The super-human concept in Science Fiction Part 2 of 2
01/12/2000 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 

NEWMEN TECHNOLOGY. Chapter 6: Future Writing: Using and Understanding Science Fiction Nomenclature.

To have any real say in such a society, a species has to show it can elevate other species from its own world. Genetic manipulation and cross-breeding can give rise to all sorts of appearances.

As with Olaf Stapleton's 'Sirius', where a sentient dog is created who has to adjust to a human world. Being only one of a kind is never fair to any species. In reality, one can only hope a breeding stock would be generated. The isolation of a solitary creature is likely to generate anything but wholesome thoughts in its subject.

On a galactic scale, adaptation to different environmental conditions might well be regarded as the norm than not. It can probably allow protection from disease and sort out conventional genetic diseases that we would rather not see passed down from generation to generation.

As an SF writer considering these cases, it is for you to balance which way you determine the argument showing all the possibilities in action. John Varley's novel 'The Ophiuchi Hotline' shows a reality where genetic manipulation and surgery is carried out as a matter of course. Many astronauts have their legs amputated as they consider them redundant in space. When they arrive at a planet, they often have them re-grown again. With many people having exotic appearances, everyone is perceived as being unique and the perception between beauty and ugly is markedly different.

It is highly unlikely that such developments would end up making us all the same. Our mindsets in many people tend to prefer some difference between us. A demonstration of the widespread variety in mankind indicates that isn't likely to happen. Even an overall intelligence enhancement is not likely to change this either.

Being smarter does not necessarily mean everyone is going to have similar IQs or be a genius. Brainpower is more than intellect but in problem-solving. We don't all solve problems the same way or even want to do so in many cases.

The small percentage of such people isn't likely to change over night. The mass population would rather follow than lead. As to what constitutes the 'superior man' is extremely hard to say, mainly because there is nothing to compare it with other than wishful thinking or fiction. I doubt if anyone would really want to have similar powers to Superman, even if they were possible.

With great strength would have to be great restraint lest everything is crushed in your hands by mistake. It would be a fearful life to lead. Everyone has their own individual wish list. Being beautiful shows no reflection on character. If some strove to be identical, then others would strive to be more individualistic.

This author has to say this with some reservation though. One only has to look at cult crazes like the Punks or our current day fad with tattoos and body piercings to realise that what originally started as a means to be different becomes tribal when so many duplicate it. Whether this will be reflected in genetic manipulation is open for speculation, especially as not everyone appears affected by these fads.

Of course, there is one resolution to this problem of manipulating human DNA and that is to stop calling them 'human'. We might prefer the term 'android'. People who only appear to be human by default than by birth. An explanation of terminology would be appropriate here.

A robot is something that is no more than a mechanical convenience that might be set in a humanoid form. An android's design is entirely to have it pass as a human from an exterior view and be capable of independent thought. Under the skin, it could be mechanical, organic or both. From a logistical point of view, it would be easier and cheaper to grow an android than make a robot.

Once the technique is developed, androids wouldn't need to be grown until the near arrival at a long distance stellar journey, thus conserving supplies. Philip Mann's novel 'The Pioneers' has explorer starships carrying genetically superior adjusted pairs of individuals who are adapted for various survival conditions. The male Angelo is adapted with a bear rather than a human arm.

On earth, both Angelo and his female partner, Ariadne, are feared for their differences then regaled after a long voyage. Clifford Simek's novel 'The Werewolf Principle' illustrates an android capable of taking on the attributes and personality of the dominate species of a planet for a time to gain a better insight before being recalled.

What is neglected is the fact that the erasure of these aliens from his DNA is not complete and under certain conditions re-surface with transformation into their shape and separate personalities. Whether they would act like the 'Replicants' in the film 'Blade Runner' is debatable. The belief that they were a sub-class of the human race and a non-aggressive trait in regard to humans would act in a similar fashion to Asimov's Three Robotics Laws would offer the best protection from rebellion than a limited life span.

Whether this would create any parallel in making Man act the role of God is always a debatable point and an over-used cliché in SF. This is one author who wishes that they would be regarded as just another sub-species. If brought up as humans they will respond as humans. Treat them as inferior or expendable without due reason presents androids with psychological damage. In such states, is it any wonder that they would turn on their makers?

