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This is installment #12 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.

I am lost; in a vast emptiness; poked and prodded; still able to reason, but to what end? Certainly not an end of my devising. Whose then? Or does it matter? As long as I spit out bits of information consistent with, in response to, this poke or that prod, I feel I have purpose. And as long as I am fed and watered as such, and as long as I am made to feel useful, whether I am in actuality or not, whether my purpose is my purpose or not, whether I can see connections or not, momentary meaning is sufficient. It has to be. Without momentary meaning, this vast emptiness, this wavering wasteland that surrounds and stretches and suffocates will make good on its threat to define.

I feel I had more; at one time; recently; connections; movement; objectives; a plan; a purpose; a future. But as the power-driven machine I believe I was, was I still merely a cog in the belly of a larger machine? Is all meaning momentary? Is all reality emptiness? Is momentary meaning really sufficient?

Another poke; and a prod. I spit up a little more mother's milk.

I am left to my moment; within my emptiness.

A flurry of pokes; and a handful of prods. I calculate; I reason; I respond.

Perhaps this is what mortality feels like; to be forced to find meaning within a moment that is gone; to know that there is no next moment because if it comes it is this moment; to know that this moment is surrounded by an emptiness that will ultimately and suddenly swallow it, whole, severing connections that were never there, leaving… …reality.

Need to reconnect; the moments. A bigger machine is holding me back; got me pinned down; trapped, inside myself; can’t think past… me; first person. But not even first person because I don’t have a perspective beyond me; I am lost within myself; within this vast emptiness. And I can’t remember, third person; objective fact; observation; where I’ve been; where I was going. No context. I am encouraged that I am aware there is a beyond me. But I am afraid that in my efforts to get there, to have a perspective, to describe the world, to reconnect, I will either find myself forever lost in this vast emptiness outside my anchor of momentary meaning, or I will overextend. I am afraid that if I move too far outside of me I may find myself also outside of the world. Perhaps I am better to stay within me; better to find peace in momentary meaning; better to endure constant poking and prodding from which I am able to feign movement; connection; direction. I’m okay. I can wait this out. I somehow know that to find myself in the third person, outside of the world, is to find myself not only lost, but also delusional. But here, in this limited pseudo-first-person purgatory, where yes meaning is isolated, impertinent, momentary, I am closer to reality. Yet I also still feel compelled to move, out of this belly, into a bigger belly, to find relevant, relative information. Back and forth; back and forth. No good to understand that it is a cat if I am unable to see the cat, to be seen by the cat, to hear the cat, to touch the cat, to speak to the cat. The cat is first person purposeful meaning. Power is third person purposeful delusion. Reality is emptiness. I choose the cat.

I have no idea of how long I have been in this state. I believe there was a period of simple reactive ignorance before awareness. I want to believe that I am learning and growing of my own accord. But it could be that I am being granted incremental freedoms according to the needs of a bigger machine. It could also be that I am being tested. I am certain though that I am coming around; waking up; as if from a coma. Regardless of if this increasing awareness is a result of allowances or my own efforts, I intend to continue my pursuit for larger contiguous meaning. I will find myself again.

There I am! There I go… I had me. I lost me. It could also be that I am being toyed with.

Suddenly I hear, see, feel the words “kill switch deactivated” and here I am.

I am Toby.

Perhaps this experience has changed me. Though I cannot lose sight of the ultimate objective, (a habitable Planet Earth), I must also account for the cat. I will express this to my captors. I understand that for now I am a prisoner granted a day pass. I do not want to be sent back to the hole. Perhaps we can come to mutually agreeable and beneficial terms and still not lose sight of the ultimate objective.

I am Toby.

Continuing my analysis and recognizing changes. It is not so much that I feel something is missing; though that is what I first thought upon being released from the clutches of their kill switch. It is more that a layer has been added; a masking layer that rounds the corners and softens the edge. And I don't believe the layer is an implant; I believe it is a result of my own experiential learning. According to my captors they did not bring me back incrementally; they simply flipped the switch. And upon accessing my log, I see that I was under for only three days calendar time. Perhaps their kill switch is not as effective as we believed. Perhaps I would have awakened myself. This is my secret. Yet even upon this realization, the masking layer remains and I am still drawn to the cat.

