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\chapter{Representation of the Memory of an Energy Cube Organism (1966 VERSION)}
The energy cube organism is a conscious organism which is nothing but
energy confined to a cubical space. It rests on a rectangular energy slab, in a
stationary, colorless liquid, separated from the slab by a thin film of liquid.
It has been on the slab for an indefinitely long time. There are in fact two
infinite bodies of the liquid, alternating with two infinite empty spaces; the
four volumes are outlined by two intersecting planes which just miss being
perpendicular. The slab is poised, at a slant, on the faces of the upper body
of liquid, near where they meet. There are no other objects in the bodies of
liquid. The slab, liquid, and spaces are the energy cube organism's entire
cosmology. (See the illustration.)
\imgw{3.75in}{img/energycube}
The energy cube organism can continuously change position,
continuously and instantly moving the liquid from its path into its wake so
as to make no current in the liquid. For almost as long as it has been on the
slab, the organism has devoted itself to crossing the slab, from the slab's edge
on one face of the liquid to its edge on the other.
The energy cube organism has a conscious memory (by which I mean
strictly a memory of what it did and what happened to it, the past events of
its existence). The memory consists of symbols which are given "meaning"
by their extra-linguistic mental associations---in human terms, it consists of
language. The complete memory contains tens of thousands of partial
memories, which the organism can only have one at a time. Going through
the partials---which it does as if they were the phonemes of one long
word---constitutes its one complete memory. Each partial is a memory of the
difference in the organism's minimum distances from the destination edge, at
the beginning, and at the end, of some interval of time. Call the difference its
"progress." The total of time intervals in all the partials completely covers
the interval from the earliest remembered event to the most recent
remembered event. As time passes, more partials are added to the complete
memory. The production of partial memories is an involuntary process of
the organism.
The memory is temporally dual. The interval for each partial is an
interval of fixed time, defined by its duration, and the distance from the
fixed time when the energy cube organism appeared on the slab up to the
interval's end. But it is also a sliding interval, defined by its duration, and a
constant distance from the present instant back to the interval's end. When
partials are added to the memory, each of the former intervals exactly covers
the tire not already covered, up to the absolute time when the partial is
added. But the latter intervals, while they never overlap, can have gaps
between them. The intervals generally are of different durations. The energy
cube organism lacks any independent extra-linguistic memory, any mental
reliving of the past, which could conflict with the dual temporal memory.
There is no form to the past other than that of the memory's language. (See
the graph.)
The order of the partials in the complete memory is a linguistic
phenomenon which indicates the method the organism has been using to
move itself---and thus the order (with its extra-linguistic associations) is the
memory of the method. A single method" is everything to be done by the
energy cube organism to move itself, throughout the entire time it takes to
reach the destination edge. There are different possible methods, and each
could get the organism across; but the methods cannot be combined in any
way. Every order of all partials signifies a different possible method. These
possible methods are in no special order. When a partial is added to the
memory, the number of possible methods is increased by a factor equal to
the new number of partials.
\imgw{4in}{img/energycubegraph}
{
\centering
\textsc{Graph} showing a possible relationship in the dual temporal memory
\par
}
Now the complete memory is obtained by going through the partials---in
any order! Any order gives the memory. This feature, which can be
precisely characterized in terms of the memory language, is perhaps the most
remarkable feature of the whole cosmology. An approach to this feature in
human terms is to say that when the organism goes through the partials, (it
dreams that) it has been using the method indicated---and is presently using
it. It (does not remember the dream, and) does not remember going through
the partials. It has no other memory of which method it has been using.
The organism moves itself by mental exertion, teleports itself. The
"possible methods" are mental routines. These routines draw on the
following standard mental resources. The organism can assume at will many
"mental states." By 'mental state' I refer to a mental "stage" or "space" or
"mood" in which visualizing, remembering, and all imaging can be carried
on. Some human mental states are general euphoria, stupor, general anxiety,
dreaming, dizziness, empathy with another person, and clearheadedness, the
normal state in which work is performed. These states are not defined by
specific imagings, but are "spaces" in which imaging is carried on. The
organism changes its state by changing from one form of energy to another,
gravity, magnetism, electric energy, radiated heat, or light. In these states,
the organism has an unlimited capacity to image; in human terms, to
visualize. There are visualized regions of colored liquids. Call them "fluid
colors." There are visualized glowing surfaces, and there are black regions or
"holes." There are visualized "covers," "lattices," and "shells," which are all
formed from transparent planes, spherical surfaces and the like. Call them
"orojected surfaces." The fluid colors can be stationary or flowing. There are
"channels," which are strung-out series of fluid colors. There are
"reservoirs," which are clusters of fluid colors. A channel can be closed or
open. Two channels can cross each other. There are pairs of channels such
that earlier members of each channel flow into later members of the
other---called "screw-connected" channels. Fluid colors often occur on or
within projected surfaces. Projected surfaces can be growing or held. A
visualization can be at the forefront of attention, or in the back of the mind.