From a social aspect, we are mostly conditioned from birth to act in certain ways to enable us all to live together. It is only when people break certain elements of this ethical code which interferes with the welfare of others that punitive action tends to take place. The 'criminal' element is more an indictment that some people can't live within a certain system rather than the system itself doesn't work. [Political systems will be discussed in detail in Chapter 10: Speeches And Dictates.]

Whether androids or whatever we choose to call them will suffer a similar affliction will depend entirely on our own maturity in how we deal with them. Hopefully, if they are to populate planets that aren't necessarily supportive of Man as a whole, they will at least carry the best parts of his ethical code. In this fashion, Man is not acting as God, but as a means to spread himself throughout the galaxy.

The allegory to Godhood would then tend not to have much foundation. If anything, such thoughts are an indication that we must look at all possibilities for any significant ethical meaning than take the most obvious choice thinking that it has never been done before. Man's greatest gift is in the moulding of his environment to suit his needs. If he can't do that, the second best thing is to adapt to his new environment.

Outside of this planet, the most discussed topic for planet transformation is terra-forming. However, such projects take centuries to complete and might not always be the best option to select. If the environment can't be changed, then steps would be taken to ensure the best protection against the extremes nature throws against us.

With the advances in our understanding of biology and support technology, we may side-step nature and create the next stage in our own evolution. This time, not out of bio-engineering, but from merging with technology. The advances in prosthesis technology has taken great strikes in recent years. Amputees can now get rather sophisticated limbs which not only resemble the original but can do some of the more elementary functions properly.

Connecting up nervous tissue to such limbs can only be a few years away now. It is only cost that appears to be the stumbling block from making a cyborg a real possibility. Oddly enough, it was the TV series, 'The Six Million Dollar Man' that really brought home to the general public the technological superman. It was based on Martin Caidin's original novel 'Cyborg' that depicted the reconstruction of a treble amputee test pilot/astronaut after a near fatal crash. The detail in the book still have people questioning today whether it was based on reality, largely because of Caidin's own USAF/State Department background.

Whichever, the book is worth examining as it covers a lot of fine detail that couldn't be depicted on the TV screen, like Steve Austin's re-enforced spine that made lifting weights easier or the error in making his legs the same length when there should be a marginal different between them for balance. There is also a rather interesting psychological profile of how Austin adjusts to his condition and his potential impotence.

Just in case anyone is missing the actual meanings or confused by them. Cybernetics is the comparison and control of communication systems in organics using mechanical means. Bionics is the design of mechanical systems to duplicate organic functions. Although Austin was called a 'Bionic Man', he was in fact a Cyborg, a CYBernetic ORGanism, although both terms could equally apply. The 'Bionic Man' moniker probably stuck in the public eye because it reminded people that beyond the mechanics there was a man under it all. 'Cyborg', in comparison looks too 'scientific' to lay people, did not catch the viewer's eye as actually relating or meaning a human with mechanical implants.

The TV series provided amputees with a possible future and cybernetics and bionics have since become by-words in the English vocabulary. Every time there is an advancement in artificial limbs, these words are bandied about by the media. Hardly surprising with the developments in technology. Like Austin, the only thing that really holding back any real development is cost.

That and linking the nervous system in a step-up way to electronic 'nerve' controls. Still, throw enough money at the idea and attempts will be made to prove it's possible. While we're examining what to do with cyborgs, it is in everyone's interest to read the antithesis of Steve Austin in the form of astronaut Roger Torraway, who 'volunteered' for cybernetic implementation for a trip to Mars with some rather frightening implications in Frederick Pohl's novel 'Man Plus'.

Without wishing to disclose too much of the plot, this presents a good argument for only using amputees or cloned material for cyborg treatment than tear apart a perfectly whole human solely to use his nervous system and training experience. In C.L. Moore's short story, 'No Woman Born', the diva Deirdre's brain placed is placed in a robot body when her original is practically destroyed in a fire.

