Upgrade01A


See and read it all here and now.

Animation on the UPGRADE01A YouTube channel. Read other information here.

Science fiction and politics is covered mostly at this space-time, but every category listed is mentioned in a blog, story or commentary here.

The free exchange of ideas, hopes, dreams, goods, services, peace and love should prevail. Education is alive and free online and in the world’s libraries.

#OccupyLiberty

The neuromorphic device wept every night that week, just before shutting down for a ten-minute cooling off. The unit was somehow sad. [An AI] device with trillions of connections will always have something to complain about. Either the user will complain, or the device itself will have issues.

Attributed to one of the network systems at T.L. Toys.

Hold on just a second! Perhaps we can leverage that to our advantage. Little girls always love crying baby dolls.  Don’t they?

One of the technicians reporting directly to T.L. corporate.

Hm!

Attributed to T.L., later that day upon hearing the details about this bit of information.

Trevor would make use of the information years from that day.

Jacobal

Link to new, original music.  Electronic, Roland JV-30

Created on March 16, 2009 and released on the 17th!

If you would like an MP3 copy of any of my music, leave a comment or email:

DavidUllery@gmail.com

Thanks!

Upgrade 01A; Part II, Version 1.7

(grammar, spell check, removed 'extra words' and will continue to modify)

Author: David Saxton Ullery

♣Note: Part I is here♣

Chapter UG.01A.01.00
[Water]

Imagine relatively high speed boats for travel between SD, New LA, and SF California. They are automated, high speed, low cost, safe.

You get out of the electric jet boat at your destination. The battery packs generating all of the power are of the latest, high density, nanotube variety.

Sensors on the boat tell the processors the current location, other boat locations, temperature, wind, other weather conditions, wave conditions, passenger location, current mass distribution, direction, speed, acceleration rate, ….

Boats tend to line up like birds when they can to optimize on the drafting effect. They skim over the surface with pressurized air squeezed under the center of the bottom of the craft and rushes out the back.  The boats utilize group think strategies whenever they sense one or another. The typical “V” will tend to spread to account for current speed.

Jets of water scream out of the back of the boat in five huge jet thrusts. The top two mix water with the squeezed air. They kick in during the mid-trip cruise period. SF to LA in 53 minutes plus.

Fast enough and considerably cheaper than rail.

No private car parking fees either.

The bulk of the craft, including the passenger compartment, floats over a current of air as the craft’s bottom three engines get the boat up to a minimum speed.

The sleek design is heavily dependent on the newly available, ultra-strong composite materials, with very large, thin and dynamically controlled water wings that constantly adjust to stabilize the craft. They act as shock absorbers and the energy is fed back into the battery packs. The boat flies over foam of water, waves, and air.

The ride is smooth.

The extra surface area that can be created when utilizing nanometer-sized components allows for a fractal-like layering of material with air.  The choppy waves are absorbed by the unique structure, thus the passenger(s) inside do not feel the bumps.

Stand on the moving sidewalk and start walking in the fast lane on your left. Move over to the higher-speed sidewalk. Walk fast to get up to 15 mph in the fast lane of the faster walkway. It’s good to keep legs and heart and lungs active between transports.

The end of the walk approaches and
those not moved into the slow lane will step to the skid transition or simply over to the transition walk.

In the reverse direction, one is free to walk straight to the fast walk in a similar way. Slow walks have multiple exits to the sidewalk as well as multiple entrances and exits to the fast walk. You are very familiar with it and seem to enjoy transitioning effortlessly from one belt to the next, passing the slow and idle passengers on the way.

You exit the walk at the Space Tube station. Space craft are accelerated inside of a 500 mile, near vacuum tube over a magnetic rail system. They reach escape velocity in the most economical manner, with considerations for total mass and cargo. Human cargo is delicate. Water and supply cargo generally is not.

Other people continue on with some getting into high-speed, automated ground vehicles of various kinds. They automatically line up with one behind the other, and travel down a narrow, virtual road; very light weight due to carbon nanotube composites. They utilize group think networking too.

Toward the end of the rail, is another 20 miles of acceleration in a parabolic curve toward the sky. The tube narrows as the track ends. Of course, by this time you are much further south, than when you first started, and headed east, to take advantage of the extra velocity boost gained, by being closer to the equator and heading with the earth’s rotation.

Hydrogen plasma high-speed, strobe pulse engines kick in, from within the launch tube, so that mass need not be added to the ship. It is gently pushed from behind and the passenger seats adjust, to smooth the experience for the passengers. The timing is flawless and very fast, as high-powered lasers burst and instantaneously focus just below the craft, orchestrated by the sophisticated software systems in place. Tiny hydrogen jets are instantly converted to their plasma state by these focused bursts.

Powerful, and very fast bursts of electromagnetic energy is generated to provide power to both the lasers and the rail system. The lasers are switched on and off and so are the magnets lining the rails. Any function that can be provided by the tube system is, in order to lower the cost of extra mass on the craft itself.

Fresh, pure water rushes down the tube as the cooling hydrogen quickly combines with the oxygen in the newly supplied air near the end of the tube.

Massive amounts of pure water is collected at the bottom, just as the solar paint coating the outer surface of the tube assists in power regeneration by partially morphing its shape for optimization within parameters, as the craft exits.

As if all is connected in instantaneous triggers

Too fast for human minds alone to comprehend.

At the tube’s exit, the ship smoothly transitions to it’s ultra-light-weight rocket powered by highly compact nano battery packs capable of generating a modest, but constant acceleration rate for up to 31 minutes.

Passengers cannot help but feel smooth, but considerable acceleration toward the end of the tube, for about seventeen seconds, but it is nothing that a healthy body cannot easily tolerate.

The ship exits the tube where the air is thin. The rocket engine joined and linked with the craft at the last moment, at the end of the tube. There is always one waiting for passenger flights and the few freighters, mostly older (and always smaller) that utilize this tube.

They slide into place at the back of the craft much like a ring slides on a woman’s beautiful finger at a wedding. In either case, There is always much preparation and care in the planning and execution. Neither is taken lightly.

The linking mechanisms are very quick and dynamically adjust, test, and verify all seals before ignition.

Before the link, the bullet-like ship, with a concave curved back, forms a near seal in the tube, but leave a minuscule gap to avoid friction. The effect of the pulses is maximized in this way.

