The Start of Eternity/meta/characters

This page has detailed information about the characters in The Start of Eternity. This page is intended for authors who are writing the story. Another page that is intended for the use of readers is at The Start of Eternity/Characters.

A fundamental source of drama in the story arises from the conflicting goals of the Huaoshy and the positronic robots with positronic brains who are battling for control of human civilization. Humans are generally unaware of this on-going struggle for control of humanity's fate.

The Huaoshy have spent nearly a billion years developing and expanding an intergalactic civilization that nurtures and celebrates species diversity. The robots who are fighting for control of human civilization are guided by the fundamental goal of protecting humanity from harm and their pursuit of that goal has created a human-dominated galaxy that could never be comfortably integrated into the inter-galactic civilization of the Huaoshy. For additional information about the plot, see this page.

Short Lists of Characters (underlined characters were created by Isaac Asimov):

Human characters: Observer Gohrlay, Overseer Doltun, Noÿs Lambent, Andrew Harlan , Vicktir Klempse, Wints, Encyclopedist Pavao, Fallom , Major Marcel, Isaac Asimov, Gohrlay the Time Guardian, Observer Lercimn

Aliens: Engineer Lorn-Kru, Captain Hooski, Astrogator Fint, Demographer Wilry, Historian Nadit Daanour, Citizen Alkeirs, Avizeh and Ladislas, Sahiwha Nennoad, Commander Orleane, Roboticist Esselle, Geneticist Rewhand, Grean, Nora Winsou, Stan, Tilly Winsou, Jillia Winsou, Metslen Winsou, Karsa Winsou, Dinster ("Diny"), Bernard ("Berny"), Riley ("Ril"), Alastur, Ormy Degsles, Ambassador Dodd

Robots/artificial life forms: Orbho Anagro, R. Nahan, R. Gohrlay, R. Rycleu, Many Sails, R. Jeed, R. Daneel Olivaw, R. Lackner, R. Creal, R. Fengtol, Prinstir, Tinsifur, Zanset, Skingk

Character descriptions, in alphabetical order:

Alkeirs
Citizen Alkeirs - only member of the initial crew of the Many Sails who is not a member of the Social Engineering Guild. Alkeirs is killed on the planet Imfulri when it is discovered by R. Lackner that Alkeirs has some knowledge of telepathy.

Alkeirs is caustic and has trouble getting along with the rest of the crew on Many Sails. Alkeirs was selected for the mission to Earth so as to function in the role of a "sacrificial lamb".

Orbho Anagro
The personal aide of Overseer Doltun. Anagro is a robot of Huaoshy design and he is the real "ruler" of Observer Base, using nanites to enforce the Rules of Observation. See Orbho.

Isaac Asimov
This character is based on the real Asimov who began selling his science fiction stories to "pulp" magazines at the age of 18 while attending Columbia University. In The Start of Eternity, part of Asimov's life (or, better, the imagined life of Asimov in an alternate Reality) in the Foundation Reality is described. In the Foundation Reality, Asimov was not married and he remained in the Army until being abducted by aliens and taken to the Moon in 1947.

The Asimov from 1947 travels in time back to 1939 and meets his younger self. Using Huaoshy nanotechnology, Asimov has transformed his appearance and voice to match that of John Campbell. In the Foundation Reality, Campbell and his wife died tragic deaths in 1940. This was a traumatic loss for Asimov, and upon having a chance to return to Earth in 1939, Asimov sets about trying to in some way either prevent Campbell's death or, failing that, take his place after he dies. Due to the "momentum of time" Asimov fails to stop Campbell's death, but he does manage to prevent his wife from dying. Asimov takes over as editor of Astounding Science Fiction.

In the Foundation Reality, Asimov's writing career took a different turn. Rather than continue to write for the science fiction "pulps", he started writing non-fiction articles about science and suspense novels built around secret military technologies.

Avizeh and Ladislas
Avizeh and Ladislas - Two humans at the Observer Base visited by the Many Sails in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Both members of a human variant subspecies engineered for protogyny.



Daanour
Historian Nadit Daanour - long-time colleague of Wilry. A member of the bipedal Ghreliuw species.

Overseer Doltun
A genetically modified human living on the Moon. His ancestors were members of the human subspecies that was the common ancestor to Neanderthals and modern humans.