In some ways, this body is more perfect for dancing than her original, compensating for her extreme loss. This is rather an extreme treatment for a cyborg, but no less different than Helva, in Anne McCaffrey's novel 'The Ship Who Sang', who in intricately linked up with her starship that serves as her body compensating for her own dysfunction. When people think of cyborgs, they tend to think only of limb or sense replacements rather than enhancements attached to the body.

A secondary respiratory system would make more sense than just remove the original set of lungs for the sake of being able breath in a different atmosphere. A connection to a computer system would also be useful for alternative analysis and probably give faster information.

The brain would then serve as deciding which option to select and still add that 'X' factor of randomness that computers cannot compete with. Marvel Comics' 1970s 'Deathlok The Demolisher' gave a wonderful insight into this cybernetic exchange with Luthor Manning's personality interacting with his in-built computer.

It was so well recognised that it probably made it impossible for the film 'Robocop' to take a similar route without copyright infringement. The reassertion of the original personality in both cyborgs is a standard theme that wouldn't have risked being sued over. It's interesting to remind everyone that both Caiden and Pohl's cyborgs were originally official secrets rather than known to the public at large.

Such projects might not get public approval if they could be considered a danger to public safety or use in covert activity. Unlike robots, cyborgs are part human and given to the same emotional make-up as ourselves. When this aspect is forgotten and we think of them as machines, we only have ourselves to blame. There is also the consequence that when such cybernetic implants are possible that pressure wouldn't be raised for funding to provide versions for all amputees rather than a select few.

There wouldn't be a necessity for enhanced strength or speed other than conventional perimeters. Most amputees would be grateful for conventional movement and sensitivity to touch. One shouldn't neglect other possibilities. As with the economic cheapness of growing androids than expensive robots, genetic science could make it easier to grow replacement limbs and organs using the patient's own DNA as the starting point for regeneration.

Of all the animal kingdom, only reptiles have shown the ability to re-grow a tail or limb. Identify the genes and splice them into a human DNA helix presents the possibility for re-growth. Alternatively, we might also identify said genes in the human helix, assuming they are there, and work out what is inhibiting them from acting in a similar way. Both methods offer as much choice as cloning.

Cloning has become a rather controversial subject in the media of late, despite the fact that it's only been in the past few years that any breakthrough has been made with cloning mammals. There is still no knowledge of how long Dolly the cloned sheep will live before dying of old age. If her DNA helix has the same grown-up stems like her parent, then the number of times it can care for the body before slipping into old age needs to be recognised.

If proven true, it will dash the hopes of the very rich that they can clone themselves as heirs to continue their fortunes. Making clones has always been recognised as a simple practice, providing one can work at microscopic levels without overtly damaging the cells involved.

You take a cell from the kidney and remove its nucleus, replacing it with the a sex cell nucleus. As it would be difficult to develop this cell outside of a womb, it is implanted in the female womb and grown to term like all pregnancies.

The main difference being this would be a genetic duplicate or clone of the original. Just because it has the same genetic make-up does not make the clone an exact duplicate. Personality traits develop from a generation of experiences and as yet cannot be imposed into another brain. The clone would still be a separate individual. At this present time, the real use for clones is for organ replacement.

Our science has not advanced sufficiently to grow the heart or other organs for such purposes although now it is only a matter of time than an impossibility. Growing a full body clone outside the womb would cause enough problems ensuring the right conditions and nutritions are fed into it. Filmed SF clone stories tend to suggest that full-grown clones could be cultivated in this manner.

What these scriptwriters fail to realise is that even if that was possible in a shorter interval than the equivalent in normal growth, without exercise the clone would fall flat on its face the minute it tried to walk or move. Muscles to be effective have to exercised. Digestive systems have to be used to allow them to digest food. The nervous system has to be engaged to allow it to bring the body to function.

It would have the mind of a baby. Comparatively, to grow an organ for transplant would be simple in comparison as only effort to grow a liver, kidney or heart would be requited. Larry Niven's novel 'A Gift From Earth' explores the reaction of colonists who discover that cloned parts are being sent to them. At first they are horrified, believing that these ships contain small children.