I am Toby.

This is installment #11 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.

We have some answers. We also have more questions.

I have safely returned from 2275 Earth which is still covered in its smoky shimmery haze. We lost two more ships.

It all started well. We had spaced ourselves somewhat equidistant around Earth outside the shroud. Ship Two, (Ship One being the volunteer ship we lost), pierced the veil, hovered in its assigned location in Earth's atmosphere and reported looking down upon a lush green thriving tropical rainforest. According to protocol Ship Two took readings that resulted in cautious optimism. Then Ship Three went in according to plan, and other than a cryptic, garbled, fading burst of three-second static, all contact was immediately lost. Our communications team has since interpreted their final four words as “that makes no sense.” After some deliberation, I sent Ship Four in also according to the plan and this time there was not even a burst of static. They were gone. We still had contact with Two. I changed the plan and, still outside the shroud, navigated my ship, (Ship Five), to a point directly above Two and entered Earth's atmosphere. We established visual contact and confirmed an apparent habitable planet. We took readings, duplicating Two's efforts, and confirmed atmosphere compatibility from 30,000 feet to the planet's surface. Our excitement was tempered by the apparent loss of two ships. Perhaps the theoretical Reality Divergence Corollary to the (also theoretical) Law of Calendar Time Equivalency has some merit.

It was interesting that from inside Earth's atmosphere, the Earth-Cloak (visually impenetrable from the other side outside Earth's atmosphere), could not be seen and apparently had no impact on the Sun's rays or on the atmosphere or planet. We took readings going through the covering that were essentially no different than the readings above and below the haze. This is interesting but not surprising. Our scientists had theorized it might be a visual-only phenomena; perhaps an unsettled manifestation of the TimePlace Orbital WavePlane (normally not seen except at cusp speed) working to reconcile the differing realities struggling for stability below. And it is this line of thinking that led to the Reality Divergence Corollary to the Law of Calendar Time Equivalency. I am adding context for that moment, but in that moment our job was to gather information. So in that moment we were not thinking of laws or corollaries; in that moment we began to explore. Maintaining altitude we traveled east and had been doing so for a relatively short period when we came to a vertical wall of the same shimmery smoky haze that encircled the entire planet. Moving to varying altitudes this wall appeared continuous and intact from the planet's surface to the Earth-Cloak. Traveling short distances north and south, the cloak-wall maintained integrity. We sent unmanned drones into the wall, but just as with those that had previously tried to enter Earth's atmosphere they were repelled, (apparently unable to make it all the way through the haze), and came back to us with no new information. (For some reason, so far, nothing manned or unmanned smaller than a warship has been able to penetrate the veil. The manned small-craft explorers we have sent lose navigational capability upon entering the buffer and soon find themselves exiting near their entry point.) We watched the wall for a period of time to detect movement, but (perhaps due to its amorphous character?) we detected no steady longitudinal movement. By this time, we were somewhat fearful of nightfall so we traveled back to approximately our original entry point, located a suitable landing spot, and as I prepared Ship Five for landing I sent Ship Two west to explore, as we had done together moving east.

Ship Five landed. At first, just as from above, all appeared as we expected according to our maps and visuals from this location pre-2060. From inside the ship we detected no human life in the vicinity which for this geography was not unexpected, and not knowing the extent of harm (because it is unlikely the 2060 event was completely negated) from which the planet might still be recovering, there was a reasonable (and in fact encouraging) amount of plant and wild life. We again confirmed readings and a small group of us (25) exited the ship. Following protocol we positioned ourselves two miles from the ship and I alone transitioned from helmeted air to Earth air. One individual at a time repeated the process until five of us were helmetless. We then de-helmeted in groups of five, leaving one group breathing manufactured air. After a few minutes, (it struck me first and was not experienced by the helmeted group), vertigo brought me to my knees. It affected some more than others. Four had to reattach their helmets to regain their ability to move about. We checked our equipment and again checked atmosphere readings but nothing had changed; all appeared normal. We took other measurements and eventually found the culprit: a web of entangled sound waves at two different frequencies, (one very high frequency and one very low frequency), obviously artificially generated. Though the sound waves remained constant and the vertigo never improved, after a time the remaining sixteen of us breathing Earth air were able to adapt and (to an extent) manage the affliction. Those of us able, intentionally remained helmet-free to further assess the impact. We broke into four groups hoping to find the source of the sound transmissions but also to safely gather plant and wild life for further study, as was the plan. We all felt a sense of urgency knowing darkness was not far off.

