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Intriguing. I wonder then; does this mean our spacefaring descendants will be smaller for the very reasons outlined in the article?
by Negative1 10y ago
Intriguing. I wonder then; does this mean our spacefaring descendants will be smaller for the very reasons outlined in the article?
- Razengan 10y agoDoesn't low (or lack of) gravity decompress the spine or something, inducing a very slight increase in the height of current astronauts?
- zardo 10y agoIts not that slight. 2-3 inches
- MoonUnitZappa 10y agoMany suspect spacefaring will require us to become quite small indeed. It will become ridiculously uncompetitive to drag around a meat body and pressurized environment. Think of something like The Field Circus from Charles Stross's "Accelerando".
- theoh 10y agoSeems like only a tiny crazy subset of humans will ever want to give up the freedoms of having a meat body and being able to move it in a pleasant atmosphere. After all, what's there to do in interstellar space? The idea of turning ourselves into space probes is a dystopian, inhuman proposition.
- happyslobro 10y agoJust finished binge watching The Expanse. There, the first generations of offworlders grow very tall, thin and weak. Clearly, there is a strong evolutionary pressure on them to grow much smaller, and fix their spongy bones. Imagine the difference between a small child and a 7 foot tall weakling with osteoporosis, accelerating at 12 Gs in an emergency situation. Btw, the show was fairly good, imo. Deep, and nearly hard SF.
- oewae6Zo 10y agoI imagine the lack of gravity will probably be a bigger deal than the "island effect" of having an isolated population.