Human evolution IN SPACE

[Nereidalbel]

How long has humanity been colonizing space? Any major changes would take tens or hundreds of generations.

Populations on low-gravity world will tend to be taller, while high-gravity worlds lead to shorter members.

It is not beyond the realm of possibility for humans to expand their visible spectrum.

[Dangerious P. Cats]

Originally Posted by Nereidalbel

How long has humanity been colonizing space? Any major changes would take tens or hundreds of generations.

Populations on low-gravity world will tend to be taller, while high-gravity worlds lead to shorter members.

It is not beyond the realm of possibility for humans to expand their visible spectrum.

I'm assuming sufficient time for things to be a little crazy. With my current group the exact length of time will probably be a matter of serious discussion so I'm going to let them work it out (especially given that two of them are biologists).

[DangerousThing]

Originally Posted by Dangerious P. Cats

I'm assuming sufficient time for things to be a little crazy. With my current group the exact length of time will probably be a matter of serious discussion so I'm going to let them work it out (especially given that two of them are biologists).

One way of doing this is to have had a major war or just a change in the economy such that space travel was politically unreasonable for a long time.

And changes can start from simple discoveries. Perhaps somebody develops a small device that can easily power a large house really inexpensively. The power companies go under, then the banks go under, then the economy crashes world wide. The third world countries may be the ones that come out on top because they may not have as much invested in a large centralize power infrastructure.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Dangerious P. Cats

I'm assuming sufficient time for things to be a little crazy. With my current group the exact length of time will probably be a matter of serious discussion so I'm going to let them work it out (especially given that two of them are biologists).

Absent genetic engineering, we're talking tens of thousands of years for anything terribly significant, so I'd assume advanced biotech.

[Mike_H]

the TV show Andromeda was very much like this but with a few species of alien. The concept was that te commonwealth had fallen and communication and travel was cut off between worlds. I suggest trying to find it as a source of ideas.

[Nosforontu]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Absent genetic engineering, we're talking tens of thousands of years for anything terribly significant, so I'd assume advanced biotech.

Yes and no, it depends a bit on just how selective they are with their initial colony populations/immigration, and how strong an effect the colonies environment plays on their survival. It also of course depends on what you mean by significant.

While I agree with your time scale for anything Exotic/supernatural (barring a strong exotic/supernatural environment in the colony). I could see colonies with a very small genetically screened initial population and with strong immigration rules developing very differently from the rest of humanity.

If your initial colonist were selected from Olympic Level Athletes, and the environment of the colony really requires very athletic/fit people to survive then your colony is probably going to have a fairly high preponderance of people with various Athletic Talents. They will probably also have a higher Health Attribute/Dex/ or Strength scores as well. Just because the initial genetic starting pool might exclusively be composed of the top 1% of people in athletics in the world.

You could of course set the criteria differently and get different results as long as your starting population is not generic humans but humans selected from the greater population because they all share trait x or lack traits y. As a bit more crude example if your colony is composed elusively of Asians then none of them are going to be blondes or red heads barring extreme environmental factors on the colony world.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by Nosforontu

If your initial colonist were selected from Olympic Level Athletes, and the environment of the colony really requires very athletic/fit people to survive then your colony is probably going to have a fairly high preponderance of people with various Athletic Talents.

Note that, from a genetics point of view, "right to breed" is largely equivalent to "ability to survive." This is why many creatures have evolved such elaborate mating displays. It's probably as easy to screen your colonists to prevent those with undesirable traits (perhaps traits useful in initial colonists, but not later citizens) from procreating as it is to leave them behind, though not as socially acceptable.

A eugenics program backed up by real science (and with more practical goals than the mostly racist ones of the early 20th century) could modify the human species more quickly than the conventional natural selection method of shooting DNA at anything that survives to maturity. And be promptly wiped out by the virus nobody thought to retain resistance to 700 years ago. Or by reproductive freedom fighters.

[Nosforontu]

Originally Posted by RyanW

A eugenics program backed up by real science (and with more practical goals than the mostly racist ones of the early 20th century) could modify the human species more quickly than the conventional natural selection method of shooting DNA at anything that survives to maturity.

Especially if you are starting with a small selected population to begin with and then genetically screen them and remove potential colonist with genetic taboo traits that you don't want in your colony. A colony that founded by people who want to create an artists utopia might screen out people who are deaf or who are color blind. They might also only allow among the initial colonist people who have in gurps terms acute senses as they want to create a colony where people "can appreciate the nuances of the art".

Originally Posted by RyanW

And be promptly wiped out by the virus nobody thought to retain resistance to 700 years ago. Or by reproductive freedom fighters.

To be honest I suspect that without easy FTL or frequent travel between colonies that this is going to be a major concern for them all compared to Earth. Smaller initial populations and even if they are not purposely trying to genetically screen/breed on that colony they are going to have much smaller over all gene pool compared to earth considering that only x number of people traveled to that colony and started it. Add in the fact that they are not likely to have brought every Terran animal/disease with them...

They will probably be healthier overall than a regular Terran due to less disease exposure, but have lower levels of disease resistance overall as fewer of them each generation are continuously exposed to new Earth diseases/Pandemics without regular contact.

[Ji ji]

Higher radiation level could lead to wider genetical modification on short evolutional times.

First idea on possible modifications: adaptation to different gravity. I think of free-fall adapted species.

Color. Living on worlds with different irradiation can lead to alternative defensive pigmentation.

Sight. Our sight is centerd on the main radiation of Sun star. Different stars have different peak radiation, that is different "white" wave lenght.

Reproduction. Overpopulation can lead to genetically enginereed societies, where there's a reproductive elite (queens) alongside sterile masses. (Bee or ant society).

[CraigM]

Originally Posted by Nosforontu

If your initial colonist were selected from Olympic Level Athletes, and the environment of the colony really requires very athletic/fit people to survive then your colony is probably going to have a fairly high preponderance of people with various Athletic Talents. They will probably also have a higher Health Attribute/Dex/ or Strength scores as well. Just because the initial genetic starting pool might exclusively be composed of the top 1% of people in athletics in the world.

You could of course set the criteria differently and get different results as long as your starting population is not generic humans but humans selected from the greater population because they all share trait x or lack traits y. As a bit more crude example if your colony is composed elusively of Asians then none of them are going to be blondes or red heads barring extreme environmental factors on the colony world.

This is quite likely to have unpleasant and/or unexpected consequences.

Example 1: Bio scientists have been selectively breeding lab rats for over a hundred years now. The breeders try to pick the healthiest animals, and tend to use rate of mass gain during infancy as a proxy for health. As a result, the most common strains of lab rats now used grow to adult size much more rapidly than wild rats, but also tend to have much shorter potential lifespans (if given time; in reality, most wild rats become prey or starve before they grow old, and most laboratory rats are eventually euthanased). The candle that burns twice as bright, etc.

Example 2: There is an island off the coast of the U.S. (Martha's Vineyard), that was isolated from the mainland for a long time, and was settled by a group from a single English village. By chance, this village had a higher than usual rate of hereditary deafness. By the time they built a bridge to the mainland, something like 20% of the population were deaf. As a result, deafness had become something akin to colour-blindness in the severity of its impact. As everyone had deaf relatives, absolutely everyone on the island was fluent in sign language, so Deafness had lost most of its isolating and disabling effect.