History Literature / ManAfterManAnAnthropologyOfTheFuture

[[caption-width-right:183:"Two creatures - a single ancestor."]]

The main plot of the book starts 200 years from now (2190 AD), which for the book's scale is almost the present day. Humanity begins to play around with its own Genetics, like a kid with Franchise/{{Lego}} blocks on [[LegoGenetics a large scale]], creating new Humanoid creatures known as aquamorphs and aquatics (or basically FishPeople), and vacuumorph beings that have been engineered for life in the vacuum of space. Their skin and eyes carry shields of skin to keep its body stable even without pressure as [[LivingShip living space probes]]. All the while, however, the Earth's environment is getting increasingly polluted and climate change has caused major disruption to civilization, the few nation-states that are left are sending colonists into space to search for other habitable planets.

Unfortunately [[FromBadToWorse that doesn't happen]] when [[ReverseThePolarity the Earth's magnetic field flips]]. The Hitek (and also the remaining normal humans) went extinct themselves in 2990, allowing the altered humans to naturally evolve for a few million years (which is the main point of the book). Ironically, the descendants of humanity that went to the stars and now return have themselves been altered - and possibly evolved - so much they no longer recognize their ancestral planet, let alone the animals on its surface, and exploit both to the point of eradication.

** This also includes the Vacuumorphs, exoskeletal Humans that are used as [[OrganicTechnology living space scouting probes]] that have all of their vulnerable parts sealed up so they can survive the natural elements of outer space without the need of a ship. [[OffscreenInertia And since it's never mentioned]] no one from Earth retrieves them. In other words Vacuumorphs are [[BlessedWithSuck cursed]] with staying in space without any way of directly seeing or communicating with the outside universe (except through their surgically attached planetary surveying equipment) and are ([[FridgeHorror presumably]]) forced to consume nothing but their own recycled natural waste until finally accidentally falling towards and burning up in a random planet's atmosphere. They cannot even travel through space- it is stated that are high-orbit space ship engineers only. Their bodies cannot operate or even survive in gravity at all - and that includes the artificial gravity of an accelerating space ship. They're stuck in near-Earth space.

* FromBadToWorse: By or near the book's end, the remains of Humans left on Earth bear either little to no resemblance to what they were or even what their evolutionary ancestors were. Aliens have taken over the planet and enslaved every living thing on it. Original Humans - if there even are any left at all - are now doomed to nearly eternally roam the universe [[Franchise/BattlestarGalactica in search of a new home]]. And the Hitek probably acted more machine than man. It doesn't help matters that those aliens also happen to be [[spoiler:descendants of those Original Humans to fled to space]].
** [[spoiler:Additionally, while the Hitek and the Tic were reclusive and more than a bit racist towards normal humans, what we get from the book tells us that their civilization was sustainable (more so than than that of normal humans centuries ago) and if it weren't for the polar shift, who knows what could have come out of it. Now, mankind's extraterrestrial descendants however, after 5 MILLION years of development, are actually worse in those terms than either the Hitek/Tic or regular humans, stripping the planet bare in just a century and then moving on like lowly parasites.]].

* PlanetLooters: [[spoiler:After humanity's descendants return in an unrecognizably altered form, they exploit the planet and its remaining non-sapient inhabitants to extinction and then simply leave - presumably to do it again to another planet.]]

The majority of tropes below might lead you to think that this is some sort of horror novel or film. However, this is far from the case. In fact, it's only a flight of fancy created as a fictional textbook. [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids Ya Know, for Kids!]]

See also ''Literature/AllTomorrows'' for another story about the far future evolution of humanity, and ''Manga/SuperConductiveBrainsParataxis'' for another nightmarish tale of human genetic engineering.

* GaiasLament: Most modern animals are extinct. Fortunately, things improve when the Hiteks engineer new human species to fill these vacant ecological niches.

[[https://thetrove.net/Assets/World%20Building%20&%20Game%20Design/.Misc%20M%20_%20N%20_%20O/Man%20After%20Man.pdf You can read it here.]] See also ''Literature/AllTomorrows'' for another story about the far future evolution of humanity, and ''Manga/SuperConductiveBrainsParataxis'' for another nightmarish tale of human genetic engineering.

The main plot of the book starts 200 years from now (2190 AD), which for the book's scale is almost the present day. Humanity begins to play around with its own Genetics, like a kid with Franchise/{{Lego}} blocks on [[LegoGenetics a large scale]], creating new Humanoid creatures known as aquamorphs and aquatics (or basically FishPeople), and vacuumorph beings that have been engineered for life in the vacuum of space. Their skin and eyes carry shields of skin to keep its body stable even without pressure as [[LivingShip living space probes]]. All the while however, the Earth's environment is getting increasingly polluted and climate change has caused major disruption to civilization, the few nation-states that are left are sending colonists into space to search for other habitable planets.

