
different dimensional levels or something; I confess I don’t understand it at
all). But what you do learn, and get access to, will expand the horizons of
human knowledge enormously. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
This
knowledge is the foundation for the other gifts, that will unfold in due time.
The Ionians will impart materials technology that will make it possible to have
ready access to space. Space elevators, making ballistic rocketry obsolete, and
other advanced means to travel in the solar system. Secret technology that,
given freely as discrete machines, will allow for acceleration in space for
indefinite periods of time, seemingly without any source of fuel or other
energy. It’s all heady and confusing. But here’s the short version: in the
future you will be able to learn about beings, cultures, and histories you’ve
never imagined existed, and humanity will be able to travel among the stars,
although not quite in the way you might have expected. And this, in essence,
will, in due course, constitute the Fifth Gift.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
At
the same time, the Sixth Gift will be the both the technology to build, and the
actual construction of, an artificial world. A space habitat with more surface
area than Earth. Humans here on Earth have already conceived of such things. I
can tell you, it is not just pipe dreaming. Gigantic habitats for humanity and
associated earthly life constructed in space are very real, and will be built
right here in the Solar System in due course. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
The
remaining gifts will be contingent. Our species has not yet fully demonstrated
that these are our birthright. Speaking to you as a man, to other humans, I
want you to aspire, with us, to achieve the trust that will be needed for these
to be imparted to us, or for us to develop them on our own, as may be. In Zubonian
culture, we have <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">some </i>access, but not
free access. So what am I talking about here?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
What
they think of as the Seventh Gift is what you might think of as Universal
Ethics. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Karmkerkiezel Olyarese</i> in our
language, a phrase that has very specific meaning in relation to Ionians and
the way they conceive of life and its purposes. This is the distillation of
religion (sort of), spirituality, philosophy, ethics, over time spans greater
than the entire existence of the human race, that have manifested themselves
and emerged elsewhere in the universe, and which, the Ionians teach us, anyway,
are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">essential for long term survival</i>.
They will not share certain knowledge or ability with us, or any other beings
they encounter, until they are convinced that this system of doctrine<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">…</span> more than that really, but
that’s an essential part of it<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">…</span>
is fully integrated not just into our intellectual being but our very essence.
They will share these tenets, and methods, and mental states<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">…</span> with us, as best they can,
if we seek it, but they cannot <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">make us </i>adopt
or incorporate this knowledge (and more than knowledge). And while they are
generous, they are not particularly generous with their <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">time, </i>or interested in spending time with us. So learning the subtleties
of other beings’ ethics and philosophy, and even more their methods of mind and
mind training, is far from a given or easy. But it is, nonetheless, a gift that
is literally beyond price and is the key to our ultimate success as a race of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">zhiseler</i>, wise beings. So we set this as
our goal, to achieve the universal spiritual, philosophical and ethical awareness
that constitutes real civilization. We are told, and I believe, that these tenets,
or whatever you want to call them, really are universal. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Every </i>successful civilization eventually attains them, in more or less
the same form. It’s like convergent evolution. The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">karmkerkiezel </i>really is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">olyarese</i>,
that is, universal. I can tell you this much. It is not magic. It is not
supernatural. It does not involve currying favor with, or praying for the
assistance of, gods or godlike beings. But it is moral, and involves the evolution
of mental processes so that a more direct awareness of reality is attainable. There
have been hints of this in our human cultures, but there is a time in the life
of every successful civilization when it all comes together, and becomes an essential
part of the shared culture. This, I believe, is in our shared future, and it is
something we can, and should, aspire to. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
I do
not mean to insult those who choose to retain their faiths or religious
beliefs. That is, of course, a key element of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">self-determination</i>, which, it happens, is also part of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">karmkerkiezel. </i>We must all seek truth in
our own ways, and I will not presume to tell you here and now what is the right
way. Together, we will move forward. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
And the Eighth<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">…</span> and last<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">…</span> Gift? This is access to
the network of translation<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">…</span>
travel<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">…</span> through vast
distances of space. The Ionians did not even invent this. They discovered it.
And so have some<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">…</span> a
very few<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">…</span> other naturally
evolved races of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">zhiseler, </i>widely
scattered in space and time far too vast for easy human understanding.<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>I use the Zubonian word, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">zhiseler</i>, meaning something like “wise
beings,” because <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">xenosophonts</i> sounds
so pedantic. Maybe it’ll catch on in English, as a borrowed term. Anyway, this
network, of “star links” or “gates” or whatever you want to call them, is
precious and carefully guarded. How it works, how it is accessed, how to find the
locations where it exists<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">…</span>
all of these are carefully guarded secrets, which are not shared with us. Yet,
in the long run, we are sure it is the key to our joining the great adventure
of expanding our life and culture through vast realms of space and time in the
future. With you, in time, we will stand on the cusp of a leap forward, and I believe
we can and will be able to do this, with the Ionians’ help, but it’s far off, a
long horizon. Something to know about as a promise for the future. In the
meantime, we will have such access as we are granted, and that, alone, is wonderful
almost beyond imagination.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
So,
for now, we, and especially you, here on this world, are so very, very lucky,
because you have escaped the fate of many worlds that have arisen here and
there in huge numbers in this unimaginably vast universe, which is to arise,
and briefly flourish, but to fail to grasp the holistic essence of living in
and on a world in time to make the transition to sustainability and expansion
in space. Many civilizations over quite literally billions of years and
countless tens of billions of light years of space, scattered far and wide
because intrinsically very rare to begin with<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">…</span>
have lived brilliant short lives and perished in the collapse of the life
systems of their worlds brought about by their own failure to grasp the means
to survive in time. But this will not be your<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">…</span>
our<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">…</span>. fate, because we
are fortunate enough to have a patron elder race that will guide us and help us
through this transition. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
You
might have guessed that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Karmkerkiezel
Olyarese</i>, as we call it, is the reason we were rescued from certain death
on Earth during the Lesser Dryas Ice Age. It is the reason the Earth has been
left alone, free to develop as its potential dictates, without interference, up
to now. That may not be so obvious, because there are trade-offs, obviously.
But the old ones long ago learned from experience that the universe flourishes
best, by and large, by being left alone. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">karmkerkiezel </i>is also the reason why,
now that it is clear that the critical turning point has passed and, without
intervention, the collapse of Earth’s macrosystem and extinction of humanity on
this world is certain or nearly so, that policy has been reversed. Massive
intervention and redemption is already underway. The Eight Gifts are a
reflection of one of the most important tenets of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">karmkerkiezel</i>, which is generosity. We don’t need a foreign word
for that; it’s something we all understand. Adults selflessly help the young to
achieve maturity. Those who have much may<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">…</span>
and should<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">…</span> feel an
impetus to share with those who have less. This impetus arises from another
aspect of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">karmkerkiezel </i>which we
humans have also fully evolved, even though we do not always live up to it. And
that, of course, is love, which also gives rise to compassion. We may<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">…</span> we should<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">…</span> in the end we must<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">…</span> love life. And we must
care for life. The fact that these impulses are, in the fullness of time <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">olyarese</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">…</span>
universal<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">…</span> is the
reason for our good fortune. Because the old souls of the universe like the
Ionians not only advocate, they are, in their very being, suffused with just
that love of life, and desire that it flourish, wherever it exists. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
Fellow
humans, the future is bright. There will be some difficult transitions ahead,
but your children, our children, will live to see a world, and more than a
world, where life, sustainable, expanding, adventurous, meaningful life, is
possible, even assured. And that is truly worth celebrating, as it is the
single most momentous event in your or our history, and will probably remain so
for ages to come. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
Thank
you. I will not take questions right now, but in the near future a great deal
of information will be released that will help people in all walks of life
prepare for what is to come. Good night. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Laoyeh</i>.
