Emigrating Beyond Earth: Human Adaptation and Space Colonization - Paperback

by Cameron M. Smith (Author), Evan T. Davies (Author)

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!

Back Jacket

For four million years humankind has been actively expanding geographically and in doing so has adapted to a wide variety of hostile environments. Now we are looking towards the ultimate adaptation - the colonization of space. Emigrating Beyond Earth illustrates that this is not a technocratic endeavor, but a natural continuation of human evolution; a journey not just for the engineer and rocket scientist, but for everyman. Based on the most current understanding of our universe, human adaptation and evolution, the authors explain why space colonization must be planned as an adaptation to, rather than the conquest of, space.

Emigrating Beyond Earth argues that space colonization is an insurance policy for our species, and that it isn't about rockets and robots, it's about humans doing what we've been doing for four million years: finding new places and new ways to live.

Applying a unique anthropological approach, the authors outline a framework for continued human space exploration and offer a glimpse of a possible human future involving interstellar travel and settlement of worlds beyond our own.

Author Biography

Dr. Cameron M. Smith, Ph.D., teaches human evolution and prehistory at the Department of Anthropology at Portland State University in Oregon. His professional training began as a student of Harvard University's early human archaeology field school at the Leakey research station in northern Kenya. After a year at the University of London's Institite of Archaeology, Dr. Smith earned a Joint Honors BA in Anthropology and Archaeology at Durham University before completing graduate degrees in the US and Canada. His courses emphasize adaptation and evolution as structuring factors of human prehistory. Dr. Smith has been widely published in both scientific journals and popular science magazines, including the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Structure and Dynamics, the Journal of Field Archaeology, Scientific American MIND, Scientific American, Evolution: Education and Outreach, Archaeology, Hang Gliding and Paragliding and Spaceflight. He has written about evolution book and magazines including The Top Ten Myths About Evolution (Prometheus, 2006) endorsed by the National Center for Science Education and the American Library Association, and The Fact of Evolution (Prometheus, 2011) endorsed by Science Daily and recently picked for the Scientific American Book Club. Away from his office, Dr.Smith is an active Scuba diver and paraglider pilot. He is a fellow of both the Royal Geographical Society and the Explorers Club of New York.

Evan T. Davies, Ph.D., began his academic training in archaeology at Cornell University and has conducted fieldwork throughout the United States, Europe, sub-Saharan Africa and the South Pacific. He completed his graduate studies in cultural anthropology at Rice University, where he focused on land use among traditional hunter-gatherer societies in Central Africa. He serves as a defense attache, African area expert and imagery scientist in the United StatesNavy. In 2007 while deployed on a combat tour with the multi-national forces in Iraq, Dr. Davies became involved with efforts to preserve Iraqi antiquities and archaeological sites. His experiences in Iraq led him to pursue medical studies and in the coming years he intends to work in wilderness and expedition medicine as well as continue anthropological research into indigenous pharmaceuticals and healing practices. Dr. Davies is a fellow of both the Royal Geographical Society and the Explorers Club of New York and his popular science writing has appeared in Wiley publications as well as Spaceflight and Archaeology magazines. He has a held a lifelong interest in space exploration.