Emigrating Beyond Earth: Human Adaptation and Space Colonization (Popular Science)

Emigrating Beyond Earth puts space colonization into the context of human evolution. Rather than focusing on the technologies and strategies needed to colonize space, the authors examine the human dimensions of space colonization, from genetics to cultural change. In this approach, space colonization is shown to be a natural continuation of the human species' 4 million-year legacy of adaptation to difficult new environments. The authors describe what can be learned from the evolutionary process to make space colonization more likely to succeed, and present examples from the history of human expansion into new environments -- including the astounding case of the prehistoric settlement of the upper colonization of the Pacific islands around 3,000 years ago -- to show that space colonization will be no more about rockets and robots that Pacific colonization was about sailing, but, instead, a natural and worthwhile continuation of human adaptation over time.