Man After Man

Man After Man: An Anthropology of the Future (1990, ) is a speculative book written by Scottish geologist Dougal Dixon and illustrated by Philip Hood. The theme of the book is a hypothetical exploration of the possibilities of the future human evolution.

Unlike his previous two books, his story context focuses on individuals rather than entire species, even giving them human names.

According to Dixon, he did not want to be involved in the book to begin with, and his original idea involved humans of the far future returning to the Earth featured in After Man and ravaging the ecosystem as they did on Earth.

The book begins with the impact of genetic engineering and ecological damage caused by humans. For 200 years modern humans manipulate human biological material to create genetically-altered species of humanoid beings. The early forms are intended as workers to be utilised by conventional humans, used as situationally adapted labour in the space colonisation and exploration program. There are aquamorphs and aquatics, marine humans with gills instead of lungs. One species - the vacuumorph - has been engineered for life in the vacuum of space. Its skin and eyes carry shields of skin to keep its body stable even without pressure. Civilization eventually collapses, with a few select humans escaping to colonise space. The humans who manufactured the early genetically manipulated creatures, develop to become The Hitek, almost totally dependent on cybernetic technology, augmenting and keeping their bodies alive way past their natural lifespans. They eventually face extinction, their situation is degenerative as a result of the defeat of natural selection coupled with natural environmental phenomena. They now need the cybernetic augmentation just to overcome their genetic deficiency. The Hitek pursue genetically engineered biological alternatives to their cybernetic dependency, and also build genetically altered humans to sustainably occupy niches in the ecologically recovering world: Genetically-altered humans include a temperate woodland species, a prairie species, a jungle species, and a tundra-dwelling species. The Hiteks artificially evolve into a species known as Tics, living contemporarily with the niche dwellers emplaced by their forebears. The Tics, as the Hiteks did before them, continue to artificially manufacture food products to sustain themselves, relying on solar and marine energy harvesting to fuel their processing facilities. A magnetic reversal results in the failure of the navigation, communication and energy harvesting technology upon which the Tics existence relies. Meanwhile, another subspecies of humans who did not come to rely on artificial life extending technology, develops: The Handlers (later speech corruption making the name Andlas) adapt from a mixture of non technological peoples squatting and fighting one another for survival in the squalid ruins of the pre decline cities, and technologically capable handymen for the Hiteks. They go back to a more sustainable existence, becoming ecologically sound subsistence farmers. Natural selection has helped them to recover from the ecological damage and become stronger again. They too are forced into extinction by the magnetic reversal and its environmental impact upon their crops, animal husbandry and hunting.

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