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[Glass]

I don’t see how those two are different compared to Budding, just adding intricate detail into how it is done and the sementics.

But intricate details are the entire point!
And besides my proposal makes life here literally robots

[Shadowclaw777]

Heesh, I think the robotic idea is neat and it goes along the same principles as Budding by not making weakening the original “specimen”, as it can be so I will change my vote to...

Construction

[Man of Paper]

Yeah sure, robots.

But imagine how *fukkin weird* it would be to see what a species that sheds like that evolves into on a cultural level.

[Nirur Torir]

I think we could get fission or budding to get a species that naturally transfers its knowledge to its offspring, which might help with multi-disciplinarian scientists and keeping us from losing knowledge like the Imperium does.

[Tyrant Leviathan]

 Budding.

[Powder Miner]

I don’t think the whole robotic idea really appeals to me, actually — I think I would much rather explore silicoid life as silicoid life, rather than making the silicon-robots connection.
Fragmentation

I enjoy the thought of these little rock things just deadass exploding, though I’ll probably change my vote if it’s not a competitive choice.

[Glass]

I think we could get fission or budding to get a species that naturally transfers its knowledge to its offspring, which might help with multi-disciplinarian scientists and keeping us from losing knowledge like the Imperium does.

I think that we could potentially also get my cores to do that, not to mention the possibility of these guys - once they become sapient - starting to literally design their offspring for certain purposes. Imagine, if you would, a spaceship being build to hold a core.

Anyway, votebox!

Code: [Select]

Fission (0)
Fragmentation (1) PM
Budding (2) NG, TL
Sexual (0)
Exotic (Construction) (2) Glass, SC
Exotic (Shedding) (1) MoP

I don’t think the whole robotic idea really appeals to me, actually — I think I would much rather explore silicoid life as silicoid life, rather than making the silicon-robots connection.

Fair enough.

[mightymushroom]

A construction-like idea that's a little less like glorified budding and more "organic" than robots: a specialized organ is extended into the salt- and mineral-laden water surrounding the organism. This organ accretes and orders the initial ingredients for a new life by deposition. (Thus the "core" is not grown directly from the parent's cells.) The organ's chemically convoluted exterior acts like DNA/RNA writ many times over, transcribing a genetic analogue into the child organism's cell structure. As the child shudders into life, it begins to feed itself and grow out its limbs. At some point in development the parent's umbilicus is retracted shed eaten and the child is an independent creature.

Relying as it does on partly re-enacting the original formation of silicon-chlorine cells in a rich ocean medium, this presents obvious complications for colonizing land or barren waters. The next step – if I'm not getting ahead by introducing complications – is to enclose the process within a "womb" that the parent can seed with necessary ingredients.

When and if technology catches up, it will have interesting implications for the ethics of cloning and gene manipulation. After all, every one is both an ex nihilo creation and a copy of its forbears (but not necessarily a perfect copy).

Code: [Select]

Fission (0)
Fragmentation (1) PM
Budding (2) NG, TL
Sexual (0)
Exotic (Construction) (2) Glass, SC
Exotic (Shedding) (1) MoP
Exotic (Accretion) (1) mightymushroom


[MetalSlimeHunt]

Code: [Select]

Fission (0)
Fragmentation (1) PM
Budding (3) NG, TL, MetalSlimeHunt
Sexual (0)
Exotic (Construction) (2) Glass, SC
Exotic (Shedding) (1) MoP
Exotic (Accretion) (1) mightymushroom


[IncompetentFortressMaker]

Code: (Reproduction method for species) [Select]

Fission (0)
Fragmentation (1) PM
Budding (3) NG, TL, MetalSlimeHunt
Sexual (0)
Exotic (Construction) (2) Glass, SC
Exotic (Shedding) (2) MoP, IncompetentFortressMaker
Exotic (Accretion) (1) mightymushroom


This is Bay12, if people aren’t arguing about semantics are you even playing a forum game?

True that. All too true.

[Madman198237]

OK, so, remember that any means of reproduction that *doesn't* combine DNA/an equivalent is going to naturally be less diverse, more prone to speciation (may or may not be a terrible problem, but still), and slower to evolve.

