Sapient Ship: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

Some [[Cool Starship|space ships]] aren't just big pieces of metal that happen to fly through the stars. Some can think intelligently, and even interact with the other characters. Sometimes the ship is a true example of [[Mechanical Lifeforms]]. Sometimes this occurs because of an advanced AI in the case of a mechanical ship. Sometimes the ship is actually a [[Organic Ship|living being]]. Occasionally the ship is a hybrid of the two with a [[Wetware CPU|living being]] grafted on to a ship to the point where they [[Cyborg|become one entity]]. Whether the ship is actually alive or not is generally a matter for the work in question to resolve.

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.

 

 

{{examples}}

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* ''[[Infinite Ryvius]]'': The Vaia Ships are mostly technological, but each has a living [[Space Whale|Vaia]] at its core. The Vaia are sapient, though only one is a full-fledged [[Spaceship Girl]].

* ''[[Outlaw Star]]'': the titular ship has a sapient onboard AI, but must also be connected to the [[Spaceship Girl]] Melfina. Near the end of the series, {{spoiler|Hazanko's mind and body fuse with his spaceship, forming partially-biological version of this trope}}.

* ''[[Micronauts]]'': [[Robot Buddy|Biotron]] was at one point rebuilt into a [[Living Ship]]-slash-[[Humongous Mecha]] called Bioship. Bioship was a cyborg, utilizing [[Organic Technology]] in his workings.

* The ''[[Transformers Classics]]'' story "Cheap Shots" features a sentient (non-transforming) space battleship looking for her kidnapped [[Psychic Link|binary-bonded]] organic pilot.

 

 

* ''[[Berserker (Literature)|Berserker]]'': are giant space ships that are programmed to [[Omnicidal Maniac|kill every form of life in the universe]]. They are quite good at it, but don't consider themselves "alive" due to not being organic.

* ''Nightingale'': the titular hospital ship in [[Alastair Reynolds]]' short story is sapient. Also, the {{spoiler|''Nostalgia For Infinity'' after the melding plague takes over.}}

* ''[[Trader Team]]'': stories center on the crew of the ship Muddlin' Through, largely run by the ship computer, Muddlehead.

* ''[[The Culture]]'': The Culture's ships are living ships; self modifying, self repairing and with godlike Minds.

* ''[[Star Wars Expanded Universe]]'': various space ships that are operated by droid brains.

* ''[[Nights Dawn Trilogy]]'': there are both spaceships (Voidhawks and Blackhawks) and habitats (that can be tens of kilometres long) that are [[Organic Technology|alive]] and sapient, based on "bitek".

* ''[[Wild Cards]]'': the Takisians use and breed sapient (or semi-sapient) ships. Dr. Tachyon's ship - which he named "Baby" - regenerates its "ghost drive gland" over a period of years or decades, after he burned it out trying to go real fast.

* ''[[Hyperion Cantos]]'': The Consul's "singleship" is piloted by an AI (and lacks obvious manual controls).

* [[Star Trek]] novel ''Memory Prime'': introduced the concept that every once in a while, a starship's computer would gain sentience. The mind would thus be moved to the huge computers at, well, Memory Prime, to help support the Federation.

* ''[[Path of the Fury]]'': the protagonist steals a [[Cool Ship]] that can only be run by an AI that imprints on and merges with the mind of its pilot; she winds up with Megarea, a smart-mouthed and unusually independent version of same.

* ''[[Remnants]]'': "Mother" is a sapient starship. Unfortunately, {{spoiler|after having been abandoned by her creators for centuries, she's also kind of ''insane''.}}

* ''[[Blake's Seven|Blakes Seven]]'': the starship Liberator is fully sapient but entirely mechanical. In the recent audiobook remake/reboot of the series, the ship is at least partly [[Organic Technology|biological]] and {{spoiler|considerably more sinister, attempting to assimilate the crew into itself and being rather predatory in its attempts to survive.}}

* ''[[Lexx]]'': the titular ship is mostly (and often gruesomely) biological. It can speak directly to its crew, and its hobbies include blowing up planets. Strangely enough, it even reproduces at the end of the series, spawning a smaller light-white version of itself when it dies...of old age. Since Little Lexx has no mechanical parts added to the hull or machinery of any kind like the original's cryo-pods and moth breeder bay, it's likely that the non-organic elements were added to the original as it was growing. Little Lexx even has a glowing angler horn.

* ''[[Hitch Hikers Guide to The Galaxy|The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy]]'': The spaceship Heart Of Gold is maintained by Eddie, a Sirius Cybernetics Corporation computer with a sickeningly cheerful and optimistic programmed personality. Other equally unlikable computers have been installed to run other functions on the ship as well, right down to automated doors run by programs that live for the chance to open and close for someone. At one point Zaphod discovered that Eddie had an emergency backup personality - unfortunately, it was worse.

** There was also a police ship which committed suicide after talking to [[The Eeyore|Marvin]].

** The original AI for the Babylon 5 station itself was apparently sentient. It also had an extremely surly and abrasive personality so it was disabled in favour of the basic AI seen for most of the show. One episode had the original AI inadvertently reactivated. It drove the crew to distraction.

* ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'': The Cylons of the 2004 re-launch despite being mechanical in appearance, the Base Stars are controlled by a humanoid cylon that is fully integrated into the ship. They're a bit on the "crazy" side though. {{spoiler|The Centurions and fighters also have the ''capability'' to become sapient, but are intentionally kept at significantly lower levels of intelligence to keep them inline, making them [[Organic Technology]] for most of the series.}}

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* ''[[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.

** [[Mystara]]'s ''Princess Ark'', an Alphatian airship which explored that setting in the pages of ''Dragon'' magazine, became this trope after it was bonded with the spirit of a powerful aerial creature.

* ''[[Paranoia]]'' has warbots (tanks, up to and including the [http://gmftp.paranoia-live.net/GreyMist08s_Props/Acute/MAMSM4/GR000003.JPG Mark IV]) and flybots (aircraft).

 

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Mass Effect]]'':

** {{spoiler|Sovereign, an enormous dreadnought of unknown origin, is initially thought to be just a ship (though an unimaginably powerful one). It later turns out that it is actually a sapient entity, vanguard of the mysterious [[Eldritch Abomination|Reapers]], [[Abusive Precursors|who return every 50,000 years to eradicate all spacefaring civilizations in the Galaxy.]]}}

* ''[[Albion]]'': The Toronto mining ship, NED, the computer operates everything with the crew's main purpose is maintenance or operating individual equipment, and the ship itself is described to function similarly to a living organism, settling on the surface of a planet and using a percentage of the mined materials to grow and eventually cover and exhaust the entire planet.

* The Cetans in ''[[Perfect Dark]]'' are implied to be this, although gameplay-wise, the Cetan ship you explore doesn't really do anything.

* Opa-Opa of ''[[Fantasy Zone]]''. It is even a playable character in ''[[Sega Superstars|Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing]]'', racing as itself.

 

 

== Web Comics ==

* ''[[Beyond Reality]]'': Sebastian is the A.I. for a dimension traveling flying pirate ship.

 

* ''[[Futurama]]'' episode "Love and Rocket": the Planet Express Ship gets a new AI, which quickly falls in love with Bender.

* In ''[[Transformers Animated]]'', it turns out that Optimus's team's ship is {{spoiler|Omega Supreme, one of the largest bots created in the previous war who can transform into a ship}}. For most of the first and second seasons, he was in stasis lock and therefore was not sentient until Ratchet revived him with the help of Sari's key.

 

{{reflist}}