Everard advises Floris to:
"'Ask for psychotech help if the nightmares won't go away...'" (p. 521)
That phrase, "psychotech help," encapsulates Poul Anderson's first future history series, the Psychotechnic History, whose main premise is future sciences of humanity: both of society and of individual psychophysical organisms.
And what might be done with such organisms? Everard and Floris also discuss the fact that future sex-change operations involve neither surgery nor hormones but the rebuilding of an organism from its DNA up. This happens in the "autodocs" in Larry Niven's Known Space History. A body can be regrown from a severed head. Louis Wu is not only cured of his injuries but also transformed from a "protector" back into a "breeder."
But, in that case, bodies can be transformed into almost anything. Time Patrol members from far uptime might not be anything that we would recognize as human. And that reminds us that the Patrol is founded by a post-human species. What really does happen a million years in the future? The Danellians will result not just from natural selection but also from applications of advanced technology.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Sex-change operations? More absurdities! I have no objection to Anderson trying out "transhumanist" in some of his stories, but I get the strong impression that he did not really believe in them. At most the cloning of new limbs/organs using the DNA of particular persons might become possible (plus a modest extension of human lifespans).
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
The genetic sex-change was proposed as a kind of disguise for Floris spending any length of time in a period when women were at a disadvantage. She declined.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I can only say I have no objection to Anderson trying out such ideas for story purposes.
Ad astra! Sean
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