Sapient Ship: Difference between revisions

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Despite the problems that can arise from the setting having a mind of it's own, there are narrative advantages. Having the ship able to take over roles such as pilot, and navigator cuts down on crew requirements (and thus cast size) which in turn cuts down on life support and accommodation requirements, sometimes to the point where a crew may be an optional extra. The level of sentience and independence will determine just how much of an advantage this is.

Not to be confused with [[Setting as a Character]] where the ship is just treated like a character by the cast but isn't necessarily alive. Compare [[Sapient Steed]] which is this trope applied to steeds and smaller vehicles that are used for transport instead of living on. Some ~~[[Sapient Ship|~~Sapient Ships]] are big enough to be [[Genius Loci]]. [[Spaceship Girl]] is a subtrope when the AI creates a humanoid avatar that is an attractive woman. When this is accomplished by plugging a human brain into the computer, it's [[Wetware CPU]].

Not to be confused with [[Setting as a Character]] where the ship is just treated like a character by the cast but isn't necessarily alive. Compare [[Sapient Steed]] which is this trope applied to steeds and smaller vehicles that are used for transport instead of living on. Some '''Sapient Ships''' are big enough to be [[Genius Loci]]. [[Spaceship Girl]] is a subtrope when the AI creates a humanoid avatar that is an attractive woman. When this is accomplished by plugging a human brain into the computer, it's [[Wetware CPU]].

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== Comic Book ==

* ''[[The Authority]]'': The Carrier - a spaceship that, while being made of metal, is fully sapient. However, it has only once spoken directly to anyone (and then it was only to tell hapless assassin Kev Hawkins what a prick he is).

* ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'': The Brood used [[Mind Rape|lobotomized]] [[Space Whale~~|Space Whales~~]] for transport, and the surviving ones at liberty were both sapient and ''not happy at all'' about the situation.

* ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'': The Brood used [[Mind Rape|lobotomized]] [[Space Whale]]s for transport, and the surviving ones at liberty were both sapient and ''not happy at all'' about the situation.

* The original ''X-Factor'' team liberated a Sapient Ship that was enslaved by Apocalypse, named, appropriately enough, Ship, which had a long and varied career in the various X-Titles over the years. It happily became friends with X-Factor after they freed it from Apocalypse, and served as their base of operations, home, and long-range transportation. Ship was a several thousand year old piece of Celestial technology and the size of a large skyscraper, being so huge that, while in it's usual docked location of standing on-end in a building lot, it became a well-known part of the New York City skyline. The physical form of Ship was later destroyed in a final battle with Apocalypse, but the artificial intelligence survived by downloading itself into a small module. It soon traveled into the future with Cyclops's son Nathan, who later became Cable, and the intelligence of Ship eventually became Cable's space station Greymalkin, and then eventually his floating island Providence. At one point a copy of the AI was even downloaded into Cable's techno-organic bionic arm.

** Fantomex's nervous system externalises itself as a UFO-like techno-organic ship called E.V.A.

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== Tabletop Games ==

* ''[[Traveller]]'' adventure ''The Kinunir'': The Kinunir's [[AI]] security system [[2001: A Space Odyssey|goes berserk and kills the entire crew of the ship]]. The [[PC~~|PCs~~]] must deal with it in order to bring the Kinunir home.

* ''[[Traveller]]'' adventure ''The Kinunir'': The Kinunir's [[AI]] security system [[2001: A Space Odyssey|goes berserk and kills the entire crew of the ship]]. The [[PC]]s must deal with it in order to bring the Kinunir home.

* ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'': The [[Our Elves Are Better|Eldar]] ships combine elements of this and the [[Afterlife Express|ghost ship]], with the implanted spirits of the dead giving the ship its own personality.

** Many Chaos ships are infused with Daemons, in many cases giving them sapience. Some extreme examples of this slowly devour, or even forego entirely, human crew.