From: aaron@space.ualberta.ca (Aaron Humphrey)
Subject: Thesis Project
Reply-To: aaron@space.ualberta.ca
Organization: University Of Alberta, Edmonton Canada
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 22:12:50 GMT

[AjD gifted me with the alliterative verbal foursome

flocculation  [the formation of soft woolly masses]
finch
folio
fornication
]


Phelan surveyed the barren hillside before him, first with normal sight, and
then looking more deeply into the ether.  The ether was unroiled, the mineral
forms making stable imprints.

He envisioned a pebble being dropped into the ether, causing ripples to form
along the edge of the mineral imprint.  The pebble of life continued to
vibrate, and gradually the ripples assumed a stable oscillatory pattern that
increased slowly with time.  He switched back to normal sight.  The hillside
was covered with grass.

He tossed in a few larger rocks, and was rewarded by the appearance of trees
over part of the hillside.

His brow furrowed as he concentrated on the more difficult stage of his task.
He molded together in his mind some slightly more complex forms, and cast them
into the ether, where they set up more complex patterns of vibrations that did
not repeat simply.  Phelan switched back, to see what he had expected.  But
then, he had heard the songs of the finches without having to see them.

He molded a number of more complicated forms still.  Still simple in mental
attributes, but more complex in the physical plane.  He lobbed these into the
ether, and was rewarded by flocculation in several places.  He switched back,
but again he could hear the bleating of sheep before he saw them.

Now for the most difficult step.  He created a form that was complex on the
mental planes as well as the physical ones.  He paid special attention to the
finer modulations of the physical form.  Then he dropped it gently, almost
lovingly, into the ether.

This creation was silent.  He switched his vision to see a beautiful woman
gazing at him adoringly.  He smiled and opened his arms to her, and initiated
her in the ways of love.  And, not incidentally, laid the seed of the future
race.

Finally he was done.  He sent a wave flying into the higher reaches of the
ether, and was rewarded by the appearance of a businesslike woman with a folio.

"All done, are we?  Let's go through the checklist.  Underlying strata?  Check.
Sub-vegetation?  Check.  Greater vegetation?  Check.  Minor life forms?  Check,
and check.  And sowing the seeds of sentience--check.  Very good, Phelan.  I'll
do a more detailed critique later, but unless you've put in some well-concealed
flaws, you seem to have fulfilled the qualifications for Journeyman rank."  She
made a note in the folio.  "Oh--and you can keep this when you're done.  It
probably won't amount to much, but we've all done this sort of continuing
project at one time or another.  Have fun."  Then she disappeared.

The woman he'd created had run away in fear of his companion.  Ah, well--she
was sown.  Perhaps he'd create another.  He set to work molding her in his mind.

--
---Alfvaen(a.k.a. Nysinra, rot13 Psycho)
"So you found a girl who thinks really deep thoughts
 what's so amazing about really deep thoughts"  -- Tori Amos
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