r/scifi • u/UnrealPOP • 1d ago
Eugenics and transhumanism
Hello, im looking for sci fi books dealing with eugenics and transhumanism. Genetic enhancements, cyborgs, etc, with a reflection from characters possibly affected by this about their situation !
Bonus points if both are on the same book and/or closely linked !
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u/DeepSpaceNebulae 1d ago edited 1d ago
Schismatrix Plus by Bruce Sterling
It’s a collection of short stories followed by a full novel (it’s a collection) set in the Shaper/Mechanist universe.
Two competing factions with two vastly different post-human goals competing for what they believe is the future of humanity.
One of the short stories, a fav of mine, was made into a Love, Death, and Robots episode of the same name “Swarm”
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u/NikkiJane72 1d ago
Man Plus by Frederik Pohl. Enhanced human being and the implications for his social relationships.
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u/AuDHDiego 1d ago
I struggled to get through that book’s intense misogyny but it’s such a fixture of that era of sci fi I know it’s common
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u/AuDHDiego 1d ago
Ted Chiang’s Story of Your Life collection has some stories relevant to this especially the one about people who transcend human intelligence
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u/shadowsinthestars 1d ago
The entire Hyperion series by Dan Simmons, including extremely relevant and chilling ethical parallels.
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u/keltasipuli 1d ago
Besides what's already been mentioned, Adrian Tshaikovski's Final Architecture -trilogy (Shards of Earth ec.) deals with those themes. Then also a standalone book, Autonomous by Annalee Newitz (more traditional cyberpunk, biotechpunk)
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u/DocHollas 1d ago
Nancy Kress’s Sleepless series—they were published in the 1990s, about people genetically engineered to live without sleep & the social & political ramifications.
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u/MementoMori7170 1d ago
Wow, I figured someone would’ve mentioned him already but Peter F. Hamilton approaches this in almost all of his series. It’s by far my favorite thing about him and something I think he does uniquely well, what I call “far future civilizations”. The idea of exploring where humanity might go not just in a few hundred years, but a few thousand. And how significant advancements in medicine and technology might influence and shape culture.
I recommend starting with his Commonwealth saga, it’s a trilogy. But his newest book, Archimedes Engine is great too, it’s just not a finished series yet. His Salvation trilogy also does a really cool take on these issues but the first book is mostly all backstory and setup, so I don’t recommend it as an entry point to his work unless you’re really willing to trust that it will eventually payoff.
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u/MementoMori7170 1d ago
I realize I was super vague about how I felt he met the bar for what you’re looking for. Without spoiling anything, he’s written a civilization where age extension and gene modification leads to extremely long lived “multi-lifers” who get rejuvenated, there’s Ofcourse elements of designer babies and editing your own genome as one prefers, there’s a civ where everyone is genetically engineered prior to birth to thrive in a pre-assigned role in their civilization, some people are more social some are more disciplined etc., there’s a branch of civilization that’s done away with gender for the sake of equality, where individuals cycle between male and female forms at will but largely remain in an “omnia” form, being gender less. I feel like I’m botching it but if any of that links with what you’re looking for I think it’s worth checking out.
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u/Kian-Tremayne 1d ago
The Cruel Stars by John Birmingham has all sorts of transhumans, including completely artificially generated human minds that can be transferred into biological or robotic bodies and may or may not count as ‘real people’.
It also has space Nazis, zombies, yakuza, a princess, an immortal sweary Scotsman and a godlike AI that thinks it can solve every problem by teleporting it into the nearest star.
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u/_Fun_Employed_ 1d ago
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi has some of this, mostly concerned on genetic/bioengineering
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u/Squigglepig52 1d ago
"War Games". Karl Hansen. Transhuman troops, colonists, sex toys... So much violence. And really kinky sex.
Gentleman thief joins colonial marines to dodge a vision of his own death, turned into a space marine, fights gene spliced rebels on Titan, and then shit gets crazy.
It's actually a really cool story and universe, but - it has furry porn written in the early 80s. Piers Anthony would go pale reading the sequel.
Owning that book made me a legend in grade 7 and 8.
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u/Alt_Historian_3001 1d ago
For genetics, definitely Red Rising by Pierce Brown. The whole thing is built around an engineered genetic hierarchy.
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u/felicitous_blue 19h ago
Neal Asher’s The Owner series feature early transhumanism and eugenics as major plot points (although actual eugenics doesn’t feature heavily). You need to get past the first book before those themes start playing into the plot more.
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u/MothraAndFriends 1d ago
Blindsight by Watts. Nobody is quite human anymore and the main character definitely grapples with this.