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End of Evolution
Has anyone ever read a sci-fi story where evolution stops?
I was thinking in particular of a world settled by anti-darwinists (called "Kansas" of course) where scientists make a breakthrough discovery of a cure for the common cold... which lasts year after year. Eventually, the world thrives, probably based on other "crutches" of not having to worry about species change; but over the long haul some sort of natural calamity casuses a chain of events that would otherwise have been resolved through natural selection and speciation, and instead the climate crashes.
It might actually be funnier if it were set in the real Kansas, wouldn't it?
(if there isn't such a story, you're welcome to steal the idea, as long as I get a mention in the credits. :)
I was thinking in particular of a world settled by anti-darwinists (called "Kansas" of course) where scientists make a breakthrough discovery of a cure for the common cold... which lasts year after year. Eventually, the world thrives, probably based on other "crutches" of not having to worry about species change; but over the long haul some sort of natural calamity casuses a chain of events that would otherwise have been resolved through natural selection and speciation, and instead the climate crashes.
It might actually be funnier if it were set in the real Kansas, wouldn't it?
(if there isn't such a story, you're welcome to steal the idea, as long as I get a mention in the credits. :)
no subject
The idea of a far-future environment where everyone lives in hermetic purified environments and therefore has no natural resistance to disease and such is something of an SF trope, although I can't point to a specific example.
The idea of a conflict between the evolutionary impulse and the static impulse in humanity is a recurring theme of Gordon Dickson's stuff, although the former always wins.
no subject
This is also true of some of the stuff I like by Greg Bear, Eternity and Eon... Big tensions between people who are essentialist about what makes humans, human, and other people who believe in stretching the boundries as far as possible (such as strange physical configurations, adaptations for special worlds, etc). The most amusing element of this, for me, is the name that Bear gives the essentialists: Naderites, religious followers of The Good Man Nader.
I'm not familiar with Gordon Dickson; I'll try looking him up, thanks.
Dickson