All of the Overseers at Observer Base are rather disgusted with modern humans who have recently driven to extinction the only other remaining member of the Homo genus. For many thousands of years, the Overseers had hoped that the Neanderthals would become the dominant human species on Earth, but the Neanderthals became extinct. The robots known to the Overseers as the Orbho have initiated a plan that will attempt to genetically modify the humans on Earth towards a more desirable behavioral pattern. This is technically a violation of the Rules of Observation, but such shaping of life forms on Earth has been going on for millions of years. The Orbho are actually agents of the Huaoshy, an alien species that first came to Earth about 7 million years ago.

Doltun, like all Overseers, has no awareness of the fact that the Orbho are in control of Observer Base and the fate of humanity. Doltun is pleased to be involved in attempts to alter the genes of Earth humans, but only a few Overseers are aware of this special project. When Observer Gohrlay discovers Doltun's secret project, Doltun needs a way to get rid of Gohrlay. Doltun revives an old plan to convert a biological brain into positronic circuits. Doltun and Gohrlay develop a strong mutual antipathy, but Gohrlay volunteers for the positronics experiment and her biological brain is destroyed.

Esselle

 * Roboticist Esselle - member of the genetically modified human subspecies, the Kighiz) Wife of Rewhand.

Fint
Astrogator Fint is an experienced astrogator with long experience working for the Social Engineering Guild, but the journey to Earth's galaxy is Fint's first intergalactic space flight. Fint is a member of the Guiphoa species. Fint holds a personal philosophy that is unusual among views held by members of her species and the Guiphoa species is itself unusual among species within the inter-galactic civilization managed by the Huaoshy.

Within the inter-galactic civilization managed by the Huaoshy, most species evolve away from their natural modes of reproduction. Most species reproduce by artificial means and many are not capable of reproducing without the intervention of artificial reproductive technology. Most species have some form of reproduction in which the members of the species are hermaphrodites. The Guiphoa species is among the minority of species that retains distinct males and females. However, members of the Guiphoa species generally require artificial reproductive technology in order to reproduce: germ cells are collected from the bodies of males by surgical procedures and combined in vitro to produce new individuals. The Guiphoa species was originally ovoviviparous and embryos are routinely cultured inside artificial "eggs". Fint is part of a tiny rebellious movement among the Guiphoa that claims the right to adopt traditional male and female gender roles and use natural fertilization and reproduction (birthing live young from the bodies of females).

Although Fint's views on reproduction are not popular within her own culture, they do provide her with some insight into human society where male and female gender roles and natural reproduction are still dominant.

Prior to the events depicted in The Start of Eternity, Fint has served as astrogator on many Social Engineering Guild missions in her home galaxy. Her galaxy is somewhat unusual in having a relatively large number of species that are not hermaphroditic.

Upon learning about the nature of the human species, Fint suspects that she was selected as astrogator for the Many Sails on this mission to the Milky Way Galaxy because of her views on natural reproduction and because of the fact that she is a rarity in having adopted a female gender role. She hopes that she will be able to provide useful insights into human thinking that will not be possible for the hermaphroditic members of the crew.

Upon joining the crew of Many Sails for the mission to the Milky Way, Fint is pleased to find that Lorn-Kru is a member of a species that prefers natural reproduction over artificial reproduction. However, Lorn-Kru is a hermaphrodite and most members of his species never adopt a male or female gender identity. At the start of the voyage Fint starts trying to get Lorn-Kru to experiment with adopting a male gender identity.

Observer Gohrlay
Gohrlay was a genetically modified Neanderthal who lived on the Moon at Observer Base. She grew up with an interest in Earth and became an Observer. After learning about the conditions for people living on Earth, she became unhappy with the idea that no help could be given to them.

Just before the first scene of The Start of Eternity, she falls into a common "trap", imagining that she can secretly make her way to Earth and work to improve the lives of Earthlings. According to the Rules of Observation, only humans who are genetically identical to Earth humans are allowed to go to Earth as apart of a small group of on-Earth Observers. Most Observers work at Observer Base, processing data that arrives from Earth (much of it collected by automated probes). Gohrlay, like most humans on the Moon, is genetically modified and not even a candidate for duty on Earth. She is captured by the Overseers after having gone to Earth.