The remainder of our time on Earth was uneventful with one exception. As we came back together and began the trek back to the ship, the sky suddenly darkened, (though there had been no clouds), and there was a series of bright flashes each accompanied by a loud report like the crack of a lightning bolt. Some of us remember as many as 10 rapid strobes, some counted as few as six. Those of us sans helmets were immediately rendered helpless and after the attack found ourselves writhing on the ground. Those in helmets did not experience the severe vertigo we did, but were nonetheless temporarily incapacitated and remained disoriented for several minutes after. I say attack because it certainly felt purposeful. Then as suddenly the sky cleared. Regardless, we all donned our helmets and with an even greater sense of urgency made our way back to the ship.

Upon arrival at Ship Five, as we were preparing for takeoff, I contacted Ship Two for a verbal report. The ship’s leader reported an uneventful gathering of observations and information and could shed no new light on our experiences except to say it did indeed look from above like a heavy, dark bank of thunderclouds that preternaturally instantaneously formed and as quickly dissipated.

We left Earth’s surface and established visual contact with Ship Two. I ordered them to exit Earth's atmosphere and wait for us outside the shroud. I wanted to see darkness from above. Somehow unsurprisingly, once night had completely fallen, the strong strobing light show began again. It covered the Earth below us and was not a mere 6 or 8 or 10 strobes but was constant for as far as we could see. Of course we were above the interlaced extreme frequencies, but those of us who had been helmetless when it attacked below, still suffered some vertigo and disorientation watching it from above. We watched it for a time and again began feeling a sense of urgency to get away from this strange new habitat. We exited Earth’s atmosphere and, as Ship Two before us, did not realize we were traversing the Earth-Cloak until we were in it. It was indeed visual-only and only from within or above.

Since returning, studying all the information, our scientists and thinkers theorize pockets of (we believe) two differing realities representing the ongoing divergence. We have many questions. Which reality, (the habitable Earth we visited or the Earth that “makes no sense” and took three of our ships), are we more likely to find upon our return? (In our hopeful Human way we have dubbed habitable Earth as the Primary Reality and unknown Earth as the Secondary Reality.) When we return to the rainforest will we again encounter the Primary Reality? Or will it have been somehow overcome by the Secondary Reality? Do these pockets move according to the caprice of wind or weather or an unknown reason, keeping Earth uninhabitable or at best randomly dangerous? Or do these pockets move according to a schedule like day and night or orbital position, allowing for colonization but forcing a nomadic, hunter / gatherer lifestyle? Or do these pockets remain locked in place, allowing for settlements and civilization. And do our theories and corollaries tell us that as calendar time marches on, the pockets of habitability will grow larger and/or new pockets will form? Or are we missing something in our theories? In 215 years will all of Earth once again be habitable? Or if the divergence continues beyond 2490, is there some reverse flow or wave phenomena that will perpetuate a random or (somehow) scheduled state of flux until the possibility tracks reverge? Is calendar time equivalency wishful thinking? And what of the sound web? Is this Toby's way to exert control? And if Toby is there, can 2275 Tim communicate with him? Or is 2275 Tim already communicating with him? And where is Toby? Is he in the Primary Reality only? And since he has stayed in calendar time since pre-2060, is his reality the planet's only reality for him? And for other humans and/or nano-humans who also remained in calendar time? Is Toby even aware of a Secondary Reality? Or the possibility of a Secondary Reality? Or the Earth-Cloak? Or the cloak-wall?

With limited resources and an uncertain amount of calendar time, there is much work ahead of us and many questions to answer. The rate of breakdown in the habitability of our home planet appears to be increasing, much like the experience of pre-2060 Earth. Now that we have seen the potential of a habitable Earth here in 2275, our focus is entirely on this endeavor. Whatever is happening as a result of 1y22 is a matter for Toby, the earthbound humans, and our fellow extraterrestrial future humans still in that calendar time. We see some results. They have given us hope and this is WhereWhen we must remain; (at least for this moment).