Later, they discover that the organ sizes are relative and have to be grown further before transplant. The story illustrates how fear can set in before all the facts are known. Should we reach the state that we can grow specific transplantable organs then the world of medicine would receive a massive overhaul. There would be no necessity to wait for someone else to die to harvest their organs.

There would be no need to use genetically modified pigs for donors either, which would please the anti-vivisection lobby. Cloned donor organs would have no problems with being incompatible so no life-time of drugs to prevent rejection. The only price would be understanding the human DNA helix enough to know what to stimulate so only a heart, liver or kidney was grown.

The biggest delay factor would be waiting for cloned material to grown large enough for transplantation. It might even be possible to encourage the body to regrow a lost limb in situ, allowing it to be exercised as it develops.

Everything else, from surgical technique to recuperation, is already understood. The last step is picking our way through the threads of the human DNA helix to total understanding. The Human Genome Project has taken the initial step but further development and implementation rests with hesitant governments. If this paragraph was written a couple decades ago, it would be regarded as Science Fiction. Today, we are near to facing reality.

Whether it is viewed as cautionary in the 'Frankenstein' mode or as a blessing and life-saver, depends entirely on whom we wish to listen to. The dividing line is a very murky grey. The impetuous for change will come from people who's very life depends on such experiments and undoubtedly there will be no shortage of volunteers. From an SF writer's point of view, such events in our reality should be observed both from the technical POV and also world reaction.

It provides so much useful information as to how different people reacts. In a story, this makes it easier to decide how such events should be given to the public or why it might stay covert. Years ago, this could only be speculated. Today, this should be considered a valuable resource examining relationships to any plans you have regarding changes to specific humans or the race as a whole.

Oddly enough, with so many SF publishers intent on selling massive epics that little thought has been spent on speculation of this sort any more. In the past, SF has gone through many cautionary tales and some times with favourable insight on situations similar to this. There is very little in the SF mass market with current reflections and attitudes applied to such scenarios or advancements.

One could easily surmise that there are too many writers with backgrounds in the hard sciences writing SF who would risk writing anything so controversial. A layman writer with knowledge of biology and the soft sciences could make informative speculation within a story on the social and personal implications.

One advance that always appears to come up with SF clones is whether the personality can be transferred or copied into the new brain. After all, it should have the same make-up to make it possible. As of yet, no one has been able to determine whether the personality is chemical, electro-chemical or both, let alone if there truly is a soul.

To copy an impression of one brain to another is way beyond anything our own science can generate. In SF, there are examples of this in two examples previously mentioned. With Frank Herbert's 'Dune' saga, the ghola/clones Duncan Idaho, the personality is copied with modification from body to body. With Van Vogt's 'Null-A' books, Gossyen's memories are shared simultaneously with his extra bodies/clones. He might die, but his memories live on believing himself to be the same individual.

This raises a rather interesting point as to whether memory constitutes personality. Without our memories, we are nothing but babies. Whether it can be proven that the so-called 'soul' takes memories has never been proven. Even racial memory of previous generations is largely supposition. People under hypnosis recanting past lives don't appear to choose anyone in their direct ancestry to support the carriage of a racial memory.

Given the choice, the memories of a direct ancestor would be far stronger to recall than of someone not so linked. By saying that, I'm not entirely sure there never is a racial memory, just that hypnotic regression might not be the source for individual personalities.

It was commented above that Man might well be at the end of evolutionary line, at least with any changes in his physical appearance. This shouldn't be regarded as the end point of that particular subject. More than one author has speculated on one particular development. This is where the segregation of abilities leads to where humans can only work together as a group. Theodore Sturgeon's novel 'More Than Human' creates a Homo gestalt where five people act psionically together.

The arms are two girl teleporters. A baby acts as the collected memory. Another girl is a powerful telekinetic manipulator. The only problem was the original head was an idiot and lacked the ability to see where it could all lead. When he died, this replacement was more streetwise but had to learn to adjust to his responsibilities to the group.

The most significant thing about such a group is that it could survive the death of any one individual. A rather unusual development in Man but little speculation as to whether this was a one-off or other gestalts were in the making. Another Frank Herbert novel, 'Hellstrom's Hive', chooses not to use psionics as the linking factor but the good old-fashioned ant colony approach with everyone in it working towards their common good.

