Comments on: None of these things is just like the others

By: Peggy Kolm

Peggy Kolm — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 06:26:31 +0000

There’s also the possibility of “time travel” allowing multiple human sub-species to be contemporaries on Earth.

A favorite way of doing this in SF seems to be to use the DNA of Neanderthals or other prehistoric human to revive them in the present day. I think there are a number of problems with this idea scientifically – not the least being that we don’t have well-preserved genomes for multiple individuals. But maybe carefully stored DNA and tissue samples from the present could be used to revive “modern” humans far in the future.

Alternatively, you could have a group of present-day humans tour the galaxy on ship traveling near light speed and time dilation would potentially return them to Earth millions of years in the future. Send out ships at regular intervals traveling different distances, and 50 million years from now there could be humans who represent samples of the species from a number of different eras.

Of course these would be individuals from a single line of evolution living together, rather than divergent evolution, but it would get multiple human subspecies onto Earth at the same time.

By: Mel Green

Mel Green — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 17:04:56 +0000

I think if I ever wanted to explore one, I’d go with the asteroid “deep impact” variation. One as devastating as the one that ended the Cretaceous. Resulting mass extinction, with a long & slow recovery & lots of new species, including variations on humanity niches, with some of them holding onto remnants of the kind of civilization/technology we’re familiar with, but others evolving in different ways.

By: Mel Green

Mel Green — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 16:50:47 +0000

White supremacist separatist cult with lots of moolah creates isolationist mega-compound & genetically engineers to ensure “purity” of its already socially constructed “racial uniqueness.”

By: bartleib

bartleib — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 16:40:39 +0000

That’s what I was thinking too. I’ve read plenty of stories with catostrophic disasters that caused us to, well, not be a global community any more. Usually they go hand in hand with dramatic reduction of worldwide populations, too, and often there’s a loss of technology which cripples widespread communication. In circumstances like those it’s very possible we’d have pockets of people becoming isolated from the rest of the world.

By: Mel Green

Mel Green — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 16:36:09 +0000

Though I think it’s a fair point. In fact, as I was reading the post itself & was thinking how speciation on Earth would require some sort of catastrophic or at least artificial event to cut one part of the global monoculture off from the other. And immediately thought of several examples from SF/F. The riffs I think of involving Earth-based speciation are variations on those themes — most involving big population reductions (due to war, disease, asteroid impact, alien invasion) that could leave different populations isolated from one another.

By: bartleib

bartleib — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 16:35:46 +0000

At no point did I object to your delineating the existing constraints, or say they weren’t accurate. Your comments (“humans can no longer speciate on earth”, “We are a single global species now”, “we’re a monoculture”), followed by no extrapolation but a switch to discussion of On/Off-Earth possibilities, really came across as a shut-down of a potential discussion of future On-Earth divergence. My comment was solely to re-open that discussion.

By: Athena Andreadis

Athena Andreadis — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 16:20:31 +0000

We’re also capable of exploring the concept of human speciation as scientists — and since this blog is about science in fiction, we can delineate the existing constraints, which will give us a way to frame extrapolations that are not fantasy.

Along the lines of Zarpaulus’ reply in this thread, extremely lengthy and strict endogamy just might produce newish human strains. But it would take millions of years unless it’s aided by some external circumstance. You may have noticed the words “genetic engineering” in my reply, which is a path to speciation regardless of planetary context. Another path, of course (also heavily trodden in SF) is post-apocalypse mutations.

By: Zarpaulus

Zarpaulus — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 16:10:37 +0000

Off-Earth speciation has been done to death. Just read Larry Niven’s Known Space.

But I do have an idea for On-Earth speciation that could be unique: In the near future genetic testing for a variety of “disabilities” becomes common. However many people with disabilities, in particular high-functioning autism spectrum disorders, want their children to be like them. So they refuse genetic testing and marry within their “subculture”. Over time they become a new species, some might even speed up the process by adding extra chromosomes to their offspring’s genomes so they are incompatible with ordinary humans. This attracts a lot of controversy, especially when certain ethnic groups adopt the same tactics to preserve their genes.

By: bartleib

bartleib — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 15:52:17 +0000

Well, you pointed out how right now we’re a monoculture on earth, but didn’t leave open the possibility of breaking that pattern on-earth. You seemed to shut that down and imply that we’ll only break as a monoculture if some of us leave earth. My reply was specifically about the possibility of breaking from the monoculture solely on-earth. Which as writers we’re plenty capable of exploring the concept of.

By: Athena Andreadis

Athena Andreadis — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 15:48:09 +0000

I thought I was agreeing with you? — and riffing on some of the points you raised from the biological/genetic standpoint.