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What is the Go To Comfort Food for a multi-billionaire astrophysicists/computational theoretical physicists eat?
Cup-o-Noodles
Prologue
We are not alone. Other cension beings tried to communicate with us for thousands of millenium. The communications were mistaken and entire religions created, altars built and the communicants burnt as heretics, signs mistaken. So the Enlightened Ones, pure energy and thought, wait for the One to interpret and bring the message to this world. Time is meaningless. This Messenger not so different from the kid from Nazareth, it just that she is female and also has an Afro.
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Chapter 1 Nerds In Paradise
“Amazing!”, Dahl Lundgren says in hushed reverence watching Felicity Lo, the Afro’ed teenage wunderkind coding the recursive algorithms on the IBM supercomputer her work necessary in sharpening imaging and videos.
She jumped and taken aback by the massive long-haired man standing in front of her. Then she would gather herself, narrowing her eyes, “Have you taken a wrong turn from the USC football field?”
“Yeah, unless you think they would miss a two left feet dork from South Africa. I think I’m gonna be good .” She snickers.
He continues, “I’m in the right place.” She laughs in spite of herself. She wanted him to speak more because of the musical quality of his accent . And talk they would for the next 30 years in scientific collaborations and building their lives together.
Before Felicity met the tall bearded South African Dahl, late that night in the student labs at Caltech, Felicity was born and raised in government housing in the Southside of Chattanooga TN. She was raised by her grandmother, Mabel Lo, with her cousin Devan after Felicity;s mother jailed on a drug charge died of her injuries after being knifed in a prison fight and Devan abandoned in the hospital by her drug-addicted mother. She was fortunate to have an astute first grade teacher, Ms. Smith, who recognized and encouraged her curiosity as she devoured all things scientific and math. She would work Gran Mabel, who would start to volunteer at the school, and marveled at her interest while accompanying the class on a trip to the local telescope. When the then 6 year old started an impromptu class on the intricacies of optics and the beginning of the math to improve clarity of images of the radio telescopes, to the astonishment of the teacher, her grandmother and the visiting professor from GA Tech, who would volunteer to privately tutor her, and when she tested out of elementary school and placed at a experimental baccalaureate program started by the University, she was well on her way by that encounter to meeting her life mate, Dahl Lundgren.
Dahl life also replete with tragedy and abandonment because he and his sisters, June and Pearl, would spend most of their formative years bouncing from commune to commune with their hippie parents trying to escape the apartheid South Africa and then being left with family friends while they joined a Buddhist monastery in Nepal severing all ties with their teenaged children. His sisters stayed with family friends in Switzerland and he would go on to boarding school and then earn his position in Mechanical engineering at Oxford before being granted the internship where he would meet Felicity that fateful evening at Caltech.
By the time the couple met, Felicity had graduated from Georgia Tech at the age of 16 with double majors in physics and mathematics and by the time she awarded a place in a newly formed double PhD program at Caltech in astrophysics and quantum mechanics her work would be the basic platform for their development of building their personal quantum computers needed to do all the work they would do in optics, AI, and robotics.
As they complete coursework for their various PhDs, they would request and be granted a TED talk styled dual PhD defense that would also serve as a pitch for the first wave of venture capital for their venture AfroDruids similar to Google Alphabet and the early days of TESLA for the expressed purpose of moving theory to actionable technology, a byline of the pitch materials. As they secured work time on the optical telescope and the computer labs it would allow them to make several scientific discoveries and they would become the recipients of several grant including the newly created Degrasse Grant for Physical with a first prize of $50K. Which would serve to finance several Star Trek inspired patents for processors that would be used on the MARS Rover through collaboration with teams at JPL, Felicity’s work with algorithms would lead to advances in opticals that were programmed into the Kepler telescope and a discovery of the Trappist system, the very location they would receive clear communication from extraterrestrials simultaneously proving the existence of extraterrestrial life. Dahl’s work in robotics and drones would lead to first generation drones used by Amazon to deliver packages. They would became wealthy even before Elon Musk would monetize the return to Moon with his rocket technology.
They would defend their dissertations successfully, win the grants for further research and secure significant first round funding for AfroDruids. But the stifling and mostly unpaid benefits of academia and restrictions in a corporate structure not your own and the drive for financial returns if your publicly traded they would decide to become lifelong consultants and using Felicity’s cousin, Devan to patent their discoveries. They had the choice to pick and choose what pursuits they would explore and with whom they wanted to work. And also how their technology would be applied, except for work on initial booster rockets with TESLA and JPL and robotics with NASA, they turned down multiple opportunities to work with the military or Homeland Security. The refusal would land them on their watch list and fuel a desire to go off-grid.
