Biological uplift

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In science fiction, biological uplift is a common but by no means universal term for the act of an advanced civilization helping the development of another species by bringing a non-sapient one into sentience, or by giving a sapient one spacefaring capabilities. The best-known use of the term is in David Brin's Uplift series, which may have popularized it. Orion's Arm uses the term provolve to avoid possible copyright issues with David Brin.

Uplifting also refers to the theoretical prospect of endowing non-human animals with greater capacities, including and especially increased intelligence. It is highly likely that biological uplifting would be accomplished through the application of genetic and transgenic technologies, and possibly even artificial intelligence. This includes, but is not limited to, various forms of artificial selection and genetic engineering.

The concept can be traced to H. G. Wells' novel The Island of Doctor Moreau, in which the eponymous scientist transforms animals into horrifying parodies of men through surgery and psychological torment. The resulting animal-people obsessively recite the Law, a series of prohibitions against reversion to animal behaviors, with the haunting refrain of "Are we not men?" Wells' novel reflects Victorian concerns about vivisection and of the power of unrestrained scientific experimentation to do terrible harm. These ideas were discussed in more detail by Olaf Stapledon in his 1944 novel Sirius.

Another well-known early literary example of the concept of biological uplift can be found in the underpeople of Cordwainer Smith's Instrumentality of Mankind series. In Smith's universe, the underpeople were created from animals through unexplained technological means explicitly to be servants of humanity, and are often treated as less than slaves by the society that uses them. However, Smith's characterizations of individual underpeople are frequently quite sympathetic, and one of his most memorable characters is C'Mel, the cat-woman who appears in The Ballad of Lost C'Mel and Norstrilia.

David Brin has stated that his Uplift universe was written at least in part in response to the common assumption in earlier science fiction such as Cordwainer Smith's work and Planet of the Apes that uplifted animals would, or even should, be treated as possessions rather than people[1]. As a result, a significant part of the conflict in the series revolves around the differing policies of Galactics and humans toward their client races. While Galactic races traditionally hold their uplifted "clients" in millennia-long indentures, during which the "patrons" have extensive rights and claims over clients' lives and labor power, humans have given their uplifted dolphins and chimpanzees near-equal civil rights, with a few legal and economic disabilities related to their unfinished state.

In contrast, the Moreau series by S. Andrew Swann has humanity creating uplifted animals—named "moreaus" after the H. G. Wells novel—for the purpose of fighting in a series of wars. After the wars end, the leftover moreaus have difficulty assimilating into a human civilization where they are feared, suffer limited civil-rights and are objects of racist oppression.

In addition, Will Shetterly's Chimera novel is set in a future where human-animal hybrids are created as slaves.

Cultural uplift is distinguished from biological uplift in that it does not physically alter the organism. A real cultural uplift experiment started with bonobos in 2005 in Great Ape Trust in Iowa, USA.