Evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

has been an important theme in fiction, including

speculative evolution Speculative evolution is a genre of speculative fiction and an artistic movement focused on hypothetical scenarios in the evolution of life, and a significant form of fictional biology. It is also known as speculative biology and it is referred ...

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

, since the late 19th century, though it began before

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...

's time, and reflects progressionist and

Lamarck Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, chevalier de Lamarck (1 August 1744 – 18 December 1829), often known simply as Lamarck (; ), was a French naturalist, biologist, academic, and soldier. He was an early proponent of the idea that biolog ...

ist views as well as Darwin's.

Darwinian evolution Darwinism is a theory of biological evolution developed by the English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and others, stating that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that ...

is pervasive in literature, whether taken optimistically in terms of how humanity may evolve towards perfection, or pessimistically in terms of the dire consequences of the interaction of human nature and the struggle for survival. Other themes include the replacement of humanity, either by other species or by

intelligent machine Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animal cognition, animals and human intelligence, humans. Example tasks in ...

Context

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

natural selection Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations. Charle ...

, as set out in his 1859 ''

On the Origin of Species ''On the Origin of Species'' (or, more completely, ''On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life''),The book's full original title was ''On the Origin of Species by Me ...

'', is the dominant theory in modern biology, but it is accompanied as a philosophy and in fiction by two earlier evolutionary theories, progressionism (

orthogenesis Orthogenesis, also known as orthogenetic evolution, progressive evolution, evolutionary progress, or progressionism, is an obsolete biological hypothesis that organisms have an innate tendency to evolve in a definite direction towards some go ...

) and

Lamarckism Lamarckism, also known as Lamarckian inheritance or neo-Lamarckism, is the notion that an organism can pass on to its offspring physical characteristics that the parent organism acquired through use or disuse during its lifetime. It is also calle ...

. Progressionism is the view that evolution is progress towards some goal of perfection, and that it is in some way directed towards that goal. Lamarckism, a philosophy that long predates

Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, chevalier de Lamarck (1 August 1744 – 18 December 1829), often known simply as Lamarck (; ), was a French naturalist, biologist, academic, and soldier. He was an early proponent of the idea that biolog ...

, is the view that evolution is guided by the inheritance of characteristics acquired by use or disuse during an animal's lifetime.

Progressionism

Ideas of progress and evolution were popular, long before Darwinism, in the 18th century, leading to

Nicolas-Edme Rétif Nicolas Restif de la Bretonne, born Nicolas-Edme Rétif or Nicolas-Edme Restif (; 23 October 1734 – 3 February 1806), also known as Rétif, was a French novelist. The term '' retifism'' for shoe fetishism was named after him (an early nov ...

's allegorical 1781 story ' (The Southern Hemisphere Discovery by a Flying Man). The evolutionary biologist Kayla M. Hardwick quotes from the 2013 film '' Man of Steel'', where the villain Faora states: "The fact that you possess a sense of morality, and we do not, gives us an evolutionary advantage. And if history has taught us anything, it is that evolution always wins." She points out that the idea that evolution wins is progressionist, while (she argues) the idea that evolution gives evil an advantage over the moral and good, driving the creation of formidable monsters, is a popular science fiction misconception. Hardwick gives as examples of the evolution of "bad-guy traits" the

Morlock Morlocks are a fictional species created by H. G. Wells for his 1895 novel,''The Time Machine'', and are the main antagonists. Since their creation by H. G. Wells, the Morlocks have appeared in many other works such as sequels, films, televisio ...

s in

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells"Wells, H. G."
Revised 18 May 2015. ''

The Time Machine ''The Time Machine'' is a science fiction novella by H. G. Wells, published in 1895. The work is generally credited with the popularization of the concept of time travel by using a vehicle or device to travel purposely and selectively for ...

'', the bugs'

caste system Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultura ...

Robert Heinlein Robert Anson Heinlein (; July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988) was an American science fiction author, aeronautical engineer, and naval officer. Sometimes called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was among the first to emphasize scientific accu ...

's 1959 ''

Starship Troopers ''Starship Troopers'' is a military science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein. Written in a few weeks in reaction to the US suspending nuclear tests, the story was first published as a two-part serial in ''The Magazine of F ...

'', and the effective colonisation by

Don Siegel Donald Siegel ( ; October 26, 1912 – April 20, 1991) was an American film and television director and producer. Siegel was described by ''The New York Times'' as "a director of tough, cynical and forthright action-adventure films whose taut ...

's 1956 ''

Invasion of the Body Snatchers ''Invasion of the Body Snatchers'' is a 1956 American science fiction horror film produced by Walter Wanger, directed by Don Siegel, and starring Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter. The black-and-white film was shot in Superscope and in the film ...

'' aliens.

Lamarckism

In French 19th century literature, evolutionary fantasy was Lamarckian, as seen in

Camille Flammarion Nicolas Camille Flammarion FRAS (; 26 February 1842 – 3 June 1925) was a French astronomer and author. He was a prolific author of more than fifty titles, including popular science works about astronomy, several notable early science fiction ...

's 1887 ''Lumen'' and his 1894 '' Omega: The Last Days of the World'', J.-H. Rosny's 1887 ''Les Xipéhuz'' and his 1910 ''La mort de la terre'', and

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...

