Transhuman: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|''"I turned them into post-human warriors. You're a soldier, think of it as a necessary sacrifice. (...) The [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|Ceph]] are coming, Prophet. Soon. You think we'll defeat them with [[Puny Earthlings|ordinary human soldiers]]? This isn't a war ordinary humans can win. [[Powered Armor|This is the future]]. [[Super Soldier|Death's an inconvenience now]]. [[Nanomachines|Nothing more]]. We are ''all'' dead men walking!"''|'''Jacob Hargreave''', ''[[Crysis]] 2''}}

A positive portrayal of transhumanism generally places a work on the Enlightenment side of the [[Romanticism Versus Enlightenment]] spectrum while a negative portrayal or [[No Transhumanism Allowed|conspicuous absence]] of it does the opposite. May be used as an aspect of a [[Post Cyber Punk]] or [[Cyberpunk]] setting.

 

 

 

 

* [[Artificial Limbs]]: A limited form of enhancement that's specific to the limbs.

* [[Bio Augmentation]]: Biological enhancement, as compared to a [[Cyborg]].

* [[Brain Uploading]]: The physical limitations of a body are outright removed.

* [[Designer Babies]]: Making a person better before they're even born.

* [[Emergency Transformation]]: If you become better than you before. Better. Stronger. Faster.

* [[Superhero]]: For those that gain their powers. [[Badass Normal|If they have them]].

* [[Super Human Trafficking]]: Abuse of transhumans via slavery, organ trafficking, and other means.

* [[Super Soldier]]: This one usually relies on the physical aspect of transhumanism for war.

* [[The Singularity]]: A hypothetical scenario where we become transhumans due to acceleration of progress.

* [[Transhuman Aliens]]: A variation where the transhuman can't be called "Human" anymore.

* [[Transhuman Treachery]]: For when this makes you go bad.

* [[Working for a Body Upgrade]]: Enhanced because they earned it as a job perk.

 

 

 

{{examples}}

** [[Gundam Seed]] additionally had Coordinators, transhumans of the [[Bio Augmentation]] variety, {{spoiler|(a pair of) Ultimate Coordinators of the [[Designer Babies|Gattaca Baby]] variety,}} and Extendeds of the [[Super Serum|Super]] [[Psycho Serum]] variety.

* ''[[Ghost in the Shell]]'' is all about this.

* In the entirety of ''[[Blame]]'', we do not see a single purely biological human. Everyone is heavily modified, be they cyborgs, human-descended androids, or gene-modded superhumans. The closest to "pure" human we get is Seu, and he's an eight-foot giant with enough enhancements to fight in hand-to-hand combat with advanced Silicon Life warriors, who has been reconstructed and had his personality restored from backup countless times. Most "normal" humans were exterminated by either the Silicon Creatures or the Safeguard, given the events of ''NOiSE'','' [[Blame]]'s'' prequel.

* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]''

* ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]'' presents a very disturbing take on this theme. Yes the girls do become supremely powerful, but in doing so {{spoiler|their souls get ripped out of their body and placed inside a [[Soul Jar]]}}.

 

* Every superhero who was once a normal human. Inherently superhuman races do not count, unless they enhance themselves even further.

** It's notable that only a small percentage of them gained their powers deliberately; usually it was a [[Freak Lab Accident|Freak Accident.]] This is arguably a necessary component of a superhero universe; if super-powers were easily reproducible, then the heroes themselves would stop being special.

* In the appropriately named ''Transhuman'' by [[Jonathan Hickman]] medical advances make it possible to give people super powers. However there is a one power limit so everybody opts for [[Healing Factor]].

* [[Iron Man]], in recent years, has been doing everything he can to transhumanize himself, ranging from cyborg parts to a [[Super Serum]]. Of course, it's debatable how much of this is symbolic of the lack of humanity in his ''behavior'' during the [[Marvel Civil War]] and its aftermath. Many fans theorize that the Extremis Formula ''caused'' a lot of his [[Cybernetics Eat Your Soul|erratic, high-handed behavior,]] either by directly affecting his mind or just giving him a superiority complex.

* [[The Incredible Hulk|Hulk]] villain the Leader seems preoccupied with creating more Gamma-powered mutates like himself.

