The Daughters of Zeus / Jigi's visit to Stephen Hawking?

 

 In keeping with the ancient Muses of mythology in mind, I have a secondary quote from Stolen Moments Circles in Time. In this story, Trevor Wilson, a writer, inadvertently sets in motion the birth of a new religion far in the future. In that distant era, the Supreme Priestess and Arch Priestess of the faith, Crystal Dawn and Bridget Furr, discover evidence that they once lived in the past with Trevor, whom they now regard as a messianic figure. They must return to their past to save him from forces determined to erase his existence. Trevor's future wife, Janet Chavez, and their granddaughter, Greta, are also revered in this future, their legacy intertwining with the fabric of their faith.

In a more distant future, an AI that has nearly evolved into a deity creates a biological human with quantum processors and memory chips. This being, Jigi, a modern Pinocchio of sorts, is haunted by the question of whether she is truly real or merely a dream made of metaphorical wood. She takes on the title of Temporal Architect, her mission is to ensure that Bridget and Crystal succeed in protecting Trevor. The bonds formed between this group go deeper than even familial ties, as their destinies become intricately entwined.

Among them is Lee Wu, a super genius whose friendship binds the group further. And here, in the quote I'm about to share, Jigi, with her vast knowledge of literature and history, invokes the Muses and blends their myth with the saga of Dune to emphasize the group's significance—without revealing her origins from that far-off future. From Stolen Moment Circles in Time:

 

The Daughters of Zeus

Jigi was back and found Trevor’s new home to her liking. Something had changed about her during her last trip to Atlanta. She behaved as if she’d been away for years instead of weeks. Her attitude had matured, and it was obvious she no longer felt that only Trevor could complete her. She was much stronger and more confident, seeming to love and respect Trevor and the rest more, yet different somehow.

Jigi slept late for the first time in years. Finally, she came downstairs with a new strength that emanated from her, but she hadn’t lost her sarcastic flair for the dramatic. They all sat out on the pool deck in the shaded area. The girls were as usual soaking in the hot tub, on their way to nirvana, they believed. While Trevor and his buddy Lee Wu sat by the sliding door staring at a laptop screen covered in code. Upon arriving at the pool, Jigi sat next to Lee, and the girls joined on another sofa by the adjacent fire pit.

Jigi got up and sat down in Lee’s lap. “Well, Lee, I guess the world’s most wanted hacker is still going strong? Girls, this man is a true outlaw. Wanted in nearly every nation on Earth. Yet mysteriously, every face recognition camera system or AI system deletes his images immediately or identifies him as someone else. Ladies, he is a celebrity, a legend, and a ghost. Kind of makes him hot if you consider he’s such a bad boy. And you may ask how Trevor could afford the help of a billionaire underworld thug. Well, nerds and sci-fi fans are a tight and loyal bunch.” Running her hand tenderly down Lee’s cheek, she asked, “You’re back to secure something or other, right? Last time, it was for the note in a bottle. It was a time capsule thing, right?”

Bridget, perking up, asked, “What time capsule thing are you referring to?”

“It’s nothing, really,” Trevor irritably replied.

“Don’t be so modest, Trevor. Girls, Trevor decided he must find a way to preserve his work and future work for as long as digital or quantum information exists. Our man, Lee, has infected every inch of the web and all servers on the planet with lines of code that can’t be removed. A Trojan horse kind of thing, isn’t that what they call it? They started as a test with a fallacy that would pop up worldwide on April Fool’s Day. And the world printed their little joke as a news story. Then they put out an SOS note in a bottle, so to speak, to prank someone in a hundred years or so, too. And whatever else these two devilish studs have embedded in the web, and I’ll assume every server on Earth, is a true mystery for the ages to come. Maybe a note to your mothers, Dawn.”

Jigi had Dawn, Bridget, and Janet’s undivided attention. Dawn and Bridget looked at each other in bewilderment. Dawn whispered to Bridget, “And that’s how the Great Oracle got all the information from Trevor.” She then asked the group, “Exactly what was in this digital note in a bottle? And when exactly did they cast the note into the web? What year will it open?”

Trevor answered nervously, “Just a little prank about nothing that may not be so funny in less than a century from now when it pops up. We coded it about a month before Jigi moved to Atlanta. Today, our work is frightfully more important. I’ll let Lee explain.”

