Uplift (science fiction)
Timeline of works

Uplift (science fiction)

Section Title: Timeline of works
Table Section Text: None

Year	Series	Creator	Media type	Notes

1896	The Island of Doctor Moreau	H. G. Wells	Novel	The concept can be traced to H. G.

1938	"Johnny Black" stories	L. Sprague de Camp	Short stories	Other early literary examples can be found in L. Sprague de Camp's "Johnny Black" stories (beginning with "The Command") about a black bear raised to human-level intelligence, published in Astounding Science-Fiction from 1938-1940.

1944	Sirius	Olaf Stapledon	Novel	Olaf Stapledon's Sirius explores a dog with human intelligence.

1947	Jerry Was a Man	Robert A. Heinlein	Short story	The story is about an attempt by a genetically modified chimpanzee to achieve human rights. The main theme of the story is civil liberties, in this case extended towards a group of genetically enhanced chimpanzees to allow them equal rights under the law.

1959	Flowers for Algernon	Daniel Keyes	Short story	Algernon is a laboratory mouse who has undergone surgery to increase his intelligence by artificial means. The story is told by a series of progress reports written by Charlie Gordon, the first human test subject for the surgery.

1963	Planet of the Apes	Pierre Boulle	Novel	The 1963 science fiction novel by French author Pierre Boulle was adapted into the 1968 film Planet of the Apes, launching the Planet of the Apes media franchise.

1966	Thor	Stan Lee & Jack Kirby	Comic book	Marvel comics villain the High Evolutionary is attended by a group of evolved animals known alternately as the New Men and the Knights of Wundagore.

1968	2001: A Space Odyssey	Arthur C. Clarke	Novel	2001: A Space Odyssey implies at least cultural uplift if not outright biological uplift of humanity by the monoliths. The novel's sequels imply that life forms indigenous to Europa are later uplifted by the same alien technological artifacts.

1977	Traveller (role-playing game)	Game Designers' Workshop	RPG	The Ancients, the precursor alien civilization of the Traveller universe, abducted Earth wolves 300,000 years ago and genetically altered them into the Vargr race.

1979	Instrumentality of Mankind	Cordwainer Smith	Novel series	In Cordwainer Smith's Instrumentality of Mankind series, "underpeople" are created from animals through unexplained technological means explicitly to be servants of humanity, and were often treated as less than slaves by the society that used them, until the laws were reformed in the story "The Ballad of Lost C'Mell" (1962).

1980	Uplift Universe	David Brin	Novel series	The Uplift Universe is a fictional universe created by science fiction writer David Brin. A central feature in this universe is the process of biological uplift.

1987	Watchers	Dean Koontz	Novel	Dean Koontz's 1987 novel Watchers deals with genetic engineering that uplifts a Golden Retriever named "Einstein" to near-human intelligence for the purpose of espionage.

1989	Rama II	Arthur C. Clarke & Gentry Lee	Novel	In Clarke's and Lee's 2nd instalment of the Rama book series there are two uplifted species. One are dolphins which were trained to perform complex mathematical and visual exercises with some results comparable to humans (citation needed).

1993	Moreau series	S. Andrew Swann	Novel series	In the Moreau series by S. Andrew Swann, genetically engineered human-animal hybrids have been developed as soldiers and are now incorporated as second-class citizens in human society.

1993	seaQuest DSV	Rockne S. O'Bannon	TV series	Darwin is an intelligent dolphin from the TV series SeaQuest, who is able to communicate to the crew of an advanced, futuristic submarine, the seaQuest DSV 4600, through the assistance of a translation device known as the vo-corder.

1993	Star Trek: Deep Space Nine	Rick Berman & Michael Piller	TV series	In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the Founders, a shapeshifting species that founded the Dominion, genetically engineered the formerly primitive Vorta into an intelligent species who then served as Dominion administrators and politicians.

