Sentient Hive Ships? Hive Ship's OS? Questions about Hives?

[naamiaiset]

In short, Keeper is the most boring job in history.

Joking. Keepers are important, but they are made to be dead-men switches, as evidenced in Rising. And with that knowledge goes another question. Are the Keepers implanted with microchips or wake the Wraith through telepathy?

doesn't seem like a glamourous job.

I'm guessing it's telepathic, like much of wraith control/communication is because the other wraith awaking is almost instant.

[Jarnin]

About Hive Ships:

1. If they are biological/organic, are the hive ships sentient (like animals)? Or are they non-sentient organic/plantlike hulls which can be mind-controlled by the Wraith?

Non-sentient. Imagine having a lobotomy that removes just about all of your brain, but leaves the brain stem, which control autonomic functions. Now imagine an interface that will connect to the brain stem and allow an operator to control the movements of your body, while the brain stem will control all the autonomic systems, like respiration, digestion and so on.

What you end up with is a remote controlled human being. I'm guessing that the hives were grown with only enough brains to allow the whole system to work with the Wraiths interface.

2. Living beings can't just grow hyperdrives. Are the Wraith Hyperdrives installed or are they part of the hive from the very beginning?

I'd wager they're inorganic technology that is "surgically" installed towards the end of the growing phase.

3. Do the Hives have brains? From my opinion, they are something like space crabs outfitted with hyperdrives (the exoskeleton-like hull and all) which means they must have a brain that prolly serves as an OS somewhere.

Explained above. I'd say the computer systems we see on hives are inorganic as well, but are connected to the hives brain stem to control the ship systems.

4. If they are non sentient, how do the Wraith operate the thing without an OS? Do they keep on stationing peeps to control the hive?

They have an OS - derived from the Lanteans OS - which is probably run on a system similar to a Lantean computer. This is why Rodney can interface with Wraith systems so easily; he already familiar with the OS.

5. Do the Hives have autopilot? And if they do, is this controlled by the "brain"?

Explained above.

Look, the hive ship isn't really 100% organic technology. It's a cyborg, with the majority of it's systems being inorganic technology that is merged with an organic hull and possibly some minor organic systems, very much like Cylon base ships. The difference is that there isn't a single cylon hybrid-like Wraith that controls the hive. It has terminals like any other ship would have.

[RM_2000_A]

What if the wires are damaged? Do they undergo the same process as stated in my siggy?

[Sparrow_hawk]

What if the wires are damaged? Do they undergo the same process as stated in my siggy?

Again, all we can do is speculate. I think that if the damage is minor, it may heal itself. Kind of like a human body healing a small cut - the blood vessels and small nerve branches do their own re-anastamosis (reconnection). But if it is major damage, they would need to bypass it until a Keeper could make repairs.

[Wraithworshipper]

I'd wager they're inorganic technology that is "surgically" installed towards the end of the growing phase.

Explained above. I'd say the computer systems we see on hives are inorganic as well, but are connected to the hives brain stem to control the ship systems.

Just a thought, but if, as someone else postulated earlier, the construction of the ship includes organic carbon in it's basic structural form, would this not allow the structure of the ship to grow, much as rib bones grow within the human body?

Wraithworshipper

[RM_2000_A]

But it doesn't eat so it can't grow. I'm not sure it the ship can eat, or not.

[Sparrow_hawk]

But it doesn't eat so it can't grow. I'm not sure it the ship can eat, or not.

This may be a bit of a morbid thought, but it ties in with the idea of the ships eating. I have always wondered whether or not dead Wraith soldiers were re-absorbed by the Hiveship. Then their organic materials could be utilized to repair and maintain the ship.

[RM_2000_A]

Or maybe the human husks are fed/given to the Hive.

[SoulAssassino]

Well, i think that the hives have a basic skeleton, made of "ordinary" non-biological materials, and the bio stuff is grown over it after that. It's just a tougher armor like Shadow and Vorlon ships had. If the wraith use these bio stuff too for computers etc, then they use it. But connecting them together doesn't necessarily give a sentient being. It's just a ship, but built with different, organic materials. I think it's no more than a 304, but that's made of different alloys of trinium etc, wraith ships are made from organic materials.

So my point is, that it's still just a ship, put together from different parts, it has programming, it has the same systems as many other ships. It's not an animal or anything like that.

[RM_2000_A]

But, as stated earlier, hives can regenerate. And it s a know fact that we can, too.

[SoulAssassino]

Yes, they can regenerate, that's the point in using the organic tech. But still, the hull that regenerates is no more than a part of the ships systems, it's still just a tool basically.

[RM_2000_A]

Read all the posts above, and in the first page. See for yourself.

[SoulAssassino]

Read all the posts above, and in the first page. See for yourself.

Don't want to be rude, but what should i see for my self? All of the thread is made of purely the logic, and ideas of the fans. I just posted my opinion, that the hive is still a ship, and because something can regenerate, it's not necessarily sentient. Like a tree. If you make a 304 out of wood, with a hyperdrive and say that it won't fall apart the second it leaves the ground(idiot example i know) that doesn't make it sentient just because it can regenerate.(with giving it good soil and watering it twice a day)

So the hive may use very similar "cables" to the neural pathways, it still may use a computer core that is made to imitate a (for example wraith) brain, but that doesn't make it necessarily a sentient living being. It still can be programmed and still could be used very simnilar to our computers, and interfaced so that the wraith on the ship can operate and command it. The only difference can be that it's not based on crystals or microchips, but on flesh. We don't know. I'm not saying that what everybody else says is wrong. It may be sentient. The only thing i'm saying is that it's not necessarily sentient.

Because it's made of bio-material, it still can be a normal ship like ours, with computers like ours, and no personality or self awareness at all.

[RM_2000_A]

A thing cannot regenerate if it isn't alive, except with nanites. And the Wraith do not have nanites. So the only assumption is that it is biological. It may be maintained by a life-support thingy, but it's obviously alive, and basically a vegetable.

[Sparrow_hawk]

Because it's made of bio-material, it still can be a normal ship like ours, with computers like ours, and no personality or self awareness at all.

I am a little confused. I thought everyone here was agreeing that the ships were non-sentient. As I saw it, the discussion was more about the fusion of organic and inorganic tech to figure out in more detail how the ships function.