"'...evolution [on Kirkasant] worked fast. But you must have gained as well as atrophied. I know you have more physical strength, for instance, than your ancestors could've had.'" (p. 739)
Here is the germ of the transition from sf to the superheroes genre. Imagine a planet, X, where natural selection makes human beings stronger, faster, keener sighted. Think of some other abilities that might be enhanced. Then imagine that an X-man comes to Earth, dons a mask and costume and uses his enhanced powers to fight crime...
Other sfnal sources of super powers include advanced technology and mutations and such sources can also be magical or supernatural because superheroes combine sf with fantasy.
In a few sentences, we have come a long way from Poul Anderson's prose to another genre in other media but they are connected. Some of Anderson's characters are super-powered, particularly his mutant time travellers, and he could have written good superhero novels or scripts if he had wanted to.
2 comments:
Human biological evolution has been very slight for the past 80,000 - 60,000 years, because cultural evolution pre-empts it, and that's when behaviorally modern humans emerged.
There are biological responses to the disease environment, and on a minor scale to things like available foodstuffs (hence several populations developing lactose tolerance as adults) and climate, which is why Innuit are short and stocky and people from the south Sudan are tall and skinny.
But basically, we're not much different from our ancestors of 60,000 years ago -- somewhat thinner bones would be the main difference, and the overbite.
Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!
Paul: I'm not entirely sure Anderson would always be right. I mean, if Kirkasant had a significantly higher gravity than Aeneas, adaptation over thousands of years should make descendants of the long forgotten McCormac rebels who settled there shorter and stockier than the original colonists.
Of course Anderson might argue Kirkasant was simply an exception to that general rule.
Mr. Stirling: But some planets might be different enough from Aeneas' and Earth that it stimulates real changes at the genetic/biological level. I think what happened Kirkasant fits that bill.
Ad astra! Sean
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