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"The line must be drawn here! This far, no further!"
In speculative fiction settings with very high technological levels, older Space Opera in particular, transhumans, meaning people who use cybernetic and/or genetic enhancements to give themselves capabilities far in excess of those of ordinary humans, will often be either completely absent or much rarer than you would expect given the stated capabilities of the society they live in. In the older works this was more a case of No Transhumanism Existing As A Distinct Concept Yet, though they did have Evolutionary Levels and/or Mutants which often served the same plot purpose. A primary contributor to Schizo Tech.
Oddly enough, Twenty Minutes Into The Future settings, particularly within the Cyberpunk genre, typically feature human capability enhancement prominently. This is probably caused by real-world technological advancements making it seem like this will become reality in the relatively near future, while older works hail from a period when this sort of thing still seemed entirely fantastic and authors therefore rarely included such themes in their stories.
Often caused by the fact that Most Writers Are Human: only a few authors dare try to imagine what a fictional society where everyone or at least the majority are no longer recognisably human would be like. Much easier, then, to have everyone be regular humans wielding nifty supertools rather than transhumans with nifty superbodies and superminds, which also conveniently allows the humans in the audience to relate to the characters better by keeping their thoughts, behavior patterns and limitations familiar. Also done to sidestep What Measure Is A Non Super: the idea that humanity might be "superseded" by a more advanced version is repugnant to many, and the more radical the enhancements are, the more likely it will be seen as a kind of Body Horror. Transhumans can end up as default villains in Space Opera settings, as it's all too easy to classify someone nonhuman as less-than-human. In that sense it's a form of Fantastic Racism, sometimes called bioism (prejudice against non-biological consciousness or modified life). Subtler but equally unsettling is the thought that not all humans are likely to be able to take advantage of genetic engineering and advanced cybernetics, and the gap between the "haves" and "have-nots" would naturally become even wider as rich people and poor people literally become separate species. In some cases, you will find that villains use radical modifications while the heroes remain more Badass Normal and "pure", leading to What Measure Is A Non Human.
This is sometimes justified or at least Hand Waved in various fashions; it could be a form of Schizo Tech where genetics and cybernetics stagnated while other scientific fields advanced, it might be considered unethical or be illegal, or there could be strong taboos in place due to past problems with this sort of thing. Instances of replacing lost body parts with equivalent or improved versions are not really an aversion, as the people of the society still do not seek out these enhancements (and especially so if the replacements aren't even more effective than the originals). A very specific form of Misapplied Phlebotinum. The most common aversion of this trope is the Super Soldier.
Often part of a Feudal Future's Back Story - excessive regulation and short-sighted bureaucrats are a serious threat to Real Life scientific development.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- In Cowboy Bebop, Jet Black has a cybernetic arm to replace his natural one, lost long ago, and Spike has an artificial and mildly enhanced eye. Aversion, right? Well, no, as Jet's considered odd for not picking up an organic one, and the cybernetic arm's made of fairly weak metal and motors. Spike doesn't seem aware of the enhancements his eye gives him, if his reaction times or accuracy with firearms are due to the eye. This is the same setting with man-portable force field generators and many, many small concealed weapons.
- Vandread follows this to a degree, in that each of the different human worlds has been created/genetically altered for specific organs or traits, and whilst the main villains are robot swarms in the anime, in the manga they're human brains wired into vehicular bodies.
- Played straight in the Backstory of the Gundam SEED series with superhuman Coordinators and regular Naturals. The first Coordinator was produced in secret and was only revealed when he proved just how superior he was to everyone else. A brief period of bandwagon-jumping followed until some people began having concerns about just what their children were becoming. People were mainly just really jealous of the super-enhanced though.) Although Poor George Glenn paid for it with his life, and It Got Worse to the point where the factions were at war by episode 1.
