Emigrating Beyond Earth: Human Adaptation and Space Colonization (Springer Praxis Books / Popular Science) by Cameron M. Smith

by Cameron M. Smith

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!

Genres: Space, Nonfiction, Science

Paperback

First published October 3, 2011

Reviews

[Kadri · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book focuses more on the social aspects of space colonization and the biology and evolution, rather than technical aspects. The author draws parallels from history of different cultures and shows why humanity should colonize other planets etc.