Five Ways Science Fiction Can Expand Beyond Homo sapiens
Modern humans are fine, but what if we had a bit more variety in
our stories?
https://reactormag.com/five-ways-science-fiction-can-expand-beyond-homo-sapiens/
Five Ways Science Fiction Can Expand Beyond Homo sapiens
Modern humans are fine, but what if we had a bit more variety in
our stories?
https://reactormag.com/five-ways-science-fiction-can-expand-beyond-homo-sapiens/
In article <10easo1$ht2$1@usenet.csail.mit.edu>,
Garrett Wollman <wollman@hergotha.csail.mit.edu> wrote:
In article <10eaq8r$dh7$1@reader2.panix.com>,
James Nicoll <jdnicoll@panix.com> wrote:
Five Ways Science Fiction Can Expand Beyond Homo sapiens
Modern humans are fine, but what if we had a bit more variety in
our stories?
https://reactormag.com/five-ways-science-fiction-can-expand-beyond-homo-sapiens/
The newsgroup has been way too quiet lately! Let's have some
discussion.
1) In Julian May's "Saga of Pliocene Exile", a population of exiles
from a far-away galaxy shows up on Pliocene earth in the proto-Rhone
Valley. Having similar reproductive biology to the extant hominins,
and not being as successful at carrying their own babies to term, they
experiment with using the local Ramapithecus (a now-obsolete taxon) as
surrogate mothers. Much to their surprise and joy, modern-human time
travelers start passing through a one-way time-gate into their
territory and they are somehow genetically compatible with the aliens
and able to engender fertile hybrids. Since they lack metapsychic
powers (which are screened out by the operators of the time-gate) they
are easily enslaved; those with special skills are integrated into the
political structure... and one of them manages to make himself High
King in the aftermath of the Zanclean Flood. It is implied that this
hybrid population survives until the arrival of modern humanity, and
(a) is the source of the genes that will lead to set metapsychic
powers arising among 20th-century humans, and (b) are the source of
the legendary heroes of Irish mythology who IRL May based the
characters on.
2) In Graydon Saunders' (late of this newsgroup) Commonweal, one of
the things dark-lord sorcerers seem to have loved doing over a hundred
thousand years was invent people. Many are humanoid, indeed many are
derived from human stock (pulled out of an alternate past after
humanity exterminated itself in an enormous global war). Some others
are unicorns (seven independently created species), kelpies, and other
kinds of Dangerous Sapient Creatures we don't see in the five books
published thus far. The humanoids generally have similar anatomy (and
at least some of them are seen to have sex) but are reproductively
isolated.
3) In Elf Sternberg's (late of this newsgroup) extended porny
interstellar soap opera, the Journal Entries, the journaller of the
title is a very horny libertarian bisexual geneticist with a fur
fetish, and likes creating new species that he will later figure out
how to have sex with. In addition, there are also humanoid species
elsewhere in the galaxy that he encounters and at times rescues from
imminent social collapse. (Sometimes the rescue is done
retroactively, reconstructing a species from the genetic and cultural
material they have left behind.) Terran humans followed their own
path to immortality which made them sterile, so any new humans are
grown in vats, along with a couple of species they invent but don't
really care much for. Away from Terra, interspecies relationships are
common, as is xenoparenting (which has its own scientific journal);
some species are biologically capable of being surrogates for other
species, which is aided by 12 of the species having had the same
designer and been scaffolded on the same Terran evolutionary history.
