Organic Technology - Television Tropes & Idioms

If a society in Science Fiction isn't either following Technology Levels or magic, then you can rest assured that they're making use of Organic Technology.

Cars, planes, phones, computers, space ships, and everything else required for a proper Sci Fi story will be provided in the form of something that is skooshy and drips goo everywhere. Often, this will go so far as to include a convenient thought-based interface.

Also please ignore the fact that organic technology in its most common forms would be too squishy for most applications that writers usually demand from it.

(Scroll about 2/3ds down.) There is a reason why for each giant species we see a million of tiny ones. Handwaving around this is possible, but any realistic handwave would probably result in the technology not looking organic enough, so any explanation is flimsy at best. Anyway, it would create at least as much specific problems as a full "mechanical" technology complex, just other ones — given living things' ability for mutating out of control, first is the possibly of evolving into something nasty once left alone, as opposed to quietly rusting into detritus. On the other hand, that would be a pretty awesome plot point.

This type of tech is a common feature of sea-dwelling sapients. Not only are cities entirely made out of coral cool-looking, it's a technological evolutionary path that does not start with the step "set something on fire" or "throw wheels on it." Nor would excessive humidity cause important stuff to short out.

Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a very specialized lifeform.

— Third Claw's Law

On micro-level Nanomachines with data "tapes" more or less ape ribosomes with nucleotide chains — they "only" need to expand the scope of processed materials to metals and minerals. On macro-level the self-sustaining robot complex using environment materials in energy-efficient fashion isn't too different from a nest of specialized insects either.

In addition, viewers who actually know something about scientific terminology are expected to kindly overlook the fact that outside of few special phrases like "of organic nature" the word "organic" means "based on carbon chains" and hence includes such un-"organic" technology as common plastic. The correct term is "biological technology".

Often crosses over with Lego Genetics and is depicted as a Sculpted Physique. See Living Ship for one specific example. Compare Bio Augmentation, which could be Organic Technology applied to the human body in new and fun ways. Contrast Mechanical Lifeforms, which are organisms that happen to be mechanical in nature. Often creates the Womb Level in games. A Hive Caste System is based on using naturally evolved biology rather than technology made from biology.

Examples

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Anime

The titual robots from Neon Genesis Evangelion are cloned from an alien creature.
- The First Ancestral Race apparently used plenty of this, examples being the Lance of Longinus, which is a living weapon meant as a safeguard to control a Seed of Life, and possibly the seeds themselves, that is, a being like Adam or Lilith which they would send into a planet in a spherical ship (the Black Moon and White Moon) in order to populate it with life. In case this sounds like Fanon, it's All There In The Obscure Game.
Played with in Witchblade anime: titular semi-sentient artifact got few series of Black Box bionic knockoffs, including Cloneblades. Cloneblade isn't too choosy in accepting wielders, its performance seems to be superior to Witchblade with novice host (if not to the full limits of thing whose raw power blast can ruin half a city), but has little problem: as not really living, it does not regenerate. So while true Witchblade may overload the host's body more, Cloneblade sooner or later drags its wielder into rapid and fatal decay.
Despite metallic technology being just as, if not more efficient than organic, the Vajra of Macross Frontier have very good reasons for using extremely advanced organic technology as ships: the Vajra are the ships. Each drone, though stupid individually, are linked together by fold quartz, to form the entity known as Vajra, a massive Hive Mind. The Vajra (at least in the Milky Way) is not a species of individuals, but an individual spread out over a species. It makes sense for each cell of itself to wish to remain organic, but efficient.
Brain Powerd, which used "organic" more as a bizarre form of phlebotinum than anything else.
One Piece has the Den Den Mushi, a ridiculous example of this trope : all means of long-distance communication in the series are snails. Yes, snails. There is even one that is plated gold (and still alive).
Jurai technology has a rare variation in being plant-based instead of animal-based, including spacecraft and log-shaped guardian robots.
- Justified by the fact that they have a very powerful patron goddess, who ~~got emo~~ decided to experiment and turned herself into a tree a while back. So, naturally, the seeds of the tree that is technically a diety grow into very, very powerful and useful plants.
The 31 Primevals from Gao Gai Gar are much like this, and even have the ability to turn organic lifeforms into Mechanical Lifeforms via Zonderization.

