In the future, we will genetically modify our appearance. With time, beauty will bore us, and we will prize creativity, giving ourselves elephant ears, backwards-bending knees, saxophone voices, visible organs, and so on. At the height of this creative surge, an asteroid will strike the Earth. Pockets of humanity will survive, each with its own combination of grotesque traits.
After millennia, these populations will expand and rediscover each other. They will be unable to accept one others’ physical differences, and war will reduce them to scattered tribes once more. However, the dozens of surviving lemur species, which will develop intelligence as a side effect of a virus, will accept one another’s differences and go on to dominate the planet.
(Photo: Frank Vassen)