Comments on: Orbital Habitat concept had supercomputer, dolphins

By: jparkuntz

jparkuntz — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 21:17:00 +0000

Startide Rising by David Brin, 1983. http://amzn.com/055327418X

Uplifted intelligent dolphin crew

By: Mark Dow

Mark Dow — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 16:53:00 +0000

CD-ROM? Tiny mirrored donuts containing computer code and 3D animations? Ridiculous.

By: brainflakes

brainflakes — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 16:00:00 +0000

What is this? A blitzball stadium for dolphins?

By: Root Simple

Root Simple — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 15:46:00 +0000

See also their clever Media Burn: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U53-Sfnqwss

By: Preston Sturges

Preston Sturges — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 15:42:00 +0000

And the dolphins would be all like “If we want to code we’ll evolve hands OK? And we’re not going to become cheerleaders or football stars so you can live vicariously through us either. We’re just here to screw and chase herring.”

By: robcat2075

robcat2075 — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 15:40:00 +0000

And the dolphins would love to do this, instead of live in a regular ocean.

By: RedShirt77

RedShirt77 — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 15:39:00 +0000

Was he paid, because it doesn’t seem like science was his speciality.

By: Paul Renault

Paul Renault — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 15:35:00 +0000

..dolphins who programmed a supercomputer with “their sophisticated sonar systems.”

That’d be like trying to program in a roomful of other programmers, all of who use wireless keyboards and mouses that all use the same frequency, encryption, and userid settings.

By: nixiebunny

nixiebunny — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 15:13:00 +0000

All you folks questioning the technical feasibility of this idea, please observe the “MEDIA LABORATORY” label in the lower right corner of the illustration. These were not technical guys, they were culture-benders.

By: ffabian

ffabian — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 15:08:00 +0000

… and what’s preventing the giant sphere of water from freezing. Giant scoop of ice with space-dolphin flavor.

By: soylent_plaid

soylent_plaid — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 14:45:00 +0000

But but… dolphins are fish! Magical supercomputer programming fish.

By: bcsizemo

bcsizemo — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 14:45:00 +0000

Looking at a lot of the drawings it appears that the sphere itself “floats” inside a larger dome. (There is a small part in the video about ultrasonic technology that NASA currently uses to manipulate liquids in zero G.) There are several drawings of the dolphins jumping out of the surface of the water…of course what causes them to fall back into the water is beyond me.

By: lavardera

lavardera — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 14:42:00 +0000

Without an air bubble in there you are going to have a lot of dead dolphins.

By: bcsizemo

bcsizemo — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 14:32:00 +0000

I’ve always wondered how one gets a job like that….

-wait..so we are going to suspend a giant ball of water inside a habitat ring using ultrasonic “guns”, and then place dolphins inside said ball of water that rely on ultrasonic sounds to communicate.

By: Preston Sturges

Preston Sturges — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 14:11:00 +0000

Oh wow the Ant Farm! Hadn’t thought of those guys in a while.

By: ffabian

ffabian — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 14:09:00 +0000

Is this some sort of clever artsy prank I don’t get?

By: OtherMichael

OtherMichael — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 13:55:00 +0000

Aaaargh, I missed that he died in 2003. (update: ah, it's in the video around 11:00)