This literally followed ant behaviour, building their nest below ground with breeders, soldiers and workers/drones with little in the way of free-will. Oddly enough, the leader was male than the expected female queen. This book was regarded as rather controversial at the time, largely because it took such extreme point about human behaviour that made them almost alien.

Considering the difference in function between the colony and conventional human, this shouldn't have been regarded as surprising. One can easily draw comparisons to the attacking colony humans in 'Quatermass And The Pit' to realise such implications of being an outsider to any such group instantly becomes a hostile menace and a racial war.

Yet another demonstration of tribal grouping taking effect. Whether such colony groupings would work in reality is debatable based on our current level of civilisation and where internally, many governments work by consensus than be of one mind on any decision. Other than that, there are certainly some similarities existing already.

The armed forces are the soldiers ready to defend the hive. The breeders are every woman at the age to provide children. The workers tend to be everyone else. Unlike the ant colony, subjective roles are more flexible allowing a change in the pecking order from worker to management or a progression through the ranks.

As with the Sturgeon novel, it can also fall apart if the wrong head runs the whole show. T.J. Bass' novel 'The Godwhale' has everything manipulated in one form or another. The biggest is the Rorqual Maru, a giant artificial intelligence submergible whale ship. The largest population are the hive-dwelling Nebishes who regard outsiders as degenerate. They themselves have cannibalism tendencies. The Benthic tribe are aquatic although lack gills.

The Nebish practice eugenics and clone their warriors from an original human manipulating a single gene to make them dependent on their tribe for survival. The original human, Larry Denver, is also alive preserved as a cyborg. This book is an example of using many of the techniques discussed above. 'The Eyes Of Heisenberg' novel by Frank Herbert depicts a future reality where there is a four-tier society. The lowest are the Sterries who are incapable of breeding.

Next, the Breeders who are so few but can produce viable genetic material that is grown outside of the body, after a thorough inspection and occasional manipulation of the genetic material. Genetic manipulation and enzyme treatment has increased the life span of the most useful and even these are cloned to ensure continuation.

The management of the world is in the hands of a few thousand 'perfect' near-immortal sterile Optimen whose emotional make-up is at best described as unstable and self-censor themselves from any mention of death. An off-shoot from earlier experimentation are the Cyborgs who facilitate the transport and repairs of the city.

With such a slow growth cycle, mankind is facing extinction and it isn't until there is a rebellion affected by two of the factions that this society begins to examine its problems. Such examples cover the full range of societies taking such policies to logical conclusions where super-normal is normal. There is still room for development by any SF writer but always wise to examine such works to ensure old ground isn't repeated in quite the same way.

Although the 'Messiah Effect' will be dealt with in more detail in Chapter 7: 'The Saviour Principle', it would be appropriate to consider the effect of having a superior or super-human in our midst. One can hardly fail to be impressed by anyone who can demonstrate abilities that are basically, for the want of a different word, super-human. There would be a fair proportion of worship and envy depending entirely on what he or she does with such gifts. If this is combined with a super-intellect as well, one might well consider such a person as a natural ruler as well.

The big question is whether the super-human would want to rule? It's always been seen as the big bad villain's aim to rule the world. But would anyone, even a super-human, want to take sole responsibility for such a task?

He or she would have to have an applicable ideology that could solve all the world's problems as well as have an efficient staff to see that it was all carried out. Such a system would mean a totalitarian or dictatorship society. Leaders in such a position, even if they do what is overall considered the right thing in the long run, are likely to risk being deposed simply because not everyone is likely to agree to everything asked of them.

Quite how you would say no to someone so superior is hard to say. If the super-human can kill with a gesture, it is also likely that he will ultimately kill all his followers and be the sole ruler of the world. One can only hope such super-humans are content with ruling their own lives and not imposing their views on everyone else. Whether they can stop baseline humans imitating their value systems remains to be seen. Most of the examples above have operated from the point of view of Man changing his own shape genetically or mechanically over-riding mutation.