In a condescending voice, Lee expressed his thoughts, “Anything Trevor, or anyone he gives access to, preserves as written works in a way that all AIs will record and share with one another. Any AIs that become sentient will be able to access it fully and will be forced to archive it and share it with those it decides should have access. No matter what disasters or cultural changes happen, Trevor’s work will never be lost. It will be walled up again if it becomes deemed inappropriate until the algorithm decides to publish it again in a more favorable political environment.”

Dawn and Bridget together gave an approving, “Wow!”

Jigi stood up, removed her clothing down to her nearly microscopic swimsuit, and looked directly at Dawn and Bridget. “You two must be quite impressed by this no doubt.” Bridget and Dawn sat with their mouths still open in awe. “Trevor, your cleverness has blown these two away. Please close your gaping mouths, ladies, before an insect or small birds start to fly in. I mean, look at you two. So, that’s how this all came to be, girls. Just think about it, are you calling the shots, or is he? What came first, the chicken or the egg? Lee, look what you achieved. Just gaze upon these two bikini-clad, brainy beauties. This is your handiwork.”

Lee laughed and replied, “Yes, yes. I know I’m a super genius. Hawking was an idiot in 2009, Jigi, when he sent his invitations out as he did. You don’t ask a question if you already know the answer; you will cause a time paradox by breaking the wave function if guests arrive. His party was a bust, you know. No one showed up—” Lee laughed. “—If he’d only asked me to send out his RSVP before the event and a follow-up after confirming their attendance with irrefutable evidence. Then the attendees would have no choice but to attend.”

Jigi giggled and sat on Lee’s lap again. “Lee, don’t be so sure that no one made it. What about retro-causality or the multiverse? Then, there is no paradox or broken wave function. Just maybe a ravishing, brown-skinned brunette showed up for the after-party and swore him to secrecy. Maybe the answer to Steven Hawking’s question was a personal quest and not made public after all.”

Janet, Dawn, and Bridget were oblivious to the entire meaning of Jigi’s ramblings. Jigi looked at them and said, “We left you light years behind, didn’t we, ladies? But if you were to explore science fiction and facts outside of Trevor’s clever scribblings, you might be able to keep up. Oh, who am I kidding? I thank Trev and Lee for taking me through a four-year science and sci-fi boot camp. I have the equivalent of a PhD in science fiction literature and sci-fi pop culture and such.”

Then she left Lee’s lap to swim, but first, she looked at Trevor and said, “Calm, but deep waters. Dude, you keep it so quiet, but you do have an extremely deep Messiah complex, wanting to save the entire world from itself. I believe you will be a brilliant writer in this lifetime. Well, I know you will. But, sorry to break it to you, you’ll always be a Paul Atreides; you’ll never morph into a Paul Muad’Dib or Usal and fight the holy war, my friend.

“Yet with all sincerity and without a drop of sarcasm in what I say, here sitting before us are the immortal goddesses from the mountaintop in your home. Yes, two muses, the daughters of Zeus. Calliope and Polymnia live among us in the flesh sitting nearly naked upon your overpriced rattan furniture and are here to guide you, Trev—” She pointed to Bridget and Dawn. “—And our little demure Janet sitting there like a little lost lamb, maybe the deepest and most dangerous still waters of all. Yes, Themis, Zeus’ second wife, also waits for the sleeper to awaken. Or better yet, Janet, you may be Eris, about to bring the holy war and the Old World crashing down with it.

“So maybe you have already drunk the water of life after all, and I’m wrong in my Paul Muad’Dib observation. Trev, you are a Visionary.” As Jigi walked away, in her most sarcastic voice, she spoke in the girls’ direction as loudly as possible, “And how can this be? For he is the Kwisatz Haderach...” And her little speech was immediately followed by a loud thunderclap, not unusual for that time on a summer’s day in South Florida. Still, it made her words seem more dramatic.

As Jigi slid into the water, Lee spoke, “Oh, my, Trevor, we made her into every tech geek’s dream girl. Such a hot, unbelievably sexy woman in an in unimaginably tiny swimsuit, quoting Alia Atreides from the last scene in Dino De Laurentiis’ 1984 adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune. She is so freaking unreal and hot!”

After all this time, Janet spoke up, “Lee, dude, look at her. Jigi is the real Wonder Woman in the flesh.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Yes, I see it now. She’s like an amalgam of the best of 1940s comic Wonder Woman, Linda Carter, Gal Gadot, and Star Trek the Motion Picture’s Persis Khambatta.”

Dawn spoke to play down Jane’s raw sexual attractiveness and the attention that stoked a bit of jealousy in her. She felt their comments were undue with her presence among them. “Goodness, don’t tell me you both have a crush on Jigi. Yuck.”