A term used in discussing science fiction, a Big Dumb Object (BDO) is a mysterious artifact (usually alien) in a story which generates an intense sense of wonder just by being there; to a certain extent, the term deliberately deflates this. J.G. Ballard's short story, "Report on an Unidentified Space Station" (1982) is an exploration of the metaphor of the BDO: in each successive report, the artifact's estimated size increases, people get lost within it, and the reader eventually realises that the mysterious abandoned artifact is the Universe itself.
Big Dumb Objects in science fiction include:
See also
