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Whatever the environment looks like, I think it will take at least several generations of offspring (born and live their lives in space) to adapt to the new env

Whatever the environment looks like, I think it will take at least several generations of offspring (born and live their lives in space) to adapt to the new environment (unless we truly can replicate the space environment almost identically to earth). If you think about it, how many millions of years has natural selection spent adapting humans to Earth? It's almost as if genetic engineering is the only possibility that humans will adapt quickly enough to make outer space viable as a livable environment.

MrBuddyCasino 11y ago
How is that supposed to work? The pressure of natural selection has already stopped in most countries, individuals that would have been removed from the gene pool in more resource constrained times can now reach old age. And that is a good thing! We would be venturing into genetic engineering to breed "space humans", which is at least problematic.
- datashovel 11y ago
  Good question. I feel natural selection works in more ways than just "survival of the fittest" sense of the term. For example, for millions of years our bodies have become adept at precisely the amount of gravity Earth pulls on our bodies. Whether or not that has affected the species ability to reproduce, or if it's consequential to our ability to live comfortably in space, is another question, but I feel there are more ways evolution has affected our genes (to be more perfectly adapted to Earth's environment) than we may realize.
- milspec 11y ago
  Natural selection has not stopped ant can not stop. Here in the USA, currently trans fats are killing people. Some people can tolerate trans fats more than other people can. We evolve to tolerate them. The same goes for every other not-good-for-you kind of thing we eat. People who tolerate it (or find it nauseating) will survive longer. Now that many do survive to old age, natural selection can work to eliminate menopause. Today there are those who hit it at 30 and others who hit it at 50 or even later. Some leave more offspring, and this is all that is needed to drive natural selection. We evolve, and always will.
developer1 11y ago
There's likely very little adapting to do. What doesn't work is expecting to live in microgravity long term, and then come back to gravity. There's no talk whatsoever about what happens if you never go back to gravity. Until they allow a volunteer astronaut to spend the rest of their life in space without returning, we won't have a real-world analysis of what happens to one's body as they age. And of course the truly interesting experiment: a child born in space, who spends their entire life there. Of course, "child abuse" means this will not happen in our lifetimes. Let alone seeing what 2-3 generations of space-bound life results in.

MrBuddyCasino 11y ago

How is that supposed to work? The pressure of natural selection has already stopped in most countries, individuals that would have been removed from the gene pool in more resource constrained times can now reach old age. And that is a good thing! We would be venturing into genetic engineering to breed "space humans", which is at least problematic.

datashovel 11y ago
Good question. I feel natural selection works in more ways than just "survival of the fittest" sense of the term. For example, for millions of years our bodies have become adept at precisely the amount of gravity Earth pulls on our bodies. Whether or not that has affected the species ability to reproduce, or if it's consequential to our ability to live comfortably in space, is another question, but I feel there are more ways evolution has affected our genes (to be more perfectly adapted to Earth's environment) than we may realize.
milspec 11y ago
Natural selection has not stopped ant can not stop. Here in the USA, currently trans fats are killing people. Some people can tolerate trans fats more than other people can. We evolve to tolerate them. The same goes for every other not-good-for-you kind of thing we eat. People who tolerate it (or find it nauseating) will survive longer. Now that many do survive to old age, natural selection can work to eliminate menopause. Today there are those who hit it at 30 and others who hit it at 50 or even later. Some leave more offspring, and this is all that is needed to drive natural selection. We evolve, and always will.

developer1 11y ago

There's likely very little adapting to do. What doesn't work is expecting to live in microgravity long term, and then come back to gravity. There's no talk whatsoever about what happens if you never go back to gravity. Until they allow a volunteer astronaut to spend the rest of their life in space without returning, we won't have a real-world analysis of what happens to one's body as they age. And of course the truly interesting experiment: a child born in space, who spends their entire life there. Of course, "child abuse" means this will not happen in our lifetimes. Let alone seeing what 2-3 generations of space-bound life results in.