Evilutionary Biologist: Difference between revisions

Why the Evilutionary Biologist believes this is necessary varies, as do his methods. Some Evilutionary Biologists simply believe that humanity has erred in its domination of the environment, and thus our very survival as a species is threatened unless they force us to continue evolving. Others see change and so-called improvement as [[For Science!|goals in and of themselves,]] and resolve to use scientific advancement to cause them. Still others seek to create a new race of [[Super Soldier|biological]] [[Transhuman|transhumanstranshuman]]s or just the [[Ultimate Lifeform]] with the power of science, either because they see humans as having outlived their time on the planet or because of a genuine desire to improve the human condition. Any one of these may be a [[Social Darwinist]] or [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]].

Whenever an [['''Evilutionary Biologist]]''' appears on the scene -- theyscene—they are the most common form of villainous biologist in many games and [[Speculative Fiction]] media -- bemedia—be on guard for a [[Science Is Bad]] [[An Aesop|aesop]] to rear its ugly head.

This is especially ironic because in real biology, one of the core precepts of the theory of evolution is that it does not "improve" a species, because there is no such thing as an ideal form for a species -- onlyspecies—only what is best at surviving and reproducing in ''current'' conditions. If the environment changes, the species must adapt all over again, which is why genetic diversity (Nature's way of "hedging her bets") is usually a good thing. Moreover, assuming that a species '''must''' evolve if subjected to imposed selection pressures (or Phlebotinum-induced mutations) overlooks the harsh fact that most organisms ''don't'' adapt in the face of such challenges: they simply go extinct, which is why we're not rubbing elbows with mammoths, sauropods and trilobites today. Deliberately applying such selective forces to humans may let us join them in extinction, not improve upon our current state. Finally, evolution is conservative, and a species which is ''thriving'' (you know, like ''Homo sapiens'') is unlikely to evolve new traits, because it's doing fine the way it is. Sharks, for example, haven't changed much since ''before the first dinosaurs appeared,'' and they're just as successful as ever... [[You Fail Biology Forever|making the entire mania of the Evilutionary Biologist suspect at best]].

== ComicbooksComic Books ==

* The Octopus from ''[[The Spirit]]'' is trying to find the secret to immortality and godhood. He actually created the titular hero in one of his experiments when he brought a dead cop back to life. The Octopus' [[Mook|Mooks]]s are also apparently artificial creations.

* ''[[The Turner Diaries]]'' by white-supremacist William Luther Pierce (writing as Andrew Macdonald) recounts a racial war that ends with the death of all Jews, nonwhites and "mongrels" -- all—all of them, everywhere in the world. Most white people also die in the fighting and general disruption; the population of the United States is reduced to 50 million. Only those bearing "especially valuable genes" survive. This fulfills the dream of the "Great One" (Hitler) for an "all-White world." (The historical Hitler would at least have allowed the non-whites to live on as slaves.) The necessity of this appears to be based on "Cosmotheism," a belief-system that is Pierce's own invention, which is a curious mish-mash of the seemingly incompatible beliefs of racism and pantheism.

* An ironic step-sibling of this trope forms the basis for [[John Wyndham]]'s novel ''[[The Chrysalids]]''. In a post-apocalyptic future (the apocalypse is phrased in religious terms by the characters as "The Tribulation", and implied to have been a nuclear disaster or war), a primitive, theocratic society seeks to exterminate all mutants, whether plant, animal or human. While not [[Social Darwinist|Social Darwinists]]s or scientists, the members of this culture are nevertheless striving to "restore" the purity of life on Earth, in an effort to get back into God's good graces.

** And the Daleks themselves, who tried to create Dalek/Human hybrids to overcome their weaknesses--onlyweaknesses—only for Dalek Sec to be influenced a little ''too'' much by his new human side. He, naturally, pays the price.

* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'''s [[Dungeon Punk]] setting of Ravnica has deranged elf sorcerer/scientist [https://web.archive.org/web/20081003125943/http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=107506 Momir Vig,] the leader of the Simic Combine, a whole guild of such characters.

* ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' has* <s>Fabius Bile</s> [[Fan Nickname|FABULOUS Bile]], and like most things in that universe, is this trope turned up to eleven. His master race are superpowered versions of the existing [[Super Soldiers]], with the difference that they're all homicidal megalomaniacs, and he's turned the population of entire planets into shambling mutants with his experiments.

