11-29-2015, 10:32 AM | #21 | |
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Jeffersonville, Ind.
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Re: The best Transhuman scii-fi novels?
I think it's an underutilized side of fantastic fiction. You rarely see an author take a literary style story and place it into science fiction or fantasy. I had an English professor who looked down on "genre fiction" and made us read some absolutely horrendous "contemporary literary" short stories and I couldn't help but think about Isaac Asimov writing Caves of Steel to prove a similar critic wrong. (He also claimed "contemporary literary" outsold genre fiction, which is apparently news to the publishing industry who almost unanimously agree romance outsells everything else.)
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The user formerly known as ciaran_skye. __________________ Quirks: Doesn't proofread forum posts before clicking "Submit". [-1] Quote:
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11-29-2015, 11:56 AM | #22 |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
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Re: The best Transhuman sci-fi novels?
Wasn't Frankenstein basically a Transhumanist novel? Think about it. Victor Frankenstein was basically trying to create a superior human. In many ways the creature is superior to ordinary humans, he just looks bad and never got to learn social skills.
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11-30-2015, 12:19 AM | #23 |
Computer Scientist
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Dallas, Texas
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Re: The best Transhuman sci-fi novels?
Phil Masters did rant thusly in the last year or so, yes. The chief failure of Victor was to provide no parenting to Adam.
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11-30-2015, 08:45 PM | #24 | |
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: New England
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Re: The best Transhuman scii-fi novels?
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Somewhat nearer-future, but definitely in the crunchy hard SF spirit of Transhuman Space, is Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson, which details colonizing Mars. If you've not read Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, do so, even if it is Earthbound, and then give Blade Runner another watch. Not a book, but the film Moon is worth watching, especially for the psychological aspects. |
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12-01-2015, 01:11 PM | #25 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: The best Transhuman scii-fi novels?
Donald Kingsbury's Psychohistorical Crisis has notable transhumanist aspects. It's primarily a deconstruction of the Foundation series; but its setting is a future Galactic Empire where the human race has radically diversified, and virtually all the new races have improved cognitive abilities. There's a sequence where the hero visits Earth and is amazed at the unimproved brains of the locals. And the opening scene has the hero being sentenced to death—which means that they leave his organic body untouched, but take away his cybernetic attachment and vaporize it, leaving him bereft of most of his cognitive abilities and a substantial part of his memories, and thus unable to function normally in his society.
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
12-02-2015, 08:45 AM | #26 |
Join Date: Oct 2007
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Re: The best Transhuman scii-fi novels?
It's not a novel, but if you like GURPS Transhuman Space you will love the Orions's Arm Universe Project:
http://www.orionsarm.com/ |
12-05-2015, 11:25 AM | #27 |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
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Re: The best Transhuman scii-fi novels?
When you think of it, many early pieces of Sci-Fi were Transhumanist.
Rappaccini's Daughter involves a profound biological transformation of two young people. Coppelia has a lifelike android. The Invisible Man, The Island of Doctor Moreau, and The Time Machine are just three of Wells works with heavy transhumanist themes. I'd say that most science fiction from before 1930 that still gets read tends toward strongly Transhumanist themes in some basic way.
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12-05-2015, 08:01 PM | #28 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: The best Transhuman scii-fi novels?
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
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12-06-2015, 12:12 PM | #29 | |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
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Re: The best Transhuman scii-fi novels?
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Also, humanity evolving into clades, and Morlocks and Eloi are clearly different species, is also a Transhumanist theme. Wells wrote a lot of Utopias, Transhumanism is the 21st century equivalent of Utopian fiction. They cover similar themes and ask the same kind of big questions.
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12-06-2015, 11:38 PM | #30 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: The best Transhuman scii-fi novels?
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
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