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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"Hello, I am a useless pinky toe. Someday, you will be born without me."''|'''Barbara''', ''[[Phil of the Future]]''}}
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Of course, this trope can easily be justified through [[Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke|genetic modification]] - the appendix didn't ''naturally'' evolve away, humans simply altered their own genome to weed out the junk.
A note on the appendix itself: The appendix has historically been thought a useless, vestigial or even [[Ruptured Appendix|dangerously]] [
Incidentally, shouldn't the plural of appendix be appendices?
Do not confuse with [[We Will Not Use an Index In The Future]]. Also see [[We Will Have Perfect Health in
{{examples
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* The [[Legion of Super-Heroes (
* European comic boy genius Olivier Delabranche invents a two-person scooter out of his school bag but then sleeps through class and dreams in class that human laziness will cause evolution to phase out toes... then feet, legs, hands why not? Until humans are big brains on wheels. When he wakes up, he smashes the scooter with a rock, repeating over and over [[Madness Mantra|"I don't want to be a brain on wheels!"]]
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* [[Isaac Asimov]] seems to be fond of this trope, though his uses of it generally do not have the quality of [[You Fail Biology Forever]] as usual.
** He employed this trope in ''A Pebble in the Sky'' where Imperial officials realize the main character is a time traveler by the fact he has wisdom teeth and an unusually large appendix. Justified by the fact {{spoiler|Earth was covered in radiation after a nuclear war}}, which would increase mutation rates vastly. How much time passed between the "present" in ''A Pebble in the Sky'' (1950s) and the Empire is disputed in the Robots/Empire/Foundation fanbase.
** This is actually a plot point in Asimov's ''[[
** While it is not employed in Part 3 of ''The Gods Themselves'', the eugenics-conscious moon government ''wants'' to use genetic engineering to get rid of various organs they consider unnecessary, like molars (the artificial food of the Moon requires little chewing).
** The interesting thing about this trope in Asimov's works is that he is a biochemist; where, exactly, this trope pops up is purely a property of [[Science Marches On]].
* The genetic manipulation side is handled fairly well in [[Schismatrix]]. The Shapers are engineered to not only go without appendices, but also to not need any of the bacteria humans currently need to digest food properly, allowing Shaper habitats to be free of any non-engineered nasties. Unfortunately for them, not everybody has this advantage; Shapers going from the aseptic environment to a bacterial one tend to get diarrhea, nausea and horrible rashes. Non-Shapers living in their habitats have to agree to get their intestines pumped and eat regular doses of foul-tasting yoghurt full of digestive enzymes to make up for it.
* This is exhibited by the children in Nicole Luiken's ''Violet Eyes.''
* H.G. Wells designed the Martians in ''War of the Worlds'' by turning this trope [[Up to Eleven]]: he started from a humanoid body plan, then stripped off ''everything''
* The futuristic anatomical doll in the short story "Mimsy Were The Borogroves" lacked an appendix, and a distinguishable large intestine for that matter. It also had at least one entirely new organ system, suggesting changes were engineered rather than evolved.
* ''[[Philip Jose Farmer|The Wind Whales of Ishmael]]'' features a race of four toed future people.
* The Hive Series by [[TJ Bass]] features a race of Nebish - four feet tall, four toes, pink blood due to lack of hemoglobin...
* In the ''[[
* In Mikhail Akhmanov and Christopher Gilmore's ''Captain French, or the Quest for Paradise'', the titular protagonist has 2000 years (subjective time) or 20,000 years (objective time) over his new wife, who is only in her 50s (but looks 20 thanks to the omnipresent cure for aging). The first thing he does after taking her onboard his ship is to have her examined by the ship's [[Auto Doc]]. The doc revealed something horrible to French - she still has an appendix. Angry at the carelessness of her home planet's religious fanatics, he has the [[Auto Doc]] remove the "offending organ" despite the fact that it there was ''nothing wrong with it''.
* The Lunar people of ''I, Weapon'' have engineered away belly-buttons and bodily hair because neither is considered important in the colony. Pregnancies are handled via test tubes and body hair clogs the air filters.
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* This trope was facetiously employed in ''[[Phil of the Future]]'' when Phil ran into a problem: he would have to be seen barefoot to stamp tomatoes in a farm on a class trip, but in his time, no one has pinky toes. To quote Phil's mother [[Sci
* In ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'', Sheldon argues that his pinky toes and lateral incisors are smaller than average, indicating that he is a more advanced form of humanity, a "''homo novus''", and thus is too evolved to learn how to drive. Leonard would beg to differ, but doesn't bother.
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Parodied in ''[[Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist]]'': when Ben is due to have his wisdom teeth removed, Laura mentions she never had them, which her dentist attributed to her being "more evolved". They end up getting into an argument over the veracity of the statement.
* Also parodied in ''[[The Simpsons]]'', where a news report says that scientists predict people will evolve an additional finger in the future. Characters on the show, of course, have only three fingers and a thumb on each hand.
** In the episode "Lady Bouvier's Lover," Homer is worried that Abe marrying Marge's mother would make him and Marge brother and sister, and as a result turn the kids into "...horrible freaks with pink skin, no overbites, and five fingers on each hand!"
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:
[[Category:Time Travel Tropes]]
[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
[[Category:We Will Not Use an Index In The Future]]
[[Category:Artistic License Biology]]
[[Category:We Will Not Have Appendixes
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