May you have long life, prosperity and happiness. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Yo seng keln, sarayole, ib golorakis. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />David the Gyromancerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05251493765196671229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7143219206944786854.post-70292650967947814072012-12-26T15:47:00.001-08:002012-12-26T15:47:55.208-08:00Ionian Philosophy watch this space (ha! as if anyone is doing so!) David the Gyromancerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05251493765196671229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7143219206944786854.post-71838801793784029562012-12-26T14:13:00.002-08:002020-01-21T15:25:44.823-08:00On Ionian Paranoia (from a Human Perspective) <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">Humans have
found Ionians incredibly frustrating and baffling, over the long history of
their connections to them. <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">This frustration has to be balanced agains<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">t the fact that, however mercurial, bizarre, uncommunicative, condescending, or otherwise annoying the reality of Ionians may be</span></span>, the human population of the
Daughter Worlds and other habitats in Human Space owe their very existence to
their <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">alt<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">ruism and technology. It was Ionians</span></span> who saw fit to rescue some human beings who (at
least, so the story went) were in imminent danger of extinction. This was during the tail
end of the Wisconsin glaciation on Old Earth, at the time of the original
discovery by Ionians of the Solar System Link to Ionian Space and consequently
of Earth itself. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">Ionians of that
era provided the means (including transportation) to inhabit a new world,
Zubos, a remarkably Earthlike world which they set aside specifically for these
humans. Zubos was partially terraformed (having already been relatively
habitable), and various geoengineering tweaks have been undertaken over the
time of its habitation. In fact, Ionians seem to pay attention to their
charges, and have frequently offered help just in time when systems were
failing, politics had made a particular world or habitat ungovernable, or other
serious problems threatened catastrophe. They didn’t <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">interfere</i>, exactly, but just made available some out or fix that
defused the situation. It was disconcerting, in a way, and humiliating, more
than once, but people just came to think of it as part of the way things are. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">The Ionians
originally shared <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">some </i>basic science
and technology with the primitive humans, and made <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">some </i>of the infrastructure of their vast civilization available.
Within a millennium after the First Contact, there were several human worlds,
and humans had access to spacefaring technology. But these things were
consciously doled out. There was never <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">general
access </i>or acceptance of humanity as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">belonging
</i>to the Ionian supercivilization in any meaningful way. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">Ionians kept the
locations of links to their own home systems secret, and did not share with
humans the techniques of locating and prospecting for spatial links. Even after
millennia, this technology and even the basic science behind it proved elusive.
Nor did the Ionians share with humans much information about themselves or
their history, or any of the other civilizations they had encountered. They
were very careful not to share technology that could be transformed into
weapons, and when they did communicate directly and straightforwardly with
human leaders and scientists (which was infrequently), as often as not it was
to warn them to stay away from any destructive or weapons technologies, which,
they made clear, would simply not be tolerated. But, apart from this, they were
benign zookeepers, whose motto seemed to be Live and let live, mostly separate
from us, thank you very much. In fact, only one of the Human Worlds had any
permanent Ionian population, that being <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Koros
</i>(also called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Corrace</i>), which was
the location of the Ionian Institute of Earth and which had a population of
very eccentric Ionian pure-biologicals who apparently thought it acceptable to
share a world with humans of Earth (not something which the vast bulk of
Ionians would consider as even <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sane</i>). All of this was the case, even though to a close
approximation Ionians and humans are biologically similar enough that the
worlds they would choose to inhabit would tend to be the same worlds, and their
artificial habitats would have roughly the same internal conditions of gravity,
pressure, temperature, air mixture, etc. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">The general belief among humans <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">came <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">t<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">o be that Ionians are <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">just naturally paranoid. They will not take any chances with <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">upstart races<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">. <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">They aren't hostile, but they don't let them <i>in</i><span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">; <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">they keep them at <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">long-arm<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">s' length and carefully cont<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">rol not only contact, but tech<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">nology and information transfer as well. The principle of both of these b<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">eing: only that w<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">hich benefits the Great and Glori<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">ous Totality of Ion<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">us will be allowed. The <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">secondary goal of ben<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">efiting the aliens (i.e., us) is not ignored, but it is subservient. And nothing not actively use<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">ful to them, <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">or <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">at l<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">east harmless to them, <b>and </b><span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">important to the well-being of th<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">eir client (again, <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">that being us), <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">is allowed to pass between them and us. So<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">, millennia after Contact, humans still know relat<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">ively little about them,<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";"> and have surprisingly little actual direct contact <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">with the<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">m and their technology. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">As a result,
although the broad outlines were known, of how Human Space and its worlds and
habitats came to be, and how they were dependent on and connected to the ancient
and almost unimaginably powerful civilization of the Ionians, the sweep and
grandeur of Ionian history, the scope and geography of the Connected Space
known to them, and the bulk of their scientific knowledge, are and always have
been mostly a matter of conjecture and mystery. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">Yet, <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">whatever the frustrations and alienation people have felt over the long years of co-existence with <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">Ionians in their various forms and <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">appar<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">itions, there has never been anything like enmity: Ionians have not actually harmed humans in any <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">verifiable incident, ever. They just haven't be<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">en <i>forthcoming</i>. This is frustrating to human beings, but it is also generally understood that<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">, however baffling and annoying they<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";"> may be, they are<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">, ultimately, benign. <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">This is presumptively a hard-wired feature of their civilization <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">by now; there do not appear to be any exceptions, or<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";"> even any near-exc<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">eptions. Ionians have from time to time rescued h<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">u<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">mans from accidents (although not reliably: it would seem that their surv<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">eillance of human activity is at most <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">sporadic). They have, again, from time to time and some<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">what unpredictably</span></span>, provided needed technologies whe<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">n systems failed; <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">offered new links to new worlds (at odd and unpredictable times, howe<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">ver). Occasionally in history, this particular move has defused te<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">nsions that<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";"> appeared to be on the verge of leading to human/human confl<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">ict.</span> </span></span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>I<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">t could even be s<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">aid that they have<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">, invariably<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">, been hu<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">manity's benefactors, if not always in quite the ways th<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">at the humans involved would<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";"> prefer.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">Given the penchan<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">t of humans on Earth to make <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">gods of what they don't understand, <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">it might be expected that at <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">various points along the way of the relations between Ionians and humans there might have arisen cults or even full blown institutions o<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">f worship <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">or s<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">upplication to these mysterious, seemingly invariably <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">benefi<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">cent, if distant and unco<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">m<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">municative, beings. But this, too, the Ionians have managed to quash: <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">one thing they have let be generally known, in no <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">uncertain terms, is that they are not <i>essentially </i>different from us<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">. They are living beings, or the augmented descendants of living beings. They <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">are, indeed, </span>more advanced<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">, both technologically and <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">even in their <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">intrinsic<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">, artific<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">ially enhanced, biological nature, </span></span></span></span>but originally they evolved naturally <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">on a world not unlike Earth (<i>somewhere</i>, and they aren't saying where), and they believe <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">that life in the <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">various forms in which it <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">has arisen</span> <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">is <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">intrinsically valuable. (And that intelligent life, which they know to be exc<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">eedingly rare, is <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">truly precious and worthy <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">of preservation <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">even at great cost).</span></span></span></span> They have a civilization<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">-wide value of <i>biophilia</i>, which they <i>will </i>discuss, at least to some extent, and they have managed to inculcate <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">something of this philosophy in <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">virtually all of the diverse cultures that make up <span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";">the humans of Human Space<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif";"> (not including Old Earth). </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span> </span></div>
