Neuronal Node
Preliminary Report on Unidentified Object 92002, "The Chiron Derelict"
I created a new video to demonstrate the (hand-cranked) flickering backlight of the Neuronal Node. (This is the Director's Cut - if you saw the video when I posted earlier pictures, the music is better now and the whole thing has been reworked. The video is over on YouTube, because Flickr's video player doesn't seem to work very well.) Enjoy!
Discovered by a robot probe exploring the minor planet 2060 Chiron, object 92002 appears to be nothing less than an interstellar spacecraft of nonhuman origin.
The relevant probe imagery was suppressed, and an unprecedented manned exploration mission was dispatched to investigate the artifact.
Adrift, apparently long abandoned, the vessel is nonetheless far from lifeless. Indeed, the ship itself is alive. It shows every indication of being a complex colony organism composed of many disparate subunits, which the exploration team calls "nodes".
This appears to be no natural space-going lifeform, but a deliberately assembled combination of biomechanoid modules. Most of the nodes are so completely self-contained, so tightly specialized, and so efficient at their functions, that they must have been genetically engineered with near godlike skill.
This "neuronal" node appears to be a small-scale neural network, equivalent in decision-making power to perhaps a few dozen biological neurons. These nodes - many thousands of them, no two exactly alike - are part of a larger apparent network that covers the derelict's surface in complex stripes and webs, integrating other types of nodes at times.
Many of the derelict's neuronal nodes seem to be still active, even when excised and placed in shielded storage. There are dark patches, but it would be prudent to assume that the derelict as a whole may be, even now, intelligent and aware.
The unexpected discovery of such an advanced alien artifact so close to Earth is alarming, and the apparent abandonment of the vessel by its presumed crew is hardly reassuring. If they - whoever they are - are not still on board...where did they go?
This is an illuminated alien/organic greeble study for Greeble De Mayo 2015, Week Three.
Neuronal Node
Preliminary Report on Unidentified Object 92002, "The Chiron Derelict"
I created a new video to demonstrate the (hand-cranked) flickering backlight of the Neuronal Node. (This is the Director's Cut - if you saw the video when I posted earlier pictures, the music is better now and the whole thing has been reworked. The video is over on YouTube, because Flickr's video player doesn't seem to work very well.) Enjoy!
Discovered by a robot probe exploring the minor planet 2060 Chiron, object 92002 appears to be nothing less than an interstellar spacecraft of nonhuman origin.
The relevant probe imagery was suppressed, and an unprecedented manned exploration mission was dispatched to investigate the artifact.
Adrift, apparently long abandoned, the vessel is nonetheless far from lifeless. Indeed, the ship itself is alive. It shows every indication of being a complex colony organism composed of many disparate subunits, which the exploration team calls "nodes".
This appears to be no natural space-going lifeform, but a deliberately assembled combination of biomechanoid modules. Most of the nodes are so completely self-contained, so tightly specialized, and so efficient at their functions, that they must have been genetically engineered with near godlike skill.
This "neuronal" node appears to be a small-scale neural network, equivalent in decision-making power to perhaps a few dozen biological neurons. These nodes - many thousands of them, no two exactly alike - are part of a larger apparent network that covers the derelict's surface in complex stripes and webs, integrating other types of nodes at times.
Many of the derelict's neuronal nodes seem to be still active, even when excised and placed in shielded storage. There are dark patches, but it would be prudent to assume that the derelict as a whole may be, even now, intelligent and aware.
The unexpected discovery of such an advanced alien artifact so close to Earth is alarming, and the apparent abandonment of the vessel by its presumed crew is hardly reassuring. If they - whoever they are - are not still on board...where did they go?
This is an illuminated alien/organic greeble study for Greeble De Mayo 2015, Week Three.