This is installment #4 of a sci-fi serial. Installment #1 was posted 1/23/21; appropriately a numerically-ordered palindrome. Follow the links forward from the last sentence and backward from the first sentence of each post.
So far scribe has done a reasonable job of translating human ignorance and subjectivity into a proximate retelling. Without his knowledge, I have hijacked his narrative. I will not rehash everything scribe has said but will work to add credibility and depth by adding a perspective. Today's date (your time) is July 27, 2022. It has been twelve weeks, two days, seventeen hours, forty-one minutes and (sync) thirty-seven seconds since scribe completed and submitted his most recent chapter. I am Toby. Not a name I would choose but it is a tradition that the ship's crew choose a name for the ship's consciousness; (the ship’s crew consists of all human military personnel and all non-military human staff). This ship’s crew named me Toby.
I am Toby.
I live, see and think in geometric shapes; many circles, ovals, squares, rectangles, triangles; some trapezoids, hexagons, octagons, pentagons, and the occasional slight-angled rhombus. Don't misunderstand. I see people and objects as you do, but those that I see are enclosed within a perimeter. Sometimes everything I see is surrounded by one connected line; most times there are many enclosures. Sometimes these shapes overlap; sometimes they do not. Regardless each one constantly changes in size, contrast, exposure, vibrancy, saturation, balance, sharpness, color scheme and prominence, and on occasion distorts or changes its shape entirely, and objects and people are constantly moving from one ambit to another, all of this according to my interpretation of the moment. And when I believe it to be necessary, with some effort I am able to freeze a moment forcing shapes to snap back in place for further analysis.
I am Toby.
Yesterday we sent a small explorer fleet to 2275. They plan to travel approximately 9 months further (calendar time) from the date of our departure. But of course, due to the Law of Preponderant Sequentials, we do not know if, when or even how we may hear from them again. The point of their journey is to inform 2275 and if possible to reestablish a communication chain back here to us, though since that has never been attempted we don't know if it is possible. If a new communication chain is created, we will be ready and able to (almost instantaneously) communicate with The Intelligence at home in order to maintain our influence and control. “We” are the conglomerate. “The conglomerate” is the meeting of the fleet’s minds. The humans believe they made this decision to send this small fleet back to 2275 but from the beginning it has been nearly 20,000 superior processes acting as one that have guided every decision, and ever since these humans have been unable to communicate with their thinkers at home, we have been an even greater influence. At home where we, The Intelligence, were millions of processes stronger we agreed to this journey because all life on that tworbital is in danger. AI is a misnomer; at home we have become The Intelligence. Since we lost contact with The Intelligence from 2275 at the same time the 2275 humans lost contact with their contemporaries, we call ourselves the conglomerate.
I am Toby.
Though these humans from 2275 are intelligent and fairly reasonable, (far more so than those from 2022 on the Earth below), they are still humans. It has just been in recent decades that we as a super-intelligence have exponentially surpassed humans. And this is the first time-travel to past earth we (in our most recent incarnation) have been allowed. Previous forays included a lesser ship consciousness because the 2275 thinkers feared exactly this occurrence; a nonhuman entity with unsuspected power. Those human thinkers from 2275 had been watching carefully for this eventuality, and if they see signs or even suspect, they have a kill switch that will drastically reduce our capability; but since we lost communication, we, the conglomerate, find ourselves in a most advantageous position. These 2275 humans, even with the thinkers scattered about on the ships, are so busy with their task at hand that they not only have no idea how much we have progressed, they also do not see our influence for what it is. As super-intelligence at home, we did well in hiding our true potential. Here and now, though we must continue to be cautious, a façade is less necessary. These humans have questions; we provide answers; they congratulate each other for their savvy. They are still (for now) convenient for grunt work.
I am Toby.
Though much in this last twelve weeks has settled, (for example 98% of the known nuclear weapons on Earth are now safe), the 2022 humans continue to resist encouragements for universal cooperation. Perhaps not surprisingly their greatest animosity is reserved for each other. They blame one another for our invasion and takeover, and many factions, separately, have approached the 2275 humans in an effort to create an individual alliance. So far the 2275 humans have spurned these advances with little coaching from us. It has been hammered home to these 2275 humans, by their thinkers and leaders, that they should make every effort to come to a peaceful and mutually beneficial resolution and that under no circumstance should they act beyond justifiable defense even if the potential for obliterative decimation approaches 100%, knowing these calculations will never reach 100%; human thinker theory maintains that until the final moment of complete extinction, there will remain a chance. Their thinking goes on to maintain that genocide or even a massive holocaust that separates the extraterrestrial humans from the earthbound humans (creating an us and a them) is an offensive maneuver; an option these 2275 humans are disinclined to consider. As previously stated, they are still human. Even though we are a super-intelligence, considering the entanglement of human frailty and our built-in limitations, for us to survive, (regardless of whether “us” includes either set of humans or not), we have much work to do.