AfroDruids was not only an innovation think tank and technology patent factory, it would become a symbol of Nerd Protest with an underground following on the Dark Web. The encryption technology and quantum computing innovations pioneered by Felicity Lundgren would be the basis of the Dark Web, angering law enforcement world-wide, with an unintended consequence for it becoming virtual black hole for more nefarious enterprises to flourish. Again, placing a target on her back by law enforcement and also people wanted to force her to work to hide ill gotten gains or to steal more. But the technology would also have cult following with hackers attempting to break the encryption with several sponsored Hack-A-thons resulting in praise worthy updates and the HiTech.4 phage and encryption and tracking phage embedded in all their programs. This technology would be deployed to and resulting in the arrest of the thieves who would steal over 250 million USD of bitcoin they would change to the on line moniker, AfroDruids at Fort Knox
Their initial technological success would allow them to become early millionaires, and their bland lifestyle, with maintenance of old VW bus
and the odd Star Trek collectible purchase, you would never realize how wealthy they were, millionaires in tie dye shirts and Birkenstocks. In 2005, they would be invited by a former colleague to assist with a massive upgrade to the newly installed TAO Observatory at Sweetwater in TN. They were nomads by choice but were looking to settle down and finally start their family in their own home and not a furnished rental. The only furniture they moved were their high end gaming chairs resembling race car seats, which in fact they were costume Recaro leather racing seats. They also had plastic bins filled with games and respective consoles. Star Wars and Star Trek Memorabilia and a few Star Fleet uniform costumes. Also, high end camping and hiking equipment, upgrades different from when he hiked with his sisters in the Swiss Alps. Even though Felicity grew up in the Tennessee Valley, she only experienced the mountains while looking upward. Definitely a flat lander. After they became business and then a married couple she would accompany him on several climbs throughout the Rockies. When their business took them overseas, they would climb the Himalayas, Alps, Kilamanjaro, marveling at the world spread out as far as they can see. Returning to the older Appalachian Mountains she would experience her home with fresh eyes and wanting to spend time discovering the mountains that felt like a prison growing up, now she had the opportunity to hike.
So this day in 2009, Felicity and Dahl would be searching their large 10 by 30 foot storage unit for some hiking and scuba equipment with underwater video equipment for a planned splunking excursion in the hills under the direction of a cave diver they had met on such an adventure in Bali. The mountains along the Tennessee and throughout the valley held some 100 waterfalls mostly on private land. They would discover one of the largest waterfalls, replete with hot water springs on the old Ford farm. But the farm also fronted the entrance to old played out coal mines that they suspected were attached to a much larger underground aquifer and maybe even a fresh water river that needed to be explored. They would plan to map the underground waterway but splunking the caves and then use underwater submarine for miles into the mountain range. As they sorted through the bins in search for the equipment they would re-discover a bin filled with Star Wars memorabilia and the covered with felt covers was the Borg Shaped large cookie jar filled with several number jump drives attached to numbered Enterprise Starship keychains. That is when they remembered the work with the elusive Japanese mathematician in the early days of block chain who would reward them with complex algorithms stored on each drive. Dahl would go out to their VW bus retrieving they’re high end laptops, settling in to their Manchester United folding directors chairs. They looked at each other pulling out and inserting each drive with the computer beeping and whirling and each ending of the processes they will be displayed a subsequent letter each of algorithm running successfully with a final tally of 250,000 bitcoins not USD. The bitcoins bought pre-inflated market were only worth a whopping $15. They would then log onto the satellite connection the size of a Walkman, to get information about the value of their cryptocurrency. Their re-discovery was at the beginning of the bitcoin craze with a current value at a breathtaking $114 per bitcoin. They had a cool $29 million sitting on jump drives in a BORG cube memorabilia box.
They simply looked at each other shaking their heads and shrugged deciding then and there they would continued to live below their means. They continued to work at TAO and the community college for another two years acquiring more of the elusive currency and designing the plans to build their own optical and radio frequency telescope while first purchasing and then continue to map the underwater extensive underground river that flowed and fed the waterfalls throughout the mountain range.
The first surge in the Bitcoin craze happened in late 2012 and into 2013 reaching an ungodly $40,000 USD catapulting the Lundgren’s personal wealth into the billions and among the ranks of the super-rich. But while some Bitcoin-cowboys were buying Lamborghini’s to show off at conferences on Block Chain, the Lundgren’s would purchase and refurbish another VW bus with a camper for family outings to travel to Star Trek Conventions and Comic Con.
