- Hardcover: 128 pages
- Publisher: St Martins Pr; 1 edition (Sep 1990)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0312035608
- ISBN-13: 978-0312035600
- Product Dimensions: 27.4 x 22.6 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 367,645 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Synopsis
Will the human race exist in 1000 years time? In 10,000 years time? In 100,000 years time? If so, what will it look like, how will it behave? How will it have developed, and why? The possiblities of evolution have long been subjects of great interest and speculation to scientists. It is an area of scientific speculation that Dougal Dixon has made his own. "Man after Man" is an illustrated, original account of the development of human life in future centuries by the author of "After Man". Although exotic and thought provoking, the illustrations are biologically accurate and strictly within the bounds of the genetically possible. Dougal Dixon is an author, editor and lecturer on evolution and palaeontology. He has given lecture tours in Europe, America and Japan.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is a very exciting episodic story about a possible future of humankind. It's a very wide ranging work, taking in ecology, genetic engineering and the fragile nature of civilisation.
There are some gaping holes in the logic of this, and the story can at times be unbearably bleak. But it's worth a look for the truly disturbing pictures
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book looks at what may become of man over the next 5 million years, and Dougal Dixon makes the future look bleak. As a result of genetic engineering, man diversifies into a variety of different forms, each suited to different climatic and environmental conditions. Evolution of these forms results in the disappearance of man as he is today.
Not everybody will agree with Dougal Dixon's reasoning, but this is another beautifully illustrated, thought-provoking book.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
16 reviews
27 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Three And A Half Would Be Better
13 Jan 2004
Format:Paperback
I must admit that I'm somehwat surprised by the controversy surrounding this book. It certainly isn't as good as his other works (the New Dinosaurs, After Man and the Future is Wild) but it certainly isn't a terrible book either. It seems that most people dislike it either because it leans so heavily towards sci-fi/paranormal (mainly via psychic powers and genetic engineering) or because it degrades humankind. Honestly, if you have no problem with sci-fi influences or with a pessimistic attitude towards human nature then you probably won't be too offended by this book.
Like all of Dougal Dixon's books, it starts out with a brief history of homo sapiens and our ancestors. The short accounts of us are given in a first person fashion, departing from his other works but I didn't find them to be hard to follow. He then gives an evolutionary chart for the various species in his book. The book then 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.
Ultimately I found this book to be an interesting concept, though not on par with his other works. Still it was a nice experiment in sci-fi for Dixon, and if you're a fan of the genere then you will probably appreciate this book. If reading this review you decide that you wouldn't like it or would find it offensive, then don't bother tracking it down. Trust me, its out of print and usually expensive to buy. Thats about the best I can say for this book. I appreciated it, but others out there might not feel the same way, so just read my review and consider whether or not it sounds like you would like it.
14 of 18 people found the following review helpful
I gave it three stars because it's by Dixon.
3 Jun 2003
Format:Hardcover
The other reviews on this book are a mixed bunch. While most of Dixon's readers loved his other books - After man and the New Dinosaurs, most agreed that this book was a dissapointment in comparison to the other two. But a few reviewers loved it. I bought it anyway. When I first saw the cover, I didn't know what to expect. The book's start is a sort of review of all of man's ancestors, the same type of introduction in all of Dixon's two other books. Then it breaks into bizzare and implausible entries and drawings of genetically modified monsters that were disigned to repopulate the ravaged earth. The illustrations are often dismissed as "bad". And some are. I could have drawn them, if I wasn't too worried someone else would see them and wonder what twisted thoughts passed unseen through my mind. But many weren't so bad, it was just the content and design. Most were completely ridiculous. And the entries on each species. I don't even want to talk about them, but I have to, since I am writing this review. The entries make no sense. While reading the other reviews, I thought, "Poorly written? Dixon isn't capable of that". But he is. The entries start out at a completely random point. About nothing at all can be discerned about each species. If the author had just written straightfoward entries about each species, instead of random events in each creatures life. "Coffee table book"? Ha! I wouldn't leave this one on a coffee table if my life depended on it.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Inventive, original and evolutionary believable.
6 Feb 1998
Format:Hardcover
This book is a perfect marriage of art and science. It isn't like a typical 'textbook' science book at all. It's about how Man, using accelerated genetical engineering, could evolve in the future. We follow such specimens as 'The Hitek' who live in mechanical cradles because their bodies cannot withstand the elements of future Earth, to the Plain Dwellers, Aquamorphs, Vacumorphs etc. We follow our trails from genetically altered humans 50 years into the future all the way to the resulting generations as far as 50 million years ahead. An incredibly visually stimulating book, {the illustrations are wonderful} it also makes you wonder seriously what could lie in the future of 'Man' as a humanoid species, long after we, ourselves are gone. It took me forever to find this book because it's now out of print. If you're interested in the idea of future rather than traditional anthropolgy and you do happen to come across this book, Buy it!
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