Film

Literature

The Edenists in Nights Dawn base most of their technology on living creatures; they have Living Ships, living space stations, and organic servitors. They aren't entirely organic though; most common technology is still inorganic/non-living (They use electric jeeps in their habitats), and their ships/stations use non-living technology (like fusion reactors) when using living versions would be impractical or impossible.
In one of the Dean Koontz's early novels, Fear That Man, the protagonist awakens to an Ontological Mystery aboard at what first seems like a familar spaceship. Only upon closer inspection does he realize that all of its functions are the result of carefully hidden blob-like organisms.
In the novel Star Dragon, mankind has passed through enough Technology Levels to achieve this level of engineering, along with mastery of genetic modification. Nearly all technology is organic in nature, including toilets, which feature tongues in lieu of paper. Tongues! (Do NOT want!)
The Raalgon from Irresponsible Captain Tylor appear to have gone this route with their technology; their motherships and battle cruisers appear to have been grown rather than built.
The same may be said of the Yuuzhan Vong in the Star Wars Expanded Universe, for whom this (along with rampant masochism) is their hat. They even declare a holy war against the Galaxy Far, Far Away for daring to create nonliving mockeries of what life can accomplish.
- This is played on part way in when Lando develops a droid insulting this belief that most warriors break cover and and attack, thus revealing themselves to fire.
The novel John Dies at the End has a lot of this tech in the last couple chapters, where the main antagonist is revealed to be a self-modifying organic computer from an alternate Earth where technological progress took a very different route.
- Played for both laughs and horror, often simultaneously. Notably, in the alternate Earth, doctors heal their patients by placing kittens all over them.
The Yilanè in Harry Harrison's West Of Eden fit this trope to a T; they are even decended from seagoing creatures. Everything they use on a daily basis is a genetically modified creature. Their boats are based off ichthyosaurs, their microscopes are modified frogs, even their clothing is a heavily modified furry creature (the impracticality of this tech is lampshaded in a spin-off story where a fatal cold-snap hits and "we can't breed our cloaks fast enough"). Their weaponry is based off a marine lizard^*
^{mosasaurs, to be precise}
- as a matter of fact, the very same marine lizards they are most closely related to. The mind cannot help but go down some weird avenues here...
The Amnion in Stephen Donaldson's Gap novels are a hivemind who are all genetically engineered to serve specific roles, and whose equipment (although generally non-living) is processed, created, and assembled via organic processes.
In Wild Cards the Takisians are very adept at organic technology, including living, sentient, telepathic starships.
S.M. Stirling's novel In the Courts of the Crimson Kings is set on a Mars that was Terraformed and seeded with Earth life in prehistoric times by Ancient Astronauts. The Martians are human, or as close to human as Neanderthals, and highly intelligent. Almost all technology more complicated than a sword is biological, to a very high level, with living guns (recharging after firing takes time, which is why swords are not obsolete), living engines to supplement the sailpower of desert-crossing wheeled ships, rugs that crawl onto your feet to warm them, giant creatures that eat rocks and vomit road-paving material.
Never a series to leave any science fiction tropes uncovered, Animorphs featured a Living Ship or two.
The novel, Fluke: I Know Why The Winged Whale Sings, begins with a marine biologist trying to convince others that one of the Humpbacks he is trying to study and save has markings on his tailfin that remarkably resemble the phrase, "Bite Me". Turns out that the bottom of the sea is inhabited by a being known as The Goo, an ever-changing sentient mass of organic material. It is able to create organic devices from itself and has spawned anthropomorphic whale drones and Living Ships disguised as normal whales; Bite Me happens to be one of these. Oh, and it had sex with Amelia Earhart and the result of the tryst is one of the other protagonists.
In the Into The Looking Glass Series by John Ringo and Travis S. Taylor, the main foes are a form of AI/The Virus with organic technology. Including things such as 'Rhinotanks' a creature modified into a main battle tank role complete with the ability to shoot plasma bolts. Foes of these creatures go as far as creating tribble like spiders specifically attracted to their form of life (different types of sugar starches for different types of suns)
John Varley's 'Titan' novels involve a huge organic construct, that is itself a terran-like habitate orbiting Saturn in the same orbital path as the moon Titan. All of the lifeforms, inteligent or not, were created by the central 'brain', who calls itself Gaia, and runs 'titan' as unto a god. Gaia is also senile, cruel, and obsessed with all forms of film and television broadcast from earth over the last century. Then humans discover Titan, and join the fun. Last seen, Gaia had cloned herself a 50-foot version of Marilyn Monroe, and rapes King Kong.
The Oankali in Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis trilogy rely on biological tech for everything(spaceships, buildings, etc.) and dislike using machines. They are actually able to use biological machines to grow replicas of simple human devices such as pens and paper. They have an innate biological drive to seek out new genetic material from other species and make use of it by adding it to their own genes. They have a natural ability to read and manipulate DNA, and this ability is especially strong in their third gender, the ooloi.
Dune touches on this with the Butlerian Jihad, which outlaws computers with the commandment: "Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind." Several groups fill the space: Mentats, the human computers; the Bene Gesserit, the super-witch training program; and the Spacing Guild, which uses prescient drug-addicts to navigate hyperspace.
Michael Moorcock's Second Ether book, Blood: A Southern Fantasy, includes "meat boats", living (and technically amphibious) river boats created by a coalition of fleshcrafters (who also seriously alter their own bodies in bizarre ways) from the bodies of other beings. They are unusual in that they're portrayed as having the same disadvantages as any other large animal: needing to be fed organic material, needing to excrete wastes, and posessing a rather unpleasant smell.
In The Snow Queen by Joan Vinge, the mers are a sort of living computer system
The backstory to Julian May's Pliocene novels features The Ship, a spectacularly large interstellar worm controlled by ThePowerOfLove. (The pilot of The Ship has the title "Shipspouse.")

