Emigrating Beyond Earth: Human Adaptation and Space Colonization

✍ Scribed by Cameron M Smith, Evan T. Davies (auth.)

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag New York
• Year: 2012
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 305
• Series: Springer Praxis Books
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

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 and societal reasons for space colonization. They make space colonization seems like a natural step by demonstrating that if will continue the human species' 4 million-year-old legacy of adaptation to difficult new environments. The authors present many examples from the history of human expansion into new environments, including two amazing tales of human colonization - the prehistoric settlement of the upper Arctic around 5,000 years ago and the colonization of the Pacific islands around 3,000 years ago - which show that space exploration is no more about rockets and robots that Arctic exploration was about boating!

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages i-xxiii
Front Matter....Pages 1-1
The Extraterrestrial Adaptation: Humanity, Evolution, and Migration into Space....Pages 3-29
Stardust: The Origins of Life, Evolution and Adaptation....Pages 31-79
The Adaptive Suite of Genus Homo: Cognitive Modernity and Niche Construction....Pages 81-109
Front Matter....Pages 111-111
A Choice of Catastrophes: Common Arguments for Space Colonization....Pages 113-149
False Choices: Common Objections to Human Space Colonization....Pages 151-177
Front Matter....Pages 179-179
Starpaths: Adaptation to Oceania....Pages 181-203
Building an Adaptive Framework for Human Space Colonization....Pages 205-240
Distant Lands Unknown: Informed Speculation on the Human Future in Space....Pages 241-265
Back Matter....Pages 267-290

✦ Subjects

Extraterrestrial Physics, Space Sciences; Popular Science in Astronomy; Human Geography