Post ApjSqK5A9U61d57bSi by rayhindle@mastodon.social
(DIR) More posts by rayhindle@mastodon.social
(DIR) Post #Apiqa9g5GtEqT8FrNo by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-01-04T00:56:20Z
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Consider: space faring army ants that wear space suits that can be connected together to make temporary habitats (space bivouac) as well as various shuttles, long distance transports, and manufacturing/mining bases.As always they are in conflict with the more sedentary ants, who like to build large permanent space habitats and terraform planets. Yes the space army ants tear through a region and strip it of all valuable information, minerals, culture, and food... but they aren't evil.
(DIR) Post #ApiqoiLPBAFC2UWb1E by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-01-04T00:58:56Z
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I get so tired of the "swarm" species always being the bad guy in scifi stories. In rainforests army ants are keystone species and very important to ecological balence.
(DIR) Post #Apir0c4aJzIQ42KaGG by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-01-04T01:01:04Z
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OK it's a little challenging to pull off, but that's what makes it interesting IMO.
(DIR) Post #Apir5XHDa5cwdXaTnU by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-01-04T01:02:01Z
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It's always a "swarm of self replicating cubes and or insect aliens" that's ruining everything. Every single time.
(DIR) Post #ApirFxh6DUAhSsfGpE by aka_quant_noir@hcommons.social
2025-01-04T01:03:49Z
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@futurebird Yeah the products of individualistic, profit driven techbros are always the most evil.
(DIR) Post #ApirX22HKNl3qwi7iy by jgodfrey@ohai.social
2025-01-04T01:06:55Z
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@futurebird Check out Amazon's Secret Level - Season 1 Episode # 6 - a very different creepy entity that is not hive-mind.
(DIR) Post #Apis8GMd1DPR0PyxsG by tsherrygeo@m.ai6yr.org
2025-01-04T01:13:40Z
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@futurebird but according to Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky, the Space Spiders beat the ants, incorporate them into their economic structure and eventually make the ants an organic computer.
(DIR) Post #ApisBhcG9VTQOZvxJI by martin_piper@mastodon.social
2025-01-04T01:14:18Z
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@futurebird Deep Space 9 had Federation self replicating mines in space. They were on the good side.
(DIR) Post #ApisZ6HAdLlNXME6O8 by IngaLovinde@embracing.space
2025-01-04T01:18:28Z
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@futurebird that's because they're extrapolating from humans. Imagine if techbros (and of course it would be tech bros who invent "self-replication") were self-replicating and spacefaring and swarming... oh the horror!
(DIR) Post #ApisxMIwgupkCOckxk by Moss@beige.party
2025-01-04T01:22:53Z
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@futurebird That opens the door to so much more universe-building! After all, the army ants do their strip mining of the rainforest but there’s an entire system of rebuilding entities that fill in where they’ve been. So yes we can write the resource extracting mobile colonies, but to show their non-villainous nature we must also “fill the vacuum” with their systemic counterparts.
(DIR) Post #ApitYFVQvmiZpP3WRU by drexer@ciberlandia.pt
2025-01-04T01:29:32Z
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@futurebird if you want a story where the swarm is the villain, BUT there is some introspection about how the swarm entity was formed and thinks and there is some ending possibility of change I recommend Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained.Not quite a swarm in that conventional way, but very much an "hivemind" concept.
(DIR) Post #ApiwY9i2mZLviFbLJA by trachelipus@masto.ai
2025-01-04T02:03:10Z
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@futurebird Most evil swarms in SF make no ecologic sense to me. If the swarm is so unstoppable, why hasn't it expanded beyond the carrying capacity of its niche and starved? If it's so dangerous, how did the hero's species survive long enough to become something organized and sentient enough to fend off the swarm?
(DIR) Post #ApjLnrApxkSjiGeWnY by Divorytaur@mastodon.social
2025-01-04T06:46:05Z
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@futurebird ‘Ant’htrpomorph
(DIR) Post #ApjSqK5A9U61d57bSi by rayhindle@mastodon.social
2025-01-04T08:04:59Z
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@futurebird I'm sure these girls could do it?
(DIR) Post #ApjUbRIBGN9bYUF1TE by Benhm3@mastodon.social
2025-01-04T08:24:43Z
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@futurebird Hey, when the species publishing the books has a “Great Man Fallacy” it’s inevitable they will villainize cooperation and collaboration.
(DIR) Post #ApjVRBKZqtCz6u2EaW by benroyce@mastodon.social
2025-01-04T08:34:01Z
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@futurebird it's just professional jealousyus hominids- us mammals, spend an inordinate amount of time bickering about hierarchy, sex, food, autonomythe idea of all of that energy instead going to survival and expansion as one coherent internal conflict free group is alternatingly exhilarating and terrifying to us
(DIR) Post #ApjYCdHFxuiDIsEgE4 by Pineywoozle@masto.ai
2025-01-04T09:05:03Z
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@futurebird Did you ever read The Wandering Inn series?
(DIR) Post #ApjjN9XRyNU9ke1sTg by ozof@beige.party
2025-01-04T11:10:13Z
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@futurebird i never thought they 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 in Phase IV (1974)
(DIR) Post #ApkKo41GIVoikyfWiW by memory@m.blank.org
2025-01-04T18:09:40Z
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@futurebird there’s an early TNG episode where Wesley accidentally creates a swarm of intelligent nanites and after the crew finally figure out how to communicate with the swarm they agree to just let the swarm have an uninhabited planet. It’s… not a great episode (I did say “Wesley” after all) but it’s the only example I can think of!