Elder Things - First Biomechanical Civilisation in Literature?

[TheSnark]

The idea of a biomechanical alien civilisation has now almost become a terrible cliche.
It was popularised probably mostly by the 'Alien' films, and now the idea of a race who create living things to use in the same way that we use machinery is absolutely ubiquitous in SF.

I might be wrong here, but I very much suspect that this idea might be a Lovecraft invention - I cannot for the life of me think of an example of this idea that pre-dates the Elder Things in 'At The Mountains of Madness'.

The only other example of this vintage that springs to mind is the short story 'Davy Jones' Ambassador' (about a biomechanical civilisation on the ocean floor), and that wasn't published until 1935.

Some other authors had gone down related paths before - H. G. Wells' surgery-happy Selenites from 'The First Men in the Moon' modified their bodies totally to suit themselves for their societal role, but still relied primarily on their very mechanical civilisation (Actually, I've always seen them as an inspiration for the Mi-Go).

...Can anyone else think of any purely biomechanical civilisations that pre-date Lovecraft's...?

[Jack]

The robots in the play R.U.R. (1920) are artificially created biological slaves.

[MediaGhost]

I recall a few similar stories from the period in question.  Lesse, there was:

The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew Amoebas That Devour'd the World (Margaret Sidney)

Tom Swift and his Electric Army of Alien Clones (Victor Appleton)

and, relatedly,

R'yleh Also Rises (Ernest Hemmingway)

A Mi-Go for the Misbegotten  (Eugene O'Neil)

[TheSnark]

R.U.R definitely played with these issues, but it wasn't a biomechanical civilisation - they were still dependent primarily on mechanical devices (indeed, the 'robots' are assembled in mechanical factories).

[Jack]

R.U.R definitely played with these issues, but it wasn't a biomechanical civilisation - they were still dependent primarily on mechanical devices (indeed, the 'robots' are assembled in mechanical factories).

I'm guessing they had shoggoth factories too. That play was extremely popular in its day (it's the origin of the word "robot" in the English language), and I think the point is that the idea of using living organisms to replace machines in an industrial world (as opposed to sled dogs, oxen, etc, which were pre-industrial) existed before Lovecraft.

[Genus Unknown]

There's a Flintstones joke to be made here somewhere. I'll get back to you.

[TheSnark]

...I think the point is that the idea of using living organisms to replace machines in an industrial world (as opposed to sled dogs, oxen, etc, which were pre-industrial) existed before Lovecraft.

And it did, of course - living things have been used in the Industrial world since the beginning - be it to ferment things, to provide raw products for creating rubber/glue/silk/etc./etc. etc., but my actual original claim was that this is the first portrayal of a Biomechanical Civilisation , i.e. a civilisation that relies on created and modified living things to the exclusion of machinery.
And I still think that it is.

[fubarinpittsburgh]

War Of The Worlds? I think. Its been a long time.

[TheSnark]

H.G. Wells often mixed biological-type things into his stories (one of the most notable examples being in 'The First Men in the Moon' as mentioned above), but I don't recall him ever portraying a completely biomechanical civilisation.

The Martians in 'War of the Worlds' are implied to have perhaps been genetically modified by themselves, but their technology from the story - giant space cannons for shooting their 'cylinders', the Fighting Machines, the Heat Ray, the Flying Machine, the (robotic) Digging Machine, etc. are all definitely mechanical.
'Living' technology isn't really mentioned (though a case could perhaps be made for the 'Red Weed')

An argument could possibly be made that the Martians in the 1953 film version were using an, at least partially, biomechanical technology - remember that scene where the hero lops the head off the watching robotic alien probe, only to have it spray a substance around that is later identified as blood? It's never mentioned again, but could be seen to suggest that their machines are at least partially alive.

No such incident takes place in the book, however.

Actually, perhaps it's not coincidence that 1953 was also the year that 'The Kraken Wakes' by John Wyndham was published, which featured an invasion by a biomechanical civilisation with bizarre (and very creepy) 'living machines'.

Perhaps George Pal took his inspiration from there.

[old book]

I didn't understand the question. I seem to remember fairies used toadstools as umbrellas, once upon a time.

[TheSnark]

In modern science fiction, there's a huge number of examples of races or civilisations (i.e. Octavia Butler's 'Oankali', Larry Niven's 'Tnuctipun', Bruce Sterling's 'Swarm' and so on ad infinitum) who have a very highly advanced technological civilisation in which all advanced technological artifacts - even such things as spaceships, time machines, and guns - are living things created by some genetic technology.

The Elder Things seem to have this kind of a civilisation, it being mentioned that they abandoned machinery in favour of biological technologies which even allow for interstellar travel.

Living things have been used by imaginary - as well as real - civilisations from the beginning, but the idea of new living things being created and used to implement a sci-fi level of technology is very new.

[old book]

I always figured industrial civilization and modern man were just that sort of tool the DNA is using to create a new kind of seed-coat to penetrate distant space... Did I miss something?

[Bob Lovecraft]

I always figured industrial civilization and modern man were just that sort of tool the DNA is using to create a new kind of seed-coat to penetrate distant space... Did I miss something?

Sometimes you really scare me, Old Book. I've heard things like that before, but not so succinct. Mother Earth may be using us, not the other way around. Ouch.

Bob