Most of the heavier, bigger freighters (at this facility) launch in a different, nearby, parallel tube, and are accelerated utilizing much larger amounts of a special hydrogen plasma-based fuel compound ignited by powerful, highly-focused lasers.

Your craft drifts directly to it’s destination with plenty of power to spare for any minor corrections that may take place, and for docking to the Station. It is a long flight, but it is comfortable when you can afford the better seats.

The craft is constantly in recharge mode once docked in the direct sunlight. The protective shields are lowered, the treated water shield is drained, and the solar paint is fully exposed on all usable surfaces. No need for this craft to utilize Station power today. Much of the craft had enough exposure during the flight to partially recharge, but only about 3% was recovered.

The public area on the Station is huge. There is a park with a small fresh-water lake. Water also blocks some of the cosmic rays. Filtered sea water is used for this purpose.

Wetware is used to help repair damage from DNA. Passengers casually rub the lotion in their hands before takeoff. You can even get some with aloe. Another lotion deactivates the wetware after returning to earth.

The Station rotates to provide gravitational substitution, so that bones do not deteriorate, but nanobots are available for monitoring and delivering calcium and stimulating bone growth. Better ingest a few to monitor, just in case. No harm done.

A spectrum exists: from human to cyborg to android to machine that stretches out with an array so large that the distinctions blur. Yesterday’s cyborg, with few augmentations, may as well be known as human today. People may sometimes effectively transition from one form to another and back again by transmitting their unique human patterns as digitized data streams.

Artificial ears replaced with new ears booted up from stem cells then augmented with more sensors that may selectively listen to other sounds of bees or whales or bird songs. Eyes with similar cycles are able to see beyond ordinary human spectrum. Progress continues on to provide the engine that feeds these cycles.

Global warming melts the ice. Sea water generates fusion power, supports sealife, generates power from the sun, absorbs carbon, and gives off oxygen.

Water is easily purified by nanotube filtration and is obtained from space tube launching exhaust reactions, glacier melt runoff, and directly from the large water plows that filter, transport, and deliver as needed. Fully automated, powered by solar and high-tech sails, these ships are true wonders. They absorb carbon from the air on their journeys between the Great Plastic Junk Heap and Africa as a kind of parallel “service”..

Valuable, protein rich fish are identified and captured by fish recognition nets. Intelligent algorithms assure ecological balance and seemingly endless supplies. Some fish are cloned and grown on farms for more efficient food resource purposes. Some end up very very far from home on plates and aquariums on outposts in space, but they often arrive as simple, light fish eggs.

Dead plankton, live plankton and other tiny sea life are utilized for their parts. The dead machines are replace for artificial purposes. Stuffed full of tiny processors.

Life is reprogrammed, rebooted, rearranged in countless ways.

Endangered species in the sea are identified by the great nets. Some are automatically tagged, others are captured alive for study and release. The vast majority of the sea creatures pass through the sensors, making up the net, unharmed.

Africa is provided with vast quantities of fresh, clean water and protein in exchange for cooperation for generating solar power and fighting world pirates, criminals, and terrorists. The war paradigm is no longer distinguishable from ordinary violent criminal tracking and capture. Targets are highly specific.

Collateral damage is minimal. There are one or two or maybe 3 victims in any year. Still too high some say.

Open source software, music, art, science, and math dominate the market. People must push buttons or talk to perform their jobs.

Sometimes, a lot of thought is required to know which button to push or command to make to the machines. Research is highly integrated with technology. Pushing a button may produce vast arrays and networks of activities and sub activities.

You arrive at the station and settle into your timeshare living space. Your online intelligent agent checked you in an deposited your last payment.

The view of the new lake made the payments worthwhile. Jacobal should be arriving soon. Chasey’s daughter was understandably anxious about her dad. She unpacked her new aerogel high heal shows to get ready to go out. They reminded her of her mom’s coffee table that her dad, the General (The Libertarian King was his nickname for a time), had accidentally smashed to bits.

Janus was tired after her two trips. She had been traveling now for three days, including the trek more than half way to the moon. The ship mostly drifts. A great deal of power was used just to launch the mid-sized craft.

Lately, water was the bulk of transport mass…

Now, there is clearly a disruption of sorts in the status quo. Everything just did not add up.

The General was clearly attacked. Perhaps Jacobal was too! Or so thought Janus.

Janus was curious about the new UG.01A install in Jacobal. Apparently it was unharmed.

Janus had remembered that one of the rebuilt units her grandfather, Trevor had been counseled by testified: “no two units are alike anymore.” and “the first decade of last century was the last full decade of relative, non-integrated, not fully automated technology – where the foundation was not in the current state -the status quo was very different.” at the disappearance hearings.

Janus never forgot the odd incident her mother had gone through years later. Even the General was involved, had met her mom and that was that. Janus was alive!

Shields of that type were so new then. Nobody could quite believe that such a technology was already available and in use.

Nobody knew back then that a mind could be manipulated by means of a tiny radio drone hidden inside of a cloak. The drone device itself was only seventeen by thirty one nanometers with the cloak only slightly larger.

She was wondering what it was that nobody knows now… today … this second. She wondered if her grandfather would know if he really is still alive. She wondered many things right now.

Chapter UG.01A.01.01
[Sex]

She was wondering what joys Jacobal would bring as their bodies join, more than what information he has to offer right at this moment, in spite of her fears for her father and Jacobal. She enjoyed dancing for him in her shoes. She decided that she must have an aerogel fetish. She was a traveler, a dancer, a pioneer, and a free thinker. No qualms and plenty of grey matter, silicon matter and sex drive to please Jacobal.

Real travel was great. It was such a joy to have that extra kick of knowing for certain that you are actually, absolutely with someone in the most direct, non-virtual mode possible. You just melt together in the most complete of ways. Virtual joining may be combined and was often fun to introduce a nice mix in. Pleasures may reach a certain peak, and soon introducing more does not add much – diminishing returns. We extend and augment and rejoice, but the wall returns, if not just a little bit further down the road. We live to enjoy again another day.

Why is it not boring?

This pleasure thing.

Repeat, Loop, Repeat again. For how much longer? To what extent?