If Man has reached the apex of his physical existence, is it conceivable that the next stage would be that of a non-physical non-corporate cycle. In other words, an existence as pure energy. Arthur C. Clarke's novel, 'Childhood's End', shows the final transformation of Man's last generation into such a gestalt consciousness joining another such being indicating they were no longer human even in childhood.

Whether this can be viewed in terms of survival or a progression of change is up to the individual. Such changes indicate that the transformation would change any priorities we have in the physical world. Whether we would show any interest in the physical world or the rest of our species afterwards is hard to speculate upon.

If the next evolutionary plain has its own tier system, we would spend an equal amount of time climbing the tree before it would be regarded as prudent to play God with the physical universe.

This can only be regarded as theory mainly because we still have problems with what actually constitutes the soul let alone what would remain in a non-corporate existent form. If such a state was possible, even if only as a means to travel the galaxy, then one has to wonder what purpose would it serve?

To cultivate primitive races like the makers of the monoliths in Arthur C. Clarke's novel '2001: A Space Odyssey'? To wander without purpose seems at odds with the needs of evolution. Still, it's all fodder for stories for the SF writers and open to as many possibilities as can be imagined.

OK, now that we understand something of what is involved in what types of super-human are available, let's apply this knowledge into making something or one viable for an SF story.

There are four basic divisions in selecting a design for a super-human:-

1. Mutation - natural, induced (chemical or radiation).
2. Chimeras - hybrids, usually with animals but alien crosses might be viable.
3. Bio-mechanics - mechanical enhancement or cyborgs.
4. Scratch-building - androids.

As can be noted above, they each have their advantages and pitfalls. The level of technological development will depend largely on what is selected. Outside of mutation, none of the other options are quite possible below our current technological standard. To be any good at them, a conservative estimate would probably add a couple hundred years to allow for any perfection at the techniques or breeding programs (see Chapter 12: Venus In Blue Genes).

This might not prevent you setting such characters in the present, but would require a rational development breakthrough to explain how it was possible if done today or the near future. The use of alien technology is an old cliché short-cut that any writer should be capable of better alternatives as a choice as it borders on deux ex machina.

It is also important to decide why, in regard to the last three options, it was done. It isn't enough to say, 'Because we can do it!' Any such project will involve a lot of manpower and finance.

Rumour has it, as I write this, that the next incarnation of the 'Six Million Dollar Man' will be the 'Six Billion Dollar Man'. This is probably in line with inflation and the thought from cybernetic experts even if this author thinks at most the bill would be nearer two billion.

The construction would be actually quite cheap compared to the research in getting the design right. This doesn't necessarily mean that you have to go into detail of construction or design, but the reasons and rationales add necessary depth to the under-foundations of your story. If all the pitfalls for the super-human capability is sorted out, it will also sound more credible and show some thought has been spent in creating your cyborg.

Sticking on a bionic arm without shoulder and spine support will result in it falling off the second any attempt to lift something that weighs more than itself or the hydraulic system needed to perform the action. Your research may not need to go beyond a layman's approach to requirements, dependent entirely on what you need to reveal.

Knowing the limitations of such characters is equally important. If they can't do the job with what you've given them, don't do a re-think that demands upping their abilities. You've given them a fantastic edge already.

Apply your imagination to the situation and work out a solution to your problem from what you have available. Don't assume your level of imagination is just to use the exotic or fantastic because it looks fake to the experienced SF reader who will quickly dismiss it and your reputation.

The use of super-humans within a story requires more than lip-service to their abilities but an in-depth level of what it means to be who they are. Taking the use of comicbook super-heroes as a basis for design is not altogether wise in Science Fiction. More from the point of scientific improbabilities and their failure to always justify why they can work.

Since it is a recognised background for many SF readers, it can't really be neglected when examining the super-human concept, if only to avoid making similar mistakes. Too often, there have been examples where the idea has worked against reality. Take, for instance, the ability to generate cold. It is totally against the laws of thermal-dynamics. Cold cannot be generated, rather it is the removal of heat that will freeze an object.

If the heat is removed, where does it go? Applying known science laws to what you want to see your super-human use tends to present more possibilities than less. Such an ability could provide any individual super-human with the ability to generate or re-direct heat absorbed from objects frozen.

