Questions are being raised about the purpose and motives of a series of large black monolithic structures which have inexplicably appeared across Bristol over recent months.

Believers in science fiction hope that the suspicious monoliths might hold the key to unlocking faster than light travel for humans in the Bristol metropolitan area.

In the iconic film, 2001: A Space Odyssey directed by Stanley Kubrick, ominous black slabs, similar to those seen in Bristol today,  imparted superior knowledge from a mysterious alien race. First gifting the use of tools to the primitive apes that once inhabited earth, then thousands of years later, ushering humanity into a new era of space travel.

Much like the film, the monoliths appear to have been specially designed so that they can be enjoyed by people on drugs. Bright lights appear on the surface, buttons can be pressed and a series of numbers count down to zero for no apparent reason.

Any logic behind the location of the monoliths is yet to be determined. While they all reside in the proximity of bus stops across north and south Bristol, at the time of writing, no spacecraft, interstellar vehicles or wormholes have appeared alongside them, only buses every now and then.

Only time will tell whether Bristol will realise its aspirations of having access to technology from 2001.