Re: [GZG] Ixx Psychology & behaviour?

> Most insect races in SF are hive creatures, so a change would be  
> welcome. It would be ironic if their ecological niche (and  
> therefore psychology) was more similar to humans than more humanoid  
> races like the Kravak-- but convergent evolution certainly makes  
> that a possibility.

The whole idea that every arthropod alien species is an insect, and  
usually a hive-dwelling *social* insect at that, is a huge cliché.  
Ants In Spaaaace! It would a nice change to make them individual,  
like the Thranx.

> What kind of planet are they from? If it's an oxygen-rich, low- 
> gravity world, it might explain why invertebrates are so large and  
> successful.

Or maybe, because they're an alien species and not *insects*, their  
evolution solved the problem of gaseous exchange differently, with  
some sort of active lung instead of passive diffusion through those  
pesky spiracles. Of course there's noting to say that their breathing  
apparatus couldn't connect to the outside air through vents in the  
thorax or abdomen instead of through a mouth or nose. This might have  
have interesting implications both technically (space-suit design for  
example) and psychologically (fear of water more than waist deep,  
especially if their average body density was such that they either  
didn't float at all, or floated with their breathing-vents below the  
surface)? I'm stealing ideas from Alan Dean Foster again here, of  
course.

> On another front, when you start stacking population into a volume  
> instead of smearing them over a surface area, even with very	
> generous volumes per passenger you get to pretty ridiculous  
> populations very quickly. Cube vs square functions, after all.

Yes, and they'd have a *huge* heat dissipation problem too. As	
regards worldships, that *is* part of the Ants' (Nest) In Spaaaace!  
thing, but it's still a cool idea. Viscerally, I think I'd favour  
making the worldships non-FTL, while the smaller ("smaller" in this  
context including super-dreadnoughts of course) ships are FTL in the  
"conventional" way.

Best regards, Robert Bryett
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