Human evolution IN SPACE

[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.