Cameron M. Smith

False Choices: Common Objections to Human Space Colonization

We have seen how humanity’s adaptive trick of niche construction has allowed our relatively frail genus, Homo, to proliferate across the globe. We have also argued that this survival technique is a normal part of our evolution, and that to cease it now would be to move counter to evolution itself, a poor choice. Before describing some ways to better inform our adaptation to space it is necessary to dismantle some of the more common critiques of the concept of human space colonization. Inasmuch as wide public support will be necessary for human space colonization - and we argue that while that would be useful, it is decreasingly necessary as space is increasingly becoming privately accessible - then the usual argwnents against human space colonization will need to be defused. Our central point in this chapter is that while there are plenty of Earth issues to address, human space colonization would not be about abandoning Earth, but about adapting to space; two very different things.

The Extraterrestrial Adaptation: Humanity, Evolution, and Migration into Space

This is a book about humans migrating into space, why we believe such migration is important, and how the lessons of anthropology - the study of the human spedes - will be important to the success of human survival beyond Earth. We have three essential premises.

A Choice of Catastrophes: Common Arguments for Space Colonization

Most human cultures have doomsday myths, ranging from Biblical stories of Armageddon to the Scandinavian tales of Ragnarok - the “Twilight of the Gods”. Hindu cosmology holds that the Universe ends in fire and regenerates from water. Andent Persian Zoroastrians believed along lines similar to Judea-Christians- that an ultimate savior would be born and rid the world of evilalthough for the Zoroastrians this involved the Earth and its inhabitants perishing in a flow of molten metal before renewal, just as Aztec cosmology proposed cyclic annihilation and renewal.

The Adaptive Suite of Genus Homo: Cognitive Modernity and Niche Construction

In the previous chapter we saw the early evolution of our genus, and began to see some glimmers of behavior that seem familiar: the making and use of stone tools, in particular, reminds us of our dependence, today, on technology to survive. In this chapter we show how the evolution of modem human cognition - characterized by symbolism and language used in concert in cognitive modernity -led to the staggering power of yet another adaptive tool, niche construction, by which the genus Homo colonized the globe despite its small numbers and relatively frail body. This will give us an evolutionary context for the colonization of space, which will be the most thoroughgoing and intensively proactive case of niche construction in the history of our genus.

Stardust: The Origins of Life, Evolution and Adaptation

If we are to understand human space colonization as a continuation of fundamentally evolutionary processes, then we have to understand the origin of life - that which evolves - itself; and to understand life, we need an understanding of the origins of the Solar System and the Universe from which the building blocks of life are ultimately assembled. In this chapter, we cover a large span, from the origin of the Universe to the origin of Earth and major events in Earth life evolution so far, including the evolution of humanity’s unique, grammar-directed language and consciousness in our genus, Homo. We then comment on how knowledge of this evolutionary context can help us best plan human space colonization as an adaptive endeavor.

Starpaths: Adaptation to Oceania

Equipped with a general understanding, now, of how humanity has decoupled behavior from anatomy by using tools - and thus changed the course of its own evolution by inventing invention - we can go on to see two specific cases of proactive human adaptation and niche construction in action. There are plenty of examples we could use, but here we will focus on the example of the Polynesian colonization of Oceania, the Pactfic at large, from Australia to the Hawaiian Islands, New Zealand, and Easter Island. This case provides superb examples of invention and adaptation that can inspire, provide material for creative thought, provide new vocabularies to help reconsider human space colonization, and, overall, energize the project of human space colonization. We will see the construction of great sailing vessels, often as large and complex as those of the European ships of discovery, starpath navigation and an ethos of exploration and discovery, all devised not as ends in themselves, but as adaptations to make human colonization efforts a success.