* LuddWasRight: The Original Humans left on Earth are described as gradually becoming this trope, reverting to a simple hunting, farming and fishing by the time they go extinct. Although there are "civilized" enclaves called Andlas that persist for a time.

[[https://rpg.rem.uz/_Collections/Bestiaries/Bestiary%205/Dougal%20Dixon%20-%20Man%20After%20Man.pdf You can read it here.]] [[SchmuckBait Don't say we didn't warn you]].
See also ''Literature/AllTomorrows'' for another story about the far future evolution of humanity, and ''Manga/SuperConductiveBrainsParataxis'' for another nightmarish tale of human genetic engineering.

[[http://www.sivatherium.narod.ru/library/Dixon_3/01_en.htm You can read it here.]] [[SchmuckBait Don't say we didn't warn you]].

See also ''Literature/AllTomorrows'' for another story about the far future evolution of humanity, and ''Manga/SuperConductorBrainsParataxis'' for another nightmarish tale of human genetic engineering.

* LetsMeetTheMeat: Many, many of the altered humans that were later used as new sources of meat. Predominately with a being known only in the book as a ''"Engineered Food Creature"'' that was another engineered human that grew as "mounds of fat and flesh, fed by chemical nutrients via a mass of pipes and tubes inserted directly into the fleshy blob. After it grows large enough, sections of its meat, tissue and body fat are butchered off..." ''While It's Still '''Alive''''', Bon Appétit!.

* LetsMeetTheMeat: Many, many of the altered humans that were later used as new sources of meat. Predominately with a being known only in the book as a ''"Engineered Food Creature"'' that was another engineered human that grew as "mounds of fat and flesh, fed by chemical nutrients via a mass of pipes and tubes inserted directly into the fleshy blob. After it grows large enough, sections of its meat, tissue and body fat are butchered off..." ''While It's Still '''Alive''''', Bon Appetít!.

The main plot of the book starts 200 years from now (2190 AD), which for the book's scale is almost the present day. Humanity begins to play around with its own Genetics, like a kid with {{Lego}} blocks on [[LegoGenetics a large scale]], creating new Humanoid creatures known as aquamorphs and aquatics (or basically FishPeople), and vacuumorph beings that have been engineered for life in the vacuum of space. Their skin and eyes carry shields of skin to keep its body stable even without pressure as [[LivingShip living space probes]]. All the while however, the Earth's environment is getting increasingly polluted and climate change has caused major disruption to civilization, the few nation-states that are left are sending colonists into space to search for other habitable planets.

* CrapsackWorld: By the book's near end this entire story pretty much embodies this trope. Humanity does not exist anymore and most of its descendants have been wiped out by its other descendants, who are no longer human by any definition of the word ''and'' leave Earth for good, with its resources depleted and its atmosphere unbreathable to anything human. The relatively near future of the 22nd-23rd Century is also portrayed as one, with modern civilization on the verge of collapse and some lucky souls pulling an [[SidMeiersAlphaCentauri Alpha Centauri]]. [[spoiler:Eventually, [[FromBadToWorse they come back]] 5 million years later...]]

** [[spoiler:Additionally, while the Hitek and the Tic were reclusive and more than a bit racist towards normal humans, what we get from the book tells us that their civilization was sustainable (more so than than that of normal humans centuries ago) and if it weren't for the polar shift, who knows what could have come out of it. Now, mankind's descendants ]].

* PlanetLooters: After humanity's descendants return in an unrecognizably altered form, they exploit the planet and its remaining non-sapient inhabitants to extinction and then simply leave - presumably to do it again to another planet.

* {{Transhuman}}: The entire basis of the book is this as it details what humanity might appear as in the future via process of natural evolution. However the argument can also be made that according to the literal meaning of that term "Transhuman" is supposed to be something above or beyond ordinary human levels and the majority of human species that are shown seem to barely have any real human sapience or ability.

The main plot of the book starts 200 years from now, which for the book's scale is almost the present day. Humanity begins to play around with its own Genetics, like a kid with {{Lego}} blocks on [[LegoGenetics a large scale]], creating new Humanoid creatures known as aquamorphs and aquatics (or basically FishPeople), and vacuumorph beings that have been engineered for life in the vacuum of space. Their skin and eyes carry shields of skin to keep its body stable even without pressure as [[LivingShip living space probes]].