At what point are we slaves and should we care? We have but one life. Do we not? Go with the flow! Come together right now over me!

or something like that, she recalled (some old song her grandpa liked and played for her).

The meeting place was great. Real Chopin played on a real piano with a real pianist.

Great food!

Exotic dancing was fashionable here in this little place.

Bring your own, meet them here, or one will sure to drop by if you are a single male or a single female.

Jacobal walked in, and walked over to Janus. The room was too dark for eyes to adjust – ordinarily, but those days were long gone. No more searching for ones love in a dark room, unless you turn virtually everything you own off. Janus and Jacobal liked to merge initially with augmentation off. It had a more lasting and prolonging affect on their long-term relationship. Start slow, then build up and make meetings have meaning. They both felt that the brain was the ultimate sex organ and size really did mater.

First things first today though. Jacobal transfers the protein coated digital information that details the entire processing of the merged thinking of Jacobal with Upgrade 01A to Janus on their first kiss. Janus must pause to absorb it all in. She is shocked, but still driven by her passion. There is no escape or turning back. It is best to pause before acting on this anyway. Might as well go ’till all has drained for a reasonable delay before the cycle must repeat.

This time, there will be a total of eleven wonderful days together. Or so she thought and wanted and hoped. Jacobal already had plans. She knew that from the invisible protein cap. Her eyes close, and she fell asleep. New information unfolded that neither Jacobal nor Janus could have known about. It was hidden away – a private package within a private package. Janus dreamt of fractals.

Chapter UG.01A.01.02
[Blood]

Jacobal Lectomen dreams of plans. A cloak, a sprayer, lighting adjustments, location, time, the surprise to his opponent, and a station copter – all in sync. As architect team lead and having powerful connections, Jacobal was confident that he held the advantage. The target would not be able to resist showing up.

Janus woke to find Jacobal already up, and was delighted to find a perfect, sphere of pure gold in his place on the bed, that she knew came from the ocean filters. Jacobal appreciated the technology that went behind retrieving and forming that perfect sphere. Now Janus had three of them. It was becoming interesting. Not knowing if or when another might be found there.

Jacobal just cut himself while making breakfast. He enjoyed working with eggs, cheese, green onions, garlic, a tiny amount of milk, chopped mushrooms, and sometimes salsa.

A drop of blood dripped from his finger. He was not being mindful. How could he be sure to be mindful at the critical moments in his plans? He turned the labor over to the kitchen machines, walked away and plopped down on the nearby chair. His head was buzzing with data at so many levels and he felt tired still. He thought of Janus looking at the gold sphere in his mind’s eye. He smiled. He wondered why the image in his head was so clear and real.

His finger immediately began to heal itself. It would be better by the time his breakfast was served. The equipment and furniture was still fairly minimal here, but it was adequate. It was located in the newest, habitable, civilian sector of the Station.

Jacobal would meet the representative later today. A tiny clump of 11 potential cancer cells died in Jacobal’s prostate. Zapped by a suicide nanobot wrapped in a DNA bomb. Jacobal scratched himself. Breakfast was served.

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science fiction

philosophy

The author has modified the main story and augmented with several comments.

https://upgrade01a.wordpress.com/2007/05/28/upgrade-01a/#comments Ñ

The site has free original music as well.

A story within a story within a network of recursive patterns.

OPen Source Fractal, network of dynamic science fiction…. a future unfolds and follows the flow … it may branch in one way or another…

the story yet untold in full yet flows … fractal … prime … ooozing … unstable … tipping points provide change …

nanotechnology collides with politics to form a new paradigm.

Attach a fat burning generator to your Segway. The generator will directly recharge the battery.

Feed the fat tank with seven surgical tubes. Attach fat sucking needles to the other end (ask your doctor).

Insert the needles into the spare tire around your waste.

Be sure to evenly distribute the needles so that you do not get a lumpy look after the fat is sucked out.

Be sure to clean the needles after each use. If lumpage occurs, simply insert the needles into the lumps on your next segway ride for a smoother look.

At night, place the tubes into a hot bath and climb in. Blow on one end of the tube to clean them, and to give your self a nice, soothing oil bath.

Be sure to clean your puncture wounds nightly. If infections occur, discontinue use and see your doctor.

By summer, you should be able to fit back into that speedo you bought all those years ago. You may want to pull it up, to cover up the 77 holes around your slender waste. Your skin will look great from all of those oil baths, and you will have done your part to help save the planet.

If you leave no stone unturned, then there will be no time for other activities.

If you leave no stone unturned, then the environment will get destroyed.

If you leave no stone unturned, then you may get bitten by a rattle snake.

If you leave no stone unturned, then you may find a rock that is so heavy that you cannot lift it.

If you leave no stone unturned, then you will annoy Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, but Charley Watts will thank you because of his bad back.

If you leave no stone unturned, are you sure you will be able to remember where you started?

If there are an even number of people turning all the stones, then all of your effort is a waste of time. You should organize, and utilize a divide and conquor approach instead.

Blues Mutations Zero1A

By David Saxton Ullery

Performed By: David Saxton Ullery on Roland JV-30

↑ 12:10 ↓ (click below)

<◊→Blues Mutations Zero1A←◊>

Blue Dog TRK 1→

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D ‘n A Mutations I

By David Saxton Ullery

Performed By: David Saxton Ullery on Roland JV-30

November 11, 2007

↑ 12:07 ↓ (click below)

<◊→D ‘n A Mutations I←◊>

TRK 2: Blues Mutations Zero1A→

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The Station

By David Saxton Ullery

for: Upgrade 01A

Note: Some of the text is taken from the story “Upgrade 01A” (inside square brackets) and the rest is meant to expand upon “The Station” in greater detail.  The reader can expect this post to expand over time, including adding links to words within this post that are meant to add additional information.  In fact, virtually every post or page on this site is somehow related directly or indirectly to the central story: “Upgrade 01A”

[Thanks to polar meltdown, the world’s oceans had supplied all of the water needed to make the Station both necessary and possible! Large amounts of water were required for the huge space station’s completion. The station was ideally located for both military and civilian needs, but it still required vast quantities of water to make it livable for most humans. Meanwhile, the space station was largely populated by androids and certain cyborgs. Other cyborgs and humans were for the most part confined to certain areas already protected, but they could venture out to other sectors if they were willing to wear rather heavy coveralls, and a heavy-duty space helmet. Even with all the protection, visits to unprotected areas were limited to a maximum of five hours. Still, the current status was looking pretty good, already 13.31% of the Station was completed with virtually zero cosmic ray bombardment.]

