"How Soon Before We Have Living Organic Spaceships?" Topic

Just a couple of examples of spacecraft with hive-like interiors or exteriors, that seem to have been "grown" for that specific use:

- Alien Nation, the series, has the Newcomer ships looking like they are living beings;
- Farscape had Moya;
- Babylon 5 Vorlons had their skin color shifting ships;
- "Man of Steel" (2013) had the Krypton scout ship ("Fortress of Solitude") with a built-in acquatic clone nursery; and
- I think that the Will Smith movie where they cras land on a future abandoned Earth also seemed to have ships with "living" components, right?

And would we develop a symbiotic relationship with them, or will we inevitably become simply parasitic controllers of such incredible "machines"?
Or do you think they will become our caretakers and masters, "for our own good"?

More importantly, has anyone portrayed such craft on the gaming table, but as part of equipment used by highly advanced HUMANS? Or do you always see such technology as belonging solely to the "Alien" player? Must the hive look belong solely to Aliens?

Thoughts?

Dan
PS. After watching the film "Her" and seeing how quickly an AI couple evolve. … well, it just got me thinking if an AI would be able to become a "grown" craft or if we would rather not make the ships that intelligent.

Kallistra has the Organic Pirate starships.

kallistra.co.uk/?page=22

Bill,

Now THAT'S what I'm talking about!!! Are the "Pirates" humans or aliens?

Dan

If anyone needs a little inspiration, here's some concept art for "Man of Steel":

link

link

link

In that film the Kryptonians almost seem to be a more human-like version of the giant "Engineers" in the film Prometheus, wouldn't you say?

I wish there was a cheap source of stuff like this, that I think could be used to line walls and corridors, to give them a living hive look:

link

Or this:

link

And finish by gluing on a layer of this other material over it:

link

Dan
TMP link

I think this idea is where Science Fiction makes the hyperspace jump to Science Fantasy, especially for creatures/craft like Moya.

Remember that Voyager includes organic components too.

I've envisioned organic star ships where humans travel in sleep cocoons. Their brains in REM sleep and operating the ship and serving as organic computers.

…a while.
-Kle.

Well Hive Fleet Behemoth has just passed through Neptune's orbit……….

I've already said too much.

DM

What about the Wraith ships from Stargate Atlantis? Those were living hive ships.

The graphic novel series Saga has tree rockets. But that series is pretty science fantasy.

How soon before we have spaceships with biological components? As soon as someone figures out how to make a brain talk directly to a computer.

Plug a whale or dolphin brain into the works as an intensely adaptive autopilot, human brain if you need to talk to the passengers.

But major biological structural members? I'm thinking about the 12th of never.

First living ships.. then sentience… then they claim they are a discriminated minority and get welfare…

Or worse, form a union…

The tech is already underway;

link

"tree rockets"

Niven's Slavers had Stage Trees years ago.

Space ships? What for? Not like w3're going anywhere until FTL shows up…

ST: TNG had "Tin Man," a living organic spacecraft encountered in one episode. There was also the "space whales" episode with the giant baby space whale that attached itself to the Enterprise when they accidentally killed its mother.

TOS of course had the infamous space amoeba; not sure if that counts as an organic spaceship, though.

As far as reality goes, we're more likely to create automated ship construction devices and ships with self-repair capability, but they'll still be constructed machines rather than life, as such. We might even develop hulls or other structural elements that "grow" like crystals, but I don't think that's life either. But all of that will be a long time coming.

Organic IS the key phrase, since that's technically (in chemistry and physics, at least; management is a whole other ballgame) carbon-based.

Some carbon allotropes and compounds have amazing qualities, but I'm a bit skeptical about starship structures.

I personally think we might find crystalline structures that exhibit functions we might well consider life, though at extremes (time, temperature, pressure, radiation, etc). Even a fair number of scientists admit to difficulty working with those blinders off.

I dream of intelligent, one-celled, magma whales, but I oft reply 'you say weird like it's a bad thing…'

Doug

I think every major sci-fi franchise has gone there at least to some extent. ST:TNG also had the crystalline entity and don't forget the Cylons in the reimagined BSG.

I think biological machines would suffer from some severe limitations. There is a reason that you don't see animals any larger than elephants or whales in nature:

It just becomes too difficult to adequately support large living structures. Even removed from planetary gravity you have to deal with the inefficiencies of a massive circulatory system, neurological system, and digestive system if it is to be considered a truly living biological entity and not just a machine with some organic components.

Mechanical versions of those systems are far faster, more efficient and generally more robust than their biological counterparts. Machines don't suffer from illness or disease and mechanical failure is generally easier to predict and repair than disease or injury. In any truly living creature there are bound to be organs that can't be simply swapped out or repaired without killing the creature.

It's still a neat concept for an alien fleet though.

In other news, there is this: link

Don Manser: "Well Hive Fleet Behemoth has just passed through Neptune's orbit………. I've already said too much."

LOL. Did it look like this one? (about 45 seconds in)

YouTube link

Dan

Hive Fleet Behemoth has MUCH better sanitary standards!

No such 'infestation' would ever be allowed!

Doug

Maybe this giant jellyfish spaceship will teach us how to duplicate the technology:

link

On a personal note, I would love to let loose a kite/balloon that looked like this:

Dan