Clockwork Mouse

Of course we have clockwork mice in the modern era. The tricky part is that the particular clockwork mouse technology that I'm referring to was apparently a rudimentary independent AI built in the early 1800s. If I could figure out how it was built, I'm sure I could figure out a lot of other technology and make the modern stuff better.

Actually, the fun part about the tech is that it's probably older than the 1800s, but since that's when the mouse was created, that's when we date the technology to. There's documentation that indicates it might have been around in 1300s India, and possibly also something similar in 1500s Scandinavia.

Calling it clockwork isn't quite accurate. It features an interior crystalline structure rather than something resembling the inside of a clock, but "clockwork mouse" just sounds better. Especially since there are still small metal gears and components.

The craftmanship is intricate and beautiful in so many ways. It's larger than something I would make myself, but if reports are accurate then it's more than triple the skill.

For all that it is a small metal mouse the size of my hand, it can move almost exactly like a

Personally I think it's cannibalized alien tech from a crash, but it's also possible that an early superhero was able to craft something this detailed. The tricky part is learning how they somehow managed to pass the knowledge on for several generations in such a way that more people made more of these, and yet somehow the line stopped about two hundred years ago.

We don't know what the mice were used for. They don't seem to have any recording abilities, although it's possible that we simply don't have the right kind of receiver.