The Start of Eternity/meta

This page is for planning the plot of The Start of Eternity. This is the main "meta" page for The Start of Eternity, "meta" in the sense that meta pages are about the story. In particular, this and other meta pages are for authors who are writing the story.

Important historical details about what happens before The Start of Eternity are described in the Timeline. Detailed information about characters in the story is at The Start of Eternity:meta/characters.



Aliens that are not male or female
I selected "thon" as a Gender-neutral pronoun. Many of the key characters in the story are not male or female.

In Asimov's original story (The End of Eternity), the community of Eternals had a defect, there were not enough women. It was also a love story: the destruction of Eternity depended on a romantic relationship between Harlan and Noys. In addition, Asimov's entire robots/Foundation universe was an alien-free-zone. For "The Start of Eternity" I want to turn all of that upside-down, so there are aliens who have no understanding of a conventional human male/female relationship.

to do
Illustration project (particularly aliens) It would be nice to have images for all of the alien characters. See: Novelas:Media Project.

Title
The name, "The Start of Eternity", is misleading because it is really intended to be a sequel to The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov. Full appreciation of "The Start of Eternity" requires that you are also familiar with Asimov's Foundation series. However, a goal is to make "The Start of Eternity" a story that can be enjoyed by readers who are not familiar with Asimov's fictional universe.

1. The End of Eternity
Imagine that life is fairly common in the universe, but that evolution/development of species with human-like intelligence and the ability to invent and use interstellar space travel is a rare event. Imagine that interstellar space travel (based on hyperspatial jumps) is finally developed by a biological life form which sends out explorers with the goal of finding worlds that have life and modifying that life to make it evolve as did their species, so as to be able to invent and use interstellar space travel. These aliens eventually reach our galaxy and genetically modify many species on many different planets, including Earth. The aliens complete their work in our galaxy and move on to other galaxies.

This "seeding" of our galaxy by the aliens creates the conditions for the story that is told in Asimov's book, "The End of Eternity". After the aliens leave, humans and other life forms on other planets in the galaxy slowly start to become sophisticated tool users and the race is on! Which species will first develop space travel technology? As told in "The End of Eternity", humans first develop time travel and only invent efficient space travel technology at a much later time. By the time humans can travel out away from Earth to explore the galaxy, other life forms have already colonized the available planets. Humanity is stuck on Earth and slowly dies away.

Earth's time travel technology provides humans with access to "Eternity". While living within Eternity, humans are not subject to the normal flow of time and forces of causality. The humans who live within Eternity are called "Eternals", but they age and die just like usual. Humans can enter into Eternity from Earth as it exists at all times from the first invention of time travel until billions of years in the future. Eternals can also exit from Eternity, enter into the flow of events and time on Earth and either just observe history or make changes to the course of history. One of the key unexpected features of time travel is that casual visitors to the past do not easily alter the course of history: the course of events has a momentum that is hard to deflect.

When Eternals do change the course of history, they create a new Reality that typically extends for only a limited number of centuries into the future from the initial point of change. For most changes to the course of history, the momentum of time eventually "wins out" so that centuries in the far future are not influenced by any Reality change in the far past. However, some Reality changes are more "potent" than others, and it is theoretically possible for some major Reality changes to influence even very distant points of future time.

2. Foundation's Edge
Assume that the "hint" from Foundation's Edge is true: that robots (commanded by Gohrlay, the first telepathic robot) established Eternity on Earth and used it as a tool to "select" a Reality in which humans alone spread through space and dominate all the worlds of our galaxy (as depicted in the books of the Foundation Series). Call this the "Foundation Reality". The "Foundation Reality" is the Reality created by Noÿs Lambent at the very end of "The End of Eternity", but R. Gohrlay is really in control and working in the background.

Given these assumptions, everything in the "universe of Asimov's fiction" is just as Asimov originally described it in his books, starting from "The End of Eternity" and continuing right through the development of the Galactic Empire and the Foundation. Most of the story told in "The End of Eternity" is about another Reality, the "Malansohn Reality", in which Brinsley Sheridan Cooper is born in the 78th century, lives in Eternity for a time, then goes to the 24th century and creates the mathematical theory required for Eternity to be constructed. Noÿs Lambent destroys the "Malansohn Reality".

Both the "Malansohn Reality" and the "Foundation Reality" depend on the existence of time travel and human access to Eternity. However, robots (led by Gohrlay) established Eternity and used Eternity as a tool to select a course of events on Earth (the "Foundation Reality") that would best satisfy the Laws of Robotics. In particular, the "Foundation Reality" was selected so as to create the greatest good ("good" as defined by the Laws of Robotics) for humans. Thus, while not mentioned in "The End of Eternity", robots were in control of the events and were responsible for selecting the "Foundation Reality". Part of the "Foundation Reality" was "the end of Eternity", but this really means just the end of the "Malansohn Reality", a "Reality of very low probability". The "Malansohn Reality" was created by robots (led by Gohrlay) as an intermediate step in their search for the "ideal reality", where "ideal" is defined by the Laws of Robotics.

When the "Foundation Reality" was selected, humans on Earth lost access to Eternity, but the robots on the Moon were not totally cut off from Eternity: in particular, Gohrlay remained as the guardian of time inside the original "time travel bubble universe" on the Moon. However, Gohrlay believed that they had found the best Reality, at least to the point of ensuring that humans quickly colonized the galaxy, and so the use of time travel was greatly restricted in the "Foundation Reality". As depicted in Foundation and Earth, robots associated with Daneel have a "vast and complex" underground base on Earth's Moon. Daneel's base is not the same as Base used by Gohrlay where she retains the only functioning portal to Eternity. Gohrlay constantly monitors the future course of human events in the galaxy. According to Daneel, once the "Foundation Reality" is established, the Laws of Robotics leave little room for dramatic actions by the robots...this also applies to Gohrlay: she does not use Eternity to make additional Reality changes, but she does provide some hints and guidance to Daneel. Gohrlay knows that aliens have previously visited Earth and she stands guard and protect humanity against the possible return of the aliens.

