terraforming nanobots evolving into complex ecosystem

[granpa]

has anybody written a science fiction story about a planet with an entire ecosystem of robots that evolved over billions of years from advanced nanobots that were originally put there to terraform the planet?

I'd love to read it.

 

[Quokka]

From the sounds of it so would I Sorry I can't help you with anything that specific but I thought I'd mention Greg Bear's Blood Music, it's definitely not the story you're looking for here but it does deal with nanobots and if you haven't read it already it may be something you'd enjoy.

 

[old wallie]

Ian Douglas in his second trilagy, has the enemy as a robot evolved society.
Ben Bova in Moon Wars starts out with nanites that seem out of control, then backs off from that thought.

There are a lot of authors that touch on the idea, The enemy in the Forever War is (are) a society of clones, adjusted physicially and mentally. What is a hive intellegance but a biological robot society?

 

[dekket]

I haven't ever read a book with that as the premise. Would be a great read though.
One of the Isaac Asimov short stories (I forget which one) dealt with the beginning of a robot ecosystem, with a bird robot designed to only kill a specific kind of pest.

Your idea sounds a lot like the player race "Minions" from the old computer game "Ascendancy", if anyone remembers it.
They were a race of robots comprised of nanites that evolved from servents sent to colonise a world by their extragalactic 'masters', who never ended up following them.
The Minion society evolved and developed space travel, and encountered the other player races, etc.
Minions were my favourite race to play, as they always were successful in invasions of enemy worlds (something to do with the nanites able to self-replicate by converting any matter into more nanites, thus entirely overrunning a world in a few days).
Later on in SG1 the Replicators reminded me of the Minions in some ways.

 

[jamescomehere]

aha

maybe you are right. lol.

 

[JoanDrake]

I read one where an automated ship crashed on one of the Gas Giant's moons and then evolved into a whole machine civilization. I'll post the title if I can find it.

 

[Corina]

Hmmmm, that does sound interesting. Have you ever played Ogame?

 

[The Procrastinator]

Oo, Ascendancy, I used to love that. My favourite race was something I can't remember the name of, but their special ability was to research technologies faster than others - gives you an edge in building kick-bottom warships.

Heading back towards the actual topic, I too would like to read such a book, but I have not come across one.

 

[ManTimeForgot]

Time-scale is off (scale is in thousands of years not billions; and realistically artificial life wouldn't need billions to pull off what organics needed billions for because nanobots will already be organized into self-replicating structures; just getting its act together took life hundreds of millions) but you pretty much just described the book Ventus . Look it up. The concept of "Thalience" was introduced into the world of AI via this very book. I personally found the book to be an intriguing read and intellectually satisfying. It is worth a read for anyone into AI.

MTF

 

[dustinzgirl]

This sounds familiar, actually--I'm thinking it was a Outer Limits episode? I swear I've seen that plot line on tv before....

 

[BlueSpryte]

I read one where an automated ship crashed on one of the Gas Giant's moons and then evolved into a whole machine civilization. I'll post the title if I can find it.

Yes, there is/was a book like that. I remember reading it. I unfortunately had borrowed it from someone. I have been trying to find it again, so if you found the title, please let me know!

 

[Tars Tarkas]

Yes, there is/was a book like that. I remember reading it. I unfortunately had borrowed it from someone. I have been trying to find it again, so if you found the title, please let me know!

I came across this thread because I'm looking for that same title. I'm pretty sure there were at least 2 books in the series and it was very similar to what the OP described. A group of automated terraform robots were left abandoned on a planet and eventually evolved into sentient life forms. I think these books were published around late 80's or early 90's. I'm still looking. I'll post the title and author if I can find anything.