Is Dune and Warhammer 40k really trying to tell me that after

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Dumping more Dougal Dixon far future nightmare fuel.

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>A human engineered to live on open grasslands needs the adaptations of a grass-eating mammal. For the plains-dweller these include massive teeth that are replaced if they wear out chewing tough silica-rich grasses and, more importantly, a specialized stomach within the bloated abdomen containing engineered bacteria that can break down cellulose � a substance not normally digestible by the human frame. Cutting edges on the hands help to scythe the thick grass while the long legs enable the creature to move swiftly over the open landscape.

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>"There must be more to life"

Ten millennia is a very short time period here. 40 millennia ain't all that much either. Apart from some of us going a bit pale modern man hasn't really changed at all in the last 100-200 millennia. And evolutionary speaking, our recent development has been bloody fast, so we can easily have a long period of jack shit happening in front of us. Maybe not the hundreds of millions of years that some critters have stayed much the same, but still.

Moving to another planet could result in people changing, or we end up selecting the planets that are close enough to home that we don't (all out terraforming was is is obviously a thing in these settings, so any minor differences can be ironed out).

Either way, neither of the works you look at are hard SciFi enough for that to really matter. And 40k does have humans subspecies that have adopted to different environments, though the Imperium tends to exterminate them whenever found. A few that are allowed to live (for now) include squats, ogryns, ratlings and felinids.

>>45938470
So more weight in the guts, and more leverage in the legs, for even more fucked up knee joints.

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anyanwu from Octavia Butlers Wild Seed.

>>45938574
Don't forget Fenrisian Wolves.

>>45938491
This one cracks me up every time

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>>45938574

From an evolutionary perspective you are right that 40k years are really nothing. However the big elephant in the room in all futuristic sci-fi is bio-engineering.

Today, and by today I mean by 2016, we have the technology to bioengineer a creature, clone it, graft organs on it, and alter it's appearance and behaviour.

It makes sense that these settings address artificial intelligence as taboo, but it makes no sense why they don't address what the definition of "humanity" really is in those times.

>>45938398
What are ogryns?
What are Felinids?
What are squa...

>>45938398
Evolution is driven by survival pressure. In both of these settings survival pressure is fairly low. Most people get to breed. Really, the only kind of pressure on 40k is towards a less fit, less intelligent people on IG recruitment worlds, since the most fit are called for guard duty every year.

>>45938398
If you had the proper number of chromosomes you might understand that's not gonna happen

>>45938688
In Dune and 40 K there's regular bioengineering of people. In 40K there's whole worlds of other races that are part of the Imperium and crazy assassins of various kinds and Space Marines and whatever kind of engineering you need to do to a body to make it accept so many machine grafts in the case of the adeptus mechanics/servitors. In dune you also have whole houses with Bloodlines bred explicitly for psychic and non natural skills which are enhanced through bioengineering.

>>45938712

Are you for real dude?

It's already happening.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/11558305/China-shocks-world-by-genetically-engineering-human-embryos.html

http://www.nature.com/news/chinese-scientists-genetically-modify-human-embryos-1.17378

>>45938695

>Ogryns

fantasy ogres

>Felinids

furries

>squa...

dorfs

And squats are hobbits. You just reminded me not take 40k seriously as sci-fi.

>>45938688
No work can cover every issue imaginable. So don't be surprised when some specific work of fiction, like Dune, doesn't dive into your pet field.

And that you're expecting something like this out of 40k, aka 2000AD the game.... Are you supposed to be some kind of Homo Habilis throwback?

>>45938894
You needed fucking reminding? You thought 40k was in any way supposed to be hard SciFi? What the flying fuck have you been snorting?

>>45938398
If you're talking natural evolution that'll take millions of years. There'll be racial changes and some adaptation, but they'll still be completely human.

As for guided evolution, both settings have a reason that doesn't happen on this scale. "MAH HUMANITY BEST!" for 40k and "No thinking machines" and "MAH SPACE FEUDALISM" for Dune