Paraterraforming vs. terraforming the Moon and Mars

>I just think we're at a place where the biological processes that brought us here will no longer suffice. Deliberate genetic modification and biomechanical enhancements will speed up the pace in the short run, but only until >such time as our machines take up our torch and become the next phase of evolution.

At the rate our biomedical sciences are developing, and with parallel development in nanotech, I see little reason to assume that there are any insurmountable hurdles to Human guided evolution in the semi-near future. Given that the Human body can be adapted for micro-g (I certainly wouldn't bet money against it), and that suitable materials science developments will make radiation shielding no big deal, I can easily envision a Human diaspora all across the galaxy and beyond, with Humans adapted for the environments that they choose to live in, whether micro-g, rotating (or gravity tech) habitats or gravity wells of widely diverse characteristic and atmosphere. Of course, our machines will both precede and accompany us on these adventures, but I cannot envision any future where Humanity will fail to be center stage in its' own odyssey, and certainly not one in which we will apathetically remain behind while our 'heirs', the machines, go out and colonize the stars.

From: Brad Walsh
Sent: Saturday, June 26, 2010 1:02 PM
To: spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [spacesettlers] Re: Paraterraforming vs. terraforming the Moon and Mars

>Of course weightlessness will affect morphology. Good. That's how
evolution works. Same with getting rid of circadian >cycles. Let 'em
go.

>Post-terrestrial mean post-human.
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Evolution works by differential death rates, or at the very least, differential procreation rates. So you're OK with putting a large number of humans in a place with high mortality rates and hoping that random genetic variation will, sometime in the next few thousand years, come up with a mutation that will confer better survival rates? This glacial scale of change, and the thousands of lives cut short to get to that change, are OK with you? These people will be willing to die or to give up the chance at procreation in the service of your dream of forced human evolution?

I just think we're at a place where the biological processes that brought us here will no longer suffice. Deliberate genetic modification and biomechanical enhancements will speed up the pace in the short run, but only until such time as our machines take up our torch and become the next phase of evolution. Machines' rate of mutation (modification) is a tiny fraction of ours, their range of physical requirements for survival (temperature, atmosphere, food/energy, gravity, radiation) is much wider than ours, and we're only maybe one human lifetime from making machines that can exceed our reason, dexterity and purposefulness in one practical and cost-effective package. Then they'll be the ones to explore and colonize space, and if we're careful to make them so that they remember and care about us, they'll eventually build what we need for our frail, mass-y bodies and short lives to follow behind them as best we can. There will still be humans who insist on leaving home and striking out in primitive conditions to do it themselves, and they'll be treated with as much amusement and contempt as people who set out to walk across continents or live off the grid and grow or hunt everything they eat. Granted, these eccentrics will be the the only humans left if Apophis comes in for a direct hit on Terra, but the bare facts of physics are that our machines will be our heirs, and our race to evolve to keep up with them will be futile. Post-human will mean non-human, and we better hope they like us enough to keep us around as they explore the galaxy.

Power to the beeple!
Brad