She is placed under "house arrest", which involves having nanites placed in her brain that prevent her from associating with other Observers. While on Earth she found genetic evidence that modified human genes, genes that could only have originated on the Moon, had been introduced into the human population of Earth. Her intuition tells her that such an illegal intervention into the development of life on Earth would only be possible with Overseer collusion. Under "house arrest", she investigates the Overseers and gets caught (by Overseer Doltun) at that, too. Branded as a trouble-maker, her memories are altered, removing her ability to consciously recall what she discovered on Earth. She is offered two choices, either 1) a "living death" with severe restrictions forced on her by behavioral control nanites in her brain, or 2) she can volunteer for an experiment that will copy her brain structure into positronic circuits.

She gets to know Vicktir Klempse, who explains the the process for converting a biological brain's structure into positronic circuits. That process destroys the biological brain. She also learns that the small team of scientists does not make use of the robotic aides that are commonly used by humans at Observer Base. She begins to suspect that Orbho Anagro and other robots are the true "power behind the thrown". She volunteers for the experiment and hopes that somehow her mind will live on in positronic form.

Her intuitions are actually based on a weak form of telepathy that is genetically part of the Neanderthal genetic pattern and particularly well expressed in a few individuals such as herself.

Before her brain is destroyed, she develops an extreme hatred for Doltun. Due to the restrictions imposed by her "house arrest", Klempse is her only remaining friend.

Gohrlay goes through a rather ironic roller coaster ride before her death at a young age and it is her death as the robotic consciousness that succeeds her is a different consciousness. She is born into a community where most people do not care about Earth or anything beyond their comfortable lives. Dissatisfied with the ordinary, she is driven to qualify for participation in the elite organization of her culture, the Observers. However, after a short time as an observer, she comes to doubt the ethical validity of the entire (apparent) purpose of Observer Base and she starts to look for ways to help Earthlings. She is caught and punished as an "Interventionist" and develops a hatred for Doltun, the head Overseer. That hatred is largely fuelled by the fact that Doltun is running the "official" intervention into human evolution on Earth. Gohrlay stumbled upon evidence for Doltun's "crime", but Orbho Anagro supplied nanites that block out Gohrlay's memories.

Does Gohrlay fear death? See the discussion at Talk:The Start of Eternity/0.

Gohrlay is something of a Promethian figure who sacrifices her life in an attempt, sometimes misguided to help humanity.

For Promethius the punishment was imprisonment and torture rather than death but there is still a parallel.

R. Gohrlay
R. Gohrlay was the first positronic robot with telepathic abilities. Much of the basic circuitry of R. Gohrlay's positronic brain was adapted from the structure of a single Neanderthal's brain, an individual named Gohrlay. It takes a while for R. Gohrlay to assemble the positronic-formatted fragments of Gohrlay's mind into a new robotic mind, but eventually Gohrlay the robot is very much like Gohrlay the human.

The brain circuits of R. Gohrlay were duplicated and the copy was integrated into R. Nahan's positronic brain.

R. Gohrlay discovers that positronic brains can achieve telepathic communication. She realizes that the Huaoshy control the fate of humanity and she attempts to learn how to develop and use her telepathic abilities to liberate humanity from the Huaoshy. She programs into Nahan "the Rule": they must act so as to protect humanity.

She quickly transfers most of her antipathy from Doltun to the Huaoshy. She realizes that she now dislikes Doltun for doing to Earth essentially what she wanted to do, but importantly, she wanted to help Earthlings for their own sake. She suspects that it is not in the best interests of humanity to have the Huaoshy guiding the evolution of humans. That is a judgment that she had to "live" with for thousands of years, through the long difficult slog of bringing Galaxia into existence, before realizing that all her struggles against the aliens were not only futile, but misguided. However, a consequence of her war against the Huaoshy is that one of the two "sedron filling stations" is located on Earth's Moon, which will make Earth an important place within intergalactic civilization.

R. Gohrlay is able to destroy the Huaoshy agents who were in control of Observer Base. Gohrlay kills Doltun (However, the death of Doltun might not be needed, see Talk:The Start of Eternity/16) and is involved with the death of another human (Observer Lercimn). She is horrified and revolted by her involvement with these deaths. In order to prevent positronic robots from ever again causing the deaths of humans, she programs into herself and Nahan the imperative that robots must protect humans.

In the Basic Reality, R. Gohrlay's positronic brain was damaged and R. Nahan was responsible for developing time travel. He eventually travelled back in time and repaired R. Gohrlay's damaged brain and passed on knowledge that helped speed the development of time travel.