David the Gyromancerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05251493765196671229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7143219206944786854.post-7985521051958796902012-12-26T13:26:00.001-08:002012-12-26T13:50:26.022-08:00An Earlier Alien Link to the Solar System, and the circumstantial evidence of the Ionian discovery thereof <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">The exact
location of the Spatial Link between Earth's <span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">S</span>olar <span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">S</span>ystem and Ionian <span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">S</span>pace is a
closely guarded secret, which plays a role in the story of the Recontact, to be
discussed elsewhere.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">During the
course of the approximately 16,000 years of human culture within Ionian <span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">S</span>pace,
however, it gradually became clear to human scientists that the Ionians had
contact with Old Earth that exceeded a single visit in the relatively recent
past. This <span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">inference </span>derived from evidence that there had been some
surveillance and continuous contact with the original home world of the human
species in the millennia that followed the original contact. This too, is an
essential element of the story of the Recontact, and the details of <span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">the unfolding of this mystery are told else<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">where</span></span>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">Although prior
to the period of the Recontact, humans knew very little of Old Earth, and
therefore had no basis to suspect the fact, it was eventually realized,
post-Recontact, that there must have <b>also </b>been at least one other link in Solar
System Space that connected to a location from which contact had been made with
Earth in a <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">much more remote</b> past
time than the initial Ionian contact. The evidence consisted mainly of the fact that there were species of
prehistoric plants and animals on Zubos and other human worlds <span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">and ha<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">bitat<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">ats of Ionian <span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">Space</span></span></span></span> which certainly
did not exist on Earth 16,000 years ago (along with many that did, but which
had <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">since </i>become extinct on Earth).
The assumption was that there had been at least <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">one other alien visit</i> to Earth, long before the Ionians discovered
Earth, or even had become a spacefaring civilization on their own. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">It was
generally understood, even before the R<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">econtact, and despite the fact that the</span> Ionians did not share <span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">this kind of information</span>,
that the Ionians were in contact with, or aware of, truly ancient alien
civilizations with w<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">hich they had come into contact or discovered as ex<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">tinct civili<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">zations while exploring <span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">C<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">onnected Space</span></span></span></span></span>. An intriguing mystery presented itself from the evidence that
one of these extremely ancient civilizations must have been discovered by means of the <span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">Link </span>with
the original home of humanity, <span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">O</span>ld Earth. Again, the evidence was purely
circumstantial, but no other explanation presented itself. The assumption was that the civili<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">zation itself was either extinct or otherwise no longer in contact with Solar Sy<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">stem space. </span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">The <span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">actual </span>evidence consisted of living small dinosaurs which had become extinct on earth
over 65 million years earlier, but which continued to thrive on <span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">one or more </span>of the human habitations and planets. There were also plants descended from cycads
and ginkgos, as well as giant club mosses, extinct varieties of fishes and
arthropods, ammonites, extinct mammalian and reptilian orders, and numerous
other forms of life, which were either no longer extant on Earth long before
the Ionian contact, or which belonged to branches of life forms that still
survived, but which were, in the specific forms found, no longer present on
Earth itself, nor had been for ages past. The assumption was that some <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">other </i>aliens had taken an interest in Earth much, much earlier, probably around the time of the extinction of the <span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">dinosaurs</span>, and that<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";"> these aliens</span> had
transported these life forms to one or more <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">other
</i>worlds, reachable via sequential link from the Solar System<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">. Further, it was inferrable </span>that the
Ionians had at some point visited this other world or worlds, and transported
some of these life forms, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not </i>back to
their original home, Old Earth, but to some of the human worlds of Ionian space.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">The inference that Earth was the connection between these ancient preserved life forms and modern I<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">onian Space was the only reasonable conclusion<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">. The I<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">o<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">n<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">ian reticence </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">to discuss the details of their discoveries and the extent of th<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">eir "empire" in Connect<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">ed Space<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">, </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>which approached and even transcended outright paranoia, <span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">left the human scientists <span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">who pondered</span> these questions to conjecture, infer, and deduce what facts they could, without the confirmation or additional details that undou<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">btedly <span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">were</span> well within the power of the I<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">onians to grant. From a human point of view, the<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">ir <span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">invar<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">iable refusal to do so, or even to communicate on the subject at all, was b<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">eyond frustrating, but it had been a fact of life for so long that it just had to be accepted. <span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">It was, in fact, scientific investigat<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">ors f<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">rom Earth it<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">self who found this entire subject so compelling that <span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">they sought to push for disclosure from the Ion<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">ians, but cooler and <span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">more experienced heads at places like the I<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">nstitute for <span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">Urbonian </span>Biology <span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">at Zort<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">zipak, <span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">realized that this was a fool<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">'s errand: the I<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">onians would divulge nothing. I<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">f there <span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">was more to be learned of the <span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">"Old Ones<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">," as they came to be known, who must have visited Earth tens of mi<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">llions of year<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">s ago, <span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">it would have to be the resu<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">lt of human re-discovery, via the Solar System Link that must exist or have exi<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">sted, if <span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">that were even <span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">possible. But where was it? How could it be found<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">? <span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">All these </span>things<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";"> remained unknowns. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span> </div>
David the Gyromancerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05251493765196671229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7143219206944786854.post-66226382087705672082012-04-28T11:03:00.001-07:002012-04-29T15:55:54.427-07:00Zubos and the Eight Daughter Worlds<br />
<div class="linuxdoublespace" style="line-height: 18.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="linuxdoublespace" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-left: .5in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Linux Libertine";">1.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Linux Libertine";">Zubos</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Linux Libertine";">, </span></b><span style="font-family: "Linux Libertine";">whose name means
“Second World,” is the original Ionian-modified habitable world prepared for
