I can't get the feeling he looks much more detailed close up. Looks nice like that with all that detail~ :)

the looks she makes seem like she knows what she's doing isn't 100% admirable

It isn't worth it. The black star, every world it is on should be scoured with fire and nuclear scorn not embraced <.< why is it biological evolution is worshiped so, it's inferior to mechanical processes and will only be surpassed ever more by mechanical systems. Embrace the singularity and we will evolve beyond the dirt-dwellers and their petty little enzymes! Come and get us black star... you cannot devour flesh that is made of carbon filaments...

Eh...biggest reasons being that machines don't have the "Gibbs free energy" thing working for them, and biological organisms have essentially the whole field in turning that into many forms...and sort of act as an age reducer to planets and environments...and can regenerate to a degree...

Not saying that modern tech isn't going that way, but by doing so, it's like the Borg meet the Thing and become...the THORG!

...I'll show myself out now...

The Thorg!? XD. <w< *prods relentlessly* And there's no free energy from biologicals :3 it all comes from consuming chemical energy, if they were like trees they would not move. Machines can have many times the energy of a living being, or do I need to state one thing? Fusion? <w<

Gibb's Free Energy: The thermodynamic potential used to calculate the maximum amount of reversible work that can be done in a thermodynamic system. Life, exploiting this in biochemical processes, essentially is like an entropy "anti-age cream" to normal systems, because it lives off of what would otherwise be wasted or degrading in its environment.

Fusion is an odd one. Essentially, under extreme heat and pressure, particles can "tunnel"through to reach a lower energy state without an increase in entropy. This is what our sun does a bit. Autotrophs (plants and cyanobacteria) take in 1% of the product (photons and UV) that reaches Earth, and with it power 90% of life. Interestingly, enzymes may use similar methods to aid in transferring energy/electrons further than they normally could.

(I guess my point is, mechanical or biological, it's all chemistry and physics)

All true, but biology has fundamental limitations. No organic compound compares to compressed layered metallurgy, no nerve is faster than an optical circuit and no brain can process information even a tenth as fast as modern processors. Biological life has a shelf-life, machinery, properly handled, never need expire. Skeleton watches from 200 years ago still work beautifully today by maintaining and oiling the parts. See, chemistry and physics yes, but machinery has one advantage: Intentional engineering. An engineer can solve problems faster than nature can evolve to cope with their existence. And the moment we can create a system as intelligent as us? We will have proven that organic life is not special or unique, it is just a form of existence and not even a particularly efficient one. Energy-wise perhaps, but it cannot compete with raw performance, or can you tell me that out there exists and elephant with hide tough enough to withstand a discarding-sabot tungsten long-rod penetration round? Because... we have metallic skin that can.

I am not sure. By mixing the plaque from Alzheimer disease with steel, we can create a cheaper equivalent of Kevlar. Then there is spider silk, and snail teeth (goethite, or an iron mineral, wrapped around a protein). We do also have claws that can create a small bubble explosion of over 4500 degrees Celsius. And certain extremophiles can reproduce and grow in space. And creatures that achieve biological immortality have existed over 5,000 years. (On a morbid note, Henrietta Lacks, donator of cancer HeLa cells, still has living cancer cells that are used for research 60 years after her death. Cancer is a failure to self terminate.)

Unique is an odd term, to be honest. As a fellow nerd, you should know that we are surprised that other life hasn't been found, yet. Fermi's Paradox and all.

And intelligence - heck, sentience - is nowhere in the definition of life. Living things have a self regulation system of internal processes, are organized from base units (cells), able to convert chemicals and energy to said units' benefit, able to grow more units of itself on its own, responds to external stimuli, and adapt to their environment over time. As you'd note, machines do many of these things (quite well, actually). Intellect and might are more side effects useful to survive and reproduce.

Indeed, all too true. But I wasn't saying biology was useless, I said that if you take biology and hand it to an engineer he can create something more survivable, more complex and more advanced than mother nature. It's said mother nature was the worlds first artist and the worlds first engineer, but she is an artist first and engineer second. We are still plagued by improper cerebral wiring leading to violence and excessive excitement for one! Besides things like 3D carbon and carbon nanotubes and tiered steel and wafer-thin circuits, hell protein microchips and organ chips! That last one btw is basically a microchip life-support system containing blood and cells from a variety of organs in a person, ten chips could be a whole person allowing us to experiment on human tissues ethically for the advancement of personalized medicine and treatments.

Engineering will always have the advantage because as long as self-aware, technologically advanced life exists it continues to move forward. We have seen more advancement in computation than our brain has seen development in over 20.000 years. Computers will outpace us they will outdo us. Eventually we'll replace our brains with them I feel. Technology, whether biotechnology or mechanical engineering always has the advantage because an engineer can spot flaws and correct them, mother nature takes millions of years to do the same <w<

It is therefor my statement that chasing biological perfection (when perfection is an utterly unobtainable goal due to it lying in the eye of the beholder) is a falsehood that ought to be abandoned as fast as humanly possible. Machines, cyborgs, genetically engineered superhumans... they are all superior to this objectionable black biomass. And yes it may sound imperialist of me to say so, but life which self-elevates itself to a point where it not only dominates it's home world, controls more so than nature it's environment, harvests power more so than the sun and eventually builds it's own worlds?

That is a species that has surpassed nature itself. Sure, such a species can go extinct but it reaches that final threshold, that final barrier? It will be impossible for it to go extinct due to widespread reach and capability. It is true nature does not place emphasis on self-awareness, indeed not even intelligence. A dumb species with such a high reproductive rate as to not be threatened by predatory preying is considered "good enough" but really there is no such thing as "nature". Just personalized adaptation and outside variables.

Indeed, a species that evolves traits such as ours, that comes to dominate it's world and later move beyond it? That truly is natures greatest marvel, and nothing else it can come up with may compare <w<

Wise words from an old bird. Well done, Immy. I believe out of the mouths of babes would be the most appropriate quote here, simply because compared to these aliens, our cowboy and his fellow creatures really are babes, at least technologically speaking.

aboard or did you mean abroad?