Seedling Stars, The (1958)
By James Blish
Genetic engineering; Posthuman; Science fiction
When Earth’s resources become strained from overpopulation, scientists bioengineer a humanoid species capable of survival on other planets.
After a population explosion that renders Earth overcrowded and depleted of resources, American scientists are contracted to engineer humans capable of colonizing other planets. Several corporations, including Port Authority, see profit potential in limited extraterrestrial colonization – charging people thousands of dollars just to land on alien ground, for instance – but realize that these profits will significantly decline if scientists can engineer humans to survive on other planets. These corporations swiftly implore Congress to ban pantropy – the complete reengineering of humans for extraterrestrial life – but a group of scientists escape with their first batch of engineered germ-cells before the bans take effect. From their station on the moon, the first generations of this new species of “Adapted Men” travel to Jupiter’s moons, where they survive without food, water or oxygen. One of the Adapted Men left on the moon is tricked by Earth humans into hunting them, but once this secret agent infiltrates their ranks, he realizes that their only crime is attempting to preserve some semblance of the human race. He helps them get their seeding program off Jupiter’s moon before it is attacked by Port Authority. From this first launch, several pantroping groups adapt human life to a variety of planets: one is occupied by primate-like men who live high above the dangerous forest floor, another by diatomic-sized humans who live underwater on a flooded planet. The pantropy crews alter human morphology for maximum adaptability, and leave each planet once they have provided basic living instructions for the Adapted Men; the Adapted Men must use their own ingenuity to conquer the preexisting life on these new planets.
The significance of the project emerges as one pantropy crew returns to a desolate Earth many centuries after the initial colonizing efforts: instead of attempting to alter environment to fit humans’ needs, humankind must adapt itself to fit the environment. The pantrope crews make dual sets of morphological alterations, so that the Adapted Men can adjust to a variety of environments as they expand beyond their initial colonies. This leads to an endless cycle of adaptation and alteration, one that allows for each of these groups of Adapted Men to evolve independently on their planets. The water-dwelling humans, although the size of amoeba, resemble Earth humans in their attempts to reach beyond the sky towards the unexplored regions of the heavens, and while their journey illustrates man’s capacity to evolve beyond the apparent environmental limitations, it also evokes questions of Earth humans’ place in the universe. Although some of the men are significantly altered – given book lungs like spiders for amphibian breathing, or given the blubber and form of a walrus – morphology must marginally conform to the non-adapted forms in order to maintain a human identity. The pantropes are the only hope for humanity, not only because they can branch out and use other planets’ resources, but because they transcend racial and caste prejudices that made Earth life so destructive.
Evaluation: Although initially disorienting, this novel quickly becomes engrossing, and after fifty years, still evokes relevant issues in terms of the relationship between humans and the planet.
– Natalie Champ