"Future operations didn't involve surgery or hormone shots; they took place at the molecular level, rebuilding the organism from the DNA up."
-Poul Anderson, "Star of the Sea" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 467-640 AT 6, p. 525.
And such operations are reversible: a much more satisfactory arrangement.
They sound like Larry Niven's "autodoc":
a coffin-like box;
someone with any illness or injury is enclosed in the box;
the patient, unconscious, is fed intravenously;
the body is cured or healed from the DNA up;
a nanotech autodoc grew a body from a severed head and transformed a protector back into a breeder. See here.
An autodoc could clearly be programmed to change the patient's sex.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
It was in the latter part of THE BOAT OF A MILLION YEARS that I first came across the idea of reversing the DNA pattern of a man or woman to the opposite sex and back again. Much more plausible than the grotesque and pathetic "sex change" operations some have now. But I do have my doubts if it will be possible to reverse a person's DNA pattern at the molecular level. But that, as well as Niven's "auto-doc" does make for interesting science fiction.
Sean
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