Jellyfloats

Imagine lighter-than-air robots, made in the form of jellyfish. Drifting about in a room, they would turn the air into water. Spun from plastics, filled with gases, and printed with circuits, they would emerge into life from the spawning machine like soap bubbles. They are initially indeterminate, then become something real and frequently flawed, floating about, gently undulating. They might flex to the touch, but only to a point - often breaking on a finger leaving behind a lifeless husk as its helium soul departs. More can be spun, but the spawning machine breathes only borrowed life and fleeting freedom. Creating creatures out of air in a world like ours is somewhat immoral.

The needed fix

Project Daedalus was intitially started with a vision that far out shines its current splender. I am coming back to trim the weeds that have choked this story blog for some time and to apoligize for allowing my vision to dissapate long before my first post. Project Daedalus is indeed the story of a probe exploring first contact, but it is also much more than that: it is a place designed to celebrate things that fly, not only in space, or in our atmosphere, but also in our hearts. Project Daedalus is being redesignated, or maybe reclaimed, as a place to prove that ideas - both near and far can be lighter than air. The story of the probe is still a story I would still like to tell, but I am revoking its grasp upon this blog. The story will now be told as it should be - not in an exacting manner, but rather in pulses received from a distant star. The transmissions are mixed and delayed. Do not look to Houston for guidance. The ground has lost control.