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Pantropy
Pantropy is a hypothetical process of space habitation or space colonization in which, rather than terraforming other planets or building space habitats suitable for human habitation, humans are modified (for example via genetic engineering) to be able to thrive in the existing environment. The term was coined by science fiction author James Blish, who wrote a series of short stories based on the idea (collected in the anthology '' The Seedling Stars''). Fictional depictions * 1930—In the science fiction novel ''Last and First Men'' by Olaf Stapledon, when humanity migrates from Earth to Venus and later from Venus to Neptune, human beings are genetically engineered to fit the new environments in which they will be living. * 1944—One of the first science fiction stories about pantropy (the word had not yet been coined) was the short story "Desertion," by Clifford D. Simak, which appeared in the November 1944 ''Astounding Science Fiction''. In this story, human colonists living ...
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Surface Tension (short Story)
"Surface Tension" is a science fiction short story by American writer James Blish, originally published in the August 1952 of ''Galaxy Science Fiction''. As collected in Blish's '' The Seedling Stars'', it was revised to incorporate material from his earlier story "Sunken Universe", published in ''Super Science Stories'' in 1942. Plot summary A human colonization ship crash-lands on a distant planet which is Earth-like but whose only landmass is completely covered in shallow puddles of water and mostly microscopic life forms. Normal humans could not survive on this planet, so the crew must genetically engineer their descendants into something that can survive. (Blish coined the term pantropy to refer to this concept.) They create a race of microscopic aquatic humanoids to complete their mission and colonize the planet. The majority of the story concerns one group of these genetically engineered colonists and their intelligence, curiosity, and evolving technology. In particu ...
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City (novel)
''City'' is a 1952 science fiction fix-up novel by American writer Clifford D. Simak. The original version consists of eight linked short stories, all originally published in ''Astounding Science Fiction'' under the editorship of John W. Campbell between 1944 and 1951, along with brief "notes" on each of the stories. These notes were specially written for the book, and serve as a bridging story of their own. The book was reprinted as ACE #D-283 in 1958, cover illustration by Ed Valigursky. Simak published a ninth ''City'' tale in 1973 called "Epilog". Starting with the 1980 edition some (but not all) editions of ''City'' include "Epilog". Plot introduction The fixup novel describes a legend consisting of eight ''tales'' that the pastoral, pacifist Dogs recite as they pass down an oral legend of a creature known as ''Man''. Each tale is preceded by ''doggish'' notes and learned discussion. An editor's preface notes that after each telling of the legend the pups ask many ...
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Space Habitation
Human presence in space is about humanity in space, particularly about all anthropogenic presence in space and human activity in space, that is in outer space and in a broader sense also on any extraterrestrial astronomical body. Humans have been present in space either, in the common sense, through their direct presence and activity like human spaceflight, or through mediation of their presence and activity like with uncrewed spaceflight, making "telepresence" possible. Human presence in space, particularly through mediation, can take many physical forms from space debris, uncrewed spacecraft, artificial satellites, space observatories, crewed spacecraft, art in space, to human outposts in outer space such as space stations. While human presence in space, particularly its continuation and permanence can be a goal in itself, human presence can have a range of purposes and modes from space exploration, commercial use of space to space settlement or even colonization and mil ...
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Domed City
A domed city is a hypothetical structure that encloses a large urban area under a single roof. In most descriptions, the dome is airtight and pressurized, creating a habitat that can be controlled for air temperature, composition and quality, typically due to an external atmosphere (or lack thereof) that is inimical to habitation for one or more reasons. Domed cities have been a fixture of science fiction and futurology since the early 20th century, offer inspirations for potential utopias and may be situated on Earth, a moon or other planet. Origin In the early 19th century the social refomer Charles Fourier proposed that an ideal city must be connected by glass galleries. Such ideas inspired several architectural projects along of 19th and 20th centuries. The most famous of these is the building of The Crystal Palace in 1851 at Hyde Park. Atlantis preserved under bottom of the sea by a crytal dome is commom trope in Science fiction. The early use of this trope is the novel ''T ...
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Creole Peoples
Creole peoples are ethnic groups formed during the European colonial era, from the mass displacement of peoples brought into sustained contact with others from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds, who converged onto a colonial territory to which they had not previously belonged. Often involuntarily uprooted from their original home, the settlers were obliged to develop and creatively merge the desirable elements from their diverse backgrounds, to produce new varieties of social, linguistic and cultural norms that superseded the prior forms. This process, known as creolization, is characterized by rapid social flux regularized into Creole ethnogenesis. Creole peoples vary widely in ethnic background and mixture and many have since developed distinct ethnic identities. The development of creole languages is sometimes mistakenly attributed to the emergence of Creole ethnic identities; however, the two developments occur independently. Etymology and overview ...
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Mars Plus
''Mars Plus'' is a 1994 science fiction novel by American writer Frederik Pohl and Thomas T. Thomas. It is the sequel to Pohl's 1976 novel '' Man Plus'', which is about a cyborg, Roger Torraway, who is designed to operate in the harsh Martian environment, so that humans can start to colonize Mars. ''Mars Plus'' is set fifty years after the first novel. Young Demeter Coghlan travels to Mars, now settled by humans and cyborgs, and finds herself amidst a rebellion by the colonists. Plot In '' Man Plus'', set in the not-too-distant future, with threat of the Cold War becoming a fighting war, people plan for the colonization of Mars to escape the seemingly-inevitable Armageddon According to the Book of Revelation in the New Testament of the Christian Bible, Armageddon (, from grc, Ἁρμαγεδών ''Harmagedōn'', Late Latin: , from Hebrew: ''Har Məgīddō'') is the prophesied location of a gathering of armies .... The American government begins a cyborg program to creat ...
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Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmosphere (less than 1% that of Earth's), and has a crust primarily composed of elements similar to Earth's crust, as well as a core made of iron and nickel. Mars has surface features such as impact craters, valleys, dunes and polar ice caps. It has two small and irregularly shaped moons, Phobos and Deimos. Some of the most notable surface features on Mars include Olympus Mons, the largest volcano and highest known mountain in the Solar System and Valles Marineris, one of the largest canyons in the Solar System. The Borealis basin in the Northern Hemisphere covers approximately 40% of the planet and may be a large impact feature. Days and seasons on Mars are comparable to those of Earth, as the planets have a similar rotation period ...
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Cyborg
A cyborg ()—a portmanteau of ''cybernetic'' and ''organism''—is a being with both organic and biomechatronic body parts. The term was coined in 1960 by Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline.Cyborgs and Space
in ''Astronautics'' (September 1960), by Manfred E. Clynes and American scientist and researcher Nathan S. Kline.