- Inverted in Kiddy Grade; in the setting, most humans had to be modified in order to survive the rigors of interstellar colonisation, as this was (and still is) cheaper than specialized life-support technology; only the very richest could afford it. Flash forward at least several centuries, and those unmodified humans have become the Nouvlesse, a small in numbers but filthy rich and hyper-powerful faction of elitist jerks who despise the "impure" masses which are now the main branch of humanity. Their disdain is such that they're planning a large-scale genocide of "inferior" humankind...
- Deconstructed in Macross. More than once an aspiring scientists tried to dabble with transhumanism, but due to all of them having Science Related Memetic Disorder, none of these tries ended well, as we could see in Macross Plus and Macross Frontier. Thus, while there's no general prohibition of transhumanism, and there are societies that actively practice it (like Macross Galaxy colony fleet in MF), it tends to be frowned upon.
- There's similar deconstruction in Crest Of The Stars — Abh are your garden-variety supermen constructed for space exploration, but they were constructed as slaves, and rebelled against their creators utterly destroying them in process. The second, antagonist faction goes even further, considering them just sentient equipment.
Comic Books
- Too many Comic Books to detail. Apparently the rule is that if you go out of your way to enhance yourself, it'll result in a Psycho Serum (except for that one time). If it just happens to you, then you might not end up evil.
- Subverted in Michael Manning's Spider Garden erotic graphic novel series. A decadent, far future clan-based society where the entire population has benefitted from genetic manipulation and technological enhancement to some degree, with the "metahuman" rulers expressing the pinnacle of the technology (and reserving it for themselves). There are no good or evil sides, and no clear protagonists or antagonists; merely a number of different factions engaged in multi-layered intrigues for status and the favour of the supreme ruler. There is also a non-human race which may be supernatural in origin, or may also be the result of the genetic engineering technology (it hasn't yet been made entirely clear).
- Speaking of graphic novels, Robota lays down some rules for this. The effect to be feared from augmentations is that they'll make you think your superiority makes your life and desires more important than those of others. However, the augmentations themselves are perfectly harmless, as are changes in physical capabilities that do not change your appearance. Risk comes in when you no longer look like a human, since you might forget your origins.
Film
- Star Wars is also mostly like this: Artificial Limbs are considered vulgar, and Sith Alchemy is worse than planetbusting. Villains like Darth Vader and Grievous use cybernetics that make them more dangerous in physical combat, but only after suffering crippling injuries. Good guys like Luke Skywalker only use replacement cybernetics that are somewhat more effective than the original body parts were, when it comes up at all. Clone troopers can be mass-produced, but are still only on the level of well-trained regular soldiers, instead of being enhanced to Warhammer 40000 Space Marine levels or anything in that vein. Some expanded universe media feature cyborgs and genetic engineering, but still it seems less prominent than the general technology level and the obvious utility of such enhancements would suggest. Princesses abound, but they're elected. While still teenagers.
- One minor example of a transhuman character in the films is Lando Calrisian's majordomo, a man with (rather clunky-looking) cybernetic brain implants.
- That was Lobot, and his implant basically turns him into that guy you know who's always on his mobile ON SPACE CRACK!. To the point where, in the Expanded Universe, he gets lonely if he turns off his implants.
- There's mention of cyborgs suffering various degrees of Fantastic Racism, whether from outside or only to themselves, like Ton Phanan, whose Cybernetics Ate His Future. Oddly enough most of the good guys cover their Artificial Limbs with synthflesh, and Phanan didn't.
Literature
- Jerry Pournelle's Co Dominium: The Bureau Of Technology not only policed technology, but contaminated all records have with false data; people know how to build the stuff they use, but are ignorant of the underlying principles that make them work. After the Dirty Communists and Eagleland wipe each other out, say hello to the Empire of Man, which lacks those controls - leading to the rise of the warlike and scheming Saurons.
- In the Co Dominium universe, genetic engineering is a crap shoot — the Saurons are superhuman, but also overspecialized and much less adaptable. Apparently, the other cultures in CoDo space decided to keep their options open rather than risk brainlocking themselves racially.
