The Bumbly-verse

Canaries

Like their extinct avian namesakes, ‘canaries’ were bred as an early warning system for epidemics. Criss-crossed with canines, felines and all sorts of mammalians, including Homo sapiens*, came the breed of animal we now call canaries. Their weak immune systems and accentuated tell-tales (such as bright red noses and sweaty-ears when sick) could provide enough warning to medicate and protect their human owners from suffering the same condition.

Canaries are the most popular domesticant on all the worlds and throughout the fringe, safeguarding the health of more privileged creations. We can be such monsters.
Breeding is considered a ‘normal’ process, attuned with Darwinism, though it is controlled and directed through human selection. Perhaps this means we have been beyond Darwinism for millennia.

* Incidentally, “modern” man is a further sub-species called Homo sapiens sapiens, though I don’t think this matters here.

Psionic Breeding Program (part 2 of 2)

The feeling of having your mind probed is like suddenly standing after having your head between your knees, or as if someone has plucked your mind like a dandelion and is blowing off the seeds: a most disturbing helplessness that is over at once, and easily dismissed as a passing blood rush. We all have such moments and as she let go of me I was confoundedly unsure of my memory, although I suddenly had a much greater knowledge of the psionic world.

Once it had been proven that telepathy existed and that some people could enter another’s mind, the issue of security came to the fore and many dubious contraptions were devised.

Plate 9 shows an example of the kind of productions created to counter anxieties over the psi threat, or more accurately the possibility of a psi threat. All the most important people wore such headgear; politicians, judges, pilots and so forth, people who needed to have a ‘clear head.’ It was claimed that the vitreous helmet shown here would block any attempted breach of the sanctity of one’s mind. How naive it seems our forefathers were. I don’t believe any such contraptions had any effect on psi-ability.
A similar device could also be obtained to help enhance psychic potential. Notably, the Ganzfeld Hood which blocked external interference and sensory information so the wearer could detect, and thus exercise, their latent abilities. Again, I’m not sure it worked to any extent.

Psis now work the black market, giving clientele experiences and memories that cannot be achieved elsewhere or elsehow. It is highly illegal and therefore highly lucrative – but since any practitioners must be able to read minds it is unlikely they would reveal themselves to any who would turn them in. Some may be altering our perceptions so they could never be identified anyway. Who knows? Depending on what degree of subjugation they can inflict they could be controlling the law-makers. Though it could well be futile, the laws will remain in place until we adjust to the new possibilities.

The fear now goes that telepaths reside in recessive personalities and are thus undetectable until they surface, and to increase their numbers, and numbers of sympathizers, they could be posing as maternity nurses and school teachers and so manipulating young minds.

But it is not a war: it is an evolution, and for those of us who missed that evolutionary leap, there are now communicator implants that use neural interception and intervention techniques. It’s not the same blending of minds that comes with true telepathy, but a reasonable substitute.

The second big fear is regarding direct human communication on a mass level. Consider firstly that everything has ranges; of ability, quality, quantity … strength? I don’t know the words for such things, but imagine that each psi has a certain strength. This therefore leads us to consider a dominator archetype, who can remotely overpower the thoughts and thinking of the weak-willed.

The good thing about traditional communication is that you can switch it off if you don’t want to listen – this may not be the case with psis. If such a dominator came into being – a malevolent personality such as Örj* for example – where would it end? Could we become like bees, with a centralized ‘hive’ consciousness?

I shudder at the thought, though our heirs may feel differently. Those new to a changing world always have an advantage, and so experience is outplayed by ignorance.

* An entry wil be forthcoming for those who don’t know their history.

Psionic* Breeding Program (part 1 of 2)

Until the psionic breeding program, extra-sensory abilities were measured by a random sampling of the population, to see if they actually existed or not. But to find the fastest human in the world you don’t test a random collection of people; you hold competitions, events, and make people train. Then, if you offer a big enough prize, almost everyone will give it a try and thus were the origins of the psionic breeding program.

The top psi-athletes were then encouraged to breed and spend their lives trying to develop their ability within an enclosed society.
It was, as we all know, hugely successful; which led to their downfall and the inauspicious place they now hold in our society.

Plate 8: Pierre Jr, born of Mary Kastonovitch and Pierre Sandro. An unintentional spawned through extra-marital activities, here shown in his second month.

This tormented baby was the result of two of the most powerful telekinetics ever known. Its brain developed exponentially to its body, to the point where it could no longer move under the weight. There are no surviving witnesses to his disappearance.

I was paid a visit one time, or so I believe, by a very strong controller**. She kept me from seeing her, so I can give no report of her appearance. Also, as she never ‘spoke’ aloud, as such, I can only trust that the experience wasn’t entirely imaginary.

Putting that aside, the controller had come in reply to a call I had put out looking for exhibit pieces relating to the psionic progression of the last few centuries. While she brought no such donations, she did bring news about her own encounter with the lost one, Pierre Jr.

He was born a telepath, and to be born a telepath is to be born in the deep end of consciousness, as you share immediately the workings and learnings of all within mental range. For them it is either sink or swim. Most sink, but not Pierre Jr. Perhaps being protected from the hostile and indubitably confusing influences of the larger population and gestating within an enclave of carers, nurses and teachers, performed some sort of positive early modelling on his fresh brain.

Of course all this happened within the womb, swelling his skull, and he was removed via caesarean. His psycho-kinetic potential was beyond control, as too his mental domination. As such, none could stop him escaping when he chose. He was the boy who could levitate before he could crawl.

* For those used to more everyday terms, psionics in this context is related to the practice of a variety of psychic abilities.

** Someone skilled as a central entity for composite minds. When joined for a specific purpose or task, one mind must lead the way, utilizing the strengths of the joined as best they can.

Offworlders

While not a breeding program per se, Offworlders were self-infected with a virus that loosened the strictness of DNA and RNA copying, thus facilitating localized adaptation to the new environment. The results were unpredictable but eventually useful.

Plate 7: An offworlder, of Asteroid Zeta-37 beyond the Kuiper belt. Eyes and sockets enlarged beyond proportion, to soak in the precious and distant sunlight.

Space Ranger

The human body wasn’t designed for space and hyper-accelerated travel; nor could it survive for very long in the open void.
The goal was to fast-track bodies more suited for zero-gravity that could also withstand up to 20g of acceleration without internal rupturing.
The program used cloning to save waiting for generational maturation and for a while debated whether or not to solve the short lifespan still plaguing the cloning industry. On the one hand, it kept a built-in shelf life as a safety feature against a clone revolution but on the other, it was stopping the program from going after that holy grail, the immortality market.
Plate 6: One of the end results before the funding disappeared was Space Ranger Ted, born Theodore Loom. This miracle of best intentions was a confused, often dizzy, individual.
The ocular advantages of a two-vision field were offset by the inability of the visual cortex to process separate inputs. With vision being so intrinsic to brain development, Theodore was never going to become what they intended. He was, however, excellent with children, painting his tentacular extremities in rainbow colors and performing a whirling dervish act – which no doubt did little for his perpetual vertigo.

BREEDING

More historically associated with dogs, cats and horses (i.e. domesticants), there were over the last century many attempts to further the species by this more traditional method.
The pitfalls were the same and it must have been challenging and expensive keeping the gene pool big enough to avoid inbreeding pedigree weaknesses.
As was to be expected, most of the experimentation was done on males in the military – it’s practically a tradition now, as we never run out of willing rank and file. Even with cloning as an alternative to naturally occurring humans, the majority created for such tests were inevitably males. If this isn’t chivalry, I’m not sure what is.