Description and definition

"Cyborg" is not the same thing as , , or ; it applies to an organ ...
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Man Plus
''Man Plus'' is a 1976 science fiction novel by American writer Frederik Pohl. (Note: unless otherwise noted, all statements in this article regarding the contents of ''Man Plus'' are based on the book itself). It won the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1976, was nominated for the Hugo and Campbell Awards, and placed third in the annual Locus Poll in 1977. The story is about a cyborg A cyborg ()—a portmanteau of ''cybernetic'' and ''organism''—is a being with both organic and biomechatronic body parts. The term was coined in 1960 by Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline.
, Roger Torraway, who is designed to operate in the harsh Martian environment so that humans can colonize Mars.


Plot

In the not-too-distant future, the Cold War threatens to turn into a fighting war. Colonization of Mars seems to be mankind's only hope of surviving certain Armageddon. To facilitate this, the U ...
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Frederik Pohl
Frederik George Pohl Jr. (; November 26, 1919 – September 2, 2013) was an American science-fiction writer, editor, and fan, with a career spanning nearly 75 years—from his first published work, the 1937 poem "Elegy to a Dead Satellite: Luna", to the 2011 novel ''All the Lives He Led''. From about 1959 until 1969, Pohl edited ''Galaxy'' and its sister magazine '' If''; the latter won three successive annual Hugo Awards as the year's best professional magazine. His 1977 novel '' Gateway'' won four "year's best novel" awards: the Hugo voted by convention participants, the Locus voted by magazine subscribers, the Nebula voted by American science-fiction writers, and the juried academic John W. Campbell Memorial Award. He won the Campbell Memorial Award again for the 1984 collection of novellas ''The Years of the City'', one of two repeat winners during the first 40 years. For his 1979 novel ''Jem'', Pohl won a U.S. National Book Award in the one-year category Science Fi ...
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Big Book Of Science Fiction
''Big Book of Science Fiction'' is an anthology of science fiction short stories edited by Groff Conklin. It was first published in hardcover by Crown Publishers in August 1950. A later edition was issued by Bonanza Books/Crown Publishers in 1978 under the alternate title ''The Classic Books of Science Fiction''. An abridged paperback edition containing ten of its 32 stories was published by Berkley Books in April 1957, and reprinted in June 1957 and September 1964; the reprints bore the variant title ''The Big Book of Science Fiction''. The book collects thirty-two novellas, novelettes and short stories by various science fiction authors, together with an introduction by the editor. The stories were previously published from 1889 to 1950 in various science fiction and other magazines. Contents Stories also appearing in the abridged paperback edition annoted with "TBB" *"Introduction" (Groff Conklin) *"Mr. Murphy of New York" ( Thomas McMorrow) *"The Diminishing Draft" ( Waldemar K ...
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Telepathy
Telepathy () is the purported vicarious transmission of information from one person's mind to another's without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was first coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic W. H. Myers, a founder of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), and has remained more popular than the earlier expression ''thought-transference''.Glossary of Parapsychological terms – Telepathy
Parapsychological Association. Retrieved December 19, 2006.
Telepathy experiments have historically been criticized for a lack of proper controls and repeatability. There is no good evidence that telepathy exists, and the topic is genera ...
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