** An aversion by Ahriman, who turned the entire Thousand Sons legion (the ones loyal to Tzeentch) into living coffins to STOP the mutations/evolution. Needless to say, he is not well liked, even among the Thousand Sons. Well, to be fair to Ahriman, he wasn't ''trying'' to turn his fellow Thousand Sons into mindless automatons with his Rubric, but rather to simply stop the mutations from which his Legion was suffering. The fact that his buddies (aside from the Legion's most powerful sorcerers) got turned into walking suits of armour was an unfortunate by-product of his spell.

** Neither, however, has anything on [[Knight Templar|Sofia Lamb]]. An insane Altruist, her life experiences {{spoiler|[[Completely Missing the Point|and the events of the first game]]}} led her to believe that [[The Evils of Free Will|Free Will is a evolutionarily conditioned illusion]]. In order to release Rapture from the "burden" of self-awareness, she's decided to {{spoiler|''[[InstrumentalityAssimilation Plot|fuse all its people into a single, non-aware being using the body of her own daughter]]}}''}}, believing the result will be a "[[Utopia Justifies the Means|True Utopian]]".

* ''[[Dead Space (video game)|Dead Space]]'' features two [[Mad Scientist|Mad Scientists]]s; one relatively helpful and benign despite his insanity, and one who is more clearly villainous. The evil one is an evilutionary biologist, and more than happy to sic his nigh-invulnerable genetically engineered super monster on you.

* The key antagonists of ''[[Parasite Eve]] 2'' are a shadowy cult who intend to counter humanity's extinction of thousands of species, by 'diversifying' humanity into filling all the ecological niches -- byniches—by transforming everybody into hideous and inevitably hostile monsters, of course. Made particularly chilling by the fact that about half of their stated plan -- namelyplan—namely the use of Retroviral Engineering -- isnEngineering—isn't too far from being a real possibility.

** ''[[Resident Evil 5]]'' takes it to a new level with Project W. Ironically this was one of the ''first'' projects Umbrella started in the timeline. Umbrella founder Ozwell Spencer envisioned the rise of a superior breed of humans {{spoiler|consisting of humans infused with the Progenitor Virus at a young age}} indoctrinated with his own [[Social Darwinist]] values and presumably his interest in biological studies. In other words, this was an Evilutionary project ''to manufacture more [[Evilutionary Biologist|Evilutionary Biologists]]''. Fortunately, the project was ultimately a failure since {{spoiler|Albert Wesker was the only child to survive the virus injections all the Wesker children received}}.

* The scientists who ran the White Orphanage in ''[[Wild ArmsARMs 4]]'' fit this trope. They took orphaned children and used a variety of cruel methods to attempt to mass-produce artificially evolved humans who could use the eponymous ARMs. Of all their subjects, only 19 survived the initial experiments, and only 2 were not eventually killed or turned into mutated horrors.

* Also parodied in ''[[Everyday Heroes]]'' -- as—as a [[Shout-Out]] to Marvel's High Evolutionary (mentioned above), two members of the S.A.V.E.U.S. team were created by the Somewhat-Below-Average Evolutionary.

* Doctor X, of the ''[[Action Man]]'' animated series, was a textbook [[Evilutionary Biologist]] obsessed with triggering the [[Evolutionary Levels|next step in human evolution]] by causing all sorts of disasters in the hopes of culling unfit humans and cause beneficial mutations in the survivors.

** Although Mengele was less of an [[Evilutionary Biologist]] than a full-blown [[Mad Scientist]].

*** Mad alright, not so much scientist, though -- Mengelethough—Mengele always knew exactly what kind of conclusion was going to be drawn from any kind of "experiment" at all. So, more like Random Insane Torturer.

* The last lecture on the MIT open courseware [httphttps://web.archive.org/web/20180822165150/https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/biology/7-012-introduction-to-biology-fall-2004/video-lectures/lecture-35-human-polymorphisms-and-cancer-classification/\] is pretty much all about warning their students to learn from the past and not become one of these. As far as the [[Those Wacky Nazis|Nazis]] go, the professor said, "most of their scientific rationale, to the extent they had any, didn't come from Germany, it came from eugenicists in the United States."

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