'Dune' Gets a Sequel

[Justo Miranda]

Science fiction and fantasy authors have explored sky whales several times.There was a science fiction re-write of “Moby Dick” that featured sky whales flying over a desert planet. Sorry but I cannot remember the author’s name, just that he was a better story-teller than Herman Melville.

K.W. Jeter featured lighter-than-air “angels” in his novel “Farewell Horizontal.” They were slender humanoids that featured an extra set of external “lungs” - aft of their rib cages - that helped them fly outside a huge skyscraper. The extra “lungs” were filled with an un-named lifting gas … perhaps hydrogen since the novel setting is a near future earth.

When you consider the physics and physiology, a sky whale only needs a few bones - to carry compression loads - and those bones would need to be hollow and filled with air … like bird bones. The rest of the structure/body can be in tension or tension provided by internal gas pressure.
The simplest way to generate lifting gas is methane filtered out of intestines. Perhaps add an extra organ (re-purposed appendix?) with an extra enzyme evolved to filter hydrogen????

Internal pressure could be maintained by a set of ballutes which are airbags/swim bladders that regulate hull/torso pressure to keep blimps stiff. A soft structure can be made to appear rigid as long as the outer skin is stiffened by internal pressure.

I wrote the first draft of a fantasy novel/alternate history that involves a pair of wandering Vikings encountering a slumbering sky whale. The startled sky whale dumps ballast … er … poop to fly away.
Hah!
Hah!

Finally, consider that imagined sky whales do not necessarily live on a planet with earth’s atmosphere or gravity. I suspect that when humans finally meet another species on another planet, that they will not recognize a lighter-than-atmosphere species floating around in the heavy atmosphere of a gas-giant planet.

I don't think it's a good idea to make whales fly, maybe in the future an AI will be able to stimulate their huge brains to teach them to levitate,,,but think about droppings.

 

[uk 75]

If you want flying mammals I want Polar Bears but the droppings might violate the NBC Treaty.

 

[TomcatViP]

To double down on Villeneuve and the Greedy vague , here is a report on the relatively modest budget for this kind of Epic story, especially when seen as a function of the massive crew and COVID event.

Dune: Part 2 Proves That Movie Budgets Have Gotten Out of Control

If Denis Villeneuve can make sandworms work for less than $200 million, then so can you.

nordic.ign.com

And below, one particular set as example:

Star Wars: most profitable films 2023 | Statista

Released in 1977, 'A New Hope' was the first film in the Star Wars franchise and had a production cost of 11 million U.S. dollars.

www.statista.com

 

[Justo Miranda]

And poor van Gogh only sold one painting in his entire life

 

[riggerrob]

What if Dune's sand-worms emit air from their noses ... like the Russian naval torpedoes that blow some kind of gas out the front end to break up bow waves at high speeds?

 

[Rhinocrates]

I don't think it's a good idea to make whales fly, maybe in the future an AI will be able to stimulate their huge brains to teach them to levitate,,,but think about droppings.

Might be good for the ecology.

Sciencespeak: Whale Pump

Whales can poop almost anywhere they want. They have the entire ocean to relieve themselves in, so most of the planet can theoretically be their toilet. Yet, despite having a near-universal lavatory pass, cetaceans often relieve themselves near the surface. In the words of marine biologists Joe...

www.nationalgeographic.com

 

[Yellow Palace]

One thing Herbert was unable to explain - why nobody tried to just lure worms away from harvesting operations?

Because the worms are not a rational creature that exists within an evolutionary and biological environment, but rather a plot device on a par with mind control, precognition, and faster-than-light travel.