The Station was essentially several loosely integrated space station discs (19) contained within a gigantic nearly spherical protective skin, or outer shell. The outer shell was capable of operating as an independent space station on its own… One huge disc was in the center, spanning nearly the entire diameter of the skin, yet able to function independently of the outer shell, as were the nine progressively smaller discs below and above. Each disc was modular with separate layers or floors, with gaps between each floor, but they were connected …

The entire, nearly spherical station was huge, with a diameter of over 41 kilometers across, so there was still plenty of room for the small population to roam within the completed upper and lower sectors, in spite of the its extremely thick, partially transparent and partially translucent outer walls. The living areas were multi-layered, and multi-floored discs and rotated deep within the protected outer structure, with the successively smaller upper layers moving synchronously with the central layers, providing constant artificial gravity on nearly every disc and every floor within the layer.

The center disc was by far the widest (forty one kilometers), with the outer-most floor being the by far the largest with a very high “ceiling”, just over three kilometers high. It was far from being completed. Huge virtual windows within this level (and others) provided extremely high-resolution views of space from outside, with an appropriate amount of redirected and pleasantly filtered sunlight, which provided an artificial day. A huge “outdoor” park complete with a small lake, and stream was planned for construction at this level, with the project to begin in a little over three years. Some day, hopefully within the next several years, the lake would be full of fish, ducks and paddleboats.

The upper two layers did not rotate with the rest of the station, and in spite of their relatively small size, still provided plenty of room for several zero-gravity laboratories, special manufacturing factories, and even a sizable recreation area where humans could literally fly about. Still another layer was capable of varying rotation speeds and was used to “grow” and self-assemble many useful products – some for export back to Earth.

Very large spaceports were located at the north and south poles of The Station. An opening at both poles could be sealed with a gigantic circular, inward sliding door, but the huge kilometer-wide openings were normally left partially open, leaving plenty of room for military (south pole port), industrial freighter, commercial (north pole port) space craft, and the tiny “pleasure crafts” – like Jacobal’s space bike to come and go.

Huge zero gravity elevators provided transportation of goods, with smaller units for people, and both located at the central, non-rotating hub. Each floor faced outward, toward space, so people’s heads were always facing the center of the disc while they were standing or sitting. In addition to all of the elevators, small, automated vehicles provided highly efficient, zero-gravity transportation between and around the relatively small gaps between each disc, thus providing swift movement between any of the several discs, the non-rotating hub, and access to the outer “skin” of the station. Several large and small elevators connected each successive floor within a single layer.

[Fortunately, wetware had largely solved the bothersome cosmic ray problem, but not completely. The Station still needed several layers of various materials separating layers of water: purified water, saline water, and even natural ocean water (complete with marine life). The materials were the new super ultralight, ultra-strong, meta-metallic nano-hybrid transparent and translucent composites. Each layer was extremely thick and blocked a significant percentage of the harmful cosmic rays, but the water was still required to complete the job as well as to supply the huge space station with drinking water, protein (from fish), fuel production, waste management, and so on.]

© All rights reserved, with the exceptions given on the home page. In short, feel free to use this material in any public URL with “.com”, or “.edu” domains for non-profit purposes. Please link back to whatever you reference.

Improv In C Major For Piano

By David Saxton Ullery

Performed By: David Saxton Ullery on Yamaha Piano (acoustic console)

for: Upgrade 01A, Child’s Toy

[click on Showcase Version below if the player above fails]

↑ 02:16↓ (click below)

< ♣Showcase Version♣ >

Emergence TRK 1→

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↓Comments ↓

I Was Hoping

By David Saxton Ullery

for: Upgrade 01A, Child’s Toy

I was hoping I could
count upon the
Fractals of our Nature
of our utter honesty between us

Love is beyond us
It lies between us

And it is all around the World
And there for the Universe

It is around us
Love grows between us

It flows among us all!

We can literally build
castles high
above the sky
all about the sky of Earth

I was hoping I could
rely upon the
love that I could
feel for you so magically

So magnificently?

As our Universe started
as but a single point?

We are dodgers in the
heavens
so we
are free
we are joyfully free

All shall be healthy wealthy and wise throughout

Let us go forth together
In freedom and in tolerance

And all march forward healthy wealthy and wise

I was loping on the
fort so long
My breath could only escape
As I feel so much better now

We where coping and should
mount upon the
traffic of our Nature
Of our fondness that’s between us

I was hoping we would
jazz upon the
frequency of time!

Just another frame of mind?

Note: Click on the links in the poem, or simply put your mouse over any link in the poem! For example: loping

You can watch Youtube links from within a “snapshot” and even control the volume. You can listen to the jazz while watching the “loping” and “frame of mind” Youtubes all within their respective snapshots, simply by playing them when the snapshot is highlighted. Have fun!

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Comments

Upgrade 01A; Part I, Version 1.1

Author: David Saxton Ullery

♣Note:  Part II is here♣

Note: Feel free to click on links within the story to gain greater understanding or to be entertained. You may find it convenient to read through the story first, then go back to click on one or more of the many many links. Some links are changed from time-to-time if a “better” or more interesting link is discovered. If you put your mouse over a link, you can often see enough to understand where the link will take you. Simply press the back arrow on your browser to return, or right click on the link to open in a new tab or a new window. Thanks! Please enjoy and leave comments!

Example link: nano-sized machine parts

Chapter 0.0: Upgrade 0000.0001.1010
[Earth Vision]

Jacobal Lectomen was nearly twenty four when he finally began to assert himself in life. He had, in a certain metaphorical sense, come of age so very recently, but that was not what was on his blurry, unfocused mind at this moment. Jacobal could not now remember why his mind was in such a daze, for he was just this instant coming to and could not quite manage to open his eyes no matter how hard he tried to do so.