* The short-lived [[DC Comics]] series ''The New Guardians'' (unrelated to the current ''[[Green Lantern]]'' spinoff) involved a [[Xanatos Roulette]] by the [[Green Lantern|Guardians of the Universe]] to turn humanity into a race of transhumans. Unfortunately, the series' execution was... somewhat lacking, and it's been forgotten, with reason. The method for spreading super-genes through the population was to, well, [[Everybody Has Lots of Sex|have sex with as many people as possible;]] by picking people up in singles bars; despite one member of the team being an apparently sterile cyborg and another being gay. Oh, and they were all wince-inducing [[Ethnic Scrappy|Ethnic Scrappies,]] to boot.

* The [[Marvel Comics|Inhumans, Eternals, and Deviants]] are humans genetically modified by aliens.

 

== Film ==

 

* The Traveler (and later Wesley Crusher) from ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]''.

** Not to mention the [[Cyborg|Borg]].

** Gary Mitchell and Dr Elizabeth Dehner both acquired psi-powers from the galactic energy barrier - within a few hours Mitchell could read the entire library of the ''Enterprise'' and could telekinese, create small objects, and project energy from his fingers, with Dr Dehner just a short way behind him. It's impossible to be sure, but they might have hit Q power levels a few days later if they had lived. Unfortunately, [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|Gary becomes a psychopath.]] Spock believes [[Transhuman Treachery]] in such a situation to be inevitable, as the transformed would come to view mere humans as a petty annoyance.

* Several of them have popped up in ''[[Fringe]]''

 

== Literature ==

* Almost everyone in ''[[Duumvirate]]'' is either born transhuman, becomes transhuman, or desperately wants to be transhuman. When your regeneratively immortal friends can play [[Bullet Hell]] games at maximum difficulty without breaking a sweat, and [[Dodge the Bullet|dodge actual bullets]] for that matter, you tend to get a deep appreciation for genetic superiority.

* In Nietzsche's [[Thus Spake Zarathustra]], Zarathustra preaches that mankind's future lies into the [[Ubermensch]]. A form of spiritual/mental transcendence into godhood.

* [[Greg Egan]] often uses this trope in his novels.

* ''[[Beggars in Spain]]'' is about the rise of a new breed of transhuman, the "Sleepless".

* ''[[The Turing Option]]'' by Harry Harrison and Marvin Minsky.

* ''[[The Quantum Thief]]''. Notably the society of Oubliette on Mars is resistant to most transhuman technologies, being built on the ideals of privacy and individuality, yet from the reader's perspective it's still filled to the brim with transhuman technology designed to ensure this state of affairs. For starters the citizens all have a specialized privacy sensory organ called Gevulot through which the majority of their communication takes place.

* The Mesan Alignment in the [[Honor Harrington]] series has been practicing the biological form of this in secret for quite some time and believe they should share it with the rest of the galaxy... by force.

** There's also a brief mention in on of the early books that there are a handful of planets in the galaxy where cybernetic transhumanism is a common practice but they're fairly isolated incidents.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** Also, the Elan Race in 3.5e's ''[[Psychic Powers|Expanded Psionics Handbook]]'' and the bloodline feat chain of the same name in 4e D&D's ''Psionic Power'' is essentially this: humans who underwent body modification to turn themselves into an immortal being powered by thought.

* In ''[[Shadowrun]]'', many people have some degree of mechanical alteration - cybereyes are the most common bit of cyberware in the world. Mages on the other hand can't use them with out messing up their Essence/magic. Also, the metahuman races are humans who have been altered by the return of magic.

* ''[[Eclipse Phase]]'', due to ubiquitous [[Brain Uploading]] technology most people jump from one genetically enhanced or synthetic "morph" to another [[Body Surf|fairly regularly]].

** Several Exalted types are quite literally transhuman. The Alchemicals start as cyborgs with human souls, and eventually turn into giant robots and even living cities as their permanent Essence rating increases. The Infernals have the ability to become like their [[Our Titans Are Different|Yozi]] patrons, the many-souled, world-like beings that first made the world. You've even got cases among the other Exalted, like the First Age Solar Queen Ktula, who experimented with her body so much that a bunch of her Charms shut down because her Exaltation no longer recognized her as human.

