Man After Man: An Anthropology of the Future
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Man After Man: An Anthropology of the Future (1990) is the most speculative and controversial book written by Scottish geologist Dougal Dixon. The theme of the book is a science fiction exploration of the possibilities of the future evolution of humans. Unlike his previous two books, his story context focuses on individuals rather than entire species, even giving them human names.
He opens the book with the impact of genetic engineering. For 200 years modern humans morphed the genetics of fellow humans to create genetically-altered creatures. The aquamorphs and aquatics are marine humans with gills instead of lungs. Other genetically-altered humans include a temperate woodland species, a prairie species, a jungle species, and a tundra-dwelling species. One species - the vacuumorph - has evolved for life in the vacuum of space. Its skin and eyes carry shields of skin to keep its body stable even without pressure. Some are assimilated with machines, those humans being hiteks. Genetic manipulation goes haywire if one sees the tic, a genetically-altered human that manufactures spare organs and even extra arms and feet. The modern human species that manufactured these subspecies degrade to simple farmers and following a magnetic reversal, Homo sapiens sapiens was driven to extinction.
Since then the genetically-altered humans must face a new phenomenon. They can no longer be genetically tweaked in a lab, so all modifications must naturally evolve. And naturally evolve they did. Many new forms resulted from natural selection. Colonial humans with a single reproductive parent, fishing humans, dolphin-like humans, sloth-like humans, sabre-toothed predatory humans, and even parasitic humans developed through natural changes.
After five million years of uninterrupted evolution, the descendants of modern man that retreated into space returned. Then the world changed dramatically. Earth was terraformed and covered in vast alien cities. Genetic modification returned. The humans and other life forms in this new Earth now must breathe air with low oxygen content. Thus the bodies of the genetically-modified humans fuse with respiration systems. Giant building humans and tiny connection humans aid city construction. Horse-like men serve as mounts for the invaders. Some humans even became farmed like pigs or cattle. As with all civilization, this new era of man fell apart once again.
After this new civilization fell, the Earth was left in ruins. With barely any oxygen left in the Earth's atmosphere, practically all terrestrial life on the planet perished. At the bottom of the world's oceans, at the oases that were the underwater hot springs, life continued to thrive. And in the gloom and darkness of this cold, black world, was Piscanthropus profundus, a deep-sea descendant of the now-extinct Aquatic. Perhaps in a few million years, when the atmosphere and ozone layer stabilize, these creatures might recolonize the land. It seems that the end is only the beginning...
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[edit] Human Species included
- Vacuumorph, Homo caelestis, a crab-like human genetically modified to live only in space. It must be noted that these creatures were not so much bred as built. The attributes that could not be created were grafted onto the creatures; they could not reproduce independently.
- Aquamorph, Homo aquaticus, a frog-like human. They have gills on the chest, thick blubber layers and paddle like legs and feet. Unable to speak and having limited facial expression, they could not reproduce independently.
- Tundra-Dwellers, Homo glacis fabricatus, yeti-like humans that fill the ecological niches of musk-oxen. Migratory creatures with thick rolls of blubber with ice-hooks on their hind feet. Capable of reproducing fertile offspring.
- Plains-Dwellers, Homo campis fabricatus , humans that fill the roles of Gazelle, Water buffalo, and Gnu. Gazelle-like humans with modified appendages for scything grass. Capable of growing new teeth through their life and have pot bellies filled with specially-engineered bacteria for digesting grass. Capable of reproducing fertile offspring.
- Tropical Forest-Dwellers, Homo silvis fabricatus, humans that fill the roles of apes, monkeys, and sloths. Long arms with thick claws allow these creature to move faster through the trees than across the ground. Possess thick jaws for cracking nuts and are capable of reproducing fertile offspring.
- Temperate Woodland-Dwellers, Homo virgultis fabricatus, humans designed to fill the roles of both deer and bears. Walk on all fours because the shape of the big toes prevent bipedal locomotion. Omnivorous creatures who are designed to be immune to most natural poisons. Capable of reproducing fertile offspring.
- Memory People, Homo mensproavodorum, descendants of the woodland-dwellers. Climatic extremes resulted in a species that can inherit memories from its parents. Was not engineered sentient but re-evolved intelligence. Also called Boat-People and Travelers.
- Antman, Formifossor angustus, an anteater-like human. They have blade like nails to rip open ant hills and eyes and nostrils that can be closed. They are also immune to the formic acid in the ants stings, depositing it in their tissue thus making them unpalatable to predators.
- Social, Alvearanthropus desertus, colonial humans descended from plains-dwellers. Dwell in hive-like structures with a shared mind. Mostly meat eating with thick blades on their hands. Only one female breeds at any one time. These creatures are also called Hivers.