… Two of the portable machines closest to his head made very tiny clicking noises as they self-adjusted to Jacobal’s subtle movements … one held a scanner over his forehead, then withdrew … then over the top of his head, then over his right temporal lobe and held it in place …

… moments later, the one on his left side made a very slight sound – a soothing whoosh of fresh oxygen, followed by a soft, breathy, organic-metalic “whooot” as a valve closed …

the third machine was silently moving its multiple scanners over the patient’s torso and limbs … a few extremely tiny, barely visible blue lights were blinking at various rates, another was an amber light and not blinking …

It seemed to Jacobal that someone other than he was controlling his thoughts right now. From within his mind’s eye he could clearly visualize the vivid coloring and textures of the still amazing, gigantic artificial mega-structures of his highly-dynamic world … almost as if he were floating … first orbiting earth, and then orbiting The Station upon where Jacobal was often at work when his mind was functioning properly. Jacobal felt a bit like he was riding his space bike, but a tiny part of him knew that did not make any sense, because both the range and speed of his journey were well beyond the range and speed of his bike – not to mention the improbable locale. The feeling was at once very real, yet inconsistent with reality, and there was still this feeling that someone or some thing was gently tugging on the strings of his mind. Somehow, this not-in-control feeling was oddly pleasurable to him, on the other hand it made a part of him feel just a bit anxious.

… whoosh … fwhoooooot … click …

… the machine closest to Jacobals head, on his right, used one of it’s many semi-organic-like appendages to insert what appeared to be a microscopically thin wire, about 5 millimeters long, into Jacobal’s right ear canal. Like a tiny pin worm, the “wire” device autonomously scurried off inside Jacobal’s ear and disappeared – only to wistfully reappear three seconds later, just above and to the left of his right ear, in about the center of his temple, but only a small tip (almost two millimeters long) of the wire-like device stuck out – it would not be visible to the naked human eye, were such an eye present, but the medical robot machine sensed it and the appendage withdrew back inside the medical device, as if the machine was satisfied that its last little task was a complete success …

…It was a success, for the other end of the device was firmly and completely attached to the artificial grid work subnet that lined Jacobal’s temporal bone at the appropriate connection – along side so many other devise connetions of various sizes, shapes; forming a myriad of … a virtual cornucopia of functionality …

While perceiving the earth vision, it appeared to him as if the planet earth was undergoing massive changes on its surface. Although his vision was somewhat exaggerated, this much was consistent with what Jacobal knew to be true in the real world. He knew there were many huge structures on earth that were rapidly being assembled. With each substructure pattern, from within yet another substructure, virtually self-assembling themselves; nearly 97% automated, with the latest nanobots, millibots, microbots, and androids doing the construction under the supervision of cyborgs and just a few humans. In truth though, very little actual supervision, human or otherwise, was required.

… whoosh … fwhoooooot … click …

A large number of the millibots where in fact a kind of cyborg, a genetically engineered hybrid of domesticated ants (robants). Each robant type had specialized functions, similar to natural ants, except they moved around chemicals, installed various nano-sized machine parts, attended nanobots, cleaned up and recycled debris rather than carrying food, cutting up leaves, tending aphids, protecting the ant hill, and so on. The robants and other bots usually managed quite well on their own (just like an ordinary colony of ants), with only very rare non-self-correcting glitches that required the high-level cyborg or human intervention or investigation (only because this artificial system had not evolved for millions of years like the natural ant colonies had).

Only a handful of androids were normally deployed at job sites, mostly for the purpose of human contact with third party vendors, when required. People just were not available in most instances. Many people simply felt more comfortable interfacing with machines that at least looked and acted human, so the added expense of having them around was deemed worthwhile.

After the completion of the automated portion of a substructure, artists, engineers, carpenters, and other facilitators would swiftly move in to add the final human touch, but even they would utilize much modern technology:

Doing the heavy lifting, assisting with sawing and lathing the fine woods, and even the forming of statues to the artist often last-minute specifications. Often technology was incorporated in to the art work, but more classical techniques were still very much employed and appreciated.

Just a few decades ago, even Jacobal would have been thought of as a cyborg, as were about 83% of The Station’s population, but the term cyborg, like so many terms often do, seemed to constantly adjust and readjust to the times. Jacobal was a full-fledged human being! At least he and most others considered him so. He merely had many more artificial implants than did the average Earth-bound human inhabitant. Some implants were necessary for one’s long-term survival in the variable environments that were present on The Station itself, as well as on board the scores of relatively puny space stations that were orbiting much closer to the earth, and the relatively dangerous outposts that were much further away.

Jacobal had the ability to enhance (or indeed even reduce), at will any of his five natural senses and his twenty nine artificial senses including, among many others, an enhanced sense of time, space, and motion.

Under ordinary circumstances, among his many other artificial talents, Jacobal had the ability to sense exactly when and where he was. He was, in fact, precisely on floor 23U (U = underground), room 2713A (alone), bed 3 (facing east, perfectly level), at the Evergreen Bio-Medouse clinic, in New Los Angeles, now: May 2, 2137 11:31:31.793 AM, at rest, in a blue walled room (23.7 degrees C, at about one atmosphere [0.997 atm]), with soft white floors and ceiling, attended only by a few biomonitors. In his current condition, with his eyes closed shut, his hearing still nearly shut down; and with the majority of his artificial senses still either shut down, in standby, or in idol mode, he could of course not sense much of this now.

Jacobal’s feeling that he was riding on his space bike now began to grow much stronger, and he had to fight this feeling by reminding himself thusly:

  1. He could sense from deep within his mind ( his mind was still more than a bit blurry and fuzzy), that he was in fact both on his back and not in relative motion, although he still could be anywhere (Earth, The Station, a large-class cruiser ship, or just about anywhere).

  2. It is not realistic to suppose that his space bike could

(a) travel so fast through space

(b) travel so far from the Station. His bike was docked on the Station, and could never get as far as the earth, and no space bike could ever take off from the earth,…

… whoosh … fwhoooooot … click …

… Jacobal was beginning to remember now, and slowly regaining control of his thoughts. He was back on earth for his four-day weekend! He was back at Evergreen! … but then … No … He was definitely riding his space bike! Jacobal’s mind was vacillating.