** Abyssals too. Except that rather than become something more than human, they become something less - something hollow and malignant, a walking conduit to Oblivion. The ultimate destiny of the Abyssals could be Deathlords Mark Two - or something greater and more terrible than even the Deathlords can imagine. Or, y'know, they could kick the Void in the face and powerload hope and light into their Shards until they can achieve redemption and become Solars. One of the nice things about ''Exalted'' is that there's always a choice.

* In ''[[Strike Legion]]'', transhumanism is ubiquitous. The average human in either the Imperium or the Star Republic is already genetically enhanced to the point that they make modern humanity look like degenerate apes. This is before factoring in extensive bio-augmentation, cybernetic implants, and nanotech enhancements which are commercially available to civilians and military. And ''that'' is before one gets into the Imperium's countless supersoldier programs (cybernetic modification, genetic modification, [[Demonic Possession|extradimensional modification]], genetically-enhanced [[Reality Warper]] powers....) and the Republic's [[One-Man Army|Legion]] [[Person of Mass Destruction|Process]].

 

== Video Games ==

* The BIOS faction from ''[[Allegiance]]''.

* The Advent from ''[[Sins of a Solar Empire]]'', in contrast to the [[No Transhumanism Allowed]] Traders. Part of the reason why the Traders exiled them in the first place. The alien race present in the game, the Vasari, are as of their in-game state, also technologically improved to varying degrees from their biological baseline.

* ''[[Deus Ex]]''

** Transhumanism is a major theme in ''[[Deus Ex: Human Revolution|Deus Ex Human Revolution]]''. You've got people in support of it, people against it, lots of reasons for both, and Adam Jensen himself has lots of cybernetic upgrades, also called augmentations.

* ''[[Half-Life 2]]''. "Transhuman" is a [[Transhuman Treachery|politically loaded]] word in the ''Half-Life'' [[Vichy Earth|universe]].

** To clarify, any human who volunteers to join the Overwatch is brainwashed, gutted, dismembered, and rebuilt as a cyborg. [[Cybernetics Eat Your Soul|The augmentations make them entirely dependent on the Combine.]]

* Alice Margatroid from [[Touhou]] used to be human, but transformed into a magician as a species.

* In the [[Sequel Series|series that follow on]] from ''[[Mega Man X]]'', this becomes the [[Take a Third Option|third option]] solution to the [[Robot War]] that has plagued human- and Reploidkind for hundreds of years.

* The Spartans in ''Halo'', although in the games it's portrayed more as soldiers wearing power armor. The EU goes a great deal further into explaining that they biologically and cybernetically enhanced the bejeezus out of them before putting them into their really fancy armored suits.

* Albert Wesker in the ''[[Resident Evil]]'' games and ''[[Marvel vs. Capcom 3]]''.

* In ''[[Crysis]]'', this is the ultimate goal of Jacob Hargreave. He has been working for {{spoiler|[[Really Seven Hundred Years Old|more than a century]]}} to prepare mankind for war with the [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|Ceph]], using [[Imported Alien Phlebotinum|their own stolen technology]] to enhance human technology, and it culminates in the Nanosuits, which are hyper-advanced [[Powered Armor]] designed to turn their wearers into "post-human warriors." They go so far as to {{spoiler|literally replace entire organs, co-opt brain functions, and generally turn their wearers into full-on nanotech cyborg supersoldiers}}, and are capable of {{spoiler|sustaining a person even after death}}, and on top of that, they contain internal machinery and advanced computers that can sample, analyze, and adapt to Ceph environmental weapons.

 

* Kimiko of ''[[Dresden Codak]]'' is all for transhumanism. In the ''Hob'' storyline, an alternate universe version of her didn't do a terribly good job of carrying humanity through its Singularity and apparently came to a sticky end. The human remnant of that reality did make the step into trans-humanity in the end though.

* Yuri of ''[[Spacetrawler]]''. When she lost her limbs, she obtained robotic replacements. And she went the extra step of [[Bio Augmentation|BioAugmenting]] herself with part of an [[Technopath|Eeb brain]]... and [[Catgirl|cat ears]].

* The Valkyries of ''[[Cwynhild's Loom]]'' are cyborg [[Super Soldiers]].

 

== Web Original ==

 

== Real Life ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Otherness Tropes]]

[[Category:Transformation Causes]]