- Larry Niven's Known Space: The ARM polices all technology which could be turned into a Weapon Of Mass Destruction - and every technology has a destructive use, so the only new technologies in the series are the ones they're unable to suppress quickly. The ARM don't call themselves royalty, but they're the only ones who choose who gets weapons - and before you ask, the answer is NO unless Earth itself is being attacked by man-eating cats. Then they pass them out once the surplus population is cut down a bit.
- Alan Dean Foster's Humanx Commonwealth: After a bunch of Morally Ambiguous Doctors attempted to breed some Gattaca Babies with Psychic Powers, The Government banned research into the genetics of sapient lifeforms. Hollywood Cyborgs are nowhere to be seen. Only backwaters are feudal, just like The Federation.
- Justified in Walter Jon Williams' Dread Empires Fall books; the Shaa conquerors stomp hard on any technology not strictly needed to allow the Shaa to conquer.
- The transhuman Luculenti in John Meaney's To Hold Infinity use serious brain augmentation, though this is controlled to prevent people upgrading themselves too much and having... alien thought patterns emerge.
- The result of one gentleman doing just that can be seen in the Nulapeiron sequence by the same author in the form of The Anomaly. The inhabitants of Nulapeiron also use impressive amounts of augmentation though not at all in the classic cyborg vein, and more importantly not the sort that leads to inhuman modes of thought.
- The Fall Revolution series by Ken MacLeod features the rise and fall of the "Fast Folk", strongly transhuman individuals who uploaded themselves to immensely powerful computer frameworks/spaceships and constructed a wormhole to a distant planet and the far future before going insane, malfunctioning and dying. Except for the ones that survived (just), and spent a few hundred years plotting to take over most of the universe once they'd pulled themselves together again.
- Oh, and incidentally crushed most merely human governments and killed millions (and forcibly uploaded millions more) and trashed all serious technology in the solar system by hacking, EMP, or plain old computer viruses. This is the reason why transhumanism is quite definitely not allowed in the later books of the series.
- Mike Resnick's Santiago Space Western plays this absolutely dead straight - people only get cybernetics when they're injured, but as Sebastian Cain comments on someone else's eyepatch, "Why doesn't he just get a cybernetic one? I've got one - it sees better than the one I was born with."
- Mildly averted in the Perry Rhodan universe. Despite high-tech and advanced medicine, most humans still seem quite content with their natural bodies (as long as those keep working, most cybernetic body parts seen are used as prostheses or for other medical reasons); however, there is no major prejudice against cyborgs and other modified individuals, and several important colony worlds wouldn't exist without considerable tinkering with the original colonists' DNA. Several alien species have chosen more 'transhumanist' approaches for themselves without suffering for it.
- Averted in Scott Westerfield's Uglies series, where everyone at the age of 16 is surgically altered to become a "Pretty," with ceramic teeth, all-new skin, supermodel beauty, and immunity from all disease and the effects of aging. The series also includes the rare secret op "Specials," who have been changed to have superhuman reflexes and senses, "space-shuttle ceramic" skeletons, faster healing rates, and a metabolism that can extract nutrition from almost anything. Later even stranger examples of "surge" pop up. In this setting the unaltered humans ("Uglies") are few and far between, and often hunted as terrorists so they don't upset the status quo.
- Completely averted in the John C. Wright trilogy The Golden Age. Almost every human alive is augmented to at least some degree (and everyone is essentially immortal due to mind backups). In fact, the augmentation goes so far that there exist definite translation difficulties between the various neurotypes — a Cold Duke living on Neptune is not even recognisably human anymore, basically consisting of an amorphous blob of supercooled blue liquid that contains superconducting brain matter (granting the neurotype I Qs in the hundreds of thousands.) Cerebellines are swarm-like creatures that consist of dozens of animal bodies, linked up into a neural network. Invariants have a fully self-integrated brain without a subconsciousness, while Warlocks live in a permanent dream-like state that gives them intuitive abilities similar to precognition. Humanity is, basically, a blanket term used to describe a certain kind of consciousness, not a species, while true transhuman intelligences are called "sophotechs". This does not mean "artificial intelligence", mind you, because a good number of human characters in the book are originally A Is. They're just not sophotechs (which are of a different order of consciousness entirely and even more intelligent than the Cold Dukes.)
