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Post by Jeff Gerke on Mar 14, 2008 7:54:06 GMT -5
I read this fascinating article about sand dollar larvae that clone themselves when predators are near: www.livescience.com/animals/080313-sand-dollar-cloning.htmlIt made me think how cool it would be for humans to go up against an alien species that cloned itself when endangered. You'd end up with all these little runt clones running around. I even thought it would be funny to have a scene in the alien society. Alien A is talking to Alien B, who has a large number of clones at the house. It's a sign of his cowardice. Alien B sheepishly admits that that one--clone 392--was completely a false alarm. Alien B thought he was having a heart attack and so he cloned himself, but actually it was just heartburn. Seriously, though, it would be fun to watch the humans discover what's going on and try to figure out how to fight it. Or, better yet, how to use it to their advantage and thus save Earth. Jeff |
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Post by rwley on Mar 14, 2008 8:52:08 GMT -5
Maybe their cloning ability is limited to a certain number of uses. After say, ten or twelve, the "mix" starts getting off and the resulting clone is unpredictable. Maybe the thirteenth one is a tree or a puddle of water. Just scare them enough and they clone themselves into oblivion.
Or maybe the clones have expiration dates; you know they come out marked, "Not for use after 1 JAN 2117" or some such.
Q: What does a Bedouin use to buy his tent?
A: Sand dollars
Okay, bad I know (hangs head in shame and posts anyway)
Robi
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Post by Spokane Flyboy on Mar 14, 2008 10:35:24 GMT -5
I know just how to solve this problem. Napalm. Lots and lots of napalm. You can't clone when your clone is fried with you. Sort of like how D&D style trolls can't regenerate when you set their corpses ablaze.
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Post by myrthman on Mar 14, 2008 17:30:02 GMT -5
If only real dollars would clone themselves when danger (in the form of a minus sign) draws near!
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Post by Christian Soldier on Mar 16, 2008 9:29:39 GMT -5
CJ Cherryh covered a similar idea with the Knnn(I mayed have added or missed an "n"). If you haven't read her Chanur Sage, or any of her books for that matter, I highly recommend them. The reason I bring it up at all is that there are always ramifications of such a method of reproduction. i.e. who would be the parent, and would the creature in question care? So and so forth.
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Post by scintor on Mar 20, 2008 22:39:14 GMT -5
As long as you remember that clones are not that parent, you can have a lot of fun with the idea. You idea sounds not like cloning, but budding. Lots of simple life forms use this for reproduction (hydras and ameobas come to mind.) The biggest problem with most clone sci-fi is that people assume that if someone is genetically identical to another, they are somehow the same individual.
They don't realize that you probably know and have met a clone by that definition yourself. If you have ever known or have mat a set of identical twins ... congratulations, you have met clones! Twins are seperate individuals with identical DNA. Tehy have many similarities, but are definately distinct individuald with their own thoughts and identies.
Scincerely,
Scintor@aol.com
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Post by Jeff Gerke on Mar 21, 2008 8:39:08 GMT -5
Good point, Scintor. I make that same distinction whenever I notice that people think the "original's" personality and memory have been cloned, too. Like the idea of cloning Hitler. Bah. Imagine a guy who looks just like Adolf Hitler but has the disposition of Gandhi. Now that sounds fun. Except for the poor clone!
Jeff
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Post by Divides the Waters on Mar 21, 2008 10:44:05 GMT -5
Boys From Brazil comes to mind....
I think if I knew I were a clone of Hitler I would do everything within my power to distance myself visually from him. No short little mustaches, etc.
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Post by scintor on Mar 21, 2008 20:53:44 GMT -5
Twins will often take pains to differentiate themselves from each other during their teenage years. Now imagine if your clone was your parent just how much you would want to show you were not them.
Observing usual human behavior, a world of clones would have people going to extreme lengths to assert their individuality!
Scincerely,
Scintor@aol.com
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Post by Divides the Waters on Mar 22, 2008 1:18:11 GMT -5
I suppose that would mean a lot of budding relationships....
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Post by Christian Soldier on Mar 23, 2008 8:09:31 GMT -5
*facepalms*
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Post by Divides the Waters on Mar 23, 2008 12:36:34 GMT -5
What's the matter, buddy? ;D
Send in the clones....
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Post by stormiel on Oct 22, 2012 2:58:09 GMT -5
Sounds kinda like the Cylons from Battlestar Galactica lol.
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Post by yoda47 on Oct 27, 2012 18:38:02 GMT -5
Kinda reminds me of the Asguard in Stargate SG-1... or the episode where Baal cloned himself...
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Post by newburydave on Oct 28, 2012 15:38:29 GMT -5
If fully developed, warrior clones could be started and harvested in a short time it would be quite scary.
A direct analog is found in Buettner's "The Orphan Series", the "Jason Wander" adventures.
In that novel series humanity is threatened by a planetary sized unipode sentient being who clones sentient pieces of itself and sends them off to colonize the rest of the Galaxy, exterminating all other sentient life as it goes.
These sub-brains cloned 100 kg warrior "slugs", which were sentient extensions of it's own intelligence, at the rate of about 50,000 every twenty or thirty days.
You can imagine that this posed a major problem for the Human troops and space forces trying to defend Humanity and our allied worlds.
It's a very good series if you like space opera. The end of that series is a real surprise (sorry no spoilers).
So this is a plot device that has already been used to good effect.
write on beloved sibs
SGD
dave
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