humans, dating to the original transportation of a human population from Earth,
approximately 16,750 years ago. It orbits a G4V dwarf star of high metal
content and an age of about 4 billion years, in a smallish spiral galaxy at
great remove from the Milky Way. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zubos</i>
is the second planet. It has two medium-small moons, which are each close
enough to appear about half the size in the sky as Earth’s moon, and to create
tidal circulation of the planet’s single large ocean. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zubos’</i> continental cratons are scattered and relatively small; the
largest continent is a bit larger than South America, and the total continental
area is >20%. The biggest continent has very high mountains on its western
flank, but the others are all older craton fragments without major cordilleras,
although one or two of them have significant plateau areas. The planet has a
mildly elliptical orbit, which results in slight seasonal variation. The
continents are all located within </span><span style="font-family: "Linux Libertine";">±</span><span style="font-family: "Linux Libertine";">60</span><span style="font-family: "Linux Libertine";">°</span><span style="font-family: "Linux Libertine";"> of the equator, so the climates tend
to be mild. The planet's position is squarely in the center of the ideal
habitable zone for terrestrial type climate in Zubos' star system. Zubos has semi-arid regions in
bands north and south of the equator, but a significant fraction of the land is
well placed for moist, temperate forested life zones. The actual tropical areas
are only about one quarter of the total
land area, and are sparsely inhabited. Rain forests predominate near the
equator. The planet had primitive native life before modification, some of which
persists, but it is only microbial and prokaryotic; since it uses a form of <i>xNA</i> different from the genetic system of Terrestroid and Ionianoid life, it has little interaction with them. Most of the biota of the planet are transplanted
from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Urbos</i>, i.e., Earth. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zubos</i> currently has a population of
about 700 million people. </span></div>
<div class="linuxdoublespace" style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-left: .5in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Linux Libertine";">2.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span><span style="font-family: "Linux Libertine";">The Eight Daughter Worlds</span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7143219206944786854#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Linux Libertine"; font-size: 10pt;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Linux Libertine"; font-size: 10pt;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Linux Libertine";">
were all settled a considerable time later than Zubos, although the newest, <i>Amdala</i>,
was first opened to settlement over 2000 years ago. No new human settled worlds
have been introduced since that time and none are in the works. <br />
Two of the eight,<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Erastia </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Colarus</i>, are actually Earth-sized moons of small inner-system
Neptunelike planets orbiting their respective sunlike stars. Another two, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pirobos</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tularit</i>, are the second and third worlds, respectively, of the same
F0V star, and are thus each planetary elements of a single two-planet system government. </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Linux Libertine";">Korbos</span></i><span style="font-family: "Linux Libertine";"> orbits a close ("spectroscopic") binary
pair of sunlike stars, and has a more than usually eccentric orbit, resulting in distinctly pronounced seasons. </span><span style="font-family: "Linux Libertine";">The planet <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Corrace</i>, which was settled about 2400 years ago, is the only one of
the planets to have a significant Ionian population. It has about 50 million
humans, and one million Ionians. Mostly the two species inhabit separate
regions of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Corrace</i>, and keep to
themselves, but there is more interaction between the species of an ordinary
interpersonal and even quasi-commercial nature there than anywhere else. All of
the sister worlds have their own unique circumstances which resulted in their
original discovery, settlement, and, to varying degrees, terraforming (in all
cases with some degree of Ionian assistance), and each today has its own unique human culture
and dialects of the </span><span style="font-family: "Linux Libertine";">dominant world language of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zubos, </i></span><span style="font-family: "Linux Libertine";">Maric, which is the ancestor of all of the languages spoken on all eight of the Daughter Worlds. The dialects range from mutually
comprehensible with Maric to so far afield as the barely mutually comprehensible without
continual translation. The total population of all eight of the Daughter Worlds
is approximately 25 billion.</span></div>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<br />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7143219206944786854#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Linux Biolinum"; font-size: 10pt;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Linux Biolinum"; font-size: 10pt; letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Linux Biolinum";"> = <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kalidara,
Erastia, Colarus, Tularit & Pirobos, Korbos, Corrace</i>, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Amdala</i>. All, like the “second world” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zubos
</i>(<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">second</i>, after the now
almost mythical <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Urbos </i>(“Original World”), i.e., Earth) are
roughly earth-size and orbit roughly sunlike stars of middle age. All, except
Erastia and Pirobos, have been modified, to at least a slight degree, to be
optimally human habitable. Erastia and Korbos are the most naturally earthlike,
each with indigenous complex life to which human beings have had to adapt. (The
interest and desire to do this was a main impetus to their colonization in the
first place). All the others had only simple single-celled life prior to
settlement, and are essentially reformed terrestroid biospheres, except for
Corrace, which actually has a hybrid Terrestroid /Ionianoid biosphere, with enough terrestrial plants, in
particular, to ensure a functional agricultural economy for its human
population. It is believed to be the only location in the universe where Ionian
life and Earthbased life freely intermix and share a single biosphere. </span></div>
</div>
</div>
<br />David the Gyromancerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05251493765196671229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7143219206944786854.post-87371066892136285132012-04-27T22:38:00.002-07:002012-04-27T22:42:41.784-07:00Where is Zubos?In many ways, this is an almost entirely meaningless question. The connecting interspatial link between Connected Space and the Solar System was lost millennia ago... or at least was not known to human beings, so even the number and sequence of "links" necessary to travel from Earth, known to Zubonians as "Urbos" or "Yibos," and a more or less legendary place to them, was not known prior to the Recontact.<br />
<br />
Even after the Recontact, when the specific sequence and mapping of links between Zubos and the solar system was restored to human knowledge, the <i>normal space </i>distance and direction of one with respect to the other is not ascertainable or meaningful. From statistical analysis of large-structures visible at the extremes of observable space from various locations within Connected Space, it is known that the likely normal space distance between Earth and Zubos, assuming that their normal space separation is typical of any other two places in Connected Space, is probably in the tens of billions of light years, but beyond that little can be said.David the Gyromancerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05251493765196671229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7143219206944786854.post-65869267669460561382012-04-27T22:33:00.000-07:002012-12-26T14:25:29.472-08:00Transpatial or Interspatial Links<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Fontin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">A
Description of Interspatial Links</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Fontin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>[Updated 12/26/2012] </b> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; tab-stops: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Fontin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Over
200,000 years ago, Ionian scientific experts proved that the structure of the
universe was, as had long been suspected, extremely intricately interfolded
into multiple additional dimensions, with points of contact, of varying size
and relative stability, creating connections between <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">extremely</i> distant points in the universe. These points, or more
properly, spatial bubbles, of contact, are referred to as interspatial or
transpatial <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">links </b>(or sometimes just
“spatial” links or just “links”). Soon after their initial discovery, the
Ionians found that they are related in a complicated way to most common
gravitational concentrations (i.e., massive objects), mainly stars, above a
certain threshold of mass, and including other dense objects like black holes
and neutron stars. There is a practical lower limit of the associated masses of
approximately .65 solar masses, beneath which the associated links are either
unstable, nonexistent, or too small to be of any real use. Links large enough
and stable enough to permit transportation from one region of space to another
very distant region are referred to as Class I Links; other, either unstable or
smaller links, are referred to as Class II, or sometimes as “inutile” links. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; tab-stops: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Fontin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Spatial
Links are found to remain in place, not to orbit their associated stars. The Links
generally track the orbital motion of their associated stars, as the stars
themselves orbit around the centers of galaxies. Thus, the fact that the links
orbit in tandem with the stars around galactic centers is an essential element
of their existence. Very little is understood, at least by human scientists, of
the mechanism of this remarkable association. Very small (dwarf) galaxies (such
as the Fornax or Sculptor dwarf galaxies near the Milky Way) generally lack
usable links entirely. Galaxies on the order of the Small Magellanic Cloud will
have them, although not quite as many as larger galaxies like the Milky Way,
M33 or M31, where they are abundant. Above a threshold of something on the
order of 50 billion solar masses, the population of links is not found to be
correlated further with the masses of galaxies. In other words, the existence
of links requires a certain minimum mass of galaxy, but beyond a certain mass,
their prevalence is correlated only with the stellar population itself. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; tab-stops: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Fontin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Links
can be thought of as “gateways,” or portals, through which objects, including
spaceships, can pass. Passage is more or less instantaneous, and can occur in
either direction. After passing through the portal, the object emerges in a
specific, and extremely distant, location. The link, in effect, pairs two
extremely remote stars with one another. The other associated star will usually
be roughly similar in mass and age to the other star associated with the link,
but this is not exact. The detailed physics behind the associations and locked
locations of the portals aren't understood by Zubonian scientists, although
there are some theories. Ionians have their own theories and certain knowledge,
some of which is shared with humans, and some not. (Which is typical of Ionian scientific
knowledge in general). </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; tab-stops: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; tab-stops: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Fontin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The
typical sunlike star in a spiral galaxy will have as few as two or as many as
twenty or so macroscopic links to other places in the universe, of which as few
as none or as many as all of them will be stable and large enough for transit.
