We Will Not Have Appendixes in the Future: Difference between revisions

Incidentally, shouldn't the plural of appendix be appendices?

 

 

{{examples}}

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* 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!"]]

 

* [[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.

** 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.''

* 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.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* 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!"

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Time Travel Tropes]]

[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]