1997	GURPS	Steve Jackson Games	RPG	In the role playing games GURPS Uplift (based on Brin's works), GURPS Transhuman Space and GURPS Bio-Tech, uplift is a major theme.

2000	Orion's Arm	Bernd Helfert, Donna Malcolm Hirsekorn, M. Alan Kazlev & Anders Sandberg	Online sci-fi project	The Orion's Arm universe delves quite a bit into uplift.

2000	Schlock Mercenary	Howard Tayler	Webcomic	In the space opera webcomic Schlock Mercenary, humans have uplifted elephants, gorillas and polar bears who appear to enjoy equal social status to other species.

2005	Doraemon	Fujiko Fujio	Manga series	The progression or regression gun is one of Doraemon's gadgets of the 22nd century. It can evolve or devolve the subject.

2006	Eureka	Andrew Cosby & Jaime Paglia	TV series	Season One of the TV series Eureka includes a genetically modified dog named "Lojack" who is said to have an IQ of 130.

2007	Assassin's Creed	Various	Computer game	In the Assassin's Creed universe, the "First Civilization" uplifted humans (such as the original Adam and Eve) and continued to interfere with human culture, technology, and historical events, even a hundred thousand years after their extinction.

2007	Mass Effect	BioWare	Computer game	The Mass Effect universe contains numerous instances of uplift: The Drell were uplifted by the Hanar to save them from the desertification of their home planet; the Elcor and Vorcha were uplifted by the Asari; the Krogan were uplifted by the Salarians for use as soldiers in a war against the Rachni.

2007	Race for the Galaxy	Thomas Lehmann	Board game	Uplift is a major theme. Some cards have "UPLIFT" highlighted in the title and can help score points and achieve goals.

2008	Spore	Maxis	Computer game	In a similar manner to 2001: A Space Odyssey, players in the game Spore can use monoliths to uplift species for fun or for other purposes.

2009	Eclipse Phase	Posthuman Studios	RPG	Eclipse Phase delves quite a bit into uplift.

2011	Rise of the Planet of the Apes	Film	Will Rodman, a scientist at the San Francisco biotech company Gen-Sys, is testing the viral-based drug ALZ-112 on chimpanzees to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease.

2012	XCOM: Enemy Unknown	Firaxis Games	Strategy game	In XCOM: Enemy Unknown, the Ethereals have been uplifting all of the alien species the player encounters during the invasion of Earth, yet none have anywhere near the potential that the human species does of being truly uplifted.

2014	Dawn of the Planet of the Apes	Film	Ten years after the pandemic of the deadly ALZ-113 virus, or Simian Flu, the worldwide human population has been drastically reduced, with only a few genetically immune to the virus.

2015	StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void	Blizzard Entertainment	Computer game	In the Legacy of the Void expansion to StarCraft II, it is revealed that the Xel'Naga are an advanced alien race who proliferate by uplifting the Zerg and the Protoss which each possess either "purity of essence" and "purity of form".

2015	Children of Time	Adrian Tchaikovsky	Book	Genetic uplift of arthropods, in particular spiders, is a central part of the novel.

2015	Barsk: The Elephants Graveyard	Lawrence M. Schoen	Book	In a distant future, no remnants of human beings remain, but their successors thrive throughout the galaxy. These are the offspring of humanity's genius-animals uplifted into walking, talking, sentient beings.

2016	Stellaris	Paradox Interactive	Computer game	In Stellaris, players can find planets inhabited by certain lifeforms that, given millions of years, will become sapient. Players can use genetic modification to accelerate the process and uplift and integrate these lifeforms into their empires.

Sentence(s)

L. Sprague de Camp's "Johnny Black" stories (beginning with "The Command") about a black bear raised to human-level intelligence, published in Astounding Science-Fiction from 1938-1940.

final_sentence: L. Sprague de Camp's "Johnny Black" stories (beginning with "The Command") about a black bear raised to human-level intelligence, published in Astounding Science-Fiction from 1938-1940.