Today ChatGPT taught me a little about the limitations of spherical submarines, such as engineering challenges and the impracticality of living inside a ball. I wanted to know if a giant bathysphere could be towed around under a ship or behind a pair of drone submarines, and why this probably won’t exist outside of science fiction.

Craiyon gave me a couple images like this. I’m not sure why, but underwater renderings of a ship’s keel tend to look partially submerged. Here’s another one that has the same issue:

I wanted to imagine a fantastically huge, spherical underwater habitat being dragged along. After some insights about the math of it all, ChatGPT showed me this:

Practical. I feel like this one could actually exist… you know, if Jules Verne were directing tours of the Titanic. Here’s another version:

I love how HUGE this is! You might notice how the main porthole hints at a cityscape. I wasn’t exactly aiming for this construction, but I wasn’t exactly NOT aiming for this either.

Finally, I ran out of free image generations just as I attempted to take this concept to the space environment. Only two images came through, but the final version really scratched the itch I was searching for. Here’s the first spherical space ship concept, which I tried to blend with the natural grace of the inflating fish (i.e.—the “blowfish”, “pufferfish”, or “porcupinefish”):

Gettin a little crazy with the tow lines. I wanted to retain the spikes and aesthetic while reimagining the cable management system and reintroducing outside propulsion.

You know, this is neither here nor there but I want to stan just a bit for the teaching capabilities of AI. Orbital mechanics, pendulum math, WLLO (whip-like lashing oscillations)—these concepts are right at my fingertips. I love that! Sure, it’s up to me to perform due diligence and fact-check the AI on the back end, but that could be said of any professor at MIT.

Here’s the last image I could get on my lurker account with ChatGPT:

That’s almost exactly what was in my mind when I started asking about concept ships. It rides a compelling line between design whimsy and fantasy art. Very cool!