's 1901 ''La grande forêt, le village aérien''. The philosopher

Henri Bergson Henri-Louis Bergson (; 18 October 1859 – 4 January 1941) was a French philosopherHenri Bergson. 2014. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 13 August 2014, from https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/61856/Henri-Bergson

's creative evolution driven by the supposed

élan vital ''Élan vital'' () is a term coined by French philosopher Henri Bergson in his 1907 book '' Creative Evolution'', in which he addresses the question of self-organisation and spontaneous morphogenesis of things in an increasingly complex manner. ...

likely inspired

J. D. Beresford John Davys Beresford (17 March 1873 – 2 February 1947) was an English writer, now remembered for his early science fiction and some short stories in the horror story and ghost story genres. Beresford was a great admirer of H.G. Wells, and w ...

's English evolutionary fantasy, his 1911 ''

The Hampdenshire Wonder ''The Hampdenshire Wonder'' is a 1911 science fiction novel by J. D. Beresford. It is one of the first novels to involve a wunderkind. The child in it, Victor Stott, is the son of a famous cricket player. This origin is perhaps a reference to ...

''.

Darwinism

The War of the Worlds by Henrique Alvim Corrêa 08 b&w

Darwin's version of evolution has been widely explored in fiction, both in fantasies and in imaginative explorations of its grimmer "

survival of the fittest "Survival of the fittest" is a phrase that originated from Darwinian evolutionary theory as a way of describing the mechanism of natural selection. The biological concept of fitness is defined as reproductive success. In Darwinian terms, th ...

" effects, with much attention focused on possible human evolution. H. G. Wells's ''The Time Machine'' already mentioned, his 1896 ''

The Island of Dr Moreau ''The Island of Doctor Moreau'' is an 1896 science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells (1866–1946). The text of the novel is the narration of Edward Prendick who is a shipwrecked man rescued by a passing boat. He is left on the island ...

'', and his 1898 ''

The War of the Worlds ''The War of the Worlds'' is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells, first serialised in 1897 by ''Pearson's Magazine'' in the UK and by ''Cosmopolitan (magazine), Cosmopolitan'' magazine in the US. The novel's first appear ...

'' all pessimistically explore the possible dire consequences of the darker sides of human nature in the struggle for survival. More broadly,

Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Poles in the United Kingdom#19th century, Polish-British novelist and short story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in t ...

's 1899 ''

Heart of Darkness ''Heart of Darkness'' (1899) is a novella by Polish-English novelist Joseph Conrad in which the sailor Charles Marlow tells his listeners the story of his assignment as steamer captain for a Belgian company in the African interior. The novel ...

'' and R. L. Stevenson's 1886 '' Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'' portray Darwinian thinking in mainstream

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

. The evolutionary biologist

J. B. S. Haldane John Burdon Sanderson Haldane (; 5 November 18921 December 1964), nicknamed "Jack" or "JBS", was a British-Indian scientist who worked in physiology, genetics, evolutionary biology, and mathematics. With innovative use of statistics in biolog ...

wrote an optimistic tale, ''The Last Judgement'', in the 1927 collection ''Possible Worlds''. This influenced

Olaf Stapledon William Olaf Stapledon (10 May 1886 – 6 September 1950) – known as Olaf Stapledon – was a British philosopher and author of science fiction.Andy Sawyer, " illiamOlaf Stapledon (1886-1950)", in Bould, Mark, et al, eds. ''Fifty Key Figures ...

's 1930 ''

Last and First Men ''Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future'' is a "future history" science fiction novel written in 1930 by the British author Olaf Stapledon. A work of unprecedented scale in the genre, it describes the history of humanity from t ...

'', which portrays the many species that evolved from humans in a billion-year timeframe. A different take on Darwinism is the idea, popular from the 1950s onwards, that humans will evolve more or less godlike mental capacity, as in

Arthur C. Clarke Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (16 December 191719 March 2008) was an English science-fiction writer, science writer, futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host. He co-wrote the screenplay for the 1968 film '' 2001: A Spac ...

's 1950 ''

Childhood's End ''Childhood's End'' is a 1953 science fiction novel by the British author Arthur C. Clarke. The story follows the peaceful alien invasionBooker & Thomas 2009, pp. 31–32. of Earth by the mysterious Overlords, whose arrival begins decade ...

'' and

Brian Aldiss Brian Wilson Aldiss (; 18 August 1925 – 19 August 2017) was an English writer, artist, and anthology editor, best known for science fiction novels and short stories. His byline reads either Brian W. Aldiss or simply Brian Aldiss, except for ...

's 1959 '' Galaxies Like Grains of Sand''. Another science fiction theme is the replacement of humanity on Earth by other species or

s. For instance, Olof Johannesson's 1966 ''The Great Computer'' gives humans the role of enabling intelligent machines to evolve, while

Kurt Vonnegut Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American writer known for his satirical and darkly humorous novels. In a career spanning over 50 years, he published fourteen novels, three short-story collections, five plays, and ...

's 1985 '' Galapagos'' is one of several novels to depict a replacement species.

References

{{Science fiction Evolution Biology and culture

Context

Progressionism

Lamarckism

Darwinism

See also

References