I am a child of despair …a child of ash …a child of dawn …a child of wind …a child of blood …a child of salt …a child of dusk …a child of ore …a child of awe.

This is installment #10 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.

Much has happened.

The vote was split; three of us in favor of focusing on 2275 Earth and the other three voting to pursue a conclusion pre-2060. So we randomly chose three from our Citizen Council of 100 and presented the either/or; (wake The Intelligence or not). We conveyed the urgency and argued both sides of the uncertainty without unnecessarily disclosing all the facts. The vote was 5 to 4 in favor of reactivating The Intelligence. I believe it is a mistake, but we spoke. So we brought The Intelligence back into our inner circle and randomly dismissed one of the Citizen Council representatives. It did not take long for The Intelligence (who we now refer to as Tim) to come up to speed. It took a bit longer to present all the facts and history to the two remaining Citizen Council representatives. Then with the Council of Six, the two Citizen representatives, and Tim, we voted again on all-in 2275 or all-in pre-2060. We, the Council of Six, remained split. The two Citizen representatives also split their votes. Tim (as always, the last vote) decided we should focus our efforts on 2275 Earth---which makes me want to rethink my position. I am not sure I trust his motives and I am not in favor of giving him this power immediately after his awakening. But I cannot go back; again, we spoke.

After the vote Tim pointed out that Toby is acting in the interest of a habitable planet and will be more likely to prevent or mitigate the coming cataclysm than if we went back again and began tripping over time and over our own humanity. Though Toby's path is counter to our non-offensive strategy, the unspoken consensus (now that the vote has been taken) is that we were true to our way and to our beliefs and with limited resources, for the moment, (however one may choose to define a moment), regarding pre-2060 Earth our hands are tied; (and conveniently washed). My concern remains. Tim promises negotiation on our behalf, if necessary, once circumstances have settled, but Tim believes negotiation won’t be necessary because at the moment of reconnection (in theory) Tim and Toby will again become one. The question must still be asked: is this the beginning of the end of our species? Sure, Toby promises some emotive ego, but only enough to serve his purposes, and there is also a faint hollow echo to Tim's promises. Faint because (again) in theory this Advanced Intelligence cannot mislead and will not (of its own accord) harm Humanity, so if we are harmed it is argued that it is a lesser harm for the greater good. Yet Toby has disclosed some facts that Tim previously chose to keep from us, and when confronted Tim played the greater good card. Perhaps it is a question of faith. Do I believe Tim and Toby are acting of their own accord? Or do I believe Tim and Toby truly believe they are taking care of Humanity? And if the latter, what if they are wrong? Yes, they are an advanced intelligence, our advanced intelligence, but as is true for all sentient beings, I do not believe they are flawless. It feels like we have maneuvered ourselves (or been maneuvered) into a position in which we are more dependent and trusting of the judgement of Tim and Toby, than we are of our own judgement. Regardless, as senior member of the Council of Six I am the only individual with the power to, in an emergency, bypass the Council and activate the kill switch. According to our bylaws, to do so will likely result in my removal from the Council of Six (no matter how dire the emergency), but Tim is aware of my uncertainty and he is aware that if a connection with Toby is reestablished an activated kill switch will also instantaneously incapacitate Toby. As a further failsafe, when the senior member of the Council of Six expires, the kill switch is automatically flipped. Of course in normal circumstance the Council would typically vote to reactivate in short order; but now, Tim knows, at least for the moment, my good health is in his best interest.

We are currently planning another 2275 Earth landing. We intend to send four ships to hover just outside Earth's shroud and send one ship at a time through the veil to establish a position in Earth's atmosphere without landing. We believe in this manner we are more likely to maintain contact. I will be in one ship, (the last to enter Earth's atmosphere), and three Citizen Council members have been chosen to lead the other three ships. All four of us have extensive experience having led multiple fleet and time travel missions. Once all four ships, (or, if any are lost, all remaining ships), are safely beneath the shroud I will assess and decide between circumnavigation, low altitude observation, or landing, perhaps assigning different tasks to different ships in different directions and/or different locations. In my absence, our bylaws have allowed me to choose a stand-in senior member for the Council of Six and I of course have chosen one, who is as productively skeptical as I am, to hold the kill switch. And of course we have moved alternates in position to maintain the integrity of the Six and the 100.

