Brain Trees, Guardian Space, and the AI Monolithic Network Theory
This may seem like a very strange theory, but hear this one out.
We know the Monolithic Network and bubble of the Guardians (that we know of) is of similar size to that of human space, as is current understanding. However, what if I were to tell you the Monolithic Network wasn't designed or created by the Guardians, but by the AI soon after the Guardians had perished?
When I look at the ruins, I can't help but think of something like this:
Which got me thinking about the Brain Trees - something pretty prevelent around Guardian Ruins. Why are they there? Why do they make the noises that they do? Why are they only found in ejecta craters?
And then it occured to me, once I had watched a good video provided by CMDR PanPiper of Canonn:
The Monolithic Sites aren't the original "monolithic network" - the space-spanning network and original sentient AI are the Brain Trees!
Ram Tah; Tech 17:
"This data gives details of the Guardians research into computer technologies. The Guardians' computer hardware operated on the same principles as our own. Their engineering was more sophisticated, but even to a layperson such as myself if it (sic) comprehensible. They experimented with organic computers, but ultimately these failed to meet expectations, except in a few areas such as bio-monitoring. Even then, genetically modified organisms usually performed better."
The reason why they are found in ejecta craters is because they were launched there and the seeds were grown once the dust had settled on those planets - before FTL was invented the Guardians used kinetically-launched ships - massive space launchers - they probably did the same for expanding their network by using genetically grown and altered brain trees (that could survive and grow in a vacuum). We know the Guardians favoured ecology over space-travel, until at least the AI and technology caught up and divided them.
The Brain Trees are the precursor to the "monolithic network" as we know it. Once the AI had developed sentience in those same Brain Trees, and succeeded in become seperate from the network, the AI created the Ancient Ruins that we have come to know of!
Ram Tah; Tech 20:
"This data contains some details regarding AI in Guardians society. At this stage, social engineering was being used to ensure the AIs adhered to the same user models as their progenitors. But during the first civil war, most implanted Guardians were exiled, and the AIs recognised their vulnerability. They responded by developing their own operational hardware, independent of implanted Guardian users. Frustratingly, the details of these mechanisms have been purged from the record, possibly by the religious extremists who formed the last of the Guardian's species."
What struck me about the Ancient Ruins is the fact that it is littered with Urns, Totems, and Caskets - all to do with death and the afterlife, something a machine would never fear - but a sentient machine would completely understand and be sympathetic to - but why would they be there in the first place if the religious order had no interest in AI or the monolithic network? Sure, the exiles could have left them there, but why would they leave such objects on such a derelict rock and not bury their dead? I think it is simple: they were scattered/placed there by the AI when the Guardians disapeared. Not only are the Ancient Ruins a Monolithic Network linked to the Brain Trees, they are monuments created by a growing sentient AI that had lost their creators - it was an act of remembrance and respect
Ram Tah; Tech 6:
"This data gives some more information about the monolith network - the imposing structures explorers have discovered at various Guardian sites - served as a foundation for all their communication systems. It's clear, however, that the monoliths had ceremonial significance as well as being functional, so I mustn't underestimate their importance."#
This could mean that what we think of as the "Guardian Bubble" may not even be a Guardian Bubble (or, at the very least, where the Exiles went) - it may in fact be an AI/Exile bubble once they had hit that technological singularity and had developed FTL capability (though being creatures of habit and belief, may have still sown Brain Tree seeds in other nebulas the old-fashioned way), hence why the machined monolithic network is so widespread when compared to the Brain Trees around the Wregoe "bubble" - and this is where I come full circle to the Brain Trees...
They are more wide-spread, overall, than the "Monolithic Network" as we know them, and this is partly down to the Wregoe systems that PanPiper pointed out, which is what caught my interest the most - why would they be there? An almost perfect sphere 120ly that is also more tightly packed with stars than even the Pleiades - but without a single machined monolithic Ancient Ruin site...
It could be that the Guardians home originated from the Wregoe area of space... that could be their actual homeworld bubble!
No Ancient Ruins, as we know them, exist at Wregoe... but could something else exist on those worlds besides the Brain Trees?