Unfortunately [[FromBadToWorse that doesn't happen]] when [[ReverseThePolarity the Earth's magnetic field flips]]. The Hitek (and also the remaining normal humans) went extinct themselves, allowing the altered humans to naturally evolve for a few million years (which is the main point of the book). Ironically, the descendants of humanity that went to the stars and now return have themselves been altered - and possibly evolved - so much they no longer recognize their ancestral planet, let alone the animals on its surface, and exploit both to the point of eradication.

* [[ChekhovsGunman Chekov's Species:]] [[spoiler: Piscanthropus profundis.]] About one sentence is given to a population of aquatics [[spoiler:that colonizes the deep ocean]] and are never heard from again. [[spoiler: 5 million years later, we learn that their descendents have still survived and [[AWorldHalfFull may one day re-colonise the surface of the ravaged Earth.]]]]
** Jimez Smoot also qualifies. Early on in the book, he is one of the humans to [[spoiler: leave Earth to find another planet suitable for containing life. 5 million years later, his descendants return to Earth and kill all life anywhere except in volcanic vents deep within the ocean.]]

* LetsMeetTheMeat: Many, many of the altered humans that were later used as new sources of meat. Predominately with a being known only in the book as a ''"Engineered Food Creature"'' that was another engineered human that grew as "mounds of fat and flesh, fed by chemical nutrients via a mass of pipes and tubes inserted directly into the fleshy blob. After it grows large enough, sections of its meat, tissue and body fat are butchered off... ''While It's Still '''Alive''''', Bon Appetít!.

* DarkerAndEdgier : Compared to Dixon's previous speculative biology books, ''Literature/AfterManAZoologyOfTheFuture'' and ''The New Dinosaurs''. The far darker and horror-like tone of the book caused some pretty big backlash from those who were expecting something similar to the previous two.

* ApocalypseHow: A Class 1 occurs due to global warming in 2200, destroying most of the coastal cities. A Class 3 destroys Homo sapiens around 3000 when the magnetic poles reverse, [[SerialEscalation and finally]] A Class 5 occurs at the end of the book [[spoiler: instigated by the starfaring descendants of humanity]].

** This also includes the Vacuumorphs, exoskeletal Humans that are used as [[OrganicTechnology living space scouting probes]] that have all of their vulnerable parts sealed up so they can survive the natural elements of outer space without the need of a ship. [[OffscreenInertia And since its never mentioned]] no one from Earth retrieves them. In other words Vacuumorphs are [[BlessedWithSuck cursed]] with staying in space without any way of directly seeing or communicating with the outside universe (except through their surgically attached planetary surveying equipment) and are ([[FridgeHorror presumably]]) forced to consume nothing but their own recycled natural waste until finally accidentally falling towards and burning up in a random planets atmosphere. They cannot even travel through space- it is stated that are high-orbit space ship engineers only. Their bodies cannot operate or even survive in gravity at all - and that includes the artificial gravity of an accelerating space ship. They're stuck in near-Earth space.

* AndIMustScream: Mainly the Food Creature (see Let's Meet the Meat, below), a grotesque mountain of flesh and fat with distorted, but still human-like features, and many of the book's altered humans that have become worker drones, maintenance units or transportation. While some do indeed have actual faces and eyes, they don't appear to be able to to react to the general external world in any way.

* LetsMeetTheMeat: Many, many of the altered humans that were later used as new sources of meat. Predominately with a being known only in the book as a ''"Engineered Food Creature"'' that was another engineered human that grew as "mounds of fat and flesh, fed by chemical nutrients via a mass of pipes and tubes inserted directly into the fleshy blob. After it grows large enough, sections of its meat, tissue and body fat are butchered off..."''While It's Still '''Alive''''', Bon Appetít!.

Unfortunately, a century later, environmental deterioration finally kills off most of the planet's fauna. Humanity is (inexplicably) one of the only species left standing and so a faction of the survivors (a [[{{Cyborg}} cybernetically enhanced]] offshoot known as the Hitek) begin to create new Biotech Human species for the next 500 years en masse to fill in some of critical ecosystemic niches left by the general absence of the Earth's now countless extinct animal species. Meanwhile some of the remnants of unaltered humans decide to leave the wrecked earth and return when it gets well...better, while others, without the benefit of technology, return to barbarism and later start to build a form of civilization again.

* DarkerAndEdgier : Compared to Dixon's previous speculative biology books, ''AfterManAZoologyOfTheFuture'' and ''The New Dinosaurs''. The far darker and horror-like tone of the book caused some pretty big backlash from those who were expecting something similar to the previous two.

* GaiasLament: Most modern animals are extinct. Fortunately, ItGetsBetter when the Hiteks engineer new human species to fill these vacant ecological niches.