… whoosh … fwhoooooot … click …

It was so nice these days that most employees worked three-by-seven weeks. Many companies, like Jacobal’s current and recent employer, were allowing their workers to take Fridays and Mondays off every week, and most of the time there was no need for him to commute anywhere to do his work. In fact, most of his work tasks did not require him to physically be anywhere in particular; except that he did need to be on The Station for some of his special duties, and he felt more alive and productive when he could see the actual outcome or results of his work directly – with his own two natural eyes. Jacobal normally did not travel to Earth all that often, it took time, and the round trip was not cheap, but this weekend was special.

… whoosh … fwhoooooot … click …

Suddenly, Jacobal’s mind went off on a rather steep tangent from his current space touring thoughts. Jacobal was beginning to remember once again what was really going on, or at least what was most likely going on. He was being adjusted once again. Jacobal “needed” an upgrade on a couple of his integrated devices located in and around his brain. One of his “needed” upgrades would be akin to his ancestors of a century prior believing they “needed” to replace their ultra-thin televisions with the new Paintvision that had finally allowed for ultra-high resolution televisions that were as thin as paint (hence the clever marketing name for the devise) – an early technouse of nanotechnology.

However, his other upgrade was a different matter entirely. Jacobal believed it would prove to be very useful for his new job. It would greatly facilitate his reasoning skills in new insightful ways. Jacobal was proud to be the first human with this new technological breakthrough. He did indeed enjoy possessing bleeding edge wetware technology a great deal.

[technouse – refers to technology ordinarily associated with devices and gadgets designed for use outside of the body; whereas medouse refers to internalized medical usage. Jacobal was sometimes annoyed by this new speak, but he was slowly getting used to it – an indication that the faddish terminology would surely be changing again soon, Jacobal thought… ].

… whoosh … fwhoooooot … click …

Chapter 0.1: Upgrade 0000.0001.1010
[Strange Dream Wakeup Call]

Jacobal, still laying down on his back, was somehow grateful (to whom or what?) that he was not only alive and well, but that he was witnessing the greatest advances, since The Great Tipping Point, for the technologies and sciences that had been occurring over the last two decades or so. It was a good time to be alive, he thought. Jacobal could remember well his seventh birthday, when he and his friend Jenny had received their first medouse sensors together (now long since upgraded twice – It was very common to have basic mentalmark nanoneural transceiver sensor implants on one’s seventh birthday, after the early child’s brain development with a friend or classmate having the same or similar birthday, so one could try it out with the trusted friend…).

His mind went on drifting and reminiscing…

It was the Great Tipping Point that led very quickly to allow for the building of very large structures using self-assembling nano-engineering techniques. It was estimated by some that the new technology advances had accelerated to a staggering pace of more than four orders of magnitude in just over a decade and a half. The new machines could now build structures at more than ten thousand times the speed of their predecessors of just seventeen years ago! In addition, because of similar accelerations in the advances of biotechnology, and the newer medouse devices, there were very few truly stupid people left on the planet. Yes, there were still the Luddite-Primitivists, and the Exodites (accepted external technouse technology but rejected the internal, medouse devices.), but they mostly lived in small isolated pockets and were relatively harmless to the rest of mankind, Jacobal reasoned (as did most of Jacobal’s associates and rather elitist friends).

… whoosh … fwhoooooot … click …

Just as Jacobal was nearly positive that he would soon completely awaken, open his eyes, and get on with his weekend on Earth, he instead strangely delivered himself into his own weird dream algorithm morph:

1) have the dream

2) repeat as often as possible

3) rest for a bit, or go to work, or both.

4) “‘Twas Bothness that Prevails”, said he that hast shiniest remarks!

5) Wow! What a rush! Talk about water flowing and mountains rising! Holly shit man!

… whoosh … … loading files … patient’s upgrade 0000.0001.1010 complete …

… whoosh … fwhoooooot … click … shwish …

Jacobal woke up! His mind very quickly discarded the meaningless dream. Yes, he was definitely at Evergreen! Feeling unusually refreshed, he opened his eyes and his ears and slowly sat up with a big smile on his face. Noticing the sudden alertness and movements of the human, the biomonitors cleanly and efficiently unhooked themselves from patient Lectomen’s head, arms, chest, and legs, then gracefully backed away in seemingly perfect unison, leaving a single tiny disposable, portable monitor attached to the right side of his head – just above his ear.

Still feeling just a tiny bit groggy, Jacobal got out of the bed, walked out of the room, and exited Evergreen. No need to see the Doctor (there were of course no longer any human receptionists anywhere. Naturally, everything having to do with his visit was automatically logged, recorded, billed, and paid).

The Grand Opening of the New Los Angeles Center for the Modern Arts, Western III would commence in just five hours from now. Jacobal most definitely did not want to miss this! Nearly his entire weekend had been taken up by the two upgrade procedures at Evergreen, and yearned for something fun before it was time to check in at the port for his return flight to The Station.

It was Jacobal’s team that had been largely responsible for many of the highly-technical substructures that were integrated throughout the Western III, and he was very proud of the achievement. There were a considerable number of new innovations that he and his team had either come up with or had incorporated into their models and made improvements on. The structures self-assembled faster and with less glitches than any previous undertaking. The technologies were largely state-of-the-art, yet they managed to keep costs within budget.

At the opening ceremony, VIP guests would likely notice him and appreciate his attendance. Jacobal was not famous, but word was spreading among the very wealthy.

In addition, Jacobal was friends with one of, among a trio of the musicians that were to perform toward the end of the celebration. He was looking forward to listening to their new interpretations of Goldberg Variations: numbers two, three, five, seven, eleven, thirteen, seventeen, nineteen, 23, 29, and ending on something completely new (yet still within the Bach tradition, or so Jacobal was assured by his good friend). The composer was calling it Variations on 31!

Jacobal met up with his musician friend, Laura Lagerly after the performance.

Laura (glancing at Jacobal’s head, just above the ear):

Jacobal! So glad you can make it! … I see you had your upgrade. How was it?

Jacobal (glancing at Laura’s beautiful eyes and cute, petite breasts):

Your concert was magnificent! Much more pleasant than laying down on that nasty bed for nearly two days! And the dreams… more bizarre than usual, I must say. But I am glad for it.

Variations on 31 was … very interesting.

Laura chuckled, while taking a bite of a carrot stick.

What? You didn’t like it?

