Man After Man: An Anthropology of the Future

Man After Man: An Anthropology of the Future (1990) is a speculative book written by Scottish geologist Dougal Dixon. The theme of the book is a science fiction exploration of the possibilities of the future evolution of humans. Unlike his previous two books, his story context focuses on individuals rather than entire species, even giving them human names.

The book starts two hundred years in the future, as a rift develops between the upper and lower class humans, and the genetically modified servants. Another century later, their descendants are examined. Then it jumps ahead to 500 years from present, when genetically modified humans are created to repopulate the earth (from which most large animals have been exterminated) and upper class humans are kept alive through machines, while lower class humans resort to communal agriculturalism. Another five hundred years and we come upon an earth on the brink of disaster, as both the high-tech mechanical societies and agricultural communities fail while the genetically modified humans in the wilderness survive.

The book keeps going showing the various twists and turns taken by the genetically modified humans, as they evolve into strange new organisms. Psychic powers, symbiosis, parasitism, aquatic lifestyles and social colonies all evolve, and vaguely humanoid creatures colonize tundras, plains, jungles and other environments. Ultimately 3 million years into the future these creatures come closer to animals like mammoths, slothes, jerboas and sabretooth tigers than humans. The book closes out at 5 million years, when the descendants of upper class humans sent to space colonies return to earth, genetically modifying and exploiting their "cousins", and ultimately laying waste to the earth. But there is still survival, and life goes on in strange new forms.

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