Sunday, April 24, 2011

U is for Uplift, the process of

Yet another SF concept for the blog...


Uplift is the fictional process of making a smart animal sentient (self-aware) or sapient (wise). One could argue that, if humanity self-domesticated, we uplifted ourselves...

David Brin's Uplift Universe and the cultures of the Five Galaxies come immediately to mind, and I swiped the idea for my Tales of the Conservancy (http://www.scribd.com/doc/46440905/Old-Complications), but it goes back a ways, to H.G. Well's 'The island of Dr. Moreau' and to Cordwainer Smith's Human Instrumentality. If there are no alien sapients, then we can always make some...
 
This brings up that old stand-by of 'getting-to-know-you' roleplay- what kind of animal would you be? 8-P
 
I'd kinda like to be a dragon; magical, and of the land...

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