What Would a Living Planet Be Like.. From Theoretically Possible To Likely Impossible...

[Spacescifi]

Machine Artificiqlly Constructed Planet: Think like the Deathstar from Star Wars, only it is run by an an advanced AI. Theoretically there is nothing in physics that says you cannot do this. However if you wanted a more human thinking intelligence you would likely have to go full transhumanism and start making cyborgs (with brains linked to the planet AI to feed it's intellgence to help it run the machine planet).

Flesh and blood planet: Impossible or actually impossible? Living things need to breath no? Wait. Come to think of it, a flesh and blood planet covered by a watery ocean MIGHT be possible to survive, since there would be a breathable atmosphere above it, and the living planet could breath under water like fish do. Sea creatures could provide it with food provided it did not need to eat too often given it's size. Like any organism the planet would grow over time until it reaches it's adult phase where growth stops (earth size). I do wonder about the large amounts of CO2 a living planet would be venting into the oceqn and what effect that would have on the atmosphere l. I still think an ocean covered planet of flesh with a breathable atmosphere is easier to exist from a physics standpoint than a planet of flesh not covered by an ocean. Simply because an ocean provides both protection and easy access to fish for food.

And before anyone asks how such life could possibly evolve, it would seem more likely that it was designed that way by other intelligent beings. Since the energy alone to even make it would be insane. Especially from a cell division point of view.

My guess is whoever made the planet figured out a way to do nonstop cell division growth without it mutating and killing the organism. So it took it to it to it's max potential and made it into a planet.

Somehow importing an ocean and an atmosphere to cover the planet of flesh to complete it.

 

Thoughts on this?

 

 

[GluttonyReaper]

My immediate thought is something like a planet-spanning algae colony embedded into a rocky planet. If they all share nutrients, some of them can specialise into transmitting 'data' from one place of the planet to another (i.e. neurones), and eventually that might evolve into some kind of actual intelligence. In the end, you might end with something akin to a human mind, but much much slower, with processes taking days rather than milliseconds.

As for evolutionary pressure, the planet could have some extreme weather cycles that are perhaps harmful to the algae, forcing it to develop a kind of weather prediction system to survive as a colony. If it 'detects' a storm or something in one location, it can guess where it might go next and send a 'message' for the algae in the path to prepare in some or another.

[Nuke]

one of the star trek games i played had something like that. old game, i think it was a doom engine game. planet was infested with a macrophage (like the one in the voyager episode, though that came out later). idk which one it was, there were so many and i played most through the ds9 era.

i dont really think a fully organic planet is possible, tissues do not handle heat or pressure well. so you might have an organic skin that only goes down a few hundred meters at most. also organisms are subject to the second law of thermodynamics, so without a food source the planet would wither and die. i suppose it could use photosynthesis and large roots to "mine" mineral deposits, might also have fungal properties in that it can use to digest its own dead tissues. im thinking like the zerg creep or something. the zerg are what you want, all organisms share the same genetic code and together form one big cohesive organism. entire creatures perform the same roles as specific kinds of cells in the body. but at a larger scale.

this does not preclude the possibility of large spaceborne organisms that might have small amounts of gravity but not so much bulk that it crushes itself.  you still need an energy source and access to minerals, so a planet that is 100% living is probibly not likely. unless the organism was capable of some kind of propulsion and perhaps lived in a dense asteroid belt, a planetary ring system, or protoplanetary disk. i dont see such a species being viable in an older more condensed solar system, given the delta-v requirements of the organism.

[AckSed]

In the Orion's Arm shared universe, living planets are all over the place, and are usually normal planets with a substrate of computronium that run godlike AI, either artificial, nanotech-supported or fully biological, depending upon the style at the times of settling. Not full-on fleshworlds, but alive enough that the crust and mantle can be thought of as their 'bones', and the thin skin of the biosphere its brain.

A classic living, naturally-evolved ecosystem in this far-future alt-history is rare, but has happened.

[cubinator]

Earth is a planet with a living layer - In between and inside of the crust and atmosphere is the biosphere. It's all pretty much one thing at that scale.

[Superpluto126]

That depends on your definition of 'Life' and what counts as a Single organism 

The Best thing I can think of would be some sort of plant like organism that learns to feed on both geothermal and solar radiation, with massive roots extending down into the planet and large tree like coverings above the surface. Eventually, if life learned to have some type of Mycelium like network, it could work like a single planetary organism. 

Even more interesting of an idea would be how such organism could spread. If it learns to subsist on geothermal energy its doubtful it could go Extinct without full planetary core shutdown. I'm thinking at some point it could learnt o develop some sort of pod-like seed system that uses an organic chemical reaction to send seeds to other planet, perhaps learning to detect their gravitational pull. That's all speculative, but in theory possible. If its powered by geothermal or solar radiation it should be good as long as it lands on a body with either an active core or Carbon Dioxide, and a rocky planet with one is likely to have both.

[StrandedonEarth]

10 minutes ago, cubinator said:

Earth is a planet with a living layer - In between and inside of the crust and atmosphere is the biosphere. It's all pretty much one thing at that scale.

Especially considering that root systems, especially mycorrhizae fungal root filaments networks, can span huge areas. The largest known system (according to Google) is the 106 acre Pando aspen forest.