Off the top of my head we have a number of post or non human humanish species in fairly well known SF:
Slans
Baldies
Iterloo
Underpeople
Draka
Sime
Children Of The Lens
Eloi/Morlocks
The Last Men
Five Ways Science Fiction Can Expand Beyond Homo sapiens
Modern humans are fine, but what if we had a bit more variety in
our stories?
https://reactormag.com/five-ways-science-fiction-can-expand-beyond-homo-sapiens/
Five Ways Science Fiction Can Expand Beyond Homo sapiens
Modern humans are fine, but what if we had a bit more variety in
our stories?
https://reactormag.com/five-ways-science-fiction-can-expand-beyond-homo-sapiens/
On 11/3/2025 11:54 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
Five Ways Science Fiction Can Expand Beyond Homo sapiens
Modern humans are fine, but what if we had a bit more variety in
our stories?
https://reactormag.com/five-ways-science-fiction-can-expand-beyond-homo-sapiens/
How about the Quaddies in "Falling Free" by Lois McMaster Bujold ?˙ They
had their legs replaced with a lower sets of arms for zero gravity conditions, before the invention of anti gravity plates, and it bred true.
˙˙ https://www.amazon.com/Falling-Free-Nebula-Award-Stories/dp/067157812X
Lynn
Lynn McGuire wrote:
On 11/3/2025 11:54 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
Five Ways Science Fiction Can Expand Beyond Homo sapiens
Modern humans are fine, but what if we had a bit more variety in
our stories?
https://reactormag.com/five-ways-science-fiction-can-expand-beyond-homo-sap
iens/
How about the Quaddies in "Falling Free" by Lois McMaster Bujold ?˙ They had their legs replaced with a lower sets of arms for zero gravity conditions, before the invention of anti gravity plates, and it bred true.
˙˙ https://www.amazon.com/Falling-Free-Nebula-Award-Stories/dp/067157812X
Lynn
I was thinking of the Quaddies myself. Eventually they would most likely become a separate species. But at the time of _Labyrinth_ Bel Thorne
falls in love with the Quaddie dulcimer player Nicol, and in a later
book (Diplomatic Immunity?) they're settled together and planning
offspring. And...there was the Barrayaran who got deserted his ship to
be with a Quaddie, and that relationship seemed it was going to be
permanent or at least lengthy.
So the Quaddies are not yet a different species (if the ability to interbreed is your benchmark- there are others), but interbreeding
between them and legged humans is likely to become less and less common, leading to an eventual speciation event.
In article <10eh5si$sfgj$1@dont-email.me>,
Chris Thompson <the_thompsons@earthlink.net> wrote:
Lynn McGuire wrote:
On 11/3/2025 11:54 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
Five Ways Science Fiction Can Expand Beyond Homo sapiens
Modern humans are fine, but what if we had a bit more variety in
our stories?
https://reactormag.com/five-ways-science-fiction-can-expand-beyond-homo-sap
iens/
How about the Quaddies in "Falling Free" by Lois McMaster Bujold ??˙ They >>> had their legs replaced with a lower sets of arms for zero gravity
conditions, before the invention of anti gravity plates, and it bred true. >>> ?˙?˙ https://www.amazon.com/Falling-Free-Nebula-Award-Stories/dp/067157812X
Lynn
I was thinking of the Quaddies myself. Eventually they would most likely
become a separate species. But at the time of _Labyrinth_ Bel Thorne
falls in love with the Quaddie dulcimer player Nicol, and in a later
book (Diplomatic Immunity?) they're settled together and planning
offspring. And...there was the Barrayaran who got deserted his ship to
be with a Quaddie, and that relationship seemed it was going to be
permanent or at least lengthy.
So the Quaddies are not yet a different species (if the ability to
interbreed is your benchmark- there are others), but interbreeding
between them and legged humans is likely to become less and less common,
leading to an eventual speciation event.
Since it appears that Bel's and Nicol's offspring have to be created in
a biolab; they probably are separate species. Certainly the Betan Hermaphrodites have to be a separate species. For that matter, since the Cetagandan Haut have an extra pair of chromosones, they are a separate species by definition (the Haut-Ghem crosses are also created in a
biolab).
Robert Woodward wrote:
In article <10eh5si$sfgj$1@dont-email.me>,
Chris Thompson <the_thompsons@earthlink.net> wrote:
Lynn McGuire wrote:
On 11/3/2025 11:54 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
Five Ways Science Fiction Can Expand Beyond Homo sapiens
Modern humans are fine, but what if we had a bit more variety in
our stories?
https://reactormag.com/five-ways-science-fiction-can-expand-beyond-homo-s
ap
iens/
How about the Quaddies in "Falling Free" by Lois McMaster Bujold ??˙ They >>> had their legs replaced with a lower sets of arms for zero gravity
conditions, before the invention of anti gravity plates, and it bred
true.