Live Action TV

Farscape had Moya, a living ship with all the amenities you would expect on a space ship and all the comforts of home, including larva-like creatures that replaced toothbrushes. And artificial gravity was provided by gravity bladders.
- It should be noted that Leviathans are consistently described as "biomechanoid" rather than "organic" and they display very few of the common attributes of "organic technology".
The Lexx also worked in the same vein, with a weird intestine like thing that excreted disgusting looking (yet edible and apparently delicious) food and further adventures involving toliets with tongues. (Repeat: Do NOT want!)
Apparently, the Vorlons and the Shadows in Babylon 5 went this route, though given how far ahead of the rest of the races they are, this may just be a natural conclusion on the Technology Levels scale.
- It might also just be the case that a sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from not just magic, but organic technology as well- and idea which seems to have emerged with the modern nanotech craze, as well.
- It is the natural conclusion of Technology Levels in the Babylon 5 verse. It has been mentioned countless times that this is what the other races - especially humans - are going for but failed at so far. The White Stars are superior because they are a hybrid of Minbari and organic Vorlon technology, same goes for the Special Omega destroyers with human and Shadow technology.
The Wraith technology in Stargate Atlantis relies on this. In fact it was said that because of the organic composition of their ships and general insufficient power utilization, if they had a significant power source their ships can "grow" and become near-unstoppable juggernauts. In the Grand Finale, one of these ships adapted a ZPM (the magical power sources that Atlantis cannot seem to find enough of) and it became powerful enough to lay waste to any ship it came across. And at this point Earth ships were capable of going toe-to-toe with the Ori ships.
- Actually the ship used 'several' ZP Ms (ie, 3 or more), which means that of course the nothing else except a nuke detinated 'inside' is going to be enough.
The Morthran from War Of The Worlds use a combination of crystals and organic technology. Note that the aliens of the first season (and of the movie) do not appear to use organic technology, though they do retain the reliance on crystals.
Cylon Raiders in the rebooted Battlestar Galactica are synthetic organic lifeforms in a armored metal shell. Their Basestars are also partially organic, and are controlled by a an human-like organic 'Hybrid' permanently linked to the Basestar. And the Cylons themselves are Artificial Humans.
Star Trek couldn't resist this one : Species 8472 seems to use entirely Organic Technology. In their introductory episode they made mention that the Breen species used partially organic systems in their ships.
- The USS Voyager itself has its circuitry embedded with bio-neural gel packs, an interesting idea (in that brain cells are supposed to be better at computing than the fastest computer) that was dealt with in a single episode in the first season and then pretty much forgotten.
  - Except for one episode involving a nebula extremely deadly to living things and very damaging to technology. With the crew in stasis chambers, and only Seven of Nine and the Doctor to run the ship for three months, keeping the ship going was a chore thanks in no part to these gel packs.
  - They also get infected with viruses, once or twice, or otherwise get sick. Personally, given that the non-organic computers shown in the series seem able to perform any calculation, simulation, or any other task necessary of them (short of running a simulation of the entire universe or gaining enough sentience to single-handedly become the Singularity) without issue, the "upgrade" would seem to have been counterproductive.
  - In the first episode it was said that because of the partially organic nature of the ships systems that it was resistent to the magnetic storms of the Badlands where the Maquis ship was lost. But if the ship was harder to screw around with that would be counterproductive to drama...
- There was the TNG episode "Tin Man" where our plucky crew encounters an entirely biological spacecraft whose crew had been killed off and it was pretty bummed out about it.
- In Star Trek Enterprise they came across a near magical repair station that apparently used the brain of various unconscious aliens to enhance its computer system.
  - It does have a adverse effect on the minds of those connected, they tend to make the brain useless for any other purpose if connected for to long.
The Zygons of the old series of Doctor Who had organic technology.
- And let's not forget the Time Lords themselves—the new series has stated that the TARDIS is alive. "It's not built: It's grown." Like a coral. And the current desktop theme reinforces it.
The titular submarine in seaQuest DSV was implied to be organic in many ways.
- Only the outer hull cladding - according to the novelization, it was a bio-engineered compound that was both anechoic (sonar-defeating) and self-sealing. The rest of the ship was just a very, VERY big submarine.
  - And it's implied in several episodes that the organic skin is flexible and coats an normal steel shell.
The inhabitants of Planet Bone in War Planets use this as most of their technology, including Living Ships.
Taelon ships and buildings on {{Earth: Final Conflict}} are all grown out of an organic "bio-slurry".

