RE: Bio-Forces

On Wednesday, November 05, 1997 10:31 AM, Deeply in Love with Dot 
[SMTP:jw4@bolton.ac.uk] wrote:
Status: RO

>  Surely a race that can't survive in <1G environments is actually
going to
> have a pretty hard time conquering the universe?

It depends on what you term 'conquering'. Nuking all the
one G planets containing those annoying carbon lifeforms and
living on the low G ones could count as 'conquering'

The guild navigators in Dune are large live in low G tanks
and have the whole universe sown up. Not by conquest
but by economic monopoly.

> Whose to say? Basic chemistry is. Something like plasma has a VERY
nasty
> effect on biosystems at a very low level. I have distinct problems
> believing anything can be grown/secreted that can stand having to cope
with
> something that hot or that radioactive. Carbon based materials would
simply
> dissolve at a molecular level in the heat. If you are talking about
> non-carbon based life then I'm not sure the term 'biological' applies
any
> more.

OK the point about what is 'biological' is moot, if we define it as
carbon based life then there are I agree some limitations that
might have to apply.

You could dream up a system that used bio-electicity to
generate a magnetic bottle, but perhaps it is stretching it.

> I can stand believing there are biosystems that can cope with the
pressure
> levels required to hurl things long distances. I can cope with nasty
acid
> bullets, viral cell disintegrator bombs, railgun fletchette sprays
> (presuming someone can explain how a bioorganism could generate a
practical
> alternating magnetic field) but plasma weapons? No way. I can't see
how
> such a weapon could evolve as an organism if the first generation
model
> would dissolve into vapour the moment it kicked in.

OK maybe plasma was an over exaggeration, to make a point
that we shouldn't just think about terrestrial biological
systems.

>
> So, basically, I can see  how an advanced race based around
biotechnology
> could make an effective fighting force (and god help you if they got
within
> arm reach) but Plasma / Fusion / Fission weapons? Sorry, no can do.
>
OK

Another interesting idea is speed. As in Aliens speed made them
very nasty as it allowed them to get into effective range
before you could whack them. In the book by Larry Niven
'Legacy Of Heroroot' (sp) he designed a super fast armoured
beastie that could do about 0-60 in 1 second, which meant
even if you had guns it was on you before you knew it.

It had super oxygenated blood that allowed it to have
bursts of tremendous speed. If you then had superior
numbers then I think the force would be effective, even
if it just had claws and acid sprays. Image a  WW1
trench attack where one side could run at 100mph, nasty.

sincerely
tim jones
--
The stars are matter, We're matter, But it doesn't matter.