In the Earth Branch of the Project Saga timeline, the Betelgeuse supernova fried the internet, as well as most electronics all over the world. Rebuilding an electronic technological civilization took time, but at the time of the collapse, genetic engineering was already advanced and much could be done without massive computer support. In Australia, enhancing crops and livestock outpaced many other technologies. In the novel In the Time of Green Blimps, this difference was pronounced, as Australia’s expertise in genetics put them in conflict with the more traditional industrial base of the Northern hemisphere. The Europeans controlled shipping, and attempted to restrict genetically modified imports. The Australians countered with a blimp fleet, based on enhanced lily pads, grown huge and with the ability to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.
Even with the restrictions, people all over the world imported the improved agricultural items and took advantage of genetic treatments for cancer and diseases, and even some enhancements such as perfect memory, instinctive navigation and others.
Behind the scenes, faced with this international conflict, the Australian royalty also produced military enhancements.
On the European side, an anti-genetic weapon was genetically engineered. Standard gene therapy left markers in the chromosomes and the weapon attacked those markers. It was if carpentry was attacked by dissolving all nails. Things fell apart, and it was world-wide and nasty. Whether it was a giant green blimp, or simply the aftermath of a cancer treatment, all genetically modified organisms began to die. The results were so horrific that genetic engineering was nearly totally banned for generations afterwards.
Not that the purge was total. Modified organisms died. Species created from scratch by building the genetic code from a database never had the “nails” that were attacked. There were two main examples.
The Australians wanted an underwater soldier to attack ships. They created merpeople. They were super swimmers with human level intelligence and able to both breathe air and use gills. They were used during the war, but some survived even afterwards.
Another project was an improved human. The extensive database of human genetics allowed the scientists to create a human-like person with the best of everything—the best health and stamina, the best intelligence, the best resistance to radiation, and more importantly, a much extended lifespan.
The prototypes, Alpha the male and Beta the female, were abandoned as infants during the anti-genetic purge that followed the great “Die-off” when modified humans died and any genetic scientist was at risk of being lynched.
The events in the novel Humanicide spell out the ramifications of having a superior human-like, nearly immortal, person with a serious grudge at being abandoned as a child. Angry at not being truly human, he used his abilities to manipulate the world.
Alpha had access to the banned genetic technology and he wasn’t afraid to use it. He tracked down the surviving colony of the scientists who made him and modified their genetic code so that they should have all died out from infertility.
Also, feeling himself superior and empowered to control human development, he decided to halt all human technology with an engineered plague that managed to wipe out 99% of the population.
Off in the U’tanse Branch of the saga, the U’tanse had genetic issues of their own. Abe and Sharon were effectively the Adam and Eve of their own branch of humanity with their unique problems.
If they were going to have children then they needed to make sure their descendants wouldn’t die out from recessive genes reinforced by inbreeding. They also needed to grow the population as quickly as possible. Sharon had the skills, using clairvoyance and psychokinesis, to insure that the right sperm won the race, every time.
To make sure that each mother of the next generation had those same skills, all females were chosen with the full set of psychic abilities. As they matured, part of every girl’s basic education was how to manage genetic selection when her time came.
On the male side of the fence, Abe had the hope that the U’tanse might someday reconnect with standard Earth humans and feared that constant tinkering with their genetic code would trigger a split where they became two separate species. To hopefully counter that, one in ten males were designed with no psychic abilities at all, the “tenners”. While it was noticed that tenners seemed to excel in science and math, they were never positive that this was a clear distinction. One positive result of having tenners in the population was a stabilization of cultural drift. Having non-telepaths in the mix prevented over-reliance on telepathy.