The Colossus of Rhodes was the most overbearing acheivement man has ever made. Other items and deeds were far more useful and important. I guess some would say the wheel. But nothing was so apparant and noticeable as the Colossus of Rhodes.
The Colossus of Winchester was no lesser feat. It wasn't so big and incredible as Rhode's, but if you saw it there in front of you, for real, and if you spoke to it, you would truely be moved. It was like seeing the fair hands of God stretching down from the clouds.
The Colossus was thirty feet tall and about the same again wide, but much, much deeper, about one hundred and fifty feet. The construction was made of glass so that the whole interior workings may be seen from the outside. The developers of the Colossus (they prefered the term 'parents') maintained that visitors may actually enter the Colossus and walk around the interior, there were two paths within the glass frame. The owners of the Winchester museum, however, would not allow it for security reasons.
The glass frame of the Colossus was very plain except for large prismic letters inset on the height of the frontespiece, spelling the name 'Colossus'. In the centre of the frontespiece, and at ground level stood what I suppose was Colossus herself. I failed to mention the gender earlier simply because Colossus is neither male nor female, not really. However, the mannequin is that of a female. The figure starts at the waist and is set on a marble plinth. It is nude and incredibly lifelike. There was some outcry initially as to it's suitability, so I recall. The figure is a masterpiece of robotic technology and all impulses are triggered organically though the workings and flesh are synthetic. The eyes and the mouth are greased to look moist and the skin is soft and buoyant to the touch. The detail is so impecable, even the cheeks may flush when it is applicable. To look at it you would believe that Colossus was a real woman.
Colossus was the result of decades of musing over the possibilty of the building of an organic computer. It took five years to build and three further years to 'root' it's knowledge. Colossus was further trained every day, this activity was affectionately termed 'feeding time', and was presented as a show at the museum.
The Colossus was truely the most beautiful thing to behold. Inside the glasshouse was the most complex tangle of plants. The only flowers were tiny white petalled ones that opened and closed irregularly, but there were many, many shades of green and the plants were of the most exotic designs. Also the lights were incredible. They were scattered high and low and tangled within the plants. They were as much a part of the design as the plant itself. Many of the lights took stimulous from the plant to determine their volume and hence the lighting was continually changing, creating a symphony of colour. And there would be the mannequinn at the front. She would talk to anyone who addressed her. She would pick children up, lift them high in the air and then put them down again. When no one addressed her, Colossus would just talk out loud - recite plays or literature, tell jokes or muse out loud on some new knowledge or question.
The Colossus reminded us of many worrying social issues. Man had all but created life. he had taken basic plant structures and modelled it to replicate the human brain, at least as we understood it. Were we playing God here? Could Colossus become a hazzard to us? All these worries took a back seat since Colossus was put to no significant purpose.
Colossus died of starvation. The death was announced on May 22nd 2009. Ironically, the feeding was controlled by a computer system which malfunctioned. Was it an assassination schemed in the secret world of the machines? The Colossus will be built again, you can be sure of that, but never again in this guise.
THE END.