Man After Man

Cover

Man After Man: An Anthropology of the Future (1990, ISBN 0-312-03560-8) is a speculative book written by Scottish geologist Dougal Dixon and illustrated by Philip Hood. The theme of the book is a hypothetical 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.

According to Dixon, he did not want to be involved in the book to begin with, and his original idea involved humans of the far future returning to the Earth featured in After Man and ravaging the ecosystem as they did on Earth.[1]

Plot summary

The book begins with the impact of genetic engineering and ecological damage caused by humans. For 200 years modern humans manipulate human biological material to create genetically-altered species of humanoid beings. The early forms are intended as workers to be utilised by conventional humans, used as situationally adapted labour in the space colonisation and exploration program. There are aquamorphs and aquatics, marine humans with gills instead of lungs. One species - the vacuumorph - has been engineered for life in the vacuum of space. Its skin and eyes carry shields of skin to keep its body stable even without pressure. Civilization eventually collapses, with a few select humans escaping to colonise space. The humans who manufactured the early genetically manipulated creatures, develop to become The Hitek, almost totally dependent on cybernetic technology, augmenting and keeping their bodies alive way past their natural lifespans. They eventually face extinction, their situation is degenerative as a result of the defeat of natural selection coupled with natural environmental phenomena. They now need the cybernetic augmentation just to overcome their genetic deficiency. The Hitek pursue genetically engineered biological alternatives to their cybernetic dependency, and also build genetically altered humans to sustainably occupy niches in the ecologically recovering world: Genetically-altered humans include a temperate woodland species, a prairie species, a jungle species, and a tundra-dwelling species. The Hiteks artificially evolve into a species known as Tics, living contemporarily with the niche dwellers emplaced by their forebears. The Tics, as the Hiteks did before them, continue to artificially manufacture food products to sustain themselves, relying on solar and marine energy harvesting to fuel their processing facilities. A magnetic reversal results in the failure of the navigation, communication and energy harvesting technology upon which the Tics existence relies. Meanwhile, another subspecies of humans who did not come to rely on artificial life extending technology, develops: The Handlers (later speech corruption making the name Andlas) adapt from a mixture of non technological peoples squatting and fighting one another for survival in the squalid ruins of the pre decline cities, and technologically capable handymen for the Hiteks. They go back to a more sustainable existence, becoming ecologically sound subsistence farmers. Natural selection has helped them to recover from the ecological damage and become stronger again. They too are forced into extinction by the magnetic reversal and its environmental impact upon their crops, animal husbandry and hunting.

The genetically-altered niche adapted humans survive, they must face a new phenomenon, but they are well prepared. They can no longer be genetically tweaked in a lab, so all modifications must naturally evolve. Many new forms result from natural selection. Socials, colonial humans with a single reproductive parent, Fishers, goblin-like fishing humans, Slothmen, megatherium-like humans, Spiketooths, smilodon-like humans, hibernating adaptations and even parasitic humans developed through natural changes. The stronger develop to prey upon the weaker, both within and without their own subspecies. Although from a common ancestor, they no longer recognise one another as anything other than a potential enemy or food. Some species develop symbiotic, later some parasitic, cross species dependencies.

After five million years of uninterrupted evolution, the descendants of modern man that retreated into space returned. Then the world changed dramatically. Earth was xenoformed and covered in vast alien cities. The humans and other life forms in this new Earth must breathe air with low oxygen content. Thus the alien invaders use cyborg-technology to fuse the bodies of the few human species they find useful on the planet with air tanks and respiration systems. Genetic modification also returned and giant building humans and tiny connection humans were bred to aid city construction. Genetically created antelope-like humans serve as mounts for the invaders. Some engineered human species even became farmed like pigs or cattle. As with all civilization, this new era of man fell apart once again.

Eventually the spacefaring humans left, the Earth left in ruins once again. With barely any oxygen left in the Earth's atmosphere, 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 continues. In the abyss, Piscanthropus profundus, a deep-sea descendant of the now-extinct Aquatic evolved. It is implied that Piscathropus profundus would eventually recolonize Earth's surface.

Human species included

200 years hence

300 years hence

500 years hence

1,000 years hence

2,000 years hence

Homo sapiens has mysteriously disappeared. Most have gone extinct due to a magnetic reversal.

5,000 years hence

10,000 years hence

50,000 years hence

500,000 years hence

1,000,000 years hence

2,000,000 years hence

3,000,000 years hence

5,000,000 years hence

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 were removed. The barriers between the three species below appears to be cultural e.g., the Andlas, Tic and Hitek 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.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Of After Man, The New Dinosaurs and Greenworld: an interview with Dougal Dixon, By Darren Naish, April 4, 2014 Scientific American Blog Network
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