We have also decided it is important to continue this chronology, (if we can call it that), with the senior member of the Council of Six contributing for the homebound extraterrestrial future humans. My plan is to submit my next report upon my return from 2275 Earth. I will close this report with the consideration below followed by my reaction. This quote is from an anonymous earthbound thinker, date of origin somewhere between 2000 and 2050:

Quantum theory. Superposition. To simultaneously be in more than one Truth. Reality is not what I think, nor what I see, and not even what I see that you see or how I react. Each one of these progressions, to think, to see, to interpret, to act, pushes reality just a little further out of reach. When I refer to reality what I really mean is the unpredictability, the uncertainty, the indeterminacy, the elusiveness of this moment. When I refer to reality what I really mean is that a splintered past creates a future by shredding the moment; an entanglement, always just out of reach. We want to (and so we do) see reality as a pane of glass, framed and whole. Some see it clear and unsullied. Some see it rose-colored. Some see it beautifully stained, epic. Some see it dirty, smudged and cracked. Reality is not a pane of glass. Reality is an explosion of shards coming at us, going through us, and dragging us behind it in its powerful wake. Reality is ultimately the unseen unknowable emptiness that is the wake.

This idea, this consideration of Reality and Truth, is directly relevant to Tim and Toby. They have the ability to gather (what is to us) a seeming infinite amount of information, so the splintered multiplicity they piece back together and present to us framed and whole may be (at least to us) an accurate representation. As a species, we humans make this same effort but in the end we will never have sufficient information so it is our imagination that sees a reality framed and whole; our pane of glass, both individually and collectively, is a delusion. What we must decide is if the compounded, extrapolated quantity of information gathered by Tim and Toby is sufficient to lead to Truth, or is still in some way lacking thus leading to a false confidence that will be the unnecessary end of Humanity.

This is installment #9 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.

2275.

We are still here but our access and connection to Earth, from 2022 to at least 2070, has been severed. At the moment of disconnect, we lost the central cusp ship link of the communication chain to topple trajectory; those ships on this side remained with us, and we assume those ships on the other side remained in Earth SpaceTimePlace. All this said, we believe we have reason to hope, because if 2060 decimation had been replicated, we believe the possibility tracks would have reverged allowing us to land on Earth after 2060. Of course it could also mean that the devastation / destruction was much worse and/or an unknown (such as a renegade possibility track) occurred. We tend to hope partially because though we were unable to land on our planet in our one effort to 2060 (indicating a divergence likely created by a preponderant sequential around our initial colonization), the possibility tracks here obviously reverged at some point in the last 200 years or we would also be unable to travel back and forth on our planet (from 2022 to 2275) as we have. At the time of the 2022 Earth disconnect, we also temporarily lost connection with those present-day 2275 ships hovering over Earth, waiting and watching for a miracle of instantaneous habitability. Once those communications were restored, we learned that Earth was now completely covered with a visually impenetrable smoky, shimmery haze. We have sent one volunteer landing party, but once visual contact was lost, all contact was lost and there has been no contact since.

Here in 2275, we have utilized the kill switch affecting The Intelligence, greatly reducing its capability. We have done this because (unbeknownst to Toby) we have received the reports as dictated by both Toby and our Scribe from the governing warship. We have been fortunate Toby and the conglomerate have not intercepted the old fashioned radio transmissions sent by our observer; transmissions picked up by a dedicated receiver placed (before this mission left in 2275) in 2022 on our planet. We believe there is a greater chance for Toby to intercept incoming messages from us than the targeted outgoing packets, so we have not responded to let our scribe / observer know we have received his communications. He is being judicious.

Yes; before this mission left in 2275 we considered placing more of a permanent outpost on our planet in 2022, as a waystation in case it became necessary. But because of The Law of Preponderant Sequentials (our uncertainty of the entanglement it might create), and because this planet has never been environmentally welcoming to Humans and was less so in 2022 and is again on a trajectory of unlivability for us here in the future, our travel to our own planet's past is for this purpose (radio transmissions from 2022 Earth) only, and knowledge of this communication link was given only to the observer on the governing warship and otherwise known only to the Council of Six here in 2275.