Video Games

Blizzard's Star Craft have the Zerg, an insectoid race controlled by a Hive Mind that treated its populace as disposable for the simple reason that they were the meat equivalent of robotic drones. They also had big gross living buildings.
The hostile aliens in the X-COM series of games have always used variying degrees of bio-tech, such as purpose-build footsoldiers - but X-COM: Apocalypse took this trope to the natural conclusion, with alien ships and buildings being fully organic. You actually get to see (and blow up) the facility where they grow their ships (among other vital constructs)...
- To be fair, they really are "organic" not entirely "biological", they do look very biological, but not the soft kind mostly. It's no less reasonable to use biological growth than to use nanomanufacturing. Their power sources, engines and everything related to that is biologically grown but not alive per se. And even in the case of The Mothership, which really looks very alive, there is no regeneration (which would be entirely stupid) you see on many shows featuring "organic" technology and it still basically is a thick shell which for some reason is surrounded by (probably) living tissue with some internal living tissue as well - however, it seems that this is because the aliens really, really like this - maybe they got it instinctivelly when they destroyed their worlds ecology, so they supplanted nature with their homegrown squick :) Also, the aliens don't have spaceworthy ships, at least there is no proof of that and it is quite possible that they couldn't find a way to make non-organic ships travel through the dimension gates. And all in all, it is in no way shown as superior to human technology (unlike the alien non-organic (except the genetically engineered soldiers) weaponry/armor/everything in the prequels) and in fact from the very beginning you have human technology fully capable of exterminating pretty much anything and you very quickly develop a bioweapon which specifically targets the weakness of their organic technology. All in all, I'd say it's quite a realistic depiction of war between steel and flesh. I also got the feeling that the whole alien menace in Apocalypse was actually a weapon engineered by the aliens from the other X-COM titles which went horribly wrong and somehow managed to break free or even enslave their own creators - there however are no clear hints towards that, so I should probably shut up :P
- Better example should be Bio-Drone from Terror From the Deep. It's vat of human's brain on anti-grav unit, with vocal cord attached to sonic gun.
- Ditto the Reticulans in the Spiritual Successor series UFO: After(blank), who employ all sorts of purpose-grown weapons, creatures, and equipment. Their successors in later games use more conventionally built goodies, however, inverting X-COM's use of the trope.
  - The Reticulans are however stated to have grown out of using mechanic technology, them being so old and all.
The Mycon, sapient fungi from the Star Control series, are genetically engineered biological planeteering tools, and whatever new tools they need, from pseudopods to space craft to other Mycon, they grow just by willing it ("Mycon just think genetic modification, and it happen!"). Due to the extreme amount of time they've gone without upkeep by their creators, over the generations their original programming "drifted" and has become a religion revolving around the incomprehensible "Juffo-Wup". Heed their babble and you'll get fragments of developers' speech from GeneticMemory.
- The Umgah, another alien race from the same series, are so obsessed with genetic engineering that, even though their ships are mechanical, the corridors and interfaces are all fleshy, for easy modification (read: mutation). Unfortunately for interstellar relations, the Umgah have been so free and careless with their genetic modifications of themselves that every last one of them is violently insane and possesses a warped sense of humor and a childlike oblivious cruelty.
Much of the technology in Metroid is at least partly organic, including the main character's Power Suit.
- Even more so after she is infected by X in Metroid Fusion.
- The most famous example of biotech in Metroid is, of course, Mother Brain. But the Metroids themselves also count, as they were engineered by the Chozo to combat the X Parasites.
- Of note, the Space Pirates in the Prime games progressively began to use Organic Technology almost exclusively. This may be a bit of a plot point, as the game lore in Prime 3 suggests.