So far, "construction" is interesting but is a little too...tailored for exploitation? I think it'd make more sense if "animals" on our planet tend to be made of a core "alive" and squishy component and a surrounding harder shell that is not necessary "dead" but not as "alive" as the core, if that makes sense. Manipulative bits and all would be various bits of the "shell"; basically the core would be the most basic possible unit of life for any of these species. Loss of the various organs and manipulators and armor that builds up in the outer shell would hurt the creature, but wouldn't be capable of killing it because the core can always sustain itself. Less-intelligent species are made of almost completely identical individuals since they are only capable of replicating an external body plan in their instructions, as life gets more intelligent individuals start to be able to alter their external body plan (quite literally a body plan, as in "blueprints", encoded in our equivalent of genetics) to suit themselves. The more intelligent, the more alterations they can conceive of and build.

Individuals would start with just a core and thus be vulnerable when young, but capable of rapidly beginning to build the shell around themselves. Plant equivalents would perhaps just be immobile forms that often prefer a more defense-oriented shell layer rather than one capable of movement and whatnot?

This core either needs to be produced by more than two individuals, inherit the memories of the individual that produced it (thus technically making our entire biosphere basically immortal by most considerations, I think?), or be capable of doing the thing proposed previously where young individuals group up to make larger more capable ones with more diversity.

[Screech9791]

I feel like we can drop the 40k part of the title until after our civilization starts researching FTL travel, since it's more or less "an evolving pre-sapient alien race is you" right now.

[Glass]

OK, so, remember that any means of reproduction that *doesn't* combine DNA/an equivalent is going to naturally be less diverse, more prone to speciation (may or may not be a terrible problem, but still), and slower to evolve.

So far, "construction" is interesting but is a little too...tailored for exploitation? I think it'd make more sense if "animals" on our planet tend to be made of a core "alive" and squishy component and a surrounding harder shell that is not necessary "dead" but not as "alive" as the core, if that makes sense. Manipulative bits and all would be various bits of the "shell"; basically the core would be the most basic possible unit of life for any of these species. Loss of the various organs and manipulators and armor that builds up in the outer shell would hurt the creature, but wouldn't be capable of killing it because the core can always sustain itself. Less-intelligent species are made of almost completely identical individuals since they are only capable of replicating an external body plan in their instructions, as life gets more intelligent individuals start to be able to alter their external body plan (quite literally a body plan, as in "blueprints", encoded in our equivalent of genetics) to suit themselves. The more intelligent, the more alterations they can conceive of and build.

Individuals would start with just a core and thus be vulnerable when young, but capable of rapidly beginning to build the shell around themselves. Plant equivalents would perhaps just be immobile forms that often prefer a more defense-oriented shell layer rather than one capable of movement and whatnot?

This core either needs to be produced by more than two individuals, inherit the memories of the individual that produced it (thus technically making our entire biosphere basically immortal by most considerations, I think?), or be capable of doing the thing proposed previously where young individuals group up to make larger more capable ones with more diversity.

I like this. Give it a name and I'll put it in the votebox and vote for it.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Madman's point about the superiority of sexual reproduction convinces me. It's categorically better and essential for genetic recombination to occur for us to get a top-tier species before the stars grow cold, and only sexual reproduction can accomplish this here. We can still be weird and alien in the further questions.

Code: (Reproduction method for species) [Select]

Fission (0)
Fragmentation (1) PM
Budding (2) NG, TL,
Sexual (1) MetalSlimeHunt
Exotic (Construction) (2) Glass, SC
Exotic (Shedding) (2) MoP, IncompetentFortressMaker
Exotic (Accretion) (1) mightymushroom


[Kilojoule Proton]

Code: (Reproduction method for species) [Select]

Fission (0)
Fragmentation (1) PM
Budding (2) NG, TL,
Sexual (1) MetalSlimeHunt
Exotic (Construction) (2) Glass, SC
Exotic (Shedding) (2) MoP, IncompetentFortressMaker
Exotic (Accretion) (2) mightymushroom, Kilojoule Proton