Enhanced Human Beings In Four Universes

Compare and contrast:

Augments in the Star Trek universe;
Exaltationists in Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series;
Zacharians in Anderson's Technic History;
Lunarians (see also here) in Anderson's Harvest of Stars future history.

Augments are genetically engineered superhumans.

Exaltationists are genetically engineered "...to adventure on the cosmic frontier." (See the above link.)

Zacharians are an attempt to breed a superior human leadership.

Lunarians, adapted to live and breed in Lunar gravity, also diverge psychologically from Terran humanity. They must sometimes employ Terrans, who can withstand higher accelerations.

A defeated Exaltationist:

"'We would have made [the universe] what we chose, and unmade it and remade it, and stormed the stars as we warred for possession, with an entire reality the funeral pyre of each who fell and entire histories the funeral games, until the last god reigned alone.'"
-Poul Anderson, The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991), PART TWO, 209 B. C., p. 118.

An embittered Lunarian:

"'I curse this black hole of a world that sucks us in and crushes us formless. I would explode it if I could.'"
-Poul Anderson, Harvest The Fire (New York, 1997), Chapter 5, p. 95.

Her Terran lover:

"Yes, his mind continued for her, destroy it and then range adventuring, unhindered by economics. And reign a Selenarch, unencumbered with politics. Life a wild poem, ruthless as the Iliad, reckless as Otterburn." (ibid.)

The Lunarian thinks scientifically, comparing Terran civilization's demoralization of individuals with a black hole's destruction of matter. Her lover's thoughts partially echo the Exaltationist's words.