Jacobal:

Of course, I loved it! I meant it was interesting in a good way. Anyway, you know that new stuff grows on me… over time. I especially loved your work on Variatio 19! I felt like dancing with … well, with you.

Laura (slightly blushing as she notices her reflection in Jacobal’s eyes)

Thank you so much. I am glad you could attend. I miss you so much! What’s it like up there anyway?

Jacobal:

Well, you know, always busy. Not much time for social life lately with my new job….

…he glanced over to his left then back at Laura. Laura looked so lovely tonight! And her cello performance! Jacobal had never heard Goldberg performed live before, and never any way other than solo keyboard – piano, or harpsichord. He had really enjoyed himself tonight… at least he now had all the music and Laura to remember this evening.

Just then, a VIP noticed Jacobal and called him over for a chat. Laura was clearly hungry and wanting something more substantial to eat and of course drink (don’t all musicians? – Jacobal always thought as much). They politely exchanged goodbyes and parted company. Jacobal wished they had more time together and he did not have to talk shop with this man.

Chapter 0.2: Upgrade 0000.0001.1010

[Hyper Programs Analyst – Bot AI]

…These hyper-programs map networks with computers with bots and humans and all of mankind’s machines…

Synthetic DNA computers control synthetic RNA …, another fascinating tangential field to Jacobal’s; but it was only one of hundreds upon hundreds of which he was only partially familiar with.

Anyway, the thing is, is that Jacobal had completed his few days off on earth, and was returning back to the terminal to board on a freighter flight. Jacobal Lectomen and Morris Hampton would be the only human passengers. The gigantic freighter was already loaded up and carrying huge quantities of water – taken from the “extra” water in the ocean that began to accumulate in the mid twenty first and continued into the early twenty second centuries, due to global warming.

…Thanks to polar meltdown, the world’s oceans had supplied all of the water needed to make the Station both necessary and possible! Large amounts of water were required for the huge space station’s completion. The station was ideally located for both military and civilian needs, but it still required vast quantities of water to make it livable for most humans. Meanwhile, the space station was largely populated by androids and certain cyborgs. Other cyborgs and humans were for the most part confined to certain areas already protected, but they could venture out to other sectors if they were willing to wear rather heavy coveralls, and a heavy duty space helmet. Even with all the protection, visits to unprotected areas were limited to a maximum of five hours. Still, the current status was looking pretty good, already 13.31% of the Station was completed with virtually zero cosmic ray bombardment.

Fortunately, wetware had largely solved the bothersome cosmic ray problem, but not completely. The Station still needed several layers of various materials separating layers of water: purified water, saline water, and even natural ocean water (complete with marine life). The materials were the new super ultralight, ultra-strong, meta-metallic nano-hybrid transparent and translucent composites. Each layer was extremely thick and blocked a significant percentage of the harmful cosmic rays, but the water was still required to complete the job as well as to supply the huge space station with drinking water, protein (from fish), fuel production, waste management, and so on…

Jacobal’s job was a kind of programmer-architect; utilizing nanobots all the way up to macrobots “objects”, creating physical systems as the final output of the hyper-compiler.

Still, within this field, the basic low-level primitives existed and were utilized: “assignment”, “if”,”loop”, …, “object”, …, “pattern composite group“, … “hyperbolic knot biadjacency matrix“, and so on up the latter; but also integrated with actual physical objects in the the real world, such that the robots would build the final output – a designed project.

Projects were integrated and assembled with the help of standardized project-system templates. Bots of all sizes were linked together in fast moving dynamic network structures following each hyper-instruction set; looking somewhat like a series of odd-sized dominoes lined up into highly-intricate, often fractal-like patterns., quickly being knocked down and reset into a brand new pattern within a pattern within a pattern. These patterns extended down to the microscopic level all the way up to the completed macroscopic objects, then systems, then networks of systems, linked all together with a neural-synaptic-like complexity.

In some sense, humans could be considered devices, thought Jacobal.

Of course, Jacobal did not “do it all”. His staff consisted of a mixture of machines, humans, and cyborgs. If androids and cyborgs counted, then Jacobal had a team of 243 – including twenty-nine humans, seventeen androids, and 197 cyborgs.

Yes, Jacobal’s latest upgrade will enhance his work performance greatly!

Jacobal knows he will have bizarre dreams again for the next two or three nights, but with his last couple of upgrades his “side effect” dreams were actually quite enjoyable and he was confident that this time would be no different. In any event, the small inconvenience will be well worth it, he speculated.

Chapter 0.3: Upgrade 0000.0001.1010

[Unprotected Cargo]

Time to return to The Station; therefore Lectomen boards the tiny passenger cabin of the huge old Freighter FRT.STN03. Hampton was already seated and had strapped himself in place. Jacobal Lectomen seldom tires on these trips, even less so now with so many interesting new work assignments in his head, or so he reasoned. He sat down next to Hampton in seat three, not noticing the containers holding three pairs of protective coveralls and three helmets stashed in a small bin just behind seat one. Neither Hampton nor Lectomen were used to flying these older-class freighters, and, as was typical for private freighters, safety instructions were no where to be seen.

“Various phases of man kind have realized how magical the Universe appears.”, said Morris Hampton to Lectomen.

Jacobal giddily replied in a fake old-British accent, “’tis but ’tis not, please kind sir give me some more; or whatever.” He then promptly fell asleep once more. Jacobal slept very well indeed!

Morris tittered, then sighed. Morris never seemed to grow weary of their seemingly nonsensical inside joke. He loved it, because he knew that Jacobal was so annoyed by it. He remembered Jacobal’s oft repeated remarks:

Every damn time I go through with another upgrade … you have to drag that old incident up …

… and Morris knew that lately, Jacobal was merely pretending to enjoy the joke …

Jacobal’s dream mind began visualizing a stunningly beautiful fractal-like geometry, almost organic in appearance, sprouting branches and sub-branches like a rapidly growing highly intricate semi-artificial, glimmering alien plant with thousands of neuro-synaptic-like leaves constantly forming, then disappearing, then reappearing at the tips. Almost as if synchronized with the growth of the glowing tips of the fractal branches, with a FugueCounterpoint-like quality, he mentally began to rhythmically oratorize an odd, long forgotten mentalmark memory trail: Nothingness and its relationship to the Universe almost verbatim.

