The trick is to invent self-replicating balloons. .
It’s never happened as far as we have any record of, but it’s not hard to postulate some organism evolving methane-filled bladders for dispersing prodigy.
Blimp sex!
No body shaming!
Or a life form that can generate hydrogen using electrolysis.
Somehow this became the “Ask about an SF story ID” thread… it’s Jem, by Frederik Pohl.
There are a number of living-blimp organisms in science fiction. 2010 mentions some living in Jupiter, and there are a race of them in Schlock Mercenary, off the top of my head.
The Bobiverse stories also have many blimp-like lifeforms that live in the atmospheres of various gas giants in the galaxy.
The Vorkosiverse’s Sergyar has them, including “Vampire Balloons” that floated until they found a victim.
That wasn’t the first instance of living Jupiter blimps in Clarke’s writing. There was at least one previous example, although I can’t remember title.
I thought of that and hydrogen would be a more effective lifting gas; but on the other hand if there’s any microorganism that emits hydrogen I’ve not heard of it, whereas methane production is extremely common.
“A Meeting With Medusa”
There’s one that produces ethanol and hydrogen:
The ethanol helps with the blimp sex, maybe.
Interesting, but does the microbe produce a surplus of hydrogen as a discarded waste product or is it all consumed in other metabolic processes?
Seems like a waste product to me, but I don’t know any more than what’s in the abstract. I’d vaguely heard of hydrogen-producing bacteria before in the context of industrial hydrogen production. I figured there must be one that was naturally occurring. This was the first I found.
You got that idea from Rom, didn’t you?
I’m thinking it’s probably real slow and kinda bouncy.
Rom’s an idiot. He couldn’t fix a straw if it was bent.
We’re gonna get to see some version of that when Starships start docking in space. Including the fluid transfer. It’ll be real slow, but hopefully not too bouncy.
I’m envisioning a mild midair collision between two Goodyear blimps. The reality would be catastrophic but the cartoon version in my head is hilarious.
… the horror …