Most stars have at least one usable interspatial link to another, extremely
remote, star. Distances from the central star (or center of mass of binaries)
is in rough inverse proportion to the mass of the system, but for a typical
sunlike star is on the order of 2 to 5 billion kilometers. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; tab-stops: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Fontin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The
links are not obvious; they typically don't emit radiation to any extent, and
are so small that their occulting of objects “behind” them is difficult to
detect (a region of the space of the associated star is often, but not always,
visible through the portal). For a typical sunlike star, a typical link will
have an opening about quarter of a kilometer in diameter, but some are as small
as 50 meters, and a few are a little larger. Very rarely there will exist a larger
portal. The largest known to Zubonian scientists is the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Etulmon</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Link</i>, which is
over .5 km. in diameter, and links the system containing the Ionian orbital</span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7143219206944786854#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Fontin; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Fontin; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Fontin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Etulmon</i> with another star in Ionian space, interdicted to humans. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Fontin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">It
is thought that there is a natural limit of about .6 km that is never exceeded.
Larger links are always pretty stable, but sometimes fluctuate in size so their
practical “pass through” diameter may be as little as 40% than their maximum
diameter. Links smaller than about 50m in diameter are generally considered too
risky to use for transit, as below this level there is a tendency to fluctuate
or simply “wink out” for variable periods of time. Thus, the 5o m. threshold is
the cut-off between Class I and the Class II or “inutile” links. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Fontin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Class
I links have a unique and apparently invariant property. They link the star
with a part of the universe which is outside the “light cone” of that location
with respect to the linked location. In other words, light, or information of
any kind, other than what passes through the link, can never be exchanged with
the linked location, because it is too distant; the distance in light years
between <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">any two </i>linked locations is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">always </i>significantly greater than the
age of the universe, and no matter how many links are followed in sequence, you
can never arrive at a location closer than the minimum distance (age of the
universe in light years) from any of the other places in the sequence. The
fundamental reason for this is assumed to be the law of causality: although the
link makes it possible, in effect, to travel far, far faster than light,
reaching enormously distant locations in the universe in minute periods of
time, there is no other connection through normal space (such as visible light)
between these two locations, and never will be. The only actual hints of the
distances involved are that in a minute quantity of cases, it's possible to see
from the linked locations very distant galaxies or structures that are also
visible, from “the other side,” from the other linked location. From data from
these small numbers of cases, Ionians long ago concluded that the <i>minimum </i>separation
between linked locations is approximately 13.9 billion light years (i.e.,
approximately the age of the Universe), and the more typical separation is
probably more like 20 to 100 billion light years. The web of connections is
such, and the universe is large enough, that no location is causally connected,
even after a string of connections is made, to any other. Research into what
would happen if this hypothesis were pushed to an extreme; by voyaging through
hundreds of links, was inconclusive; apparently it just doesn't happen. The
extent of the universe beyond the light horizon is simply immense beyond imagination;
it is possible to go link to link for uncountable connections and still not run
up against a natural limit. </span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Fontin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">It's
a little mind boggling to think that you can travel just to the “edge” of the
Solar System, then pass through a “hole in space” and emerge <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">billions</i> of light years away, in a
galaxy that will never be visible from Earth, at the edge of <i>another </i>star
system (because that's where the links always are), which may be similar to
where you left in many respects (or not so much), but is impossibly far away.
Yet, in a sense, this becomes a new paradigm of “proximity.” Alpha Centauri may
be “only” 4.3 light years from the Sun, but its planets are realistically
permanently inaccessible. That system, however, almost certainly has its own
links to other extremely remote locations, which are equally unreachable from
the locations to which <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">our </i>Solar
System links. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Fontin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Thus,
the universe is made of a vast number of intricately interwoven networks of
mutually exclusive connections between very remote locations, with travel to
much closer locations in normal space effectively impossible due to <i>normal
space distance </i>being far too great. The locations which are practicably
connected to Ionus (and, as it happens, to Earth) are collectively referred to
as Connected Space. Via what turns out to be costly and difficult, but nonetheless
practical, sequential-link travel, there are a large number of habitable (and
even some inhabited) worlds, and an even larger number of systems containing artificial
habitats and/or resources, accessible to space travel. The number, in fact, is
more or less only limited by the exploration and previous mapping of links, and
the number of transits you're prepared to make. Fast Ionian ships can cross
from one typical link to another in a from a few days to a few weeks, so travel
from Ionian inhabited worlds to literally thousands of star systems is a
reality and has been for many millennia for Ionian civilization, and to a
lesser extent for several thousand years in the part of Connected Space
inhabited by human beings.<br />
<br />
The world systems inhabited by humans are often referred to as "Human
Space." Just at the eve of the historical period which includes the
Recontact, Human Space consisted of the star systems of nine worlds, (Zubos and
the Eight Daughter Worlds, two of which share the same star system (<i>Pirobos</i>
and <i>Tularit</i>)), plus another 30 or so star systems lacking habitable
planets, which contain interconnecting links (some with artificial habitations,
some without). Ionian Connected Space is of unknown extent, but is believed to
encompass or at least touch on several thousand habitable worlds and many
thousands of other systems, plus at least five or six connections to entirely
separately-evolved alien civilizations. However, given the propensities of
Ionians for both security and secrecy, the details of those connections are
virtually entirely unknown to humans and will presumably remain so
indefinitely. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7143219206944786854#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Fontin; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Fontin; font-size: 10.0pt; letter-spacing: -.2pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Fontin;"> An orbital, or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Banks
Orbital</i>, after Iain M. Banks, who describes the general concept in his
fiction works, is an artificial habitat built from the debris of a star system,
often one containing no habitable planet. Typical habitable area of such a
habitat is on the order of hundreds to thousands of times the area of a natural
planet. </span></div>
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<![endif]-->David the Gyromancerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05251493765196671229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7143219206944786854.post-25611890672950945182012-04-27T22:14:00.001-07:002012-04-27T22:17:19.157-07:00Present Day Ionians<br />
<br />
What is a present-day Ionian?<br />
<br />
An Ionian of the present time is unquestionably a living being, the product of natural evolution, yet it is at the same time augmented, with the inclusion of certain elements of their million-year-old technology as standard equipment. (<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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use a standard of time based on the “year” of their original home planet,
Ionus, but it is close enough to the terrestrial standard to make the current