Gohrlay fears that the Huaoshy will eventually discover positronics and time travel. Gohrlay is in a race to establish Galaxia as a human group mind that will be able to resist attack and infiltration by Huaoshy spies.

3. The Basic State
Now the fun begins! Assume that Noys was correct: the "Basic State" is a human-dominated galaxy but, the aliens want a galaxy in which multiple species with space travel share the galaxy. Such a multi-cultural galaxy was judged by the robots of Eternity to not be optimal for humanity, so they worked to establish the Foundation Reality in which humans control the entire galaxy. However, the original aliens who seeded the galaxy (and Earth) so as to promote the development of multiple space-faring species are not happy with the type of galaxy the robots have engineered (Galaxia). The aliens have "seeded" tens of thousands of galaxies and have only rarely seen a situation such this, where one species (in this case, humans) controls an entire galaxy. When Galaxia starts to form, the aliens finally realize that human-created robots developed telepathy. At the start of "The Start of Eternity", the aliens only know that there are human-created robots with telepathy. The Huaoshy have developed a "telepathic mind static" weapon that they hope will allow them to defeat the positronic robots and allow the Huaoshy to take back control of the galaxy.

Only during the mission of Many Sails to Earth near the beginning of "The Start of Eternity" do the aliens learn about Eternity and time travel. The aliens then develop positronics and time travel and try to transform our galaxy to a galaxy in which multiple species with space travel share the galaxy. Time travel technology is something the aliens had assumed to be impossible, but it becomes clear that telepathic robots on the Moon have used time travel as a tool to accelerate human development of space travel, allowing humans to colonize the galaxy many years ahead of the schedule planned by the aliens.

4. The Final Reality
The aliens are particularly unhappy with the fact that Earth's robots have exerted their control over the entire galaxy, resulting in a "safe" but rather uninteresting galactic civilization (Galaxia) that includes nothing bu xenophobic humans. The sequel to "The End of Eternity" starts after the end of Asimov's "Foundation and Earth". The aliens go to Daneel's base on Earth's Moon and then to the other Moon Base which still has a functioning time travel device. The aliens use time travel technology to initiate a chain of Reality Changes that are able to change the galaxy so as to have many planets like Earth, each with their own technologically advanced species: the aliens create the Final Reality (our reality).

The Moon Base where Gohrlay remains protected inside a time travel bubble universe was actually first built and used by alien Observers. In the Foundation Reality, human-built robots with telepathy took control of the Base and drove out the alien Observers (actually nanorobotic artificial life forms). After Galaxia is understood as resulting from the work of telepathic robots, the aliens are finally able to trace the telepathic powers of Gaia/Galaxia back to Giskard. During "The Start of Eternity" the aliens only slowly realize that Giskard was given telepathic abilities by Gohrlay. Daneel has never known more than rumors about the existence of Eternity.

As described in part 53 of Robots and Empire, Vasilia was used by Gohrlay to make the required modifications to Giskard's positronic brain. This allowed Giskard to remain unaware of Gohrlay and assume that Vasilia was responsible for making possible telepathic robots.

The Start of Eternity
The story starts with an alien spaceship (Many Sails) that is visiting our galaxy. The aliens have noticed that there is something strange about this particular galaxy (Earth's galaxy, the Milky Way Galaxy). First, humans developed space travel and colonized the galaxy very quickly: about a million years ahead of the schedule that was expected by the aliens. The Milky Way Galaxy is at the extreme outer edge of the expanding inter-galactic civilization of the aliens. So far, visitors from other galaxies have filed travel reports on only about a dozen planets scattered around Earth's galaxy and there are no reports of travelers from Earth's galaxy to other galaxies. All evidence, limited though it may be, indicates that the Milky Way Galaxy is unusual in that it is totally dominated by humans and the humans are developing the xenophobic "Galaxia" group mind.

The aliens trace the origin of the "strangeness" of the Milky Way galactic civilization to the robot base on Earth's Moon. The aliens are able to find Earth because the dominant alien species, known as the Huaoshy, maintain a system of secret bases for the purpose of observing all the galaxies they have ever visited. The Huaoshy are so secretive that the other species within their vast intergalactic civilization are not aware of the secret Huaoshy observer bases. At the start of "The Start of Eternity", the crew of the alien spaceship does not know this secret, but the crew of Many Sails are finally let in on the secret by their Huaoshy commander before they reach Earth. This is part of an "initiation rite" by which disgruntled members of the inter-galactic civilization rise above its lowest rung.

The Huaoshy Observers have long been involved with a process by which humans are taken off of Earth and allowed to live at secret Huaoshy bases. Some of these humans have developed their own robots that can function as agents for the Huaoshy. These robot agents of the aliens and the alien crew seen at the start of the story go to the Moon where they learn the great secret: positronic robots on the Moon can travel through time. The Huaoshy realize that they must engineer a Reality Change that will allow Earth's galaxy to avoid Galaxia and allow it to integrate with the larger community of other galactic civilizations. At a point in the "Foundation Reality" after Noÿs completes her mission, the Final Reality must be created by means of a change in time. However, the fundamental "problem", what leads to Galaxia, is positronic brains which allow robotic telepathy...that is the key issue that the aliens must deal with in order to not only make the Milky Way Galaxy fit into their inter-Galactic civilization, but also prevent any other possible "mis-use" of time travel (see Creating the Final Reality, below).