Live Action TV
- Star Trek is a major example here: In The Federation, Hollywood Cyborgs are illegal, and Genetic Engineering Is The New Nuke because of the Eugenics Wars. Their technology is so advanced they should be able to do most anything; the transporter might be able to resurrect anyone who dies as long as their pattern is stored in the buffer, and maybe multiply them too (or, depending on the physics involved, maybe not). If the replicator can make just about everything by converting energy to matter on the subatomic level, they should be able to manipulate pre-existing matter on that level, including their own flesh (again possibly not. The show's Hand Wave for not doing so is that replicating complex life would require quantum-level duplication, which is consistent with at least some real-world theories on the as-yet highly speculative subject). More specific examples include but are by no means limited to the following:
- Geordi LaForge has a visor that allows him to perceive radiation outside the normal spectrum visible to humans, yet no one else uses such a device even if it would be useful to them.
- It's mentioned in some episodes that wearing the visor causes him constant pain.
- In an episode of TNG, a deathly ill villain manages to capture Data and download his own personality into the robot brain. He is rather pleased with his new super-strong and immortal body, but when he offers to do the same for his girlfriend, she breaks down crying, finding the idea monstrous.
- Nanomachines that can repair and even improve living bodies have been shown, then ignored (or used only by the villains, except when convenient for the heroes).
- One episode of Deep Space Nine had a cyborg who could interface her brain with computers; it's referred to as a rare occurrence. And of course, genetic alteration of humans is illegal and the resulting beings subject to Fantastic Racism and legalized discrimination because of a war that happened centuries ago caused by augmented humans raised to believe they were superior beings.
- The Borg are an example of the Body Horror type, as a forcibly Hive-minded species.
- In one episode, Ensign Barclay is raised to literally godlike superintelligence by an alien probe. He starts out by using it to indulge various personal desires and do his job with superhuman efficiency, then goes off on a power trip to where he hijacks the Enterprise and takes it to meet some nigh-omnipotent aliens — the probe makers — who revert him to normal human intelligence. But at no time throughout his several days of apotheosis does it occur to him to devote one minute to studying his own augmented brain, how it got that way, and how he could possibly reproduce the phenomenon in others. You'd think he'd at least be interested in checking out 'Is this new rush of brains temporary or permanent? And does it have side effects?'
- Artificial Intelligences with potentially superhuman capacity have deliberately been limited to human-equivalent abilities, again except when the plot causes them to be briefly and intermittently superhuman.
- The episode mentioned above also features a specific example of this: At one point Barclay has the Holodeck run a program which enables him to interact with a virtual Albert Einstein and discuss entirely new ideas. If the holodeck is capable of simulating Einstein's intellect in such a fashion, it would imply that the computer running it is at least as smart as Einstein and should be capable of making new discoveries on its own. This, of course, never happens.
- Amazingly even when the Federation finds out that not everyone who is genetically enhanced goes crazy they suppress the information rather than try to find out what makes Bashir different and potentially move themselves forward hundreds of years.
- Generally, any Transhumanism aside from breeding with aliens is branded as immoral in Doctor Who (by the Doctor himself, at least), although the technology pops up irregularly throughout the timeline, and there are repeated suggestions that the Time Lords themselves are a transhuman race. Most glaringly is the episode in which the Doctor and his companions travel to the end of the universe, where humanity is not only still alive, but exactly like it is in the present, having changed overall totally nil (technically, they were recreated as an "heirloom" species long after the first... and probably billion-and-first... extinction of the originals). Though offscreen this batch of humans turns themselves into floating robot brain balls.
- Well, it is easy for the Doctor to say transhumanism is bad. He can't fucking die.
- The Doctor isn't the only one. Lady Cassandra considers herself the last 'pure' human in 'The End of the World'. Doctor 9 at least seems open to the idea of evolving as a species. He also criticised the implants in 'The Long Game', as too primitive for what he expected.