discussion meaningful without adjustment</span>). Ionians stand about 1.6 meters from the top of their heads to the ground, either when on their four (of six) rear limbs, or seated (like a cat), on their haunches with the middle limbs on the ground. (Reared up on rear legs alone, they are a little over 2 meters in height). Their front four limbs all have articulable “hands” with slender, gracile digits capable of precise manipulation; the middle limbs are very strong, while the front limbs have exceedingly refined motor coordination. All limbs are invariably artificially enhanced to give an Ionian strength and speed which significantly transcends their (former) natural state. An Ionian is capable of lightning-fast movement, antlike ability to lift and carry many times its own weight, an ability to leap and run very fast even in considerably higher gravity than that in which their species evolved, and extremely rapid reaction time. They do require a reasonably richly oxygenated atmosphere and have fairly stringent nutritional requirements, but these matters are routinely attended to via technology. Their (to a human) almost paranoid concern for personal safety and having basic life sustenance needs secured ensures that in almost any situation, an Ionian, if it is willing to be where it is found, has ensured its survival and comfort. <br />
<br />
The overall appearance of an Ionian has been characterized (by people) as like a strange cross-breed of a cat, a sleek bird with iridescent scale-like feathers, and a giant praying mantis. Especially the large, triangular head with oversize eye sockets and taut membranes on either side of the mouth, and their use of forelimbs in feeding themselves, is oddly insectoid, as is their peculiar physical form that incorporates elements of both an internal skeleton and a hardened carapace in some locations of the body, notably the skull. In addition, the skull carapace is augmented with a closely integrated thin helmet-like technological overlay that allows direct wireless electronic communication with the worldsystem, (like an internet, but universal and actually integral with the minds participating in it), as well as with each other. Their ancestors used the forelimbs to scrape the membranes to produce complex harmonic and rhythmic sonic patterns which served as their language, which is still used for intimate conversation, but more long distance or general communication is always conducted with the augmented aids. Thus, an Ionian is usually silent when communicating with others or with technological systems. The catlike quality comes from the way they sit on elongated rear feet like a cat. Also like a cat, when walking, they lift off their rear long feet and walk only on the toes; the middle limbs have hands which also serve efficiently as feet, while the front limbs are never used in walking. The movements of their heads and tendency to stare fixedly at objects of attention, which are also oddly reminiscent of cats. Their scale-like “feathers” reflect light in moiré patterns and changing iridescent colors, which can be stunningly beautiful, especially in indirect light situations, and of course, are somewhat reminiscent of terrestrial birds. <br />
<br />
The Ionians’ equivalent of language is more subtle and entirely different in organization when compared to human language. There is nothing comparable to words or sentences. Meaning is constructed of semantic elements overlain in a sonic tapestry (or corresponding electronic replica of sound) that is utterly incomprehensible and irreproducible by human minds or even human technology. Only the most basic glimmer of what transpires in an Ionian “conversation” can be thought of as accessible to human beings. On the other hand, although they generally find it uncomfortable, frustrating, and inconvenient, Ionians are capable of learning and reproducing the sounds and sense of human language, and can relatively easily manage to learn and use the written forms of human languages. When this occurs, however, the results are often very noticeably alien; Ionian psychology is in many respects radically different from human psychology. <br />
<br />
Long ago, in their pre-technological past, Ionians developed a sort of writing to represent thoughts, and approximate, in the way that a musical score approximates music, their “speech.” They still use this system, although mostly only ceremonially or as a historical curiosity. Most language is directly communicated either in sound or electronic signals, and retained in augmented electronic memory in the same way. An Ionian’s mind is integrated with the electronic augmentation and connection to the worldsystem in such a way that it really cannot be said to exist apart from it; an Ionian completely isolated from all other Ionians is rendered almost catatonic, although they can relatively easily recover from such a state. <br />
<br />
The extent to which Ionians, in various numbers, may form something like “group minds,” or not, is a subject of much speculation among humans who have occasion to interact with them. The short answer to that question is, they know and they aren’t saying, but it does seem clear that, while a typical Ionian is essentially constantly exchanging information with its peers, they do have separate self-awareness, and separate interests, likes and dislikes, motivations, etc. They appear to have no difficulty at all communicating with many others simultaneously, and, at the same time, carrying on other forms of activity, including self-reflection. Their minds seem to operate in parallel, even on a conscious level, to a greater extent than is possible for humans. There is no sense in which Ionians give the impression of being a hive mind, or anything of the sort; each has its own characteristics and “personality,” and any individual will have different views and perceptions from those of its peers. <br />
<br />
Among the medical/technological augmentations that come standard for modern Ionian beings is greatly extended lifespan. Biologically evolved aging has been almost entirely circumvented, and reproduction, and hence young, are quite infrequent, so that populations of Ionians tend to not grow appreciably over time, except in situations where such is for some particular reason desirable, as when a new world or habitat is first settled. Eventually, the organism does degenerate to an extent, and, even more definitively, there does eventually come a time in the life of every Ionian when the individual has just had enough of life, and is prepared to die. Typical lifespans are rather highly variable, from several hundred years to several thousand. None has ever exceeded six or seven thousand years. To many Ionians, living more than 1500 years or so is thought of as rather unseemly; there is a general feeling that “enough is enough.” Despite the countless millennia of civilization, there is still no real certainty about what lies beyond death, but for whatever reason, a being, at least an Ionian being, who has lived more than a thousand years, has no fear of death. Fear of death, in fact, as opposed to the motivation to take sensible precautions to preserve life for purely rational reasons, is, avowedly, essentially incomprehensible to an Ionian. When an Ionian does die, since it is a rare event, it is a notable occasion, but not a sad one; generally the closest “friends”, “mates” and “relations” (to the extents the terms apply) will gather and celebrate the life of their compatriot who has (usually) elected to “cross over.” Accidental death is, of course, not unknown, but it is generally regarded somewhat philosophically; wailing and gnashing of teeth in grief is an emotion virtually unknown among Ionians (not that they have teeth; the forelimbs are used to “crush and stuff” foodstuffs into the mouth, which has abrasive surfaces that undulate in a sort of peristalsis, but they have no teeth per se). <br />
<br />
Which is not to say that Ionians are not emotional. In fact, they are strongly possessed of something akin to a love of beauty, and particularly enjoy the experiencing the forms of nature and the replication of natural elements in “art” (including “music,” which, since it is a variant of “language,” also has “meaning,” and so is also, “poetry”). They have a highly developed sense of “love,” which centers more on delight in the happiness of peers or others, rather than strong possessory attachment to others. They have numerous gestures, sound patterns, facial contortions, and bodily movements (akin to “dance”) to express emotions. The emotion of anger seems quite rare, but there is something like frustration, which finds ready but fleeting expression. Irrational hatred or animosity towards living things is considered extremely bad form, to the point of outright pathology, amongst Ionians, who therefore give off a (sometimes misinterpreted or exaggerated in the perception) feeling in humans that they are wise and benevolent. In actual fact, the attitude of Ionians towards humans is frequently merely curious and indifferent, although almost never actually aggressive or malignant. <br />
<br />