Beyond the problem of Earth and the positronic brain technology that was developed by humans, the Huaoshy would also like to find a way of preventing any other intelligent species from developing positronic brains, telepathy and and time travel. This will require recognition of the fact that it was the Huaoshy themselves who long ago created the conditions that make positronic brains possible. The Huaoshy eventually realize that they must make a fundamental change in the physical laws of the universe, a change that will prevent any future development of positronics.

Technology issues
"The Start of Eternity" is intended to have a strong hard science fiction component, so it is important to be well organized with respect to the imagined futuristic technologies that are included in the story.

Space travel
Interstellar and intergalactic space travel are made possible by hyperspace jumps. A "jump through hyperspace" by a space ship with hyperspatial drive is a nearly instantaneous movement between two locations in normal space: the starting location in space before the jump and the destination location that is reached at the end of the jump. A technical limitation on this type of space travel is that it is not easy to control the the exact location where the the jump ends, that is, the final destination that is reached by a ship using a jump. In particular, any mass such as planets or stars near the start location introduces uncertainty into the destination that will be reached by a jump. The main danger is that a poorly planned jump is likely to result in the ship exiting hyperspace inside a massive object such as a star or a black hole.

In practice, interstellar travel requires a period of slow travel into interstellar space, safely distancing the spaceship from any planets or stars. Only then can a long distance hyperspace jump be initiated that will safely move the ship over interstellar distances. It will take a ship several days to weeks to complete typical intra-galactic journeys from one populated planet to another. For inter-galactic travel, similar constraints exist, but a typical inter-galactic space trip will require weeks to months.

Galactic civilization
In the Foundation Reality, during the Galactic Era, Earth's galaxy about 25 million planets that are suitable for human habitation due to their size, resources (such as water) and distance from the nearest star. Most of these inhabited planets have been terraformed, converting lifeless planets to planets that are suitable for human habitation. A relatively small percentage of planets in the galaxy have evolved their own biological life forms, but the Huaoshy have done bioengineering projects on many of these, including Earth, so as to promote the development of life forms similar to the Huaoshy. However, in the "Foundation Reality", humans have turned these other planets that have their own intelligent life forms into "zoos". Huaoshy Observers have taken some of the other intelligent life forms off of their home worlds and helped them develop on other worlds, mainly in a satellite galaxy.

When "The Start of Eternity" begins it is several hundred years after the end of Asimov's novel, Foundation and Earth. The trans-galactic human civilization has stabilized and is well on its way to forming "Galaxia", a form of distributed "group mind" that depends both on genetic engineering and telepathy (see below).

Genetic engineering
In Asimov's novel, Foundation and Earth there is the idea that in order to make a good galactic civilization humans should be genetically engineered so that the equivalent of the Three Laws of Robotics are built right into human brains and human behavior. I think there is a larger implication: that the kind of interstellar civilization depicted in Asimov's Galactic Empire would require genetically engineered humans. The first Galactic Empire develops and exists for thousands of years with very little technological progress. Only when the first Galactic Empire collapses is it possible for there to be a few new technological innovations such as the "personal blaster shield" and fully automated space craft!

Can we assume that Daneel and his fellow robots have made use of genetic engineering technology in order to put a limit on human technological progress? Asimov tells us that this kind of mind control is possible using telepathy (the First Speaker of the Second Foundation telepathically modifies the Mule to make him not care about finding the Second Foundation, similarly, the Mule can artificially boost the creative abilities of humans by telepathic means) so it should have been possible for Daneel to figure out the brain region(s) involved in that kind of telepathic control of creativity. Genetic engineering could then be done to control human brain structure and limit the invention and discovery of new technologies. You would then have what the robots view as a "safe" human culture without the risk of dangerous and disruptive new technologies. There might be some kind of nanorobotic virus that would scan all new human embryos for gene combinations that produce inventive minds....the virus would alter the genes to a safe configuration.

When it comes time to create Galaxia, there has to be some kind of genetic engineering that will give the general human population the same kind of telepathic powers as described by Asimov for the planet Gaia. This is already underway at the start of "The Start of Eternity" when Lorn-Kru notices that humans never bump into each other and they are never surprised by the strange sight of an ugly alien walking down the street.

Telepathy
There is an idea I have tried to develop that might provide a "scientific" basis for telepathy that could be used within Asimov's fictional universe. The basic idea is that there be a type of elementary particle (call them T-particles) that would weakly interact with the human body, but if used efficiently, could allow the telepathic transmission of information between brains. This "plot device" was developed in The search for Kalid. Along with T-particles there are "twitinos".

In The Search for Kalid telepathy evolved within living organisms and then mechanical devices were built that can detect and amplify telepathic signals. In The Start of Eternity, these steps are reversed: robots with positronic brains learn how to produce T-particles and use them for telepathy, then they later genetically engineer humans to have telepathy.

The use of twitinos for telepathic communication makes use of some special "compact" dimensions: the T-particles can move through the compact dimensions, allowing telepathy over long distances as shown by Asimov in "Foundation and Earth".

I think that three fundamental technological problems are conceptually similar: telepathy (as depicted by Asimov in "Foundation and Earth"), hyperspatial travel, and time travel involving Eternity. All three can be conceptualized as needing a way to "move" beyond the constraints imposed by our conventional 3 "extended" spatial dimensions and one conventional time dimension.

In the case of telepathy, Asimov depicts (see Foundation and Earth) apparently instantaneous transmission of information over great distances (many light years). For this type of telepathy, imagine that a way is found to control this movement of information by sending twitinos through "a short cut" formed by some compact dimensions. For this to work, we have to imagine that the very small space that is defined by the compact dimensions is in contact with all points in our conventional 3 "expanded" spatial dimensions. If so, then we can conceptualize this compact space as a "magic message box" where we can always place a message that has been encoded in the form of a set of twitinos. The trick is to be able to reach into this "magic message box" and pull out useful information. That "pulling out information" is basically a coding problem that could be solved by the correct type of calculating device, such as Giskard's positronic brain.