- Who HASN'T used OT in Metroid? Almost all Alimbic technology in Metroid Prime: Hunters has organic parts, and you go through some of the factory areas where the organic components are cultured. You even pass through an area with what looks like a brain-based computer.
  - Even the Federation uses it, having created mother brain-like super computers and cybernetic war robots.
Metal Gear RAY and the Gekkos from Metal Gear Solid 2 and 4 aren't organic but are machines built like they were, even capable of bleeding (it's actually "armor-repair nanopaste"). The Nanomachines in the series is also based on living cells.
- There's a field in science called biomechanics that's a bit similar to this. Basically, we're studying how our bodies work and how we could use that to our advantage. A good example of biomechanics in motion would be pneumatc artificial muscles.
The Ark in Creatures 3 has elements of this (check out the Agent Info for that big bellows-like thing in the engineering section.) Docking Station's Capillata takes it further: the main hub is very organic-looking, the Back Story states it was literally grown in a vat, and then there's the slightly disturbing Muco the Egg-Layer.
- Elements, nothing. The ship is explicitly stated to have been grown in several different sources, and in fact it's stated that the Shee use mostly organic technology (having discovered DNA before the wheel)
The Chosen in Septerra Core have some of this tech, most obviously their airships, which are genetically engineered Helgak.
Rlaan in Vega Strike apply biotechnologies anywhere, even in spaceships. They use gravitics and don't have thrusters, but still have to use normal materials for things like hermetic enclosures or weapons. However, most constructions are grown. Of course, it's hard to start with "set something on fire" for the species living in methane atmosphere. Also, they don't like AI, so their armed drones are piloted by some sort of ~~pet~~ "hound" brains. Though Wetware CPU are frequently used by humans as well.
The ~~mysterious~~ Keepers, the creators of the enormous spherical spaceship in Prey used powerful vomiting-sphincter-based biotechnology to make their ship, um… go.
- Additionally, they used one or more gigantic (and disgusting) creatures who ate concentrated nutrients and crapped food for the aliens.
Quake's resident aliens, the Strogg, sometimes use hearts as pumps, human torsos as bioelectric generators and huge alien creatures as biological corpse-to-food converters, however they rarely resist their urge to stick some giant metal piping and prosthetics in them, for the lulz.
Earth 2160's aliens, the Morphids, are actually a genetically-engineered army of biological von Neumann machines, which need only water to grow from a single crawling Mantian Lady to a legion of acid-spitting four-legged bear tanks and artillery insects. The trope is also subverted in that their Creators were unable to make biological units into a good airfleet, so they resorted to metal ships that use Nanomachines to clone and morph themselves, just like the ground forms.
Geneforge is based almost entirely around this, with the plot focusing on (sometimes sentient) magical creatures made by a caste of magi called "shapers" and the moral ramifications of their work. Aside from their more advanced creations, shapers have made biological equivalents of everything from guns (bone-shooting "thorn batons") to doorlocks.
The isolated Polaris in Escape Velocity: Nova use incredibly powerful living apaceships. Coincidentally, the otherwise peaceful Wraith have an intense animosity toward the Polaris...
Half Life has several alien organic weapons, including the Hivehand, Snarks, the Shock Roach, the Spore Launcher, and the Barnacle. The Combine from the second game use partially organic vehicles.
Telvanni architecture is this plus Fungus Humongous. They magically grow fungi and mold them into buildings.
In The Conduit, the Drudge weapons are all based on this trope.
The Samorost games all take place on what appear to be combinations of spaceships and planets (nonsentient, so not Living Ship) made out of moss, bark, and rock. It's pretty spectacular.
Genesis Rising is a space-strategy game where you place "genes" into spaceships to upgrade weapons, ablities, etc. The genes are only improveable by harvesting more advanced genes (by killing and consuming opponent ships) or trading for them. And of course ships are made and healed with the only material resource, blood.
Play with in Super Robot Wars series. The Einst has ability to mimic machine using their exoskeleton, carapace and tentacles. Play straight in Original Generation mech Rein Weisritter which has both Einst's organ and mechanic join together.