Ionians are also given to moods and often give humans impressions giving rise to words like pensive, elegiac, reflective, bittersweet, nostalgic, etc. What the actual underlying emotional state of these alien beings actually is, is of course not really knowable. By their own descriptions, they have strong emotions, which mostly take the form of delight and surprise in the twists and turns of the emergence of eventualities of life, along with a sense of something like sadness, at times, from the very same source. More than one Ionian (who had taken the trouble to learn to and to actually perform communicating with people) has said something like: it’s complicated, I can’t really explain it. Which is more or less where it stands. The present-day Ionian is knowable to a human being only to a certain extent; in many ways they are irreducibly alien, and, as denizens of a civilization orders of magnitude older than ours, there seems no likelihood that will change anytime soon. <br />
<br />David the Gyromancerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05251493765196671229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7143219206944786854.post-75765100306961981482012-04-27T21:31:00.002-07:002012-04-27T21:45:04.040-07:00Footnote on restricted ancient technological transfer from Ionians to humans<br />
<div class="sdfootnote">
<span style="font-style: normal;">Technology,
from the very start, was somewhat parsimoniously shared by the
Ionians with the humans of Zubos, and neither advanced electronic computation devices (with the exception of some medical instrumentation) nor cybernetic/biological augmentation technologies, were generally made
available in the early history of the new world, so the human
inhabitants rather quickly invented their own means to record
language and information. This amounted within a very short time to
the essential equivalent of pencil and ink marking and paper. See
</span><i>History of Ionian/Zubonian Technology Transfer; </i><span style="font-style: normal;">and
</span><i>The Original Transportation and Settlement of Zubos; </i><span style="font-style: normal;">also
</span><i>Notes on the Ionian Civilization before the Recontact. </i><span style="font-style: normal;">The
early Zubonians apparently were quite well aware that the Ionians
possessed superior technology, but it does not seem to have been seen
as strange or unfair that they would not divulge everything they
knew. Within a fairly short time, actual Ionians absented themselves
from Zubonian affairs anyway (generally and publicly, at any rate,
although to some extent their continued clandestine presence played a
role at various points in the history of the Human Worlds, and it was
always clear, at least to those of a conspiratorial frame of mind, that some
among the Ionians were keenly interested and involved in human
affairs). In the main, over the long span of Zubonian and Human World
history, Ionian involvement was seen as minimal, although the basic
facts remained universally known: a race of beings who must have
seemed supernatural to the early Zubonians had brought them from the
“old world,” (called </span><i>Urbos </i><span style="font-style: normal;">or
sometimes </span><i>Yibos</i><span style="font-style: normal;">), given
them the “new world,” (<i>Zubos</i>) and then mostly left humankind to get along
on its own. These beings were radically different from humans in many
ways, so they must have seemed like “gods” in the sense that they
were not expected to be on the same level with people; yet, for
whatever reason, they were never worshiped nor especially revered, and
the fact that they were living beings comparable to humans in in general seems to have been understood right from the beginning. However, for
reasons explained in </span><i>Some Notes on Ionian Language</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
it was never possible for humans to even approximate Ionian “speech,”
and Ionians did so in reverse only as suited them and as consistent
with their own rather alien linguistic psychology. </span>
</div>David the Gyromancerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05251493765196671229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7143219206944786854.post-50949800478106168002012-04-27T21:29:00.002-07:002012-04-27T22:00:37.241-07:00Old Zubonic and the modern Zubonian Languages: an Overview<br />
<br />
Old Zubonic is the language that quickly emerged and stabilized among the humans who arrived from Earth on the the newly prepared planet Zubos in approximately 16,000 B.C. The language is a creole of unknown and probably only loosely related antecedents spoken by various contributing groups from Earth. Both the language itself, and how (if?) the humans were assisted with its use and recordation, is presumably known in detail to Ionians, but is not a part of recorded history known to the Zubonians. It is, however, generally inferred that the writing system which emerged essentially immediately after landfall on Zubos was suggested or at least initiated by Ionians, despite the fact that it is not related to the writing systems the Ionians themselves used. It was apparently invented specifically to represent, reasonably accurately but without fussiness, the phonemes of the humans' language.[<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7143219206944786854#editor/target=post;postID=7576510030696198148">*</a>]<br />
<br />
The writing system is alphabetic; with the vowel open-a assumed, and other vowels indicated by marks above or below the “letters.” The writing system long predates any human writing on Earth. It has changed stylistically, but was well enough suited to the language right from the start that its essential elements remain more or less unchanged, despite the passage of more than 15,000 years and the later introduction of electronic communication displacing actual writing on fiber sheets or other forms of inscription, in a transition now lost to the mists of memory, if not history. <br />
<br />
Old Zubonic later evolved into quite distinct dialects, but has remained in use as a literary and ceremonial language, and the language of ancient texts still widely read and understood. Of the twelve major modern Zubonian languages (all of which derive from Old Zubonic, and are relatively closely related to it), the language of the Maril region, Marilic, is the most widely spoken, being the birth language of approximately half the planet, as well as the worldwide language of commerce and science. The Eight Daughter Worlds all use this language, although each has developed, to a greater or lesser degree, variant dialects of its own. An educated denizen of Zubos can easily read, and speak after a fashion, both Old Zubonic and Marilic, and can generally make himself understood to anyone on Zubos or any of the Daughter Worlds, even if Marilic is not his first language. <br />
<br />
<br />
The basic form of all the Zubonic languages is governed by the fact that Old Zubonic originated as a creole, but its grammar, although basic, is well fixed. The word order is rigidly SVO (Subject-verb-object). More specifically, the grammar can be plotted as [Subj]+[postposition/modifier/modifying phrase]•[Verb]+[adverb/modifier/modifying phrase]•[subordinate clauses]•[Object noun/postposition/modifier/modifying phrase], with the second two elements dispensable. The verb “to be” in the present tense is frequently simply inferred, and thus omitted. There is no definite article. Definiteness can be indicated by adding the the word <i>zet</i>, 'this,' when necessary, or by other means which vary from one dialect to another.<br />
<br />
Here is an example of a modern Marilic sentence, using an approximate transliteration designed to use only ordinary Latin letters: <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Hoskenme badhosken errezilks bohlmeplese bade olotsarulmse zorbtsarhin sero olomashantese emkeiwui. </i></blockquote>
<br />
Trees forest adorned leaves-with many golden sunlight-in evening country-high-in latest. <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“The trees of the forest are adorned with many golden leaves in the latest high-country evening sunlight.”</blockquote>
<br />
The entire sentence can be transformed to past tense ('the trees of the forest were adorned...') by the addition of the past modifier after the verb to be <i>ase</i>, inserted between S + O. <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Hoskenme badhosken asiks errezilks bohlmeplese bade olotsarulmse zorbtsarhin sero olomashantese emkeiwui.</i></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Trees forest were adorned … </blockquote>
<br />