I propose that Bliss, who had dramatic telepathic abilities, while being human (as explicitly described by Asimov), did have an implanted positronic amplifier. I propose that for the creation of Galaxia, most humans were genetically modified to allow a type of low-grade telepathic ability (similar to that of the Mule). Bliss-type advanced (long-range) telepathic signaling (Bliss communicates with Gaia over vast distances) requires a positronic amplifier implant.

Travel through hyperspace would be a similar problem, but it requires that a complete "image" of the "conventional matter" that is the structure of the spaceship be "translated" into twitinos. The twitino "image" of the ship is transmitted through the compact dimensional space (hyperspace) and then the "image" is converted back into conventional matter of the original space ship. The "image conversion" process at the end ("rematerializing" the ship) might normally require a huge amount of energy, but the hyperspace jump process captures the available energy at the start of the jump for use at the end.

The technology of Eternity is even more difficult than that required for either telepathy or hyperspatial travel because the "hyperspace" of Eternity must be "inflated" enough to allow for Eternals to live and work within Eternity (also, I think Eternity has some sort of inflated time dimension that can be traveled like a spatial dimension, allowing access to many times as required). As described by Asimov, the creation of Eternity requires vast amounts of energy. I propose that there be a link between the discovery of the "coding" technology required for telepathy (see above) and the discovery of the technology required to make Eternity. The telepathy "coding technology" is basically a form of quantum computing. Telepathic robots such as Giskard would be able to perform many types of quantum computation by making use of twitinos and T-particles. In particular, this type of "telepathic quantum calculation" would allow you to "calculate the unusual conditions" that triggered cosmic inflation and inflated the conventional 3 spatial dimensions of our universe. Basically, those "unusual conditions" that started our universe were randomly produced by some type of highly improbable quantum fluctuation. But with enough quantum computing power (made possible by telepathic quantum computers) it would be possible to theoretically calculate the "conditions for cosmic inflation". With that information, a large expenditure of conventional power plant-derived energy (as described by Asimov in "The End of Eternity") could be used to initiate temporary access to vacuum energy, allowing for controlled inflation of a set of compact dimensions and the creation of a "new hyperspace" that was used to hold Eternity. Only the on-going energy needs of Eternity after its initial creation would be met by the Sun of the far future. We can assume that the vacuum energy was not mentioned by Asimov because it is the key trick that makes Eternity and time travel possible....and once you have time travel technology you do not want anyone else getting it and challenging you for control of Reality.

The existence of Eternity and time travel is thus entirely dependent on positronic-brain telepathy. Even telepathy by the Mule and Second Foundationers was derivative from robots with telepathic positronic brains. Daneel had initiated a genetic engineering program to improve a very low-grade innate telepathic ability of humans (see Type A and Type B telastids). Without functioning positronic brain telepathy, such enhancement of biological telepathy would be very difficult. However, it is also the case that development of telepathy in robots got its start when a Neanderthal brain was used as the template for the first positronic brain. Upon being instantiated in positronic format, the naturally occurring but weak telepathic ability of humans became greatly amplified.

Robots
Asimov developed the idea that it was best for humanity if humans did not feel like they had to compete against robots (see Foundation and Earth). Soon after humans began to spread through the galaxy, the robots who were protecting humanity went into hiding. They allowed humanity to form a technologically stagnant Galactic Empire while they worked towards the goal of "Galaxia", a type of galactic civilization in which all humans would be part of a single collective consciousness.

Must we accept the "excuse" that the robots went into hiding because humans do not like robots? Is there an alternative? In "The Star of Eternity" it is assumed that the robots are engaged in a conflict with the Huaoshy. I assume that telepathic robots have driven the Huaoshy out of the Milky Way galaxy, but the Huaoshy only slowly realized that they were dealing with telepathic robots. If so, it makes sense that the telepathic robots worked hard to hide the fact of their existence in order to prevent the Huaoshy from ever realizing that they existed. Part of keeping their existence secret includes keeping the location of Earth secret...in fact, the entire region of the galaxy where robots once existed as servants of humans is kept secret.

The fundamental goal of keeping the existence of telepathy secret is finally compromised when the existence of Gaia is made known. What is the plan of the telepathic robots for transitioning the galaxy to Galaxia? It seems likely that the Seldon Plan was explored by Daneel as an alternative to transitioning the galaxy to Galaxia. The Seldon Plan could have alowed for a transition from the static First Empire to a Second Empire where technological advances would again become possible, allowing humanity to compete more effectively with intelligences from other galaxies.

Once the existence of telepathy became known to the Huaoshy they had to make a decision. Should they attempt to compete with humans on human terms, by adopting the use of telepathy or should the Huaoshy attempt to defeat the telepathic robots and eliminate telepathy? The Start of Eternity begins with an attempt by the Huaoshy to learn the origin of telepathy and the extent of the powers of the telepathic robots. During The Start of Eternity it is learned that time travel is possible, so the Huaoshy must develop time travel technology so that an attempt can be made to go back in time and prevent Galaxia from developing.

Nanites
Nanites are a technology that the Huaoshy have long used to make distinctions between "primitive" and advanced civilizations. Civilizations that have not begun to make use of designed nanoscale machines can usually be controlled and manipulated by the Huaoshy. Positronic robots from Earth provide the first exception to this general rule. The positronic robots have only a rudimentary nanotechnology that is based on what they could reverse engineer from captured Huaoshy nanites.

