Five Classic SF Novels Featuring Advanced Body Modifications

Be the person you want to be through applied technology.

https://www.tor.com/2023/05/15/five-classic-sf-novels-featuring-advanced-body-modifications/
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On 16/05/23 02:09, James Nicoll wrote:
> Five Classic SF Novels Featuring Advanced Body Modifications
>
> Be the person you want to be through applied technology.
>
> https://www.tor.com/2023/05/15/five-classic-sf-novels-featuring-advanced-body-modifications/

Not classic and not the stuff of dreams, but the scariest jumble of body
modifications for me would be China Mieville's steampunk amalgamations
of people with attached metal structures and appendages which were in
many cases of lower capability than the flesh and bones replaced.

On 5/15/2023 9:09 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
> Five Classic SF Novels Featuring Advanced Body Modifications
>
> Be the person you want to be through applied technology.
>
> https://www.tor.com/2023/05/15/five-classic-sf-novels-featuring-advanced-body-modifications/

"Mutineer's Moon" by David Weber. All Fleet personnel get extreme body
modifications with variations on rank: bone strengthening; tendon and
muscle strengthening to 6X of base; eyes replaced with extreme focal and
range; skin strengthening to the point can survive in vacuum for 30
minutes; 30 minute oxygen tank in abdomen; all organs, heart, and lungs
replaced with long life variants; life extension to 600+ years; weight
only doubled due to advanced polymers; etc; etc; etc.
https://www.amazon.com/Mutineers-Moon-Dahak-David-Weber/dp/0671720856/

Lynn

On 5/15/2023 9:09 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
> Five Classic SF Novels Featuring Advanced Body Modifications
>
> Be the person you want to be through applied technology.
>
> https://www.tor.com/2023/05/15/five-classic-sf-novels-featuring-advanced-body-modifications/

How about throwing away the body and slicing the brain at the molecular
level and putting into an AI for a Von Neumann probe ? "We Are Legion
(We Are Bob)" by Dennis Taylor.
https://www.amazon.com/We-Are-Legion-Bob-Bobiverse/dp/1680680587/

Lynn

In article <u3v1n0$3btu8$2@dont-email.me>,
Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:
>On 5/15/2023 9:09 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
>> Five Classic SF Novels Featuring Advanced Body Modifications
>>
>> Be the person you want to be through applied technology.
>>
>>
>https://www.tor.com/2023/05/15/five-classic-sf-novels-featuring-advanced-body-modifications/
>
>How about throwing away the body and slicing the brain at the molecular
>level and putting into an AI for a Von Neumann probe ? "We Are Legion
>(We Are Bob)" by Dennis Taylor.
> https://www.amazon.com/We-Are-Legion-Bob-Bobiverse/dp/1680680587/
>
>Lynn
>

In some form this goes all the way back to Professor Jameson in the 30s.
--
columbiaclosings.com
What's not in Columbia anymore..

On May 16, 2023, Lynn McGuire wrote
(in article <u3v1c1$3btu8$1@dont-email.me>):

> On 5/15/2023 9:09 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
> > Five Classic SF Novels Featuring Advanced Body Modifications
> >
> > Be the person you want to be through applied technology.
> >
> > https://www.tor.com/2023/05/15/five-classic-sf-novels-featuring-advanced-bod
> > y-modifications/
>
> "Mutineer's Moon" by David Weber. All Fleet personnel get extreme body
> modifications with variations on rank: bone strengthening; tendon and
> muscle strengthening to 6X of base; eyes replaced with extreme focal and
> range; skin strengthening to the point can survive in vacuum for 30
> minutes; 30 minute oxygen tank in abdomen; all organs, heart, and lungs
> replaced with long life variants; life extension to 600+ years; weight
> only doubled due to advanced polymers; etc; etc; etc.
> https://www.amazon.com/Mutineers-Moon-Dahak-David-Weber/dp/0671720856/
>
> Lynn

Feh. Niven got a lot of that, in two different ways, in the Known Space
books:

1. Pak Protectors (and, later, human Protectors) got the strength, nearly
unbreakable bones, speed, and longevity by partaking of the Tree of Life.

2. Certain human death commando, who were obviously certifiable, got
engineered somehow (no details) so that they could be dropped onto Kzin
worlds and take on Kzin hand to hand. Given the choice, I’d use the
Wunderland Treatymaker, thanks.

Bujold had body mods all over her Mad Miles books, ranging from Sgt. Tuara
and Gupta to the haupt to the Quaddies. Not to mention certain, ahem, Living
Jewels.

Zahn did it twice: the Blackcollar and the Cobra. Nix on long life for the
Cobras, though.

By the end of Gray Lensman, Kimball Kinnison was no longer a baseline human,
if he ever was. And, of course, Vanbuskirk wasn’t baseline either.

Stirling and McCaffery perpetuated an extreme offense against biology and
logic with the bad guys in their collaboration (how bad were the bad guys?
One says “He’s the bad pirate, I’m the worse pirate” and proceeds to
prove it. No mustace twirling because he doesn’t have facial hair.). Those
boys live on a high-gravity planet, which is dense because it has lots of
heavy metals, including radioactive. Lots of radioactives. It’s hot, as
it’s close to a hot star. It has lots of vulcanic activity, spewing clouds
of dust, much of it radioactive. The bad guys all have platinum blonde hair,
just not much of it, and are very black. And can make nuclear bombs by hand,
while breathing uranium dust. They are very, very, VERY strong, and fast, and
have bad attitudes. And logically should not exist.

On 2023-05-15, James Nicoll <jdnicoll@panix.com> wrote:

> Five Classic SF Novels Featuring Advanced Body Modifications

There was a lot of this in Peter F. Hamilton's voluminous
_Night's Dawn_ trilogy.

Also from the same author--sorry, that's a spoiler--the short story
"Sonnie's Edge", which was adapted into the very first episode of
Netflix's _Love, Death & Robots_.

In Douglas Hill's _Last Legionary_ juveniles--which used to be a
frequent YASID here, but somehow hasn't come up in a long time--
the protagonist is saved from fatal irradiation by some superbeings
who replace his bones with an unbreakable "organic alloy", which
makes him even more invincible at hand-to-hand combat than he already
is. (Yes, that's a twofer of bad biology and bad martial arts.)

--
Christian "naddy" Weisgerber naddy@mips.inka.de