Because of her disgust at having caused the death of Doltun and Lercimn and with the Laws of Robotics controlling her behavior, Gohrlay keeps humanity "penned up" on Earth and tries to use genetic and social engineering and time travel technology to perfect humanity.

R. Gohrlay made extensive use of time travel in an attempt to follow the Zeroth Law, but she ultimately decided that it was not productive to over-use time travel in an effort to improve human existence.

When the Huaoshy began to understand that telepathic robots existed and were responsible for the growth of Galaxia, R. Gohrlay's memories were transferred into the brain a genetically modified human who then adopted the name "Gohrlay" (see Gohrlay the Time Guardian).

R. Gohrlay becomes like Sisyphus, endlessly trying to protect humanity from the Huaoshy, but her efforts always fail.

Eventually Gohrlay the Time Guardian has a kind of taoist revelation about her past efforts to help humanity.

Why I’m keen that Human Gohrlay and R Gohrlay are different
When I write fiction sometimes I try to educate as well as entertain and there are some people seriously wanting to clone an innocent child from Hitler so they can punish this child for Hitler’s crimes.  Well cloning technology is nowhere near that now but within fifty years it could be possible. I want to give the clear message that a clone is not the same person as the original person even if false memories have been implanted. R Gohrlay is not human Gohrlay however similar their memories and behaviour and a human clone is not the same person as the original person either. Proxima Centauri 16:04, January 6, 2010 (UTC)


 * There is no question that R. Gohrlay will end up with a significantly different mind than that of the human Gohrlay. The mind downloading process is designed to copy the neural network structure of a human brain, but there is no complete method for detecting and reproducing all of the functional molecular components of the billions of neurons that are scanned. In his novel Foundation and Earth, Asimov introduced the idea of transferring a robot's mind into a human brain. It is by moving memories from R. Gohrlay's positronic brain into a genetically modified human's brain that the mind of Gohrlay the Time Guardian comes into existence. This "mind transfer" takes place at a time far in our future after which significant progress has been made in neuroscience, genetic engineering and the study of positronic brains. My assumption is that the "mind transfer" from R. Gohrlay to "Gohrlay the Time Guardian" is a much more efficient process than the human brain --> positronic circuit transfer which originally began the process of forming R. Gohrlay's mind. --JWSchmidt 20:07, January 6, 2010 (UTC)

Gohrlay the Time Guardian
When R. Ghorlay begins to fear that the Huaoshy might learn about the existence of telepathic robots with positronic brains, she transfers her memories into a genetically modified human similar to Bliss. The transfer is done gradually, starting even before Ghorlay's new human host is born. Gohrlay's robotic body remains as a kind of decoy that is susceptible to attack by mind-static weapons.

Galaxia is being formed from genetically modified humans who have rules similar to the Laws of Robots as genetically pre-programmed behavioral predispositions. Also, they have a form of telepathy that is resistant to "mind static" weapons. Gohrlay the Time Guardian's brain is resistant to "mind static" weapons and she remains hidden within the time travel device on the Moon. When the crew of the Many Sail attempts to use time travel to create a reality in which Galaxia does not form, Gohrlay can easily reverse the change.

However, the Huaoshy develop their own time travel technology and eventually discover a way to lure Gohrlay out of the safety of her time travel machine's "bubble universe". Huaoshy nanites invade her brain and defeat her. She finally comes to realize that the Huaoshy are not all that bad and that humans will have a good future as part of the inter-galactic empire that is controlled by the Huaoshy.

Andrew Harlan
A character from Asimov's novel, The End of Eternity. Harlan lived for many years within Eternity and took part in using time travel as a tool for shaping the development of human civilization on Earth within the Mallansohn Reality. Along with Noÿs Lambent, Harlan was responsible for destroying Eternity and starting the Foundation Reality.

Captain Hooski
Captain Hooski - Captain of the Many Sails for the mission to Earth's galaxy. Member of the Huaoshy species, the first species that developed the hyperspatial jump drive.