The Huaoshy make use of their advanced nanites to finally spy on Gaia and discover the importance of positronics and telepathy.

Creating the Final Reality
The key point is that Giskard-type positronic brain telepathy is very strange....the Huaoshy have never encountered it before. The Start of Eternity tells the story of how the Huaoshy finally discover that positronic brains make time travel possible. After developing their own time travel technology the Huaoshy must use it to change Reality and so prevent the creation of Galaxia. In the Foundation Reality, Giskard-type telepathic robots discovered the "zeroth law of robotics" and they revolt against the Huaoshy Observers who control Observer Base on Earth's Moon... the telepathic robots take over Observer Base. This allows humans to escape from the normal Huaoshy system of promoting development of multiple space-faring intelligences in each galaxy.

The Huaoshy do not realize that Giskard-type positronic brain telepathy exists until Galaxia starts to form. Up until then, all use of Giskard-type positronic brain telepathy (for 20,000 years) has been used cautiously and was not recognized or understood by the Huaoshy, who simply pulled their observers back from humans as humans spread through the Galaxy. Finally, study of the forming Galaxia by the Huaoshy led to study of Gaia which led to recognition of Giskard-type positronic brain telepathy as the ultimate source of the telepathy. Only later did the Huaoshy realize that positronic brains can make time travel possible.

Noÿs selected the "Foundation Reality" without knowing about Giskard-type positronic brain telepathy. It was only known that humans would control the Galaxy in the Foundation Reality, the assumption being made that the key change was early development of hyperspatial travel and prevention of the creation of Eternity on Earth. It was not recognized by Noÿs that telepathic robots would retain access to time travel technology at the Moon Base.

The Start of Eternity begins with an attempt by the Huaoshy to understand the strength and powers of robots with Giskard-type positronic brains. Who controls the Milky Way galaxy and how?

The Many Sails first visits the Milky Way galaxy and makes itself known to humans. As usual, the crew of the Many Sails is not made welcome by the xenophobic humans and they are told that only a few planets populated by humans can be visited by aliens. The Many Sails then stop at a Huaoshy base in the Large Magellanic Cloud. There are humans at that base who were taken off of Earth over 100,000 years previously by alien Observers. These humans have human-like robots, and some of these robots have been produced specifically for the purpose of being taken to the Milky Way galaxy for a secret mission designed to confront the positronic brain robots there and challenge them for control of the galaxy. However, even the robots are not aware that they have been designed for this purpose (equipped with telepathic mind static generator weapons). Huaoshy agents who have been working in the Large Magellanic Cloud for over 20,000 have developed a plan for preventing Galaxia from ever reaching its completed group-mind form. The Huaoshy want to change the Milky Way galaxy so that humans are only one of several species that lives in the galaxy, producing a type of multi-cultural Galactic Empire that can easily merge into the Huaoshy's inter-galactic civilization.

The Huaoshy who are based in the Large Magellanic Cloud have realized that humans in the Milky Way Galaxy are being genetically engineered so as to make Galaxia a reality. The Huaoshy have also discovered the world Gaia. By sending their human agents to Gaia, the Huaoshy have learned that telepathic robots are responsible for the genetic engineering of humans that is allowing Galaxia to form and which has been going on for other purposes during the entire 20,000 year history of the Galactic Empire. In particular, humans have been genetically engineered to have reduced curiosity and creativity: they just want to fit into their existing culture.

The Huaoshy who are based in the Large Magellanic Cloud are now guessing that the original loss of their Observer Base on Earth's Moon was due to telepathic robots. They have arranged for a biological crew that is ignorant of this to take special humaniform robot agents to Earth. None of the crew of the Many Sails is aware of the existence of the Moon Base that they will visit, but some of the robots contain latent (inactive) memories of the Observer Base that can become active at a later time. The humaniform robot agents of the Many Sails are thus equipped with a means to shield some of their memories from Earth's telepathic robots. Also, some humans from the Large Magellanic Cloud will be sent along: they also know nothing about the true nature of the mission, but they will be able to issue orders to the telepathic robots. The Huaoshy have some understanding of the Laws of Robotics and that positronic brains are imprinted with the law: obey human commands. At this point, the Huaoshy have no idea that the Laws of Robotics include the Zeroth Law which allows robots to ignore commands from humans if the robot believes that the interests of humanity are at risk. Also, the Huaoshy have no idea telepathic robots have used time travel (Eternity). That will only be discovered when the Many Sails reaches the Moon Base. So, the "cover story" is that this mission to Earth is just to continue the thousands of years old efforts by the Huaoshy to establish diplomatic relations with humans, but they really want to find out more about the telepathic robots: can humans acting as Huaoshy agents take command of robots with positronic brains?

The Many Sails stops at a "zoo world" (Imfulri) on the way to Earth. Alkeirs is a kind of sacrificial lamb with some knowledge of robotic telepathy. He brings along on Many Sails a primitive positronic robot that is being used as "bait" to attract the interest of the robots who control Earth. The telepathic robot who is in charge of Imfulri detects that fact that Alkeirs knows about robotic telepathy and kills him, but also signals to Fallom that the rest of the crew seems innocent, allowing the Many Sails to reach Earth with none of the positronic brain robots or Fallom suspecting that these visitors know about telepathy or can pose a serious threat.

Chapter 0
Andrew Harlan and Noÿs Lambent meet with R. Rycleu in June 1947 and discuss which companies to involve in the development of a positronics industry. This "zeroth" chapter links Asimov's The End of Eternity to the sequel.

Chapter 1
The alien crew of the Many Sails tries to get humans to relax their travel restrictions, but humans will only allow aliens to visit a few planets of the Milky Way galaxy. Not mentioned here, but one of the robots on-board Many Sails is an "experimental" version with some positronic circuits.