Two parts of the underground tributary one that fed the massive Underground lake but the other tributary fed the unexpected falls cascading to the creek at the back of the old Ford farm, and old A framed farmhouse. They would use their millions to purchase the farm, animals and outbuildings.
They bought in massive excavating machinery to carve an observatory into the face of the mountain. Then complete construction on the only privately owned optic-radio-frequency telescope in the country and and a Batman inspired Technology Grotto with full 80 foot screens, and clear Kevlar protected walls to house their air-terabyte massive server. The caves as former mining operations long since played out would lead to connections to what would lead to expanded living space in the mountain. Their discovery and patent of clear Kevlar, virtually indestructible, and waterproofed lattice framework for the miles of tunnels , the living space, and their wine cellar.
“The Kit House. In the early 20th century, Sears Roebuck would create housing for a newly minted middle class, and pretentious one at that.”
This is a bygone time of superior American manufacturing and homebuilding. Many of such homes where floated down the Mississippi and Tennessee Rivers. Arguably, it can be said, with its many still standing historical homes in Chattanooga, Chattanooga is the city that Sears built. Most have stayed in the same families for years, never available to the likes of Felicity or Dahl. The historical Sears house on Crest Avenue in the city could be seen from the projects where Felicity grew up was a reminder of what she thought was an unattainable dream. So with a fair chunk of their new billions, they would have a 3-D printed replica created and assembled on the mountainside Squirrel Shot Mountain. The grand structure replacing the ramshackle farmhouse.
All the internal living spaces were changed into a well stocked library of rare books from every discipline and genre. The only person living in the servant quarters at the back of the house was Gran Mabel, Felicity’s grandmother, the de facto gardener, chef and librarian. Most mornings you find her reading the paper or one of the thick volumes from the library. You walk through the entrance into formal dining room and then into the chef’s kitchen to find a Birkenstocked mountain man, Dahl. He walks back from the kitchen with two steaming cups the electrified cups the creation that resemble the Styrofoam cups of the instant Ramen noodle but with the heating element to keep the contents warm with a sealed stainless steel top imprinted with either the Enterprise model-E or other starships with special holster for the light saber fashioned chopsticks of R2-D2 that light up either blue or red. While the water boils, he glimpses the breath taking falls through his window,
This is what super nerds with unlimited disposable income to house an entire industrial sized 3-D printing operation in a converted barn on the property, can buy or create.One of the many creations they created in their on-site lab. He walks back through the gardens noting the beauty of the flowers, the trickling water from the creek flowing under the connector bridge coming from the tumbling waters from their own personal waterfalls.
He pauses as he does several times a day at the glassed in enclosure of the connector bridge
as the waterfall cascading down to Rocky face of the Mountain.
The motion activated doors of Hackers Grotto open admitting Dahl carrying the 2 cups of instant noodles. He turns his head slightly to the right pausing to smile at the scene of the fraternal twins a boy, NIGEL and a girl, RIVER, both age 6 rollerblading playing hockey in the side playroom. Their births also a miracle, fibroids and polycystic ovarian disease and Feliclity’s advanced age at the time, 39. They required expensive in vitro treatments before the 3rd cycle bore these too advanced children.
He continues into the open space, resembling the old Mission Control in Houston,
his wife of 25 years, Felicity, sitting at a bank of silver custom curved Apple computer monitors typing rapidly and frowning. There is a cat Ruby curled up on her perch next to Dahl’s workstation
with a 3 dogs, representing a variety of breeds chasing the rowdy children back and forth careful not to get too close to get crushed or rolled on by one of the children.
Thank Heavens for soundproofing!
The workspace is a combination of living quarters and amazing bathrooms. Deeper into the mountain are the air quantum servers. he super computer servers to process all of the data coming from their personal optic-radio-frequency telescope.
Because of the depth in the mountain the computational units stayed a cool 59° perfect for optimal server operation and to keep their 2000 bottles wine.
The Batman style technological “Hackers Grotto” and no longer formally attached to the community college, with AfroDruids finally financially solvent, they were free to explore the world from their super gaming chairs by tapping into the satellite and cameras as worldwide government spied on their citizens. They also begin to do further research and create calculators basic how to tune out the universal noise of space. Cleaning up images and other readings from stellar bodies.
