I’m a big fan of Warhammer 40k, and one of the species in this series are Orkz, which are humanoid and sentient colonies of fungi. I think it would add interesting flavor if we could see mobile and sentient fungoids or plantoids. What is your opinion on this?
How would they have enough energy to move, or have high level cognitive processes? Wouldn’t they just end up turning into animals that consume plant matter and turn it into energy in order for them to have enough energy to move?
I imagine creatures like that using it mostly for endurance for when not much food is around, so they have a little bit more time to find food?
There are carnivorous plants here on earth so I think it would be theoretically possible for mobile fungi species but they would lack any serious cognitive powers unless the species functioned like the “Flood” from halo and had one large immobile “Brain” or “Queen” that would somehow convey information to and from the other members of the species.
P.S.
A Flood like species would be a pretty badass addition to the game! I might add one to the lore page if I have the time.
From what I understand, photosynthesis isn’t very efficient. It converts very little light into glucose. That’s because plants on earth get enough energy from sunlight and haven’t really bothered to evolve it any further.
It wouldn’t be entirely madness to suggest that perhaps some kind of alien plant would have evolved a more efficient form of photosynthesis to sustain itself and even powerits potentially high level cognitive processes.
As for fungoids, they could probably work roughly the same as normal animals. Getting nutrients by just old-school consuming other things.
Here is the fungoid Ork by the way. They have been bioengineered somewhat by the most advanced species in the 40k universe.
This may be somewhat unrelated, but I have always woundered how creatures like slime molds would fit into a game like this? However they might be able to provide an general idea of how some cells that are technically fungus or plant cells could form togeather into a complex organism that can move.
Fungi are heterotrophs (they eat other organisms), so energy consumption is not an object. Perhaps these organisms would just have lots of binding agents and reproduce by budding.
Fungi are know to form colonial systems similar to nervous ramifications when in large amount of land.
They cannot move, but the entire colony can react to the harm of one subsection and adapt to it so there’s that.
Also, some fungi develop symbiotic relations with other species (lichen for example), so maybe they could live on the back of some mobile animal and provide protection against some kind of parasyte or infection (if that exists in the game).
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With the fungoid I think you guys are on the ball but my idea with the plants is that once the resources required for the plant thins (i.e. soil becomes infertile), the plant could be able to expel a significant amount of energy to move a distance away to someplace more abundant.
This would not make sense though seeing as it would be just plane better to produce seeds that could travel long distances and find fertile soil. If plantlife were to become mobile this would not be the reason for it.
I’m going to go and talk a bit about this example because it needs a bit of explaining. Just what was given here doesn’t really tell the full story.
Orks, by the nature, were created for warfare. Created. They are an artificially created lifeform, made by what are called The Old Ones, either through direct manipulation or some other method. The lore does not give a definitive answer.
Thus, given their purpose, their reproductive processes were made so that wherever the Orks went, they’d be almost impossible to exterminate. They’d be almost impossible to recreate naturally through Thrive’s proposed gameplay regarding plants.
Here are a few bullet points to consider about the Orks reproductive cycle:
1. Orks produce spores. They spread them throughout their lives through shed skin and even more upon their death.
2. These spores require shade to grow, precipitation not apparently a factor in it.
3. These spores produce more than just more Orks, depending on the conditions they are in they also produce regular mushrooms as well as other creatures that are collectively referred to as “Orkoids”, of which there are 4 types (These also produce spores):
Squigs, which are typically represented as spheroid creatures about the size of a house cat with 2 legs and a giant gaping mouth about the whole width of the creature, though this can vary depending on select breeds. They are a dangerous creature, usually cultivated by the Orkoids as livestock and other purposes.
Snotlings, or “Snots”, which are a diminutive creature with an intelligence level comparable to a toddler. They are usually the first to arrive along with the squigs and prepare an area for proper Orks to show up, usually by making more space for the spores to grow in.
Gretchin, or “Grots” are a bit of a step-up from Snots, with a bigger level of intelligence (Though still nowhere close to an adult human). They will be the ones usually relegated to building stuff, usually under the (Occasionally very real) heel of an Ork master.
Orks, the subject of this discussion. Ork physiology is actually the complex interweaving of two symbiotic organisms that have been genetically linked by the greenskins’ original creators: one strain is comparable to a terrestrial animal and the other to an algae or fungus living within the former’s bloodstream and skin. They are omnivorous, but it is speculated that their skin contain some sort of algae that might allow them to photosynthesize when food is scarce. This would also explain their green skin which would be impossible to explain through just their partly fungal nature (It’s described as a symbiotic physiological and genetic relationship as a result of their creation) as fungi do not have chlorophyll.
I suggest that anyone interested in these creatures check out this video: Orks: War Is Life - Luetin09
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I know this post is old, but what if a plant was basically just WING and could glide all the time, it could use a tiny bit of energy for staying in the air, and the rest for being big brain.
I still don’t see how you are going to power a brain with that. There’s a reason a thread saying that plant civs is a worse idea than underwater civilizations exists.
I mean W I N G when I say that, it would have a ton of surface area, enough to power a brain.
Here’s a quick calculation showing how it is problematic:
Sunlight reaching Earth surface = 340 W (Climate and Earth’s Energy Budget)
Photosynthesis efficiency = 3-6% (Photosynthetic efficiency - Wikipedia)
Human energy consumption = 100 W, brain is already 20 W (Power of a Human Brain - The Physics Factbook)
So we have plants energy per square meter = 340 * 0.06 = 20.4
And from that we get the surface area = \frac{100}{20.4} = 4.9019...
So to power a human you need 5 square meters of photosynthesis surface in sunlight. Compare that to the total area of a human that is 1.9 m^2 (https://www.medicinenet.com/body_surface_area/definition.htm) and you should see the problem.
This has been the point the entire time, you need a ton of surface area just dedicated to be in direct sunlight all the time to get enough energy. And you need some structure to support that surface area so you end up with a problem where you need to constantly increase your size to increase the fraction of your body you can use for photosynthesis for sentient plants to be possible.
I don’t know why I went through the effort to calculate this…
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Yes, i know, but the creature could have so much surface area from being basically a giant wing that it could do this
Show me. Show the math that you can make something like that fly on an Earth like planet and with enough structural integrity to work. This is literally as bad as the underwater stuff where someone suggests stuff like thermite, when we have had to develop industrial processes for a long time to be able to make that.
Once there is late multicellular i will prove to you that it will work
You need to prove it outside the game. If it turns accidentally possible (also the case for underwater civs), we’ll tweak the game to make sure we follow how things would really work and prevent it from happening in the game.
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I don’t see how you think a human brain with >5 square meters worth of wing surface area isn’t possible.
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