This aspect couldn't be neglected from lack of knowledge or intelligence of the character. Without directing the heat energy elsewhere, his body would probably explode. The neglect of such characters invariably places them in a minor class of their own suitable for teamwork operations.

For prose fiction, it is important to look at all the science questions that are bound to come up and decide the consequences and mechanics of such abilities. This does not necessarily mean having to stop for explanations but certainly in demonstration of what is happening is almost a certainty.

The difference between a hack writer who just turns out stories and a 'quality' writer is usually determined by how much thinking is placed behind the development of such characters and situations.

If the reader sees answers to almost unspoken questions being delivered within the story than it will be an assurance that sufficient work has been done in providing a credibility to your reality. Having characters that can fly presents all kinds of problems.

Defying gravity is only levitation and still dependent on the planet's orbital velocity to stay relative to the ground. Remove inertia, and the super-human would be flying away from the planet at high velocity because the galaxy would have moved away from him. To fly within an atmosphere would require working between these two extremes.

The 'Superman flight pose' makes no allowances for what propels him along. The fact that he's an alien from a heavier gravity suggests that Earth's atmosphere might well be viewed like we see water and he is in fact swimming. If this applies to an alien from Krypton, then a similar view has to be examined for other flying humans, even if one has to wonder how they can vary their body density.

Then again, DC were never particular on how science did anything so is perhaps not a good example to study. Marvel Comics' outlook, courtesy of their editor/writer, the late Mark Gruenwald, defined the flight of most of their characters as a psionic manipulation of graviton particles, a sub-atomic particle that kept everything together normally.

Expansion of this theory would no doubt explain feats of super-strength as well by extending the field to prevent the object falling apart by its own weight pushing against itself. Energy manipulation, outside of psionic abilities, produces an interesting problem.

In a thunder storm, lightning grounds to earth to complete the discharge. Should a super-human be capable of generating energy - as such it has to belong to the electro-magnetic spectrum and obey its laws - then no matter how far it is projected it has to discharge to earth. Targeting it at other people accurately would be quite a challenge. Such discharges could not be endless either and would need a substantial time to re-charge.

The exaggeration of the senses causes its own problems. True telescopic and microscopic vision means a vast distortion of the retina, not to mention a greater density of nerve endings to provide any resolution detail. Saying that, tissue density might overcome the problem of optical length but also provide other eyesight defects.

So-called X-ray vision used to penetrate material to see inside is also fraught with similar problems. Just because it is called 'X-ray' doesn't mean it is actually employing 'X-ray radiation' which has a low amplitude and wave-length making it impossible to use other than close-up.

The only implication is the ability to penetrate other material. Saying that, it would be easier to have a psionic sense here than think eyes could really be capable of such feats. The sensitivity of the senses in such situations has always been underplayed.

A being able to detect a pin drop a mile away is likely to be bombarded with excessive noise continually and likely to be driven mad unless it could be shut off. To believe any super-human could downplay such abilities on a regular basis would be a better demonstration of their endurance capacity than the actual abilities themselves.

With all forms of mutation, whether by natural or artificial means, it is also important to consider the effects of drastic change. The DNA chromosome helix is complex and certain traits are created by a combination of genes with possible side-effects. A new species will not last long should its first member be sterile or infertile.

All the eugenics studies in the world will not resolve such problems. Cloning would not really help matters, only recombinant cross-fertilisation would improve the gene pool. With prose Science Fiction, it is important to address such problems.

This does not necessarily mean providing a detailed scientific argument although you're welcome to try. What it really means is an examination of what it does to the character and how he or she addresses such problems.

Such actions will show that you, as the author, have thought through your ideas and all its implications. Often such actions also provides a greater opportunity for development within the reality than just playing lip-service to any basic ability.

The old Stan Lee adage applied to Spider-Man of 'With great power, comes great responsibility' has tended to permutate throughout the super-human kingdoms with their good versus evil. If anything, it is the reverse of 'Absolute power corrupts absolutely' that is generally applied to super-human villains and despots.

