Brainship

The concept brainship in science fiction literature refers to an interstellar starship that is created by inserting the disembodied brain and nervous system of a human being into a life-support system, and connecting it surgically to a series of computers via delicate synaptic connections (a brain-computer interface). The brain "feels" the ship (or any other connected peripherals) as part of its own body. Flying, taking off, landing, and controlling all the other features of the ship are as natural as moving, breathing and talking are to an ordinary human. Being wired into a computer speeds their reactions, but still allows their human brains to make intelligent decisions based on calculations.

1941 – Solar Plexus by James Blish.

1961 – The Ship Who Sang, by Anne McCaffrey. The brainship was popularized in this short story about the brainship Helva. However, McCaffrey cited as her inspiration an earlier story. She says,

I remember reading a story about a woman searching for her son's brain, it had been used for an autopilot on an ore ship and she wanted to find it and give it . And I thought what if severely disabled people were given a chance to become starships? So that's how The Ship Who Sang was born.

1965 – Becalmed in Hell, by Larry Niven. This short story was about Eric, an injured man who became a brainship, and his mobile partner Howie. Eric could not take off from the hazardous surface of Venus because he "felt" something wrong with his "wings". Howie had to find a solution before they both died.

1965 – The Brain of Colonel Barham (TV episode, The Outer Limits) The military plans to use the Colonel's disembodied brain to control a spacecraft.

1966, 1969 – Additional Short Stories, by McCaffrey. These short stories were published in The Ship Who Sang collection.

1979 – Mayflies, by Kevin O'Donnell, Jr. A human brain is reprogrammed to serve as a ship's computer for a colonization trip expected to take 15 years (ship's time). The original human personality, thought to be gone, reasserts itself, and inadvertently turns off the main drive early in the mission, stretching the flight time to hundreds of years. The human personality struggles against the imposed programming.

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