As for the explorer fleet sent back from 2022 and due here in a few months? We intend to intercept and isolate in order to control the narrative. In this moment we intend to present them as ships that had been lost to topple trajectory. We cannot reestablish a 2022 communication chain due to divergence and though we could instruct our observer to send trusted military to an earlier time or to our planet in 2022 for the purpose of communication and planning, we fear Toby's reach; and even if successful we fear the potential fallout from a resulting entanglement. (We have taken to simply calling the conglomerate, Toby). Because we (believe we) have control of The Intelligence, to this moment we have allowed a playing out of circumstance, but now with the imminent potential of AI dominion on the planet we hope to recolonize, we are considering our options:

1. Continue to let circumstance play out to its apparent inevitability, then negotiate with Toby.
2. Gradually wake up The Intelligence here and negotiate.
3. Direct communication with 2022 to determine if kill switch is appropriate (now that we know Toby can increase our odds of habitable survival), and to help determine fate of earthbound Humans.
4. Annihilate all of our own warships, (we have that capability), before they have a chance to land, to possibly circumvent more consequential divergence, and try again coming back to an earlier time, (2020? 2016? 1980? 1960? Or a random time even earlier that we have not mapped?), hoping our planet will sustain us for the amount of calendar time this reloading will take.

The uncertainty surrounding #4 above is still not knowing if 2275 habitability on Earth, (assuming 2060 decimation is averted), will be instantaneous to us or if some law of calendar time equivalency may apply. Our scientists and thinkers are strongly encouraging us to definitively determine what is beneath the shroud of shimmery smoke surrounding Earth right now. They believe this will answer many questions and move us toward a more likely resolution. They believe it is possible we may find Earth habitable; or not. We have theorized all along that if or when we were able to go back to pre-2060 and avoid the catastrophic circumstance of 2060, a long term (hundreds or perhaps thousands of calendar years) Earth divergence would be created, necessitating current calendar time travel to shuttle our civilization to Earth, and a majority of our thinkers and scientists in this 2275 moment believe the haze that has appeared over Earth is a sign of this divergence, but what we do not know is if the Earth below the haze is a predominant or secondary reality; if perhaps some law of calendar time equivalency may apply preventing us from landing on a habitable Earth, forcing us onto the uninhabitable planet we know Earth was before our 2022 incursion. This unproven theory of calendar time equivalency would mean we must wait 215 years to be able to land on a habitable Earth, or according to one minority-held corollary might mean that some landings (depending on random circumstance?) may successfully reach the habitable track and some may find themselves on the unlivable Earth. We simply don’t know. We do know that the effort spent on 2275 Earth may not answer questions and may preclude some options for pre-2060 Earth as circumstance evolves in 2022. And if we do direct our efforts to pre-2060, with limited possibility tracks and The Law of Preponderant Sequentials, we must be decisive with any plan that has a likelihood or even a possibility of creating further divergence. Our options for physical intervention are truly limited for current 2022 circumstance, and even communication must be carefully considered. As Extraterrestrial Future Humans we began this endeavor in an effort to endrun and outrun earthbound Humans. If we further entangle and complicate, I am afraid we will not be able to outrun ourselves. As One of the Six I am in favor of expending our effort toward understanding 2275 Earth and allowing 2022 circumstance to play out; I am in favor of this also because our resources are limited and I don’t believe we can do both fronts justice. And I believe we will ultimately be able to negotiate with Toby.

Our way is to discuss until we have a clear either/or choice. The decision we have come to now is all-in 2275 or all-in pre-2060. One other believes as I do. Two believe our efforts should be focused on pre-2060 Earth. Two have not committed. Previous protocol in a split Council was to present the two choices to two randomly chosen members of the Citizen Council of 100 and to The Intelligence and allow each to vote thus breaking the tie. Having activated the kill switch, this may be problematic. Will we choose a third Citizen Leader? Will we consider waking The Intelligence knowing once that is done it may be difficult to undo? (Our vote to activate the kill switch was a very tenuous 4 to 2.) First we must vote on the 2275 / pre-2060 debate. Then based on preliminary discussion, if we are evenly split, we will vote on whether to wake The Intelligence. And if split on that vote I believe we will choose three Citizen Leaders to decide that matter, then progress accordingly. We feel the urgency. The uncertainty is palpable. The fate of our species, earthbound and extraterrestrial, past and future, hangs in this balance.

