Adapting to Space

rcoope23 said:

Humans have been living in space for millions of years. How would they adapt or evolve to best survive in space?I was thinking that they would take on some traits of deep sea fish, the deep ocean being closest to the space environment on earth, but would be interested to hear what others think?

Click to expand...

Read the Hyperion books by Dan Simmons. He´s done some creative thinking in that field.

Millions of years? By that stage our consciousnesses could have merged with the universe itself, for all we know. That is an impossibly vast gulf of time. Humans would not be recognisable. Life on planet Earth would be inestimably different from the way it is now, from the way it's been throughout human history.

If you're talking artificial selection or genetic modification, over a few thousand years, then I'd say: photosynthetic skin; removal (or very specific management) of gas from the circulatory system; some kind of manoeuvrability adaptation (maybe farting jet fuel, heh); and the ability to function at zero degrees Kelvin would be a good start. You could also save a lot of space and energy by removing the legs and lungs. In fact, you could just start downloading consciousness into computers with hands. That would be a lot easier.

I doubt space-dwelling creatures would look anything like deep-sea creatures. The crushing pressure at those depths carries challenges of its own, whereas living in a vacuum is almost at the opposite end of the spectrum, tissue- and movement-wise. There really are no comparable biozones on Earth. Because everywhere creatures live on Earth, there's gravity, and some sembleance of viscosity (from thin mountain-air to the thick, hard ocean depths), among other things.

Teinz - Hyperion's Ousters are developed in a very specific direction (away from dependence on the TechnoCore), and some of their adaptations' designs seem more like Simmons' sense of fancy at work than anything else.

froley said:

Teinz - Hyperion's Ousters are developed in a very specific direction (away from dependence on the TechnoCore), and some of their adaptations' designs seem more like Simmons' sense of fancy at work than anything else.

Click to expand...

True, but interesting nonetheless. Remember the Startree for instance?

Also; I seem to remember Kassad going millions of years into the future? Aenea also? They do describe some of what they see.

Yeah, I'm just not sure that's what the OP's after. Worth reading, though (esp. if rcoope hasn't already read Hyperion...).

rcoope23 said:

Humans have been living in space for millions of years. How would they adapt or evolve to best survive in space?I was thinking that they would take on some traits of deep sea fish, the deep ocean being closest to the space environment on earth, but would be interested to hear what others think?

Click to expand...

Considering the intense pressure, chemical differences (seawater) and complete lack of light, it might be that deep sea fish are actually a poor model.

Unless you posit a creature that could actually survive unaided in deep space, what we're really talking about is not a human adapted to space, but a human adapted to the environments we would create in space.

Humans better adapted to zero-g, low-g, and variable-g; more resistant to cancer and mutations due to cosmic radiation; less susceptible to altitude sickness from sudden drops in pressure; more robustly resistant to a lack of trace nutrients in poorly synthesized food; etc.

ETA - Also, humans that are better adapted socially and psychologically to living in groups in confined spaces.

The methods you invent to achieve these changes will color the background of your story.

Photosynthetic ski would not be capable of prviding enough of our nutrition to matter that much. It also only makes sense if we're constantly walking around in bare skin somewhere where we can see stars.

Hyperion is pretty much a flight of fancy as regards the Ousters.


There are other books that provide some possibilities, though. Altered musculature, different patterns of limbs for living in zero-g, etc.

Falling Free, Lois McMaster Bujold

Some Zero-Gravity strip clubs, casinos, and amusement parks. And we'd find a way to pollute space.

EDIT: Pardon me. I misread your question. But I would think human bones would change and become more malleable and our muscle mass would probably decrease in favor of more brain power and the like. Possibly developing telekinetic powers? In short we would in my mind evolve to be more like the aliens we believe are out there already. Skinny Gray Men with elongated and oversized craniums.