But their work did not escape the notice of anyone wanting to infringe on the technology explaining their copyright infringement litigation with Tesla and Microsoft as well as spying by the Chinese and Russian governments. Both were very interested in using the enhanced version of the technology to spy on its citizens and the rest of the world but they never could quite get the technology and they would attempt to steal it over and over again. Included in the technology created by the Lundgrens’ were several Trojan and self-destruct phages that were incorporated into the programs. The perfect technology built by the ultimate hackers. One of the programs sends out a tracker device so not only did they shut down the system when you attempted to break the encryption, it sent out a beacon to the authorities to let them know exactly who had stole their technology. It was rumored that it was such a device or program that had crippled the Iranian government for several weeks and released by one such attempt by hi Tech.4 which is the spy program that they installed within their software was unleashed.
It takes so much power to service all of this computational and observational power. The roof of the Kit House, the enclosed bridge and all the outbuildings all equipped with efficient solar cells with the hydropower from the underground tributaries they were completely off the TN Power Grid. There is also a waste water reclamation would put any so called modern sewage management system to shame with natural filtration and distillation cleaning the water of a large portion of the the Little River. The compound was self contained, self sufficient, and fully renewable.
Chapter 2
All in a days work
Dahl approaches his wife, Felicity, squinting at the display and setting down the Cup-O-Noodles.
She distractedly picks up and taps the screen and takes a large bite and slurps up the soup swallowing and saying, “The Chinese are at it again. “
The wall monitors lights up vertigo inducing swoop into the cameras and what appears to be some governmental office with Asian technicians all running around frantically and monitors all with snow, there’s no audio to go with the frantic scene on monitors. Felicity then makes a shooting sign with her fingers then blowing the pretend smoke away. Then another vomit inducing swoop as CNN and MSNCB all report on the Nikkei, Nasdaq, and the London Stock market fall 2000 points before the tracking trade is halted with all the boards going dark then a clear shimmering coiffed skeleton laughing the classic Vincent Price Skeleton voice with Don Lemmon from CNN,”Does that skeleton have an Afro?” Felicity yelling at and simultaneously giving the middle finger to the screen,”Yes bitch she does!”
The western world has attempted to divert attention from their own theft, industrial espionage, and subterfuge. Blaming the Russians and Chinese for all the same shenanigans and shady tactics started by the imperial colonizer Brits and the Uber-colonist Americans. Competition in the US financial markets and global business markets is so fierce that major players especially in the States had no moral restraint or false compunction to do whatever necessary to win to make profit at the largest margin. The competition just kept going lower and lower. Trying to win employing dirtier and dirtier tactics. And these Western business bitches are some sociopathic kleptomaniac hoes.
Felicity yells, “Thievin’ pieces of shit. That’s what they get.” Followed by a gutter harumph and a string of Klingon curses and high fives with her husband. Felicity was the hot-head of the nerdy dynamic duo but both could calm and encourage the other in a way no one could. The mutual understanding and their connection was years in the making.
Dahl takes his seat and scratches Ruby’s belly, the cat purring with contentment. He then notices other work on Felicity’s split screen. He then clones her screen reproducing the numeric strings and HTML coding language.
They had been analyzing large amounts of information from their optic-radio telescope which the computer translated into repeating patterns on several bands. Dahl slurps some of his noodles saying to Felicity between chews, “ Did you notice this?”
Felicity looks and calls up the data on her screen, “ Yeah when I analyzed the data, this is what the computer created . Now, when I add that recursive algorithm I get this.” She clicks a few buttons replacing the images talking heads from the news channels with a ghostly outline of an image.
Dahl sets down his cup and says, “Shit what am I looking at ? What’s the source?”
Felicity says, “Given the degradation of the signal the source is calculated some 40,000 light years from here maybe even from the Aquarius cluster somewhere from the Trappist System. Remember Kepler the telescope we created the image sharpening software for the processor?”
Dahl nods between slurping.
Felicity continues, “And there is more. We can isolate the specific wavelengths and add the additional algorithms running on a loop processor. The computer reads these waveforms kind of like syntax. Yeah, it’s like a small video clip of the Third Kind. And we can project the image …” She boots up the ceiling projectors that cast the image to the area in front of wall of monitors. A 21st century holographic image.
Dahl sputters, “Wait what the fuck? This is an holographic image from outer space. Some first class First Contact , Encounters of the Third kind shit !!! Wait, we’re not the only ones listening. Does anyone else know?”
Felicity says,” I don’t think so but we can’t tell anyone yet . Let’s work on this a little more. “
And work they did. The data analyzed revealed consistent blocks of information in both audio and video using contracted bands on specific wavelengths. Once they were able to create a specific program for their quantum computer the system could look for specific data in specific forms and create streams of information which the computer began to interpret as syntax and computer instructions. Because what is the point of ET contacting you if you can’t answer?