((I just thought of a theory about how the all-knowing-goggles work. They connect to some kind of universal consciousness or knowledge repository through the tendril you saw. Then they analyze the objects characteristics (shape, visible components, possibly even materials, layers and other stuff) and then they request that knowledge from the repository while also trying to convert it in a format the user is more likely to accept. That is how you got equations describing the human body when you looked at it, you either got what the aliens have on humans or organics in general, or you got the knowledge from some human biologist or human biologists. However when you looked at the cube the repository had knowledge on the subject but not in the format you would accept. So the goggles did the best next thing and gave you alien equations and a fractal (probably how the aliens or whoever built understand what's inside or the goggles' attempt to depict a multidimensional object in three dimensions). But when the user sees through them they begin to transform his brain and connect it to the consciousness or repository and as a tradeoff for having his brain become part of an alien computing grid he gains permanent goggle-eyes.
However how one would go about testing this theory I don't know. Maybe try to look at a human and try to read his past or his future, as that would also be part of the knowledge stored in the universal consciousness. Or maybe looking at a picture and trying to get info about what the image represents (looking at an exosuit's photo and then trying to see equations about the exosuit for example). Or looking at an equation that has been solved by humans (the most simple 1+1=x x=? If you're really lucky you'll even get the
proof) and seeing if you can find the solution through goggle vision.
If this thing does solve equations and knows everything that has ever been known by someone it would be a lifesaver for exams...
Anyway, just a thought.))