Humanity may devolve or evolve. Behavior becomes post-, whether ex- or super-, human.
(i) In SM Stirling's Emberverse, wild men attack outsiders, squealing a syllable that had once been the word, "Eat."
(ii) Morlocks eat Eloi.
(iii) In Olaf Stapledon's Last And First Men, human beings adapted to live on Neptune become quadrupedal and revert to animality. Periodically, a pack gathers in a circle to hear one of its members howl.
(iv) Poul Anderson's Time Patrol is founded by the post-human Danellians. One appears as a blazing form, another as a kindly monk. What is the reality behind the appearances?
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Point (i), the wild men were not only eager to eat strangers, but quite willing to eat one another, so far had they descended into savagery.
Point (iii), at least, unlike Jack Vance, I have definitely read some of Olaf Stapledon's works, "Odd John," and "Sirius."
Point (iv), do we REALLY want to know what the Danellians are like? I recall Manse Everard thinking about Guion, a senior Patrol agent from the far future, that the latter might know enough about the Danellians to be FRIGHTENED by them.
Sean
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