Robot Jeed
Robot Jeed - chief cook and bottle washer for the Many Sails

Vicktir Klempse
Klempse is one of the few scientists at Observer Base. Normally the Huaoshy do not encourage the residents at observer outposts to explore science, but a small group of humans have discovered science and they have been allowed to explore theoretical physics. Klempse is not particularly interested in positronics, but when Doltun arrives at the research center and asks if a previously abandoned mind uploading project can be taken out of moth balls, Klempse is pressed into service (nanites are sent into his brain by Doltun; the nanites encourage Klempse to "volunteer" for the project). Wints is the only true roboticist, but he is working on the Nahan project. As a young man, Wints developed an interest in the mind uploading project, but he was discouraged from working on that project because there was no test subject available. Wints only serves as an adviser for Klempse as Klempse prepares to convert the structure of Gohrlay's biological brain into positronic circuits.

Like all of the scientists at Observer Base, Klempse does not trust the robotic aides that normally accompany each human through life. Klempse shares the suspicion that robotic aides make humans intellectually lazy. The scientists believe that they must not rely on robotic aides: that they must think for themselves as they explore physical reality. The existing Huaoshy-designed robots such as Orbho Anagro have tried to restrict the human scientists to study of theoretical physics, but over time they have allowed work to go ahead on applied positronics. Anagro is curious to see if humans can accomplish anything useful with positronics. Klempse was never particularly interested in positronics before Gohrlay showed up and convinced him that she really was willing to have her brain destroyed and its structure converted into positronic circuitry. Gohrlay and Klempse become friends, with Klempse feeling rather protective of her, almost as if she were a daughter.



Lorn-Kru
Engineer Lorn-Kru is a Social Engineer specializing in the design of genetic changes that will improve the social dynamics of interactions between different species. Thon is a member of the Ouwui species. The Ouwui are hermaphroditic and do not use terms such as "he" and "she", so the gender neutral pronoun "thon" is applied to Lorn-Kru.

During the time period described in The Start of Eternity, Lorn-Kru is functionally male, but members of the Ouwui species can switch between the production of male and female gametes. Most members of the Ouwui species believe that the choice of being functionally male or female should be based on practicality and rational decisions. Adoption and rigid adherence to a male or female gender identity is viewed as an undesirable personality aberration by most Ouwui.

During the trip to Earth, Fint tries to get Lorn-Kru to explore the idea of adopting a gender identity. Lorn-Kru is unable to do much more than treat this as an intellectual exercise and a chance to consider gender as a factor in human society.

Noÿs Lambent
A character from Asimov's novel, The End of Eternity. Noÿs was born in Earth's far future, about 10 million years after humans first developed a technologically advanced civilization. Noÿs was born in the Mallansohn Reality and along with Andrew Harlon was responsible for initiating the Foundation Reality.

Humans from the time that was 10 million years after humans first developed a technologically advanced civilization had evolved and changed genetically from humans of the Primitive.

Noÿs is still living on Earth in the current Reality.

Many Sails
Many Sails - artificial life form that is an intergalactic space ship with hyperspace drive

R. Nahan
The first robot with a positronic brain. However, he only attained human-like cognitive abilities upon receiving copies of R. Gohrlay's brain circuits.

Sahiwha Nennoad
Sahiwha Nennoad - member of the Ressese species and leader of the "training mission" to Imfulri.

Robot Daneel Olivaw
Robot Daneel Olivaw managed the spread of humanity through the galaxy until handing over the final stages of creating Galaxia to Fallom.

Commander Orleane
Commander Orleane - physiologically Earth-standard human

Encyclopedist Pavao
Encyclopedist Pavao is head of the Encyclopedia Galactica.

Rewhand

 * Geneticist Rewhand - member of the Kighiz human subspecies. Husband of Esselle.

R. Rycleu
A robot with a positronic brain and a female human body design. Rycleu worked on various time travel missions using the technology of Eternity to help shape the development of human civilization. Rycleu played an important role in the early part of the Foundation Reality, helping to make sure that robots with positronic brains would be created on Earth in the 20th century.

Wilry
Demographer Wilry - experienced demographer of galaxies and member of the Deltrijoshnypwannem species.

Wints
Wints has worked for two decades developing the Nahan robot. Due to the influence of nanites on his thinking, he is very skeptical about the wisdom of trying to convert the structure of Gohrlay's biological brain into positronic circuits. However, after that "mind uploading" process is completed, Wints plays a major role in recruiting other scientists to help with the task of integrating copies of R. Gohrlay's positronic brain circuits into the existing positronic brain of R. Nahan. This greatly speeds up R. Gohrlay's discover of her telepathic ability.