?˙?˙
https://www.amazon.com/Falling-Free-Nebula-Award-Stories/dp/067157812X >>>
Lynn
I was thinking of the Quaddies myself. Eventually they would most likely >> become a separate species. But at the time of _Labyrinth_ Bel Thorne
falls in love with the Quaddie dulcimer player Nicol, and in a later
book (Diplomatic Immunity?) they're settled together and planning
offspring. And...there was the Barrayaran who got deserted his ship to
be with a Quaddie, and that relationship seemed it was going to be
permanent or at least lengthy.
So the Quaddies are not yet a different species (if the ability to
interbreed is your benchmark- there are others), but interbreeding
between them and legged humans is likely to become less and less common, >> leading to an eventual speciation event.
Since it appears that Bel's and Nicol's offspring have to be created in
a biolab; they probably are separate species. Certainly the Betan Hermaphrodites have to be a separate species. For that matter, since the Cetagandan Haut have an extra pair of chromosones, they are a separate species by definition (the Haut-Ghem crosses are also created in a
biolab).
Well, you've gone and opened 2 or 3 new cans of worms there. First, I
don't see that Betan herms have to be a different species. Why would
that be? They simply have 2 functional sets of reproductive organs. As
for the haut...by your reasoning, people with Turner's syndrome or
Trisomy 21 are members of different species and that just ain't so.
Modern humans are fine, but what if we had a bit more variety in
our stories? https://reactormag.com/five-ways-science-fiction-can-expand-beyond-homo-sapiens/
Well, you've gone and opened 2 or 3 new cans of worms there. First, I
don't see that Betan herms have to be a different species. Why would
that be? They simply have 2 functional sets of reproductive organs. As
for the haut...by your reasoning, people with Turner's syndrome or
Trisomy 21 are members of different species and that just ain't so.
Chris Thompson wrote:
Well, you've gone and opened 2 or 3 new cans of worms there. First, I
don't see that Betan herms have to be a different species. Why would
that be? They simply have 2 functional sets of reproductive organs. As
for the haut...by your reasoning, people with Turner's syndrome or
Trisomy 21 are members of different species and that just ain't so.
Tetrasomy two, on the other hand ...
William Hyde
Greg Egan's short story "The Moat" implies the existence of a cryptic population in the near future. Uninterpretable DNA evidence from
a crime leads to the realization that somebody, presumably a wealthy
‚lite, has made themselves genetically incompatible, maybe by
switching their DNA to other bases.
Greg Egan's short story "The Moat" implies the existence of a cryptic
population in the near future. Uninterpretable DNA evidence from
a crime leads to the realization that somebody, presumably a wealthy
‚lite, has made themselves genetically incompatible, maybe by
switching their DNA to other bases.
Doesn't he use the same gag in one of his novels, _Distress_ if I recall
How about the Quaddies in "Falling Free" by Lois McMaster Bujold ? They
had their legs replaced with a lower sets of arms for zero gravity >conditions, before the invention of anti gravity plates, and it bred true.
https://www.amazon.com/Falling-Free-Nebula-Award-Stories/dp/067157812X
On Tue, 4 Nov 2025 01:21:40 -0600, Lynn McGuire
<lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:
How about the Quaddies in "Falling Free" by Lois McMaster Bujold ? TheyThat was my first introduction to LMB and while your logic makes sense presumably if the quaddies were the result of genetic engineering, engineering arms and legs for their children would still be possible
had their legs replaced with a lower sets of arms for zero gravity
conditions, before the invention of anti gravity plates, and it bred true. >> https://www.amazon.com/Falling-Free-Nebula-Award-Stories/dp/067157812X >>
(and desireable once anti grav plates were a common technology)
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