- There's also a bit of Fantastic Racism, too: a cyborg character was reluctant to reveal his status, and when he finally reluctantly mentioned one of his implants that could save the cast, Astrid told him not to worry, saying cyborg rights were making progress, and they were even allowed to marry now. (Does This Remind You Of Anything?)
- To be fair to those suspicious of transhumanism on the show, both the Daleks and the Cybermen are the results of extreme transhuman modifications designed to let them survive at any cost. And we all know how well that went.
- Andromeda averts this trope. There are several distinct human-descended races, and the vast majority that still call themselves 'humans' have at least some level of genetic enhancement. People that consider modified humans as less than human are considered dangerous psychos. About 8% of humanity has not been genetically modified by this time, and even "pure" human Harper sports a cybernetic implant that lets him directly interface with computers.
Tabletop RPG
- Warhammer 40 K only dodges The Singularity because all that technology is focused on continuing The Eternal Churchill. The Imperium, despite being a pack of religious zealots employs numerous Super Soldiers & cyborgs, though they do have a ban on advanced AI due to a past Robot War. Also the Necrons, who are an entire race of full-body cyborgs. The Orkz are an entire race of genetically engineered warriors who also use (exteremly crude) cybernetics, either to replace lost parts, or simply to increase their fighting ability. Plays the trope relatively straight with the Eldar, who are supposedly the most advanced race in the galaxy following the necrons. Despite being genetically engineered along with the Orkz, they only use cyborg technology, in the form of Wraithguards & Wraithlords to replace the bodies of those killed in combat & never think of using it voluntarily to enhance their frail bodies, relying instead on Psychic Powers & have apparently made no further genetic enhancements to themselves since their creation by The Old Ones. The Tau are a little behind the Imperium in technology and do not allow any genetic enhancement beyond the selective breeding used to maintain their rigid caste system (although it's been hinted that the Ethereals were created through bio-engineering by the Eldar) & have no visible cybernetic enhancements, either, though some may have minor implants for combat purposes.
- The Eldar are attempting to create a new Chaos God, a god of the Eldar Dead, Ynnead, which will presumably be a good guy and kill the other Chaos God they created, Slaanesh. To do so they'll need millions if not billions of the souls that power the Eldar Wraith machines — and while in the wraith machines the souls are trapped inside crystals that are very fragile. In addition while inside the Wraith machines the Eldar are basically being kept away from their afterlife AND are trapped in a half-awake hell. There's a reason the Eldar are loathe to use them.
- Also the Imperium does have AIs, but they have to be connected to a human, (e.g. The Titans)
- What exactly is and isn't allowed with regard to AIs seems to vary wildly between the branches of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the Imperial Clergy and the game designers. Every machine is expected to have a machine spirit which can be placated by offerings and prayer and some machine spirits are certainly more than superstition (advanced tanks like the Land Raider have at least an expert system), yet strong AI is definitely out of the question.
- Although, if the comic Damnation is to be believed, even a simple BOLT PISTOL's Machine Spirit is intelligent enough to worry about whether it has failed its "master"
- The Eldar do have cybernetic implants, they're just not especially prevalant in modern versions. In second and third editions, every other eldar seemed to have some kind of plate in his head or an enhanced limb, they sometimes still use these older art pieces too. They also seem to fuse crystals to their heads a lot for the enhancement and protection of their minds (to be distinguished from waystones, which hold their souls, and are on the chest) a lot even in modern depictions, though.
- The human Cult Mechanicus finally is strongly based upon transcending the frailties of the flesh, mostly by replacing it with machine parts. They're generally regarded as weird, but accepted as the second religion in the Imperium because they're the only ones understanding the technology.
- Some of them choose to undergo the Rite of Pure Thought, which involves replacing the parts of their brains responsible for emotion with computing gear. This leaves them utterly unemotional and rational and is considered an extreme measure even among the Mechanicus mainstream.
