March 21, 2013

Living Worldships

In Prophet: Remission, a city called Jell City was described as a corpse of a living ship. For all intents and purposes, Jell City was once a sustainable "Worldship" that needed to be "alive" in order to accomplish its primary purpose--to transport passengers and sustain them during transit. It is biodegradable and recyclable. And its usefulness does not end in its death. Rather, upon reaching its destination it continues to serve even as it rots. Its structure providing shelter and sustenance to its inhabitants.

There are a lot of key ideas in that panel and this is the reason why I have fallen in love with Prophet, a wonderful sci-fi comicbook that never ceases to send my imagination careening to exowonders. I am amazed at how the idea of Worldships converges with Living Architectures and how one day these ideas will take us to other worlds.

Lately there has been a lot of discussions about Worldships. A wave of articles flowed after the inauguration of the 100 Year Starship Study. They are listed below for those who are interested about the ideas presented in this post. One may think that these are all just sci-fi and wild imaginations. But there are real people who are pushing the boundaries to make these ideas a reality. such as Rachel Armstrong (@livingarchitect) and Paul Gilster of Centauri Dreams who are passionate about ideas that are stepping stones for humanity's journey to the outer worlds.

100 Year Starship Study - http://100yss.org/symposium/2013
Life Aboard the Worldship - http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=26836
Project Persephone – Living Architectures - http://www.icarusinterstellar.org/projects/project-persephone/
Designing a Sustainable Interstellar Worldship - http://news.discovery.com/space/private-spaceflight/project-persephone-icarus-interstellar-100yss-120920.htm
A Trip To The Living City Of The Future -
http://www.fastcoexist.com/1679275/a-trip-to-the-living-city-of-the-future
Lawless Sustainability: Persephone - http://www.icarusinterstellar.org/lawless-sustainability-persephone/