Runners 'n Swimmers

I was at the bookstore today thinking, "Damn, I wish I would stumble across some heretofore unknown book full of posthuman skeletal studies done in that crazy 1970's pen-and-ink line drawing style." But I didn't, so I figured I'd have to make some myself. Minus the 1970's line drawing, of course.

So yeah, posthuman biathlon! I actually wanted to study the potential underlying skeletal anatomy for some of those myoborg designs ([link] [link]), and then I started thinking about the extent to which these guys might overlap with posthuman "wildlife" as I've played around with in the past. What if the posthuman fauna emerged from stranded or abandoned and eventually feral or atavistic populations of reproductively viable myoborgs? This is by no means a new idea, and obviously I've considered functional GE origins for the more radical posthuman designs. But I thought this exercise would be an interesting way of explicitly linking the two concepts.

A - A "running" design. I was thinking that in engineering the most massive myoborg chassis, or those intended to carry heavy loads or operate on high-gravity planets, the designers might look to the most massive terrestrial land organisms for their biomechanical templates--the dinosaurs. (Tim, do you remember when we discussed this possibility a while back in regards to the book Son of Man?) It might also be a great design for smaller myoborgs designed to move at high ground speeds or cross long distances overland with maximum endurance and minimal fatigue.

B & C - These were actually the first two bipeds I drew; they are just warm-ups. I decided to include them because they show the bodies from different angles and also push the anatomical possiblities a bit (segment duplication yielding dual thorax?). This kind of frame or "chassis" would be a reasonable basis for the "tank men" I've got percolating. They will horrify you beyond belief! (Also, re: B--the dark and truncated feet are a scanner artifact--he doesn't have hooves!)

D - A swimmer, obviously, with the spine elongated into a cetacean-like column supporting strong locomotory muscles and soft-tissue tail flukes. Obviously wouldn't be much use as a tactical myoborg in terms of amphibious functionality; maybe they are mine sweepers? Or just several thousand generations removed from their myoborg ancestors, perhaps.

E - The only point of interest here is that single ray or spine projecting upward from the sacrum. This is actually the ossical component of an erectile mechanism for a sail, as seen in D under ([link]). This "baculum" folds down and back when the sail is "flaccid," forming a stiff trailing tail that neither hinders nor helps in hydrodynamic terms.

F - This one is a total aesthetic conceit, as the "keel" and "rudder" fins seen in [link] are almost certainly soft-tissue features (though E's may be an exception). But check out that hooded seal sac on his head, you can't pass that up! (Not if you're a feral female cystophoromyoborg, at least.)