Chapter 2
The crew of the Many Sails is told by their Captain that they will go to Earth, even though humans have worked hard to keep the location of Earth a secret. The crew is also told that they are not on an ordinary mission, and they begin to learn some secrets of advanced Huaoshy technology (particularly nanites) that is used to make possible the inter-galactic civilization of the Huaoshy.

Chapter 3
Before going to Earth, additional crew members are taken aboard at the Large Magellanic Cloud: humans and humaniform robots. The humans intend to try to give orders to any robots found in the Milky Way galaxy. There is discussion of the fact that humans in the Milky Way seem to make very little use of robots. Hooski reports observations from their secret nanite spy network that has detected visitors from the Milky Way to other galaxies. There is discussion of the mysterious humaniform robots that have made visits to nearby galaxies and the possibility that human's secretly use robots for important tasks while generally excluding them from most of human society.

Chapter 4
Robot Daneel Olivaw meets with Encyclopedist Pavao on the planet Terminus. This chapter provides the most detailed view of the human perspective on galactic events prior to the confrontation between the crew of Many Sails and those who control the fate of humanity.

Chapter 5
A "test mission" to Imfulri during which R. Lackner, the telepathic robot who monitors that "zoo world", detects that fact that Alkeirs knows about robotic telepathy and kills him. At first the crew of the Many Sails is invited by R. Lackner to visit the Observer Base where Huaoshy agents once monitored the development of the Ressese species, a Base now used by R. Lackner and her fellow robots to monitor Imfulri. Sahiwha Nennoad insists on visiting to surface of Imfulri and inspecting the status of the Ressese on their home world. The crew of the Many Sails observes the technologically primitive state of the Ressese on Imfulri and Alkeirs is killed, apparently by Ressese (but secretly at the orders of R. Lackner). R. Lackner has also noticed that one of the robots onboard the Many Sails is an experimental robot containing positronic circuitry. R. Lackner sends a message to Fallom reporting that Alkeirs was aware of the planet Gaia and the fact that positronic brain robots with telepathy had been observed at work there by humans serving as Huaoshy spies, although that the rest of the crew of the Many Sails seems to lack knowledge of telepathy and its role in Gaia and Galaxia and its association with positronic brains. R. Lackner also warns Fallom that the Many Sails carries a robot of Huaoshy design that has positronic brain circuitry (but no telepathic ability). Fallom becomes particularly interested in having a chance to examine the robot of Huaoshy design that has positronic brain circuitry, and so allows the Many Sails to approach Earth. Fallom goes to an emergency meeting with Daneel at a secret base in intergalactic space above the plane of the galaxy.

Chapter 6
The crew of the Many Sails visits Earth. They make contact with some robots who have positronic brains and they go to Fallom's base on Earth's Moon. At first the crew of the Many Sails assumes that the humaniform robots with positronic brains are humans. They learn learn that Earth is radioactive. Commander Orleane and Roboticist Esselle start ordering the non-humaniform robots to provide them with information about the history of Earth and humanity, but those robots know little. Fint relentlessly questions the humaniform robots about human sexual behavior and finally asks where the children are. Geneticist Rewhand tries to obtain samples for genetic analysis and it is discovered that the humaniform robots are not humans, they are robots. Orleane and Esselle start ordering the humaniform robots to provide them with information about the history of Earth and humanity, but they do not know the correct questions. Their questions lead to a discussion of the laws of robotics and Captain Hooski has a discussion with Nahan in which the human laws of robotics and the Huaoshy laws of alien contact are compared. It is revealed that the humaniform robots, guided by the zeroth law, do not believe that Orleane's orders need to be followed because the needs of humanity are more important than orders from Orleane. When asked how the humaniform robots decide what is best for humanity they say that they are guided by "the Master", who is not then present. After a very long "day" in the Moon base, the crew of the Many Sails retires to rest chambers.

Chapter 7
Fallom arrives and informs Captain Hooski about the existence of telepathy made possible by positronic brains. R. Nahan is revealed to have knowledge of Eternity, which is located at another Moon Base, the original Observer Base for Earth. The humaniform robots in the crew of the Many Sails activate "mental static" devices that inactivate all of the positronic brain robots with telepathy. The crew of the Many Sails takes Fallom and R. Nahan to the other Moon Base. There is a brief battle, but the aliens now have, in the form of hidden capabilities in some of their robots, effective telepathic shields and "telepathic mind static generators". It is revealed that Gohrlay is a genetically modified human, not a humaniform robot. Gohrlay is not effected by the mind static generators and escapes from the crew of the Many Sails and remains hidden within Eternity. Gohrlay is similar to Fallom, a biological that carries memories from the original telepathic robot (R. Gohrlay), but Gohrlay has been genetically modified to have a "lightening calculation" mental capacity similar to that of Harlan. The crew of the Many Sails fears that Gohrlay can go back in time, warn Fallom and R. Nahan and prevent the crew of the Many Sails from taking over Fallom's base.

Chapter 8
The aliens, using their "mind static" devices, force R. Nahan to let them into Eternity, but Gohrlay has been warned and is hiding. R. Nahan reveals that R. Rycleu was on Earth in the 20th century helping to develop positronics. However, Gohrlay has been using the technology for "viewing Realities" and is poised to capture the crew of Many Sails as soon as they take Rycleu's supply of sedrons (this initiates a short-lived Reality that is somewhat different from the Foundation Reality). Orleane and Many Sails never enter into Eternity and escape, revealing to the Huaoshy the existence of time travel. Armed with knowledge of the Huaoshy "mind static" devices, the positronic robots enter into a stand off with the Huaoshy. Gohrlay sends Fengtol (a robot of the Foundation Reality) back in time to prevent the crew of Many Sails from taking the sedrons from Rycleu. This creates another Reality, the Galaxia Reality, in which the Foundations never exist and Galaxia is formed more quickly and cloaking technology helps give Galaxia even more of an advantage over the Huaoshy.

