On Sat, 03 May 2008 12:04:11 -0700, Mike Schilling wrote:
> mimus wrote:
>
>> On Sat, 03 May 2008 11:09:03 -0700, Mike Schilling wrote:
>>
>>> Gene wrote:
>>>
>>>> Mark Stephen <mstephen@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in
>>>> news:KYKdnWgBK8vL5YHVnZ2dnUVZ_hynnZ2d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>>>
>>>>> I'm a little surprised this idea never comes up in the interminable
>>>>> evolution threads. I have three dogs, a border collie, an Irish
>>>>> flat-coat retriever and a Great Pyrenees. They differ wildly in
>>>>> size, appearance, temperament and intelligence, and these traits
>>>>> seem to have been established in only a few generations. AFAIK, the
>>>>> only sf novel with a cultural background which would allow this sort
>>>>> of experimentation on humans by humans was _Iron Dream_, but is this
>>>>> sort of selective breeding with humans actually impossible, or
>>>>> merely unethical and kinda disgusting?
>>>>>
>>>>> Thinking back, Doc Smith?
>>>>
>>>> Honor Harrington.
>>>
>>> Vance's "The Dragon Masters".
>>
>> Also in his "Durdane" trilogy, with a will, both the human
>> "Palasedrans" and the non-human "Asutra" running their various breeding
>> and modification programs.
>>
>> And in his "Planet of Adventure" series likewise, with pretty much
>> every alien species involved having an auxiliary population of human
>> workers, bred to resemble that species as closely as possible for the
>> most part.
>>
>> And probably in several others of his-- right off the top of my head,
>> ISTR something of the sort in his early and crude novel (the
>> protagonists' characters were cartoonish) _The Nine Gold Bands_.
>
> Nitpick: _Five Gold Bands_.
OK fine.
> There were five "evolved" descendent species which were opressing the
> old-fa****oned humans of Earth.
Those were interesting (unlike the protagonists).
But I was dimly recollecting that one of those species used some sort of
equally dim, deliberately-bred labor.
--
Planetary engineers make me nervous.
< Vance
|
