Definitely not a hoax. Trust us on that.

"I found evidence of ancient aliens!"

I sure am getting my money's worth out of this image

"I found this in the middle of nowhere, far from human settlements! How else could it get there?" - the electrical engineer who hiked to said spot

But he won't tell us what spot. That would be giving too much away.
- I wouldn't tell anyone if I found a socket vein either. Big Electric is hoarding all mines
- If he told us, obviously the archeologists would have to eliminate him

Good to know that aliens use the same standardized outlets and plugs.

Good to know that aliens use the same standardized American outlets and plugs.

It's very lucky they don't use European or British of the other dozen or so types of plug that exist globally.
- That IS a British connector though, isn't it? That's not North American.
It makes it easier when recharging the UFO.
- You’d think they’re want at least a level 2 charging rock, though. 110v is going to take years. Silly aliens, they should know better.
To be fair, if we're reverse engineering from alien tech, that's likely what we would use as well.

Not that it's likely in the first place.
It's an adapter for human 3-pins round connector to a standard rock-socket system.

Those prongs must be alien metal to not have oxidized away.

So what happened when he tried to plug it in?

Global warming was fixed. Someone just unplugged it which caused it to get a little silly.

That's literally just an XLR3 plug. It's used for analog audio and DMX lighting controls.

Don't know why you'd put it in a rock though.

Haha yeah, I sell these at work and recognised it immediately! It's literally just the inner part you solder the wires onto, without the outer casing.

I tried to find a photo, but I struggled:
- I immediately thought it could be one of those speakers disguised as a rock
Well duh, it’s because we used the alien technology for ourselves in our most important projects.

XLR3 stands for Planet X (the place the aliens came from) Long Range (because it’s far away, duh) and 3 is because it took three tries to plug the rock in correctly.
Don't know why you'd put it in a rock though.

It's a good way to get attention. It's working right now. It may have also been useful for increasing his bank account with the money of morons.

Okay, nobody else has said anything but what's really bugging me is this. Why does the rock have the male connector? It's not even flush with the surface, it's embedded slightly recessed. Attaching a cord with a female connector would be a much bigger annoyance than if they were switched around.

It's an early ~~CPU and those are the pins.~~ Three pins, clearly a very prototype Transistor :D
Stupid cavemen. It makes way more sense the other way around. Just no ducks given about safety.

haha 'embedded' in a hole clearly created for it

It's too bad he didn't tell anyone where it was or we could confirm that. But I'm glad to hear of his revelations.

I found my keys under a rock in the mulch. Are my keys millions of years old?

No, just 100,000 years old, can't you read?
- Sorry, I had an analysis run on my rock and it's two million years old. How old are my keys?

What is it with their fascination for rocks?

That "rock" looks an awful lot like concrete to me

At least those aliens conformed to modern standards.

Why do all engineers go batshit crazy when they hit retirement age?

There are also a scary number of deeply religious engineers.
- “An old electrician called Raymond
  
  Took a frazzled electrical cord
  
  Connected one end to the Devil
  
  The other he lashed to the Lord”

Plug it in

Artifact? Artifiction, more like.

Might not be AI - could be one of these

Don’t need it. My electric rock is running fine.