Vega Strike Forums

Written notes:

Background is a purple metallic cave.

Central crystal is slightly more complex INTERNALLY-NOT EXTERNALLY. As in, the crystal should have some internal facets. Reason-b/c I will sketch an Ancient computer system that uses external crystals that are very complex, and I don't want the two to look too much alike.

Gotta run, violin audition is in 3 days, and I must practice...

*EDIT-1*

A few more notes-The diamond shaped-things hanging down from the ceiling are the computers/computer-they are all parts of one computer (the string is the computer). They are organic crystals, the computer is a DNA computer. They are semi-transluscent. They have darker purple "veins" running through them.

Here I can't read ANY of the hand-writing.
I still think this should be in the Art & Content forum, where artists will see it and maybe get inspired.

I don't know what a DNA computer is, but I want to emphasize that while biotech is used to create many Rlaan materials, their machines are not alive. Therefore the structural parts of the computer will look organic, but the computer is still a machine that needs power to run, a cooling system to run efficiently, and so on.

Turbo wrote:I don't know what a DNA computer is, but I want to emphasize that while biotech is used to create many Rlaan materials, their machines are not alive. Therefore the structural parts of the computer will look organic, but the computer is still a machine that needs power to run, a cooling system to run efficiently, and so on.

Read this-it looks to me like, while it still needs *some* electricity to run, it is mostly organic. It also looks like it might not be too far-fetched, in that we could have DNA computers in the next 100 years (sure, right. Like that'll happen. ) I think this could be a nice fit for a Rlaan computer type-and a new marketable item. (DNA computer-100000000000 credits .)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_computing

actually, we already could use many wetware components.. biologicals do conduct electricity.. there are bio LEDs..

but anyway :p yay tech.

Turbo wrote:I don't know what a DNA computer is, but I want to emphasize that while biotech is used to create many Rlaan materials, their machines are not alive. Therefore the structural parts of the computer will look organic, but the computer is still a machine that needs power to run, a cooling system to run efficiently, and so on.

Actually that's not entirely true. The wiki says:

". . .parts of the life support system are made from arguably living material, and the automated repair systems rely upon living organisms. . ."

So they do use living machines. It also says:

"the Rlaan are rather behind humanity in their exploration of both artificial intelligence and tightly integrated biomechanical systems, having sufficed with loosely coupled designer organisms."

So it is possibly they'd use some form of biocomputers.

Thanks for the link to the DNA computer, very interesting.

Having machine components that include living material is not the same as having living machines. Here is a contemporary example:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sewage_tre ... ted_sludge
The automated repair systems are a good Rlaan example -- a bio-applicator sprays a gel of microorganisms that create a scab of organically-derived armor plate over whatever had a hole in it. While the bio'

But maybe we're splitting hairs...which are only alive at the follicle. I was basing my input on some emphatic statements JackS made about ship design a year or three ago...which I can no longer find via Search. And I inadvertently caused us to get away from the original topic.

So...looking forward to the new drawing!

Maybe not for the Rlaan, but an interesting little bit on a sort of organic computer:

http://news.discovery.com/tech/slime-mold-computer.html