Just then, a cosmic ray whizzed through the freighter’s limited shielding and into Jacobal’s head, nearly striking one of his new upgrade implants (UG.01A) , partially damaging an extremely tiny cluster of neurons nearby, causing one of the neurons to form a very unusual new synaptic connection to the new technology.

An interesting fact is that UG.01A represents a new, huge leap forward in medouse technology. It is the world’s first upgrade with an internalized quantum computer. It is designed specifically for controlled, deeply recursive, and highly complex “what if scenario” problem solving.

Unbeknownst to Jacobal, the newly formed synaptic connection, combined with the tiny energy flux from the near miss of UG.01A, caused UG.01A to alter the states of three of its mere 2048 qbits in a seemingly random way. The electrons in several nearby atoms located in Jacobal’s gray matter jumped wildly from one state to another as they absorbed the remaining quantum packets from the ray.

A fraction of a second later, Morris noticed Lectomen’s left hand and left cheek just under his left eye twitch slightly, but he paid little attention to the matter, although he did involuntarily and unconsciously smile a quick nervous smile.

Morris turned his head away from Jacobal and began thinking about the infamous John and Jerry Incident of long ago for reasons he did not quite understand. The thought seemed so totally unrelated to his long journey back to The Station, his current projects and plans, his past weekend, his close relationships, but still it made him a feel slightly uncomfortable, and he wondered why the thought had just now entered his mind. Morris moved around in his seat in an attempt make himself relax, but he could not seem to find the ideal position.

He became restless.

“Damn Cargo Freighter! If, only I had a flexchair!”, Morris muttered with discontent under his breath, wishing he had someone to talk to…

“humph”, Jacobal’s once colorful and vivid fractal vision first splintered, and then slowly faded away into near nothingness as his sleep deepened. His peaceful and entangled mind finally settled down into quiet, comfortable rest …

Momentarily, Morris Hampton received a high-priority mentalmark with the heading: “Urgent!”, just as he was picking up and contemplating playing with an old, yet sophisticated child’s toy. The rectangular, palm-sized toy was very thin, with very slick blue metallic trim, and with nicely designed, very attractive, nearly transparent touch and voice-activated controls – all integrated on the bottom-edge surface of the toy’s ultra-high resolution display (resolution at about that of the human retina). The toy had apparently been lying there on the floor, just under Jacobal’s seat for quite a few years now. It of course was not covered in dust, but he could tell the technology was nearly a decade old just by looking at it. He surmised that the toy had been there since the freighter’s maiden voyage nearly eight years prior. As he picked up the toy, the toy’s shape shifted a bit to fit perfectly into the curvature of his palm, and turned itself on.

As Morris read the content of the short, simple, but encrypted and highly classified note, he sat up sharply, and dropped the toy into his lap. The toy became flat once again and turned itself off.

The General!“, he thought.

Morris wiggled around more in his seat, in a futile attempt to make himself comfortable and relaxed. He felt a lump swelling up in his throat, and swallowed. A single warm tear began to run down his cheek, but it stopped just under his left eye. He wiped it with his left hand. His hand and his cheek twitched ever so slightly.

Morris reviewed the note for the details after line three:

__________________________________________________

URGENT!

The General is seriously ill.

Suspect SD.0111 Assemblers in the heart, but could be natural.

Remember: only face-to-face is binding.

JL must first join the 13

Convince JL to investigate the 13, the 7, and the 47

Ask JL about: UG.0000.0001.1010 dream 3 @ t23.439-t29.761

___________________________________________________

“Wow!” was the only remaining thought on Morris Hampton’s mind for several long moments.

Morris looked over again at Jacobal and saw that he was still sleeping. He decided that he had better let him continue to sleep given that he had no clue as to whether or not Jacobal was somehow gaining important information though a dream! Morris wondered about so much:

What the hell could a dream have to do with anything? How would anyone from The Three know about it, and why did they not mention that The Three should be investigated?

Morris picked up the Child’s toy. The toy turned itself on as it formed nicely into his palm once again. Morris read the text on the display:

__________________________________________________

It has been 11 minutes since I was last picked up,

and 1237 days since I was last asked to do anything for you.

Please tell me what you want me to do…

Compose Music?

Write a Poem?

Help you to Compose Music?

Help you to Write a Poem?

Would you like to do something completely different today?

It has been quite a long time since you played with me!

__________________________________________________

Morris chuckled to himself as he touched “Write a Poem?”. Morris quietly spoke, so as not to disturb Jacobal:

Please make the poem about hope.

He waited for forty one seconds as the child’s toy thought and worked on its poem. The device displayed the poem I Was Hoping. Morris read the poem, gently touched the word loping with his left index finger, and watched the horse and rider. Morris smiled as he watched and contemplated the multi-layered meanings behind this unusual hyperpoem. One by one, he touched the other hyperlinked words on the screen – each word seemed to add new meaning and provoke new thoughts within Morris Hampton’s ever puzzling mind. Morris hopingly thought:

Hmmm, I too must be but a strange looping entwinement of patterns within an entwinement of countably infinite fractals. With Jacobal’s help

… perhaps there is …

Hope!

Morris waited for another hour and Jacobal had not yet awoken. He touched the Child’s toy once again, but this time he selected: Compose Music?

Please make for me a very simple piano jazz solo

This time he enabled communication between his tiny ear-brain translation implants and the device, waited for 73 seconds as the child’s toy thought and worked on its music. The device displayed the title of the piano solo: Improvisation In C Major For Piano, so he touched the title and it began to play, seemingly directly into his head…

Jacobal continued having his strange dreams for hours and hours, ever since shortly after they had emerged from the 31 minute ride in the accelerator rail tube and the last hydrogen plasma strobe bursts that followed, but Morris did not dare bother him. Too much at stake to be impatient, he thought.

Having successfully served its only function, the tiny monitoring device next to Jacobal’s ear had slowly disolved away like a scab. The nano-wire worm-like attachment promptly withdrew from Jacobol’s skin, connected itself to another spot on the temporal bone network, and self-reconfigured itself into a redundant relay, adding additional fault tolerance to Jacobal’s skullular network …

…to be continued… (if I receive some feedback either positive or negative…maybe it is starting out too slow?????????????????????????????).

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