- Slothman, Giganthropus arbrofagus, humans that imitate the extinct giant ground sloths. So heavy they cannot stand upright and have thick claws to pull down branches. Evolved in a predator free environment and have no natural means of defence.
- Symbionts, Baiulus moderatorum/Moderator baiuli, tundra-dwellers (Baiulus moderatorum) allied with woodland-dwellers (Moderator baiuli.) Communicate through telepathy via nerve on nerve contact.
- Aquatic, Piscanthropus submarinus, Dugong-like humans with gills instead of lungs. The hind legs are fused together to form a fluke, but the hands and arms are still human like, The only engineered sentient species with the exception of the Vacuumorphs and the Aquamorphs.
- Spike-Tooth, Acudens ferox, sabre-toothed ape-like humans with elongated and serrated incisors instead of canines like the extinct sabre-toothed cats. Evolved to specifically hunt large species such as the Sloth Men.
- Seeker, Homo vates, a species that due to climatic extremes has evolved the ability to detect water over long distances. The eyes, ears, and nose are all atrophied as they are no longer needed.
- Islander, Homo nanus, a species of diminutive humans who have evolved like the Galapagos Iguanas. They inhabited the tropical, volcanic islands and feed almost exclusively on meat and other high protein sources.
- Homo dormitor, Acudens ferox, a species of human that hibernates during the ice age winter. These creatures can live for hundreds of years although they spend much of that time asleep. Was not engineered sentient but re-evolved intelligence and can make rudimentary structures.
- Fisher, Piscator longidigitus, a species that lives like an otter. Inhabits mountain rivers and lakes where it swims after fish with its long claws like a Baryonx.
- Cave Dweller, Spelocanthropus, a subterranean species that lives in caves and tunnels and only comes to the surface at night to hunt. Eyesight is atrophied but presumably their hearing is acute.
- Deep sea Aquatic, Piscanthropus profundus, a species of Aquatic that lives in the dark depths of the ocean. Is sensitive to the infra-red spectrum and moves very sluggishly in order to conserve energy in such a poor habitat.
- Parisite Host, Penarius pinguis/Nananthropus parasitus, evolved descendants of the Tundra-dwellers (Penarius pinguis) victimized by tiny human parasites (Nananthropus parasitus.) Penarius pinguis no longer has the thick wool coat of its predecessor species, but still produces excess blubber which in turn feeds the Nananthropus parasite which drinks its hosts blood and spends its entire life holding onto its hosts rolls of fat.
[edit] Human Sub-Species included
The creatures below are all the same species as they all appear to be capable of interbreeding provided that the external barriers between them where removed. The barriers between the three species below appears to be cultural e.g., the Andlas, Tic and Hitec all view each other with distance and isolate themselves from each other. Note that the distinction between a species and a subspecies is that two sub-species would merge back into a single unified population if given the chance while two species would not. It has nothing to do with 'how different' the different groups appear to be to the observer.
- Andla, Homo sapiens sapiens, technically modern humans. After the schism of mankind that separated the human populations, thus allowing them to evolve along their own paths, these Andlas where the only ones to remain true to the ancestral breeding stock.
- Hitek, Homo sapiens machinadiumentum, the result of inbreeding and medical technologies that allow people with deformities and other medical problems to survive and reproduce. Homo sapiens evolved into this sub-species of its own that is now almost totally dependent on cybernetic technology to survive.
- Tic, Homo sapiens accessiomembrum, humans who have developed the technology to clone body parts and thus are for all intent and purposes, a brain which simply "wears" a different (cloned) body for every need, just as humans put on different clothes appropriate for a particular weather or job. The shape of, and number of limbs, on these bodies is often dependent on fashion.
- Boat-People and Travellers, Homo mensproavodorum, the species known as the memory people that can inherit memories from their parents are split into two groups. One called the Boat-People and the other Called the Travellers. Although genetically compatible, these two groups are separated by ideology over how to use their memories and thus are both sub-species of Homo mensproavodorum.
[edit] Controversies
It has been implied that Dixon plagiarized at least some of the designs for the future humans from another illustrator, Wayne Douglas Barlowe. In Barlowe's book The Alien Life of Wayne Barlowe, Barlowe includes a section with sketches that are nearly identical to some of the creatures in Dixon's book. Barlowe asserts that they are from a project that was plagiarized by another author. Since Barlowe has not been sued for libel, and since Barlowe's book is still in print while Man After Man has remained steadily out of print, it is at least likely that Barlowe's accusations have some merit.
The question of why humans, as one of the most adaptable and evolutionarily successful species on the planet, would turn themselves into such highly specialized subspecies is not addressed in the book.
