By "...a muddy remnant of the Salton Sea...," (p. 243) a community of Drylanders, whose ancestors had been engineered to live in the then advancing deserts, occupies hemispherical buildings while cultivated metamorphic plants, designed to thrive in desert conditions, produce food, fiber, fuel and pharmaceuticals. Although the rollback of the deserts has deprived the Drylanders of their original purpose, this particular community seeks:
"...to expiate man's sins against Mother Earth..." (p. 244)
Members pool their credit to buy what they cannot produce or trade for. Rather than evolutionary dead ends, these and other metamorphs are potentially a new and diverse phase of humanity, I think.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
What I wonder is whether it is even technically possible to use genetic engineering to create metamorphs like the Drylanders.
Sean
Humans already live anywhere from the hottest deserts to tundra. We adapt by using technology & the plants and animals that are already adapted. A specific modification of humans for deserts seems redundant. Use camels and maybe genetically engineer plants to grow on even less water than the most drought resistant current crops and still produce humanly edible food.
Kaor, Jim!
That makes sense to me. With no need to genetically engineer humans!
Ad astra! Sean
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