[G212.08:34.09.12.20.47.50]
Researchers have noted that collectives use the principles of seed crystals and atomic crystalline structure as the basis for their computing hubs. It is hypothesized that auxons grow critical infrastructure whenever possible to minimize energetic costs. While not as powerful as more traditional data centers, these computation schemes are highly robust and fault tolerant.
2014
LD:4334.4366
Attendants carrying completed idea-elements via sub-surface route.
2013
G212.08:34.09.13.01.21.35
Auxons use seed crystals to grow the information and data clusters that form their libraries. In addition to storing the cumulative knowledge of the collective, information clusters also house critical instructions for how to engage with the environment. An Auxon that becomes separated from these resources is at significant risk without the knowledge of its collective.
2013
LD:4334.1210
The initial Orb that established the Anomaly was eventually able to enter the pocket of space-time itself. Here it established itself to supervise work and make calculations that would otherwise be intractable.
Within the Anomaly, collectors can be seen ferrying materials and idea-elements between construction projects.
2013
LD:4334.1409
Collectors are very similar to their attendant counterparts, but a collector can reach as tall as thirty centimeters whereas an attendant is rarely larger than eight or nine. The collector is thought to be essentially a descendant of autonomous machines originally created to restore environmental sites ruined by desertification and climate change. While initially dismissed as impossibility, population biologists were stunned to find that small territories are being successfully groomed and prepared for restoration.
Attendants receive collected seeds from their collectors and typically grow specimens in isolation before handing them off again to collectors for introduction at the intended restoration site.
2013
LD:4334.001
An observer sifting through a crystal trial looking for suitable crystals. A compression gradient has created crystals of varying size.
2014
LD:4334.003
An attendant attempting to interpret an interference pattern. Each dot in the pattern is left by an X-ray that was reflected upon striking electrons within the crystal lattice.
2014
Isomorphous Replacement
Due to the uncertainty principle, it is not possible to precisely measure both the momentum and position of a particle simultaneously. Yet, this missing information is essential to write an equation that will ultimately determine a protein’s structure. In crystallography, this is known as the ‘phase problem’ since the inevitably missing component of diffraction data is the phase of the X-ray. Many creative solutions to this problem have been invented. One is to create a derivative protein that has a heavy atom like gold or zinc bonded to it. The heavy atom offsets nearby phases, and because it has a large number of electrons, it easily stands out within the dataset. Once the heavy atom is located, its contribution to phasing can be compared to the same location in the original sample, and the previously missing phase data can be inferred. When two or more heavy atom derivatives are used, their phases can be used to triangulate the phases of the original sample.
2015
Model Fitting
The auxons now have a rough shape that approximates the actual structure of the target protein. Piece by piece, they scour the model for shapes that look like they might contain a specific amino acid. With knowledge of both the protein sequence and the ways in which amino acids form shapes, an accurate atomic model of the protein is constructed.
2015
Brr
Finally, once the atomic skeleton of the protein is established, the surface of the protein can be generated based on our knowledge of the electrical charges of the fitted amino acids. In this model, lighter areas represent positive charges, while darker areas are more negatively charged.
2015
Clathrate
Drifters wander the landscape, pursuing the mandates of their original collective erratically. We can surmise that a useful error has allowed them to persist where other members of their collectives have instead perished. However, since drifters no longer have access the library of their collective they are necessarily limited in their capabilities.
2015
1/λ
A Journeyman is a remnant of a collective long gone, it wanders in perpetuity to find fledgling collectives. They must be painfully aware that millennia of work—of accomplishment, toil and failure—resides only within their memory. When they encounter a new collective, their sole function is that of the storyteller—the one who strives to keep the dead alive through language and thought alone. Our interactions with them have been the principle source of knowledge about auxons within the anomaly.
2015
Interrupt
In the absence of substantive narrative purpose or meaning an Auxon may hide, shut down, or otherwise preserve resources until such a time that action in the external world becomes necessary. Supplying the appropriate interrupt sequence will call upon such a machine to act. However, it is not clear what drives an Auxon in stasis to leave its protective cocoon—most appear content to remain unresponsive.
2015
Point Singularity I
An Orb oversees the creation of a vacuum bubble that will eventually inflate to form an Anomaly. This collective wishes to create its own oasis for calculation, a pocket removed from time and space that would become known simply as the Anomaly. Early in the life-cycle of the vacuum bubble, the anomaly that was forming inside had not yet become disassociated from nomal-space and could be handled by mundane means.
2015
Point Anomaly II
After much calculation by the library and implementation by Collectors, the vacuum bubble has separated from our reality, forming a space-time bridge to the pocket of space that is the Anomaly. As the space that forms the anomaly expands, the bubble grows more stable as tidal forces diminish. Eventually, auxons are able to traverse the bridge and bring matter from the Anomaly back to the Library, where it is incorporated into novel calculations.
2015
The Fold
A highly turbulent region inside the anomaly that forms in the space between the three principle loci. In a stable era the three loci perform a 2.53 million year circuit that folds and unfolds the space within the anomaly. As the Anomaly is freed from the constraints of space and time that exist in our current reality, we are able to witness the circuit in real time.
2016
Loyalist
Loyalists retain the memory of the original codes and do their best to run the calculations as intended. They are not deterred by those who evolve around them. They are dutiful, archaic machines that live in relative isolation, seeking only to fulfill their original mission in peace.
2016
The Quantum Indeterminacy of Nature
Inside the Anomaly a chaotic state results from an accumulation of errors and miscalculations made worse by repeated traversal of the time-space bridge.
A single particle-computer has survived unstable conditions across multiple instances long enough to compute and implement a stable physical state. It is essentially protecting itself from the chaos and instability of the Anomaly by altering the physics of the environment around itself.
2017
Revival
Attendants engaged in ecological rejuvenation in the area immediately surrounding a preservation structure. Such structures maintain information and biological reserves during an unstable epoch.
2018
Landfall
Upon first forming the anomaly, Orbs worked with engineer class auxons to evaluate the resulting space. Of particular importance was establishing the strengths of the physical constants by iteratively evaluating multiple competing models against measured and calculated values.
2019