Eating Aliens

[Rory1237]

I'll have my Blorg served up with garlic and butter!

Haha, I'm not sure anyone would want to eat a blorg. Repulsive creatures. Ugh and the hugs they try to force on me...

 

[Connor]

 

[Ultimuh]

Haha, I'm not sure anyone would want to eat a blorg. Repulsive creatures. Ugh and the hugs they try to force on me...

You should really try a slice along with some red wine. Absolutely exquisite.

 

[PichuTrainer]

 

[Rory1237]

 

[Druesling]

Why not huting space amoebas and eat those? They are like big space whales! We could have whalers on the moon!

 

[Turin the Mad]

Amoeba farming (for food) may be a yet-to-be-revealed tech.

 

[Zoinker]

It's a fun sci-fi trope that's been around since the original War of the Worlds, but I doubt it's plausible due to possible difference in biochemistry. Unless we assume that all life in the universe inevitably uses the same kinds of proteins and chemicals as earth life does, most likely any alien organisms will be unable to even share the same food as humans do, much less eat the humans themselves.

(Disclaimer: I am not at all well versed in biology, but as far as I know that's the gist of it. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable can weigh in on this.)

 

[wundte]

OP reminded me of Prothean from ME who were eating solarians

 

[Rory1237]

OP reminded me of Prothean from ME who were eating solarians

 

[BestOfTheWest]

I'd like to see headhunting for the more warrior-like species... if they also eat the rest of the body, I wouldn't mind

 

[Cruxador]

This is probably too out-there to get official representation (not that I would mind if it did, and we did get official incest religions in CK2...) but it would be a great subject for a mod.

As it is, I don't think eating aliens is even possible, since bodies are evolved to eat certain kinds of food, all of which come off their home planet, though at the same time I don't know how they feed colonists without major invasive species problems.

It depends on how much of biology is convergent evolution. A lot of it, it makes sense should be. Even on Earth, there are abundant and valuable molecules we can't digest (such as lignin) but simple carbohydrates are used universally among earth eukaryotes for a reason. They're easy to make, use abundant source atoms, and are good at what they do. It isn't remotely unreasonable to suggest that life on other planets would convergently evolve to produce molecules that we can readily digest. There would probably also be plenty of molecules we can't digest, but that's what excretion is for, and very few of them would be actively toxic.

Unless we assume that all life in the universe inevitably uses the same kinds of proteins and chemicals as earth life does

The same proteins, probably not. Many worlds would likely use the same amino acids, but that's about the most of it. We definitely wouldn't be able to subsist on only aliens, at least on most worlds, but we could probably still eat them safely and get nutrients from it, and it should also be possible to get certain earth-originating bacteria and plants going on foreign worlds, enough to produce what we couldn't get from local species.

 

[Ziffallo]

"....I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti...."

 

[PichuTrainer]

Apart from eating other aliens, what about using them as Fertiliser?

 

[Ultimuh]

Apart from eating other aliens, what about using them as Fertiliser?

Well, maybe the truly gross ones.
But it would be a waste of food really.

 

[Borgrabbit]

This is what I have been talking about, I fully endorse this idea

 

[riadach]

What about alien species who hunt others for sport? Hirogan? Predator?

 

[Zaku]

What about alien species who hunt others for sport? Hirogan? Predator?

Humans?

 

[suplanter]

I have been thinking it would be great to have a type of vampire race. Who farms slave pops for food. Either killing the pop or just making them less able to produce resources that aren't food. Could be a fun event chain. Find an anomaly that creates vampirism in a species in your empire. Then either fight the curse or embrace it. Could have fun faction mechanics.

Race gets vampire curse. Vampires create faction. Vampire civil war. Vampires conquer galaxy. There could be science to cure or enhance the vampires. Maybe both. Maybe a dangerous tech started the vampire curse in the first place.

Vampires could feed a variety of ways. Like maybe they are energy vampires, living off the life force of all beings. Maybe they can only live off the blood of similar or specific species types. Maybe they can only live off of non vampiric pops of the original species. Fun times in undead space.

 

[Rory1237]

Apart from eating other aliens, what about using them as Fertiliser?

Only to grow fungi species so we have a varied diet