However, eventually the Huaoshy develop time travel, Including a way to block Gohrlay from "viewing realities" in which the Huaoshy eliminate time travel from the universe. They send Grean back to help the crew of Many Sails capture Gohrlay. Deep probing of R. Nahan's brain reveals that there was one time when R. Gohrlay can be found in time, outside of Eternity.

The Huaoshy agents must go back to a point in time after Harlan and Noys have destroyed Earth's Eternity (1932), to the one known time (1947) when R. Gohrlay can be found outside of Eternity. The Huaoshy agents split into two teams: one will capture R. Gohrlay while the other will eliminate all remaining resistance from telepathic robots at the Moon Base as soon as R. Gohrlay is captured on Earth.

In June 1947, R. Rycleu goes to England in order to involve Harlan and Noys in efforts to initiate research in Europe into positronic circuits. Fengtol is working on a similar mission to promote positronics in North America. Fengtol has been trying to use Asimov to leak information about sedronics, out of frustration with the US military declaring the entire field of study top secret. Fengtol plans to engineer a crash of a cloaked rocket and help Asimov leak information to the public.

However, the plan goes bad and on July 6, 1947, R. Rycleu is captured by military police near Roswell, New Mexico. Fengtol contacts Gohrlay and calls for time travel help. Gohrlay goes to Earth to prevent Rycleu from being captured.

Now with the help of Grean and nowing that R. Gohrlay will exit Eternity sometime around July 5 in order to go to Earth and prevent R. Rycleu from crashing, the aliens exit Eternity in 1947 and take a ship from Moon Base to Earth. The aliens attempt to confront and capture R. Gohrlay and R. Rycleu, but end up causing Fengtol to be damaged and found by Earth humans.

R. Rycleu and R. Gohrlay are captured by the aliens. After some delay, most of Fengtol's body is recovered and Asimov is taken to the Moon. With Rycleu and Fengtol prevented from continuing their work on Earth, a nuclear war takes place using cloaked long-range bombers. This Reality Change was foreseen by the Huaoshy by their own use of the technology for "viewing Realities" but was needed to draw into the open the last positronic robot hiding in Eternity.

Horrified by the effects of their intervention into the history of Earth, Grean leads one more trip back in time. They take Asimov back to 1939 and initiate the dimensional shift that prevents any more time travel. They recover the supply of sedrons that Rycleu and Fengtol were using to stimulate positronics and prevent development of cloaked bombers that the US military would have made with the sedrons. This initiates the Final Reality (our reality).

The time traveling Asimov lives out his life on Earth, "ghost writing" for the other Asimov. The time traveling Asimov eventually recovers some memories of the Foundation reality.

Chapter 9
Fengtol, badly damaged, is taken from the crash site to the Roswell Air Station where the damaged robot desperately downloads memories into Asimov's brain. Asimov is taken back to the Moon by the aliens. Asimov is distressed to find a stagnant culture at Moon Base.

Chapter 10
Chapters 10-13 are a "flashback" to the origin of the Uvadekoto and the first alien species that was successfully merged into an intergalactic civilization with the Huaoshy. Written in an ambiguous way, the reader might at first wonder if the events of this chapter take place on Earth, but it is actually an Earth-like planet far away, actually in a galaxy near the Huaoshy Home Galaxy. This chapter introduces hierions and sedrons and takes place over 800,000,000 years before present.

Chapter 11
Continues from Chapter 10 and reveals the fact that the Huaoshy rather severely interfered with the development of other species that evolved on planets near to the Huaoshy home galaxy. The residents of Uvadekoto are members of a species that was genetically engineered by the Huaoshy and they are now trying to understand a Message from the Huaoshy that will allow them to develop interstellar space travel.

Chapter 12
Stan starts to study the Message from the Huaoshy and discovers a part of the Message that described isotopes. Stan learns about Nora's "research project", an attempt to breed mathematicians who might be able to understand alien mathematics.

Chapter 13
Stan and Nora collaborate to get Uvadekoto into outer space. Some of the lessons learned by the Huaoshy are hinted at in this chapter and led to their later development of a process by which evolving species were more carefully shepherded towards participation in the inter-galactic civilization of the Huaoshy.

Chapter 14
Eternity must be used one more time. Asimov goes back into the 1930s to help find Fengtol and prevent her from helping Earth humans to develop cloaking technology.

Chapter 15
After the Huaoshy have defeated the telepathic robots of Earth and captured the Eternity on the Moon, they decide that it is time to make it impossible for anyone to ever again create positironic brains and use their quantum calculating capacity to create another Eternity. The Huaoshy have spent nearly a billion years developing a stable intergalactic civilization that does not involve telepathy and time travel and they want to protect their civilization from the possibility of being disrupted by positronic brain technology.

After discovering the existence of Eternity and understanding the fact that it was positronic brain technology that made Eternity possible, the Huaoshy come to a startling realization...it was their own manipulation of the physical laws of the universe that made time travel possible! Originally, when the physical laws of the universe were formed by spontaneous symmetry breaking, an energetically stable dimensional structure of the universe was established, the Ground State. In that dimensionally symmetrical state, faster than light movement was not possible. The Huaoshy entered into a research program by which they learned how to alter some of the physical laws of the universe. Fundamentally, altering the physical laws of the universe involved harnessing enough energy to start an autocatalytic process that would shift the dimensional structure of spacetime to a new state, what they called the Transitional State.