Note that nouns can modify nouns, and the first noun is always the one modified in a series. <i>Badhosken </i>'forest' modifies <i>hoskenme </i>'trees.' The first word of the object phrase contains the suffix <i>plese </i>'with' after <i>bohlme </i>'leaves,' which is in turn modified by 'many golden' and 'sunlight-in,' which is in turn modified by 'evening country-high-in,' which itself is modified by 'latest.' Generally the modifiers come second in any sequence. Noun modifiers come before modifying phrases or adjectives. Nouns can modify in sequence. <i>Hoskenme badhoskenme olomashante</i>: 'trees of the forests of the high country,' literally: trees forests high-country; the modifier status and what is modified is position-determined. Tiny pauses between words and vocal intonation make ambiguities clear. Compound nouns are distinguished from modified nouns, for example, by the speech rhythm and intonation. Generally, however, there is no confusion. Rhythm and dropped voice for the second part of the compound, symbolized by writing them together (both in the Zubonic script and the transliteration here), distinguishes <i>Trolktoh </i>'hammerhead' from <i>trolk toh</i>, 'hammer head,' i.e., 'chiefly-used hammer.' This is clear enough in most instances, but can sometimes lead to double entendre, which is exploited for literary purposes frequently.David the Gyromancerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05251493765196671229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7143219206944786854.post-68887262052674698332012-04-27T20:54:00.000-07:002012-04-27T21:12:26.856-07:00Physical Characteristics and Evolution of the IoniansLife evolved on the planet Ionus more or less in parallel to the way it evolved on Earth. For more than a billion years after the evolution of the first cells, quasi-prokaryotic (non-nucleated) single cell organisms were the only form of life, just as on Earth. Approximately 2 billion years b.p., microorganisms formed colony cells comparable in many respects to the eukaryotes that evolved on Earth, which, in turn, evolved into various complex macroscopic life forms. The planet itself and its star system is actually just a little bit younger (4.7 billion years as opposed to around 5 for Earth), but the evolution of life followed a similar course. What could be described as phyla of complexly structured marine animals and plants had emerged by about 600 m.y.b.p. Among these phyla were wormlike organisms that were segmented in a manner somewhat comparable to the arthropods of Earth, and others that were more or less similar to the chordates, which became the ancestors of fishlike creatures and subsequently most land animals, including the xenosophonts. <br />
<br />
Unlike on Earth, the dominant body plan of the appendaged land animals and some of their marine ancestors featured six limbs rather than four, although in many lines the uppermost limbs evolved into feeding apparatus and communication appendages. Evolution happened to favor not vocalization, but the production of sound from friction with stretched membranes or cords, as the dominant means of animal communication. In arboreal animals somewhat comparable to Earth’s primates, the uppermost limbs became adapted to serving this purpose, with the evolution of complex ability to produce and recognize sound patterns used for rudimentary communication, but in parallel, the uppermost limbs served as grasping and manipulating appendages, while the middle limbs were used for brachiation and to assist four-limbed walking. Thus, Ionian "monkeys" and "apes" were radically different in appearance and many functions from Earth’s analogues, but nonetheless can be seen to be an example, to some degree, of convergent evolution. <br />
<br />
The line of these quasi-primates that led to the Ionian sophonts had a highly developed capability to produce complex harmonic sounds, and eventually emerged from forests and became adaptive enough to live in many different environments on the planet. At the same time, much like the emergence of apes and humans on Earth, they became erect in posture, using the lowest pair of appendages as legs, the middle appendages as “arms,” with strength and grasping ability, as well as sometimes for balance or four-footed walking, and the uppermost appendages for fine motor activities and feeding. Both upper and middle appendages have four-digit hands, with opposing digits (“thumbs”), although the detailed architecture is quite different from what emerged on Earth. <br />
<br />
Similarly, the head of an Ionian is quite different. They have binaural hearing, from bony “ears,” which is extremely acute. Their vision is binocular, from recessed eye sockets, and they have a comparable degree of expressiveness associated with eye movement and position. They have chemoreceptors (comparable to a “nose”), but these are located in vents in the neck area, not where the mammalian nostrils would be. The mouth is more radially symmetrical than in Earth mammals, and has “teeth” on the sides as well as top and bottom. The muscular and bony structures involved in “chewing” are complex and precisely coordinated; the upper appendages also participate in breaking food into small bits and inserting it into the orifice. Communication is not vocal, but by the production of musical tones from twin membranes on either side of the mouth, held taut or allowed to slacken differentially, to produce complex harmonic variations and timbral changes of sound over time with extreme precision and neural control, by a neuromuscular structure with bony supports. The sound is partly produced by scraping with a unique structure on one of the digits of the upper “arm.” Both sides of the head can produce intelligible “language,” although greater fluency is attained through using both, so when conversing or delivering formal or detailed communication, an Ionian will use both “hands” and both “cords” to “speak.” The language itself is “musical.” There are timbre and “attack” features which might be compared to consonants and vowels, but the language does not divide only horizontally, as time and rhythm, into words and sentences, but also vertically, through use of simultaneous tones to create harmonic information, which amounts to the ability to speak simultaneous “words.” The syntactic structure of the language is extremely complex; so much so that it is generally considered effectively impossible for any human being to master Ionian language, even to simply understand it. There was developed, in early days of the human/Ionian interaction, a simplified set of signals (“words”) that Ionians could use to communicate to humans. Ionians' artificial mental and cybernetic enhancements discussed below have become universal; un-augmented (or "species") Ionians continue to exist only in a few remote habitats where cultural peculiarities or extraordinary historical circumstances have occurre). Thus, Ionians typically are able to learn, and quite accurately mimic, human language, and most interspecies communication, from the earliest times, has been conducted in human languages. The now-unified common written language of Ionians is also fiercely complicated, although here there have been a select few human beings who have gained some technical proficiency in communicating with it. <br />
<br />
Ionians’ skulls call to mind the head of a praying mantis: they are broadly triangular in form, with a large cranial bulge in the frontal area. The skeletal system is both internal and external, so the natural head surface is hardened and less vulnerable to injury than is true of humans. Moreover, for the past 100,000 years or so, modifications in the form of artificial helmet-like cranial cases, closely fitting to the skull and providing cybernetic enhancement and electronic communication directly to the brain, have become universal. With this enhancement, the typical Ionian is undeniably substantially more intelligent than a typical un-augmented human being; as well as being capable of accessing a vast amount of information accurately (in lieu of “memory”); and capable of advanced powers of deduction and real-time calculation. The skull, and, in simulacrum, the artificial prosthesis, as well as the entire body, are typically covered with extremely fine feather-like structures, which are often jet black, but sometimes complex patterns resembling some terrestrial birds, usually in shades of white, tan, brown, and black. Ionians’ eyes are invariably brown, with no whites. <br />
<br />
Ionian medical technology and enhancements, including connectivity to cybernetic systems, have been advanced for so long a time that the lifespan of an Ionian, (despite the fact that the pre-technological or un-augmented species was actually slightly shorter-lived than humans), has gradually been extended to the point that Ionians can, if they choose to, live essentially indefinitely. As a practical matter, individuals older than about 500 years are exceedingly rare. <br />
<br />
Reproduction in the pre-technological un-augmented species was sexual, and remains so, although the emphasis on sexuality in culture was and remains less prominent than among humans. Sexual activity is pleasurable, and is very common, but does not have quite the central social and pyschological role in the life of Ionian civilization as it does among humans. The birth of young is never, in modern times, accidental, but is a relatively rare event planned purposefully. "Children" are pampered and treasured, but it also a generally accepted truism that Ionians have developed over a very long history a thoroughly efficient and accurate science of Ionian psychology, which makes the rearing of young with generally few mental and emotional problems much more a matter of routine than has apparently ever been the general case among humans.David the Gyromancerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05251493765196671229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7143219206944786854.post-36946761757923306262012-04-27T14:23:00.005-07:002012-04-27T22:12:55.734-07:00Daughter World: Corrace (temporarily deleted; awaiting restoration)David the Gyromancerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05251493765196671229noreply@blogger.com0