The Helianx Proposition/page 33
In spite of their computers' remarkable powers,
the Helianx were more than aware that their bioelectronic associates were not soothsayers.
They did not see visions or make vague prophesies in the manner of so many
of the clairvoyants and prophets they had encountered in their planetary studies.
The Helianx well knew that the best the computers would ever be able to deliver was only based
on extrapolations derived from data collected over their long career as space wanderers.
As an example of this, they would remind themselves of the days in the far past when they had first observed the redshift in distant stars and had erroneously deduced that the Multiverse was expanding. How little they had known about the true nature of Reality at that stage. It had taken the computers' diligent and lengthy analysis to persuade them that they were only seeing half the picture.
Think of it as breathing, the computers had suggested. Consider the Multiverse as a finite living being floating in a sea of infinity. Searching their data banks for an appropriate metaphor, they added that it was like an unimaginably large, toroidal jelly fish--and the Helianx knew all about jelly fish--pulsating in great slow waves, compressing and expanding, in and out, in and out, and yet always retaining essentially the same form.
Picture yourselves, the computers had continued, in one of the seven superuniverses distributed evenly over the surface of this enormously large creature. These superuniverses are divided into smaller sectors and local universes, each one capable of supporting many tens of millions of inhabited planets. Imagine, now, looking across the surface, out towards the distant galaxies, while the Multiverse is in its out-breath, the stars will appear to be moving away from you. In another Multiverse era, when the in-breath is the dominant respiration, you will perceive a blueshift as the distant stars speed towards you. The computers added that the clockwise motion of the Multiverse, as it circles the Central Universe, can also create the illusion of expansion since the first of the far-distant outer space levels is spinning in the opposite, anti-clockwise, direction.
Until the Helianx had discovered, as a result of their travels, the subtle hints of the existence of another cluster of galaxies in quite another superuniverse, the tremendous distances and the inherent curvature of the space/time continuum had prevented their astronomers from becoming aware of the other six superuniverses. And they knew nothing at all about the outer space levels. This knowledge had come much later. At that point in time the Helianx were still coming to terms with the implications of the actions that their computers had recommended as the only possible resolution. Although originally designed to help codify their extensive researches into the cultural, religious and philosophical belief systems of the many worlds the Helianx had visited, and perhaps provoked further by the computers' invaluable contribution to the design of their craft, the Helianx had by now developed a somewhat ambivalent attitude toward their technology. After the initial shock at the choice of Noe had worn off, the Elders even found it necessary to reassure the others that their virtually omniscient computers had proved reliable enough in the past, perhaps the best strategy would be to trust them one more time.