Tabletop Games

The Tyranids from the Warhammer 40,000 universe epitomize the trope insofar as it relates to tools of warfare; their every military need, from weapons to starcraft, is met by complex interlocking creatures specially engineered for the purpose. Their 'technology' is not only suspiciously well-suited to its function, but suspiciously sadistic in its execution.
- Tyranid bio weapons are notably inferior individually to their non-organic counterparts though, and their space fleets are noted to be inferior to every other faction's. It is their single minded purpose and sheer numbers that make the Tyranids so deadly.
- The original and ancient Warhammer 40,000 sourcebook, Rogue Trader, had "organic weapons" (such as organic chainswords) that were essentially bio-engineered duplicates of mechanical versions made of flesh and bone rather than steel and ceramics, apparently a curiosity widely used. The Tyranids were notable for always using them, but at this point the Tyranids were just random bugs rather than the galaxy-eating, wall-of-teeth Great Devourer. Since 3rd edition and the 'Nids new models, it is becoming increasingly difficult to spot where the bio-weapon ends and the Tyranid carrying it begins.
- The game also plays organic technology in the only way it would work, which is to dial it to eleven. Creatures have nothing they don't need to do their job, not even digestive tracts — they're expected to die before they starve. Their close combat weapons are forged in biological furnaces and then affixed to the creature in question and their bodies are almost entirely armoured carapace. Even their soft tissues are built of materials similar to kevlar. They are not your average squishy biological version of this trope, they are armoured hell-beasts designed with one singular purpose — relentless assault.
- The Eldar make extensive use of a substance called wraithbone, which is a psychoplastic material that also posesses some self-regenerating cababilities. While not Organic Technology per se, Eldar vehicles and buildings aren't built, they're grown.
- The Imperium also uses organic technology to some degree. Since they have a ban on artificial intelligance (after intelligent robots turned on humanity and nearly wiped them out) they use cybernetic servitors to perform menial tasks and some of the more advanced vehicles have eighter servitors hardwired to controll weapons or Machine Spirits, which appear to be a form of "wetware" AI (altho some sources state they are inorganic A Is modelled after animal behavious patterns).
The Akashan Star Sphere or "Space Gods" from TORG.
The D&D Campaign Setting of Dark Sun had Halflings use this, either symbiotic creatures, buildings made from tissues, adapted wildlife, or types of organic automatons, such as the Scrubslug, which eats dust and debris and transforms it into organic floor wax.
And in Spelljammer, elven spacecraft are actually living plants with photosynthetic sails.
In the White-wolf RPG Trinity had humans and number of other races use living "bio-tech." Humans still used it along side hard-tech and it was considered superior for some applications and inferior for others. Some human nations rejected bio-tech entirly such as the Japanese because they had determined its original source of human bio-tech was of unknown Alien origin.
The 1990's Jim Shooter comic book Warriors Of Plasm was about an extradimensional civilization which was entirely biotech-based.
GURPS Biotech is all about this when discussing high tech levels. Aside from the various new pieces of tech presented in the book (including a sentient sponge-brain-tree-Neo Christian house) the writers also suggest that one can simply treat advanced technology from other sourcebooks as being organic in origin.
The Pentapods of 2300 AD, a Traveller spinoff, are big on Organic Technology, since their species evolved underwater and never had the option of using metal of fire in their industrial development.
Several races of Talislanta use plant-based technologies, including the barge-forts of the Green Aeriads (with live viridia trees for masts) and the d'oko lily plants used as houses by the Green Men.
This is one of approximately 9000 options for Humongous Mecha in one Mekton expansion.
Call Of Cthulhu. The Mi-Go regularly use organic-based tech, such as a creature that can dig through the earth and extract metals and minerals, and a variety of giant fungi that maintain life support in an underground cavern.
The Dark Conspiracy supplement Dark Tek had a number of Darkling biological devices, such as the Antidoter (neutralized poison in the body) and Facedancer (a living disguise mask).

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