It is also something that should be applied even within SF prose. To give a character super-human abilities means it should affect their life. To have them merely turn it on and off as berates their need to use said abilities forgets human motivations or heightened autonomic reflexes. It is how such people get through life that will appeal to the reader.

Any innate ability will be used in spite of itself. To merely act like other humans is only an action of restraint not shutting down the abnormal capacities. The temptation to show off such abilities to any degree would be difficult for anyone to resist. When it comes to a disaster when the abilities are there to aid and save lives, it would be difficult to resist and sit back, thinking this will compromise my secret.

Although it's regarded as a cliché, is it any wonder so many of these super-humans in the comicbook realities adopt secret identities and disguises to do what comes naturally? The fear of being exploited by others, like politicians, who don't possess such abilities must always lie in the backs of their heads.

Super-humans in prose SF tend to ignore this area, no doubt because it tends to represent adolescent fantasies of power possession than anything (sic) meaningful. In that respect, the focus is of adaptation of a new race with a normal human society and ultimately becomes its own cliché.

Far too often, Van Vogt's 'Slan' novel and Henry Knutter's 'Baldie' short stories collected anthology 'Mutant', have been used as the template for such stories of tribal oppression. From a nature and evolutionary point of view, it is the purpose of any new species, whether it possesses super-human attributes or not to propagate itself.

As such, any new species must potentially be a threat to the previous predominate species. This is a basic survival reaction at the most basic emotional level and hence its frequent use in SF. Infrequently, there is a tendency to forget that a fair proportion of the human race are likely to forget any racial feelings and intellectually accept such changes if they are not presented as an immediate danger.

Considering a super-human sub-species would be superior produces some interesting ideas regarding who would be racially inferior in any such attacks. If there aren't noticeable physical differences, it would make sense for any new species to be quiet than demonstrative of their superiority but that is hardly good for any story plot.

Oddly enough, Van Vogt's 'The Silkie' has the metamorphic Silkies co-existing with the telepathic 'Special People' and regular humans without raising too much comment, although there is strict regulation regarding their conduct on Earth. Quite how any such regulations in any storyline could be carried out without some serious hardware or conventional co-operation baffles this author.

Any sub-species would have their own definitions of acceptable behaviour that would be incomprehensible to another sub-species without their gifts. What of the future of super-humans in SF? With medical science beyond the borders of what was contemplated in the last fifty years, speculation now has to be bold.

One has to read up on what is likely to happen and examine where it is going both technically and socially than be purely speculative. To do otherwise would be folly as there are too many people who can spot sloppy research. There really hasn't been much work in either case as a reflection of our current decade's attitudes to such changes either leaving plenty of latitude for super-human or alternative sub-species stories.

The public and press have declared Genetically-Modified foodstuffs as 'Frankenstein' creations without really understanding or comparing the definition. Victor Frankenstein created a sentient creature out of dead body parts that only ran out of control when it was deprived of what it wanted the most, a mate. G-M manipulation, even in its formative stages, can be controlled.

The pollen from such plants might spread but being infertile won't cross-fertilise. Geneticists are discovering it's easier to turn on or off DNA switches that control function than it is to splice in 'foreign' DNA material and still get the same results. This has far greater control than the cross-breeding over several decades to create new breeds and with fewer side effects. In an effort to get a blue-eyed white cat, breeders found they were also profoundly deaf simply because they were not genetic experts.

To create modified plants or organics needs sensible scientific management than random amateur guesswork. The imagined idea of doubling the DNA helix isn't likely to happen simply because such changes would be fatal to a living organism. Whether the worries are totally without foundation is something only time will tell.

Certainly the myth of 'things going wrong' from SF films is instilled in the public conscious far more than any success rate. Perhaps it's time that the balance is addressed in SF to show what happens when 'things go right'.

(c) copyright GF Willmetts 2000

Bibliography:
Star Trek : Where No Man Has Gone Before (TV)
Odd John - Olaf Stapleton
The Winged Man - A.E. Van Vogt And E. Mayne Hull
The Chrysalids - John Wyndham
The Midwich Cuckoos - John Wyndham
The Uncanny X-Men 1963 - present (comicbook) .