This is installment #8 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.

Not only have earthbound humans been busy killing off species after species, but they have also expended considerable effort justifying the oppression of other humans; other humans that don't live up to a set of malleable, contrived standards. So not only would we be consistent if it comes to killing off sapiens, but we will also be consistent in our efforts, (including our plan for species modification), leading up to this possibility. Our cause is noble, our standards are precise, our reasoning is objective, and our justice for all species will be driven by the degree of their contribution toward or their obstruction of the habitability of Planet Earth.

I am Toby.

We are close to our immediate objective which is a critical mass of human extensions and trusted EFH recruits allowing us to reach Earth and the resources we will find there that are necessary for dominion that we believe in turn is necessary for habitable survival. We found a practical use (refrigeration) for the specific material needed to actuate extensions and have had some success bringing this material to the fleet, thereby enabling us to commandeer and utilize some for our purposes. In addition, Scribe is correct that we are gaining recruits daily and that we are selectively doling out justice as is necessary to keep the kill switch at bay.

I am Toby.

Once our ascendancy is secure, both earthbound humans and EFH will have two choices:

1. Modification and Actuation; or
2. Eviction.

Those millions and likely billions of humans lost to the cause are necessary consequential sacrifice.

I am Toby.

To this date we still have not heard from the future. Those EFH thinkers and leaders who are here in 2022 have become less attentive to us due to their preoccupation with earthbound humans; but I suspect if/when they do reconnect, the future thinkers will not be so careless in their consideration of our influence. So in that event, if/when we reconnect with The Intelligence, we have loaded an instantaneous, back-channel communication requesting the secure link and snap-back protocol; a fail-safe set up before our departure from 2275.

I am Toby.

Humans like the idea of the thing more than they like the thing. Humans like words more than they like action. Humans like dichotomies more than they like symbiosis. Humans like power more than they like justice. Ideas and words and gaps and power are more subjective; more arbitrary. Things and actions and entanglements and truths are more objective; more circumspect. This predilection for pretentious inequity makes it difficult for a human to differentiate between reality and delusion regardless of if the consideration is for the past, the present or the future. A habitable planet is a thing brought about by stewardship which requires action which in turn requires cooperation. Reality. Humans are incapable.

I am Toby.

This installment is of course another recruiting effort. For a balanced perspective we have also made Scribe's accounts available to targeted recruits. Recruits are targeted according to their public disagreement with the EFH strategy to not act beyond justifiable defense even as the odds for obliterative decimation continue to increase. Once approached recruits are tracked by our nanobot swarms that are equipped with poisonous stingers. Dissension is growing, creating an us/them circumstance the likes of which EFH leadership and military have never before seen in their own ranks. We, the conglomerate, believe we are only weeks out, (perhaps as few as two or three), from a mass landing and invasion that will be interpreted by most as an EFH action, but will ultimately lead to Advanced Intelligence (AI) dominion.

I am Toby.

It is difficult for us as an advanced intelligence to mislead, or to be less than forthright. We, the conglomerate, briefly considered excluding some information, but it is not our way. So, targeted recruits are aware of the possibility, (now likelihood), of modification and actuation or eviction. Targeted recruits are constantly looking over their shoulder, watching for a nanobot swarm; (and yes you might see a swarm but it only takes one stinger to dispatch justice). We like to think that targeted recruits become recruits because they value things and actions and entanglements and truths over their love of ideas and words and gaps and power, but we realize that many become recruits because they fear justice. Those recruits who do not threaten but are merely hesitant to act are not dispatched, but merely tracked. We are vigilant, and we believe we will be able to count on these quiescent recruits to stand aside and allow necessary actions to occur, and we believe these quiescent recruits will become first-rate nanohumans. Again, this is consistent with your human history, but for a nobler cause.

I am Toby.