- The Adeptus Mechanicus try to replace as much organic matter as possible with machinery. This troper can think of two specific Adepts - in Eisenhorn and Storm of Iron respectively. The former is reduced to a brain in a mechanical body, and the latter is a brain and a face hooked up to a vast databank. Would count as And I Must Scream if said Adept didn't seem to actually prefer this state of affairs.
- Also in Eisenhorn is the villian Pontinus Glaw, basically a box with psychic powers. later a robotic body is built for him as an act of mercy by Eisenhorn. Whoops!
- Don't forget the Iron Hands Chapter of Space Marines, as their whole schtick is the weakness of the flesh and the strength of the machine. Before becoming a full Space Marine, the iniate must have his right hand replaced with a cybernetic equivalent, and from that point on the Chapter's Marines gleefully replace their flesh as much as they possibly can, viewing injuries as a good thing because it gives them an excuse to get the bodypart replaced with a machine equivalent.
- In Eclipse Phase, this trope is played straight and justified with the Bioconservative factions, most notably the Jovian Republic, and otherwise gleefully averted - even with a cultural preference for basically human bodies, the vast majority of the system's population prefer to sleeve into genetically enhanced Splicer morphs.
Video Games
- The Mass Effect series contains very small man-portable force field generators, amazing metallurgy, and an entire species of intelligent humanoid robots. The only integrated tools are biotic implants in most species, and possibly tech tools. Even when you bring a member of the species that created those humanoid robots into the same ship with a man whose bones are so fragile he can barely walk, no one draws a connection. Saren, on the other hand, is most robotic, although he does have access to supertech and an evil AI is forcing him to upgrade that way as a form of mind control. The game does repeatedly mention that genetic enhancement is very common, to the point where every human soldier has been upgraded, presumably including the main character. However, strict restrictions apply in that you can upgrade a species' existing abilities, such as strength and speed, but adding anything completely new, such as extra arms or acid spit, is completely illegal. Even research into creating entirely new organisms is illegal.
- The villains of Oni take a rare example of entirely xenobiological modification, although they're more villainous because they want to force humanity to upgrade, rather than because they are upgraded. The heroine is revealed to have been upgraded in this manner far in the past. Bungie likes averting this trope. Of course, it's also a setting where neurally linked androids are used to replace a simple monitoring system, but normal human soldiers with unimpressive body armor are used to fight said biologically enhanced superhumans.
- They're worse then that - the big bad wants to cause an ecological disaster and offer said modification (that will allow people to survive the aftermath) in exchange for loyalty.
- Explored in the CDi game Body Slam: Mutant Rampage, in which there are very few pure humans left, and genetically-enhanced mutants and cyborgs are the norm. The heroes are The Naturals, a team of pure humans competing in Blood Sport against all the evil mutants and cyborgs. It's a very anti-scientific game.
- An unnoticed but fairly large part of Half Life. Cybernetics are now well within reach. Earth has been devastated, to an extent that cyber-modification could make life a lot easier. The rebels could also make good use of the combat potentials of such modifications. Yet only the Transhuman Forces, the Combine loyalists, have any upgrades at all.
- Averted in Deus Ex. As well as being a major theme in the game, there's a conversion that can be overheard in the first level where two rebel soldiers talking about Herman Gunther, a UNATCO cyborg. One thinks it's abhorrent, the other thinks that they could use some cyborgs like him.
- Averted in Supreme Commander. The Cybrans are all cyborgs, the manual mentions that genetic engineering is widespread in the United Earth Federation, and the Aeon are ambiguous on whether their quasi-telepathic and precognitive abilities are the result of planned breeding and thus directed evolution, advanced but extremely subtle technology, or simply intense training and an unusual mental framework. And both the Cybrans and Aeon benefit from UEF genetic engineering, as new recruits from the UEF population presumably bring their genetic modifications with them.
Web Original
Real Life
- How long before this becomes a real life concern?
- Already is. See the guy disqualified from the Olympics because his artificial legs turned out to confer a slight advantage.
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