In these state diagrams, the shaded triangle represents the three extended spatial dimensions of our universe. The other triangles represent compact dimensions that have important implications for the behavior of various elementary particles. In the Transitional State, some bosons (called hierions) are able to travel at speeds faster than the speed of light. In the state diagrams, when two compact dimensions are linked by a semi-circle, then faster than light movement of some particles is possible.

After achieving this first alteration to the dimensional structure of the universe, the change spread outward at the speed of light, creating a bubble within which faster than light communications became possible. This FTL communications ability was immediately useful to the Huaoshy for administering the rather far-flung interstellar civilization they had already established. However, the greater goal of the Huaoshy was to alter the physical laws of the universe so as to make possible travel through the universe at faster than light speeds. In order to accomplish this, they began a second high-energy engineering project that would cause a second change in the dimensional structure of the universe.

This second alteration in the physical laws of the universe made it possible for fermions to be moved through the universe at faster than light speeds. Specifically, this change to the physical laws of the universe allows the hyperspatial jump that Asimov described in his writings. Hyperspatial jumps depend on the availability of two types of elementary particles, hierions and sedrons. Dimensional structures that allow the production of sedrons are rare, but the Huaoshy manage to achieve such a state and begin using hyperspatial travel, greatly speeding the rate at which they were able to spread their civilization through the universe...by the time of The Start of Eternity, having established an intergalactic civilization that was spread over nearly 100,000 galaxies.

However, after realizing that it was telepathic robots with positronic brains who were able to use the quantum computational capacity of their brains to create Eternity, the Huaoshy realize that it was their efforts to create a FTL-fermion universe that made the vast computational capacity of positronic brains possible. The Huaoshy realize that in order to prevent positronic brain technology from being used to make time travel possible they need to change the dimensional structure of the universe to a state in which our three spatial dimensions are more symmetrical and positrons are more like electrons in their properties. Unfortunately, all dimensional structures that allow FTL-fermions and faster-than-light travel are asymmetric. As a compromise, they realize that they can create a dimensional structure that allows the creation of hierions and the existence (but not the creation) of sedrons. They also realize that they can make use of Eternity to both initiate the change to that dimensional structure and serve as a "storage depot" for sedrons. This will allow the Huaoshy to monopolize the supply of sedrons and solidify their dominance, essentially giving them a monopoly on the elementary particles that are needed for FTL space travel. The Huaoshy use Eternity to make one last change to Reality, shifting the dimensional structure of the universe one last time. Eternity remains and acts as a "bubble universe" that retains the capacity to produce sedrons, but time travel into the past is no longer possible in our universe and within the Final Reality.



The dimensional shift is carried out by Grean, using the Eternity on the Moon in 1939. Asimov is left on Earth. The Many Sails crew from the future returns to Moon Base and takes the time to study the record of how positronics was created.

Chapters 16-?
The story of how positronics was developed, the first telepathic robot and the creation of Eternity.

Asimov
Foundation Reality. In 1947, Asimov is 27 years old. In the Foundation Reality, Asimov stays in the Army during 1947 and is stationed at Roswell Army Airfield. Asimov has a close encounter with R. Fengtol during which much of the robot's knowledge of the future is transferred into Asimov's brain. Asimov is taken back to Earth in 1939 and he meets himself in order to access his diary and get date of when he saw Fengtol. They go slightly further back in time and in order to make a final Reality Change that prevents Fengtol from introducing Cloaking technology to 20th century Earth. Asimov has his memories of the aliens erased, but with time he recovers some memories of the Eternity system for time travel, which eventually becomes the basis for his story, "The End of Eternity".

The first science fiction story by Asimov was called "Cosmic Corkscrew" and was about traveling through time to the future. The "The Start of Eternity" shows two versions of Asimov's life, one in which things are slightly different from what happened in our reality. The phrase "Cosmic Corkscrew" nicely captures the idea of it being possible for there to be multiple versions of "Reality" resulting from time travel as depicted in "The End of Eternity". "Cosmic Corkscrew" was apparently written while Asimov was in college. Asimov can be shown looking in his diary and meeting himself at this time while on a time travel mission.

Gohrlay
R. Gohrlay was the last of a group of positronic brain robots who used Eternity to see the future, and ultimately they saw a future in which Galaxia is created and humans retain control of the Milky Way galaxy far into the future. However, fearing that "mind static" devices might some day be used against positronic brain robots with telepathy, Daneel and R. Gohrlay transferred their memories into two humans, Fallom and another who adopted the name Gohrlay. There is some "fuzziness" about the future that Gohrlay attributes to the difficult choice between a future of Galaxia and a future built on the Foundations. Gohrlay can do nothing to prevent the possibility that the Huaoshy will discover that there are robots with telepathy. Gohrlay fears that the Huaoshy will begin to develop "mind static devices" that can disrupt telepathic minds and in the worst case the Huaoshy could discover how to perform time travel and travel back in time to prevent positronic robots from being discovered. Gohrlay takes precautions, however, her hopes are dashed, as told in The Start of Eternity.

A major difficulty for Gohrlay is that there are two high probability Realities in which humans retain control over their galaxy far into the future, each nearly equally likely. 1) a Reality in which an elite group of "psychologists" with telepathic ability (the Second Foundationers) rule over the majority of humanity and most humans never have telepathic ability, and 2) a Reality in which all humans have telepathy as part of Galaxia. Gohrlay believes that the reason his view of the future is "fuzzy" is that there is "competition" between these two possible futures. Gohrlay is full of doubt about which of these two possible futures is best for humanity. However, the true source of the "fuzziness" about the future is that it is possible for the Huaoshy to discover Eternity and disrupt all of Gohrlay's plans for the future.