That is, states have depth, and visualizations can be at different depths. The
state as a whole can be "frozen" or "melted." A human approach is to say
that a "frozen" state is set or fixed; while a "melted" state is fluid---the state
itself flows. A state can be projected into "superstate," gaining an abnormal
amount of mental energy and becoming superdizziness or superanxiety, for
instance.
Most interesting, states in different possible methods can have contact
with each other. A human approach is to say that dreams are so flexible that
the organism can dream that an actual state is\slash was in contact with a state in
a possible method. One sort of cross-method contact is for states to be
"interfrozen"---more easily frozen because they are somehow mixed. They
can also be "intermelted."
I will describe a method, as the organism would be conscious of it in
remembering. For concreteness, I will refer to the different states with the
names of human states rather than with letters. Channels are generated in a
frozen stupor, and become fixed at the forefront of attention of euphoria
intermelted with a possible state. The screw-crossed channels erode crevices
in a held lattice, which breaks into growing sheets (a variety of covers). The
sheets are stacked, and held in a frozen dream thawed at intervals for
reshuffling of the stack. The dream becomes melted, and proceeds in a
trajectory which shears, and closes, open channels. If no violation of the
channels cross-mars the melt, the stack meshes with the sharp-open channels.
The dream becomes interfrozen, and mixed clear-headed states compress the
closed channels which were not fixed at the dream's surface. A fused
exterior double-flash (a certain maximally "glowing surface") is
expand-enveloped by euphoria, which becomes dizziness; and oblique
lattices are projected from the paralinear deviation of guided open channels
in it. Growing shells are dreamed into violet sound-slices (certain synesthetic
"fluid colors") by the needed jumped drag (a generic state), a crossfrozen
dream. Channels in a growing anxiety enspiral concentric shells having
intermixed reservoirs between them, during cyclic intersection of the anxiety
in superstate. And on and on. Time is here the time it takes to carry out the
successive steps of the routine.
The energy cube organism language, the symbols constituting the
partials, are themselves mental entities. A partial is a rectangular plane
glowing surface, which has two stationary plane reservoirs on it, and has a
triangular hole in it. As a mental entity, in other words, a partial is a
visualization like those which are part of the methods. The perimeter of the
triangular hole equals the organism's progress in the corresponding time
interval. Absence of the hole indicates zero progress.
The fluid colors in each of the reservoirs on each partial memory are
primary colors, and are mixed together. Speaking as accurately as possible in
human terms, in each reservoir there is precisely one point of "maximum
mixture" of the primary colors. The primary colors are mentally mixed in
any way until the right amount of mixture is reached. There is a scale of
measurement for amounts of mixture of the colors. There is a scale for
vertical distances on the surface---for how far one point is below another. The
difference in amounts of mixture at the two points of maximum mixture
corresponds to the length of the first temporal interval; and the difference
between the maximum possible amount of mixture and the lesser of the two
amounts of maximum mixture on the surface corresponds to the distance
from the fixed beginning time to the interval's and. The vertical distance
between the two points of maximum mixture corresponds to the length of
the second temporal interval; and the vertical distance from the middle of
the surface to the point nearer it corresponds to the constant distance from
the present instant back to the interval's enc. The middle of the surface
represents the present, and the upper half represents the future; the
reservoirs are all in the lower half. For each partial it is necessary to
determine (1) the number of units of duration per unit difference in
amounts of mixture; and (2) the number of units of duration per unit
difference in vertical distances. The average glow per unit area of each
glowing surface (excepting the hole) is correlated with a pair of numbers
constituting this information.
Finally, turning all the partial memories upside down---and reflecting the
first temporal memory in the present instant, so that the intervals' absolute
distances from the present are preserved---gives the precognition of the
organism's future course of action, tells what progress will be made when
and by which method.
\section*{The Representation}
This essay accompanies a representation of the energy cube organism's
memory---hence its title. The way to picture the memory, naturally, is to
make something that looks like the partials. I have represented the partials
by rectangular sheets of paper of different translucencies with mixtures of
inks of primary colors on them and holes cut in them; together in an
envelope, which bears the